Mail carriers will abuse your package more if it's marked as "Fragile"

Popular Mechanics and National Instruments put national mail carriers to the test, concealing accelerometers inside packages to see what pressures the boxes were subjected to. USPS was gentlest, but USPS packages fly express via FedEx, so it's a little inconclusive. This is the finding that I'll remember: "Our package received more abuse when marked Fragile or This Side Up."

⟿ Follow Rob Beschizza on Twitter.

MORE: mail • Science

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Uncle Geo

Shipping Hints:

I ship expensive and fragile video production gear. I had my ass handed to me early on and have researched the policies and guidelines of the carriers I use. I have fewer problems now.

Packaging is critical. A manufacturer’s product box is designed to sit on a pallet with 25 other boxes, not to be shipped individually. That they often ship their own gear this way does not mean it’s a good idea. Consider double boxing heavy items (“box in a box” with corners or stiff foam between).

The carriers have guidelines for packaging. For heavy electronics, for example, one carrier says four inches of hard foam all around the item measured from it’s most protruding points. This not only means better protection but, if you do this, they’ll generally honor claims (and claims go faster). Know and follow the specs!

“Foam to fit” or expanding foam is great but not every packing place has the magic machine. Hard or stiff foam is great; bubble wrap is just OK and only if the item won’t poke holes in the bubbles -I’ll use at least half again a many inches as spec when using bubbles. Big bubbles are better than little ones. Packing peanuts are evil in so many ways: they pollute, the corn cheetos ones can dissolve if the package gets water in it, they fly all over the neighborhood and stick to everything and a few recipients won’t even accept packages packed with the little bastards. They are also absolutely, totally and completely ineffective for anything heavy.

Put all the address info in the box before you seal it (a copy of the waybill is perfect). Clearly address the box. Make sure the waybill is secure to the box. Tape all seams as this stiffens the overall package. Use good tape.

For something valuable I often pay a professional packaging service to pack to the carrier’s specs. Plan on a hundred bucks plus or minus. Become friends with the people at your packaging service and tell them all about what you ship and where it’s going.

Keep your copy of the waybill and note the tracking number. If offered, sign up for transit reports via e-mail and sign up your recipient too. Ground services generally don’t say much except “we picked it up” an “we delivered it”. Air services often let you know where the package is (Ex.: at a hub, on the truck for delivery).

Carriers do NOT offer insurance. You can “declare a value” and, if it’s packed right and get’s wrecked, they can choose to pay you.

Take pictures of the packaging (open and closed box) before you send it. Have the recipient tell the driver about any damage at drop off or as quickly as possible afterward. Pictures should be taken with the item in the box as it is opened and these should immediately be copied to the sender and the carrier. The recipient should save all the packaging material in as close to the state it arrived in as possible.

Generally either sender or receiver can begin a claim. This should be done immediately. Call regularly to check on progress of the claim.

If the item is valuable, make sure you can require a signature upon delivery. This is often an optional service so be sure to ask or check the box on the waybill. Yes it will cost a little more but your expensive item won’t be left on someone’s doorstep while they’re at work all day. Plus, you’ll know who signed for it so it can be found if it’s been delivered but no one quite seems to know where it is.

If you ship a lot of expensive stuff, consider business insurance that covers losses.
Anonymous

It may not statistically significant, but their findings matche my experience in well over a decade of buying stuff by phone and web. Fedex has done the most damage, UPS less, and USPS has been the gentlest.

That said, when a sender did a lousy job of packing a laptop and it was damaged, Fedex gave me full compensation for the cost of repair. (I know, the shipper’s supposed to file the claim. I don’t want to talk about THAT hassle.)

