Delivery/truck/courier services

Our anodizer is about three hours away (one trip) and I'm not switching companies.

I'm sure that most of us have some sort of post processing/finishing outsourced, but what if they're not not quite local? How do you get your parts there?

UPS is nearly out of the question, and truck freight may be a little silly. (the parts are typically 200-300 pounds per batch) I have to stop sending one of our guys on the run...I just can't live with losing that much productivity.

If anyone else is in this situation, where should I be looking?

I send my wife for things like that.

Ditto here. Seems to be the standard in small shops.
Lacking that, do you have a teenage nephew/niece that's reliable?

Or a retired person close by who'd do it to get out of the house and / or lunch money?

You may want to look at motor freight a little closer. A local shop I deal with has a program with a large carrier that allows him to shuttle items from his Ohio operations to a given plant in PA. About 1 1/2 hours away. They will ship a skid, up to 3000# for $35.00.

Quite a deal, I think.

Craig Donges

I second the trucking, If you shop around you can find someone doing regular runs who will be reliable and cheap. Years ago, I had a one man trucking operation who specilized in delivering printing work, ie paper to printers and finished jobs where ever also he worked with mailers, ie pick up from mass mail houses and deliver to