In a similar situation with UPS, they blamed the sender, and I had to go after him.
Anonymous

I’d believe it: Years ago I got a piece of expensive artwork in the mail, folded right through the “Do not fold!” sticker. Took work to fold it, too, it was packed between two sheets of heavy cardboard. It HAD to be deliberate.
Anonymous

Yep. I worked as a station tech for FedEx and every day I’d see these large boxes off at the end of the conveyor in a jumble. Many of them would have SGI printed on them. Eventually I figured out when they came in and I sat myself at the end of the line. One by one, plonk! onto the concrete they went. From about 3-1/2 feet up. I wrote down some part #s and looked them up on line. Graphics workstations. Worth anywhere from $26-80k each. Value doesn’t matter either. On the day before Mother’s day, there was a pile 4 feet high of flower boxes too. The airport facilities(I was in charge of several stations) seemed to take more care. But they have more automation.

In the morning, when packages were going out to the trucks and the line going in the opposite direction, there was a pile of packages at the other end. Every 15 minutes or so, somebody would wheel a 4×3′ dolly down there and pile on the packages, to take them back to the beginning of the conveyor. Sometimes to be dropped off the end of the line again and again if the driver on that route had left already.

BTW, since I was not part of the package handling crew, I was not allowed to touch packages unless requested to. Loss-prevention, y’know.
Ultan

I wonder if flattery would help, such as labeling it:

“Burly loaders note:
It’s a hell of a thing to tote
It’s a big package, shore -
Nearly half the size of yours.
Don’t kick down the halls
And I won’t break your … equipment.”
Anonymous

I long ago learned that if you mark a parcel “Fragile” you can expect it to receive some degree of damage. Once had a parcel driven over by a truck. You could see the tire prints on the package.
Anonymous

Ugh, why didn’t they test DHL? I’ve had even the most resilient items arrive in shambles from them, and they are 0/3 in delivering anything to me 100% undamaged. I seriously believe they could be involved in a racket that somehow makes money from ensuring that the shipments are damaged.
- bhtooefr
  
  Because DHL only does international and SmartPost shipments now.
  
  (SmartPost = they take it to a major postal hub, and then USPS handles it from there.)
Anonymous

My brother worked for Royal Mail (uk) and he said that some of the workers would deliberately slam boxes marked fragile against the cages and trolleys and generally treat them far worse than any other unmarked package so these results do not surprise me. Some people are just arseholes.
Anonymous

I’ve talked with several ex-UPS employees who shared similar stories of working in rooms where they unload packages from trucks. Basically they were supposed to use tools (lift or something) to help lower stuff to the ground. But that method was slow, so they usually just pushed the packages off the back of the trucks onto the ground. That’s probably one of the big G’s hits right there
malathion

My country postmaster told me “when you say it’s fragile, we throw it underhand instead of overhand”
Patrick Austin

I call BS. Is this claim backed up by statistically significant evidence? From my quick read, I’m guessing the answer is ‘no’.
- cory
  
  I think it’s self-evident anyway. In order for your fragile package to arrive undamaged, every handler along the way has to handle it with care.
  
  There exists a certain significant percentage of package handlers who are dissatisfied, having a bad day, or just contrarian. If even one of these encounters your package and decides to take their issues out on your package, you will lose this bet. Given the number of hands that handle your package along the way, you are pretty certain that this will happen.
  
  Your best bet is to pack carefully, and not mark the package.
- LadysmithLiz
  
  I used to work in the industry. This is completely true.
Anonymous

I ship live tropical plants all over the country (and, when legal, globally). One of my fellow growers said he stopped incurring losses when he stopped labeling them as fragile, live, etc. I did the same; that was >10 years ago, and I lose maybe one shipment a year- not to damage, but to sudden existence failure. That’s much better than I used to experience.
Nadreck

“Fragile’ is Japanese for “Made of Steel”.
Anonymous

Does the TSA have the same policy?
Anonymous

Granted, this was nearly 15 years ago so things may have changed since then. When I was a truck loader for one of the major carriers we did, indeed, treat fragile packages poorly. I don’t think they were universally treated worse than others, just that all packages were handled roughly. When your manager is bearing down on you to go faster and faster, to break the OSHA regs that protect you in order to go faster, to pack boxes higher than you can reach (hey that Dell box can be used as a stepstool!) and as tight as possible then the packages aren’t treated too well. You’re lucky to get it in one piece.
SteveKiwi

>>”Our package received more abuse when marked Fragile or This Side Up.”

This was also heard in many TSA checkpoints this week.
Morrigan

I knew several employees of UPS years ago who told me to never, EVER mark something as fragile. It was open season on any fragile package that they got their hands on.
LadysmithLiz

In the late 90s, I worked for a Mail Boxes Etc, just before they were bought by UPS. We used to tell all of our customers that putting Fragile on the box was akin to putting a target on it.

We also had the chance to tour the local UPS hub, and saw that they sort the smaller packages by catapult! (I swear!) The delivery codes are programmed into the conveyor belt system, and when the package hit the right place on the belt, they would get kicked up into the air to land (hopefully) in the right bin, which would then be taken to the delivery truck.
Manooshi

Yeah, and I would add that if you insure a package, then more often than not, it will get “lost” and never arrive to its destination.

It really sucks that mail deliverers thrash packages even more for being marked ‘fragile’. What SOB’s.
eraserhead

Oh yeah, in my Air Force days I remember working in the mailroom with one idiot who seemed personally offended when a package arrived marked “Fragile”. “Nobody tells *me* what’s fragile!!!”
Anonymous

This has been true for at least thirty years. My grandmother was a ceramicist, and she learned it the hard way.

So whenever I ship something to the government, I’m always sure to mark it FRAGILE in about a hundred places, and I insure it too.
strayxray

I can whole-heartedly confirm this phenomenon from personal experience. I worked in the receiving department of a central warehouse for a large telecommunications company for several summers back in college.

Although not the same as the big package companies, the mentality of my fellow dock workers is likely representative of the mentality of other such low-paid workers in the logistics industry.

Whenever a package was received marked “Fragile”, “Rush” or “Handle with care”, my fellow dock workers would make sure I saw that and proceed to KICK the package down the receiving dock to deliver it to the next department in the chain.

When I asked him if he saw the Fragile note, he would just laugh and say “Yep!”.

Why do you think someone who is paid very little to move boxes all day is going to heed your warnings? This is their little way of “getting back at the man” (i.e. the company).

ALWAYS PREPARE YOUR PACKAGES AS IF SOMEONE IS GOING TO KICK THEM INSTEAD OF CAREFULLY HANDLING THEM. :)
Ugly Canuck

Perhaps we ought to mark our stuff “Not Fragile”…but that may infringe BTO’s rights, eh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-7bQ1SI3wk

Definitely Not Fragile.
Anonymous

I bought a refurbished computer from Best Buy (online) not too long ago. I was shocked at how profusely the box was labeled. I would expect theft to definitely increase but I was also curious about handling.

In the link to the Popular Mechanic’s article, is it just me or is the word ‘pressure’ an odd choice?
ethancoop

see also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_wGeErYTl8
Uncle Geo

As poor an excuse for “journalism” as you’ll ever see. I expected more from Popular Mechanics. The parenthetical “…(we had neither the time nor the budget to make the hundreds of trips necessary for statistical significance”) does not let the writer or the magazine off the hook in any way. If the results have no significance then the article is utterly meaningless. It is actually worse than meaningless as people will draw conclusions from it anyway.

In effect we have a writer who dreamed up a story, wrapped it in pretty graphs and his bosses gave it the shine of legitimacy by publishing it in Popular Mechanics. Shameful. This is the sorry state of journalism in America.
Astragali

When I was working in a warehouse job a couple of years ago, one UPS driver not only told us that marking a package “FRAGILE” was a bad idea (because the workers deliberately kicked them around), it was also a bad idea to order shoes or cellphones online, because these items were stolen frequently by the workers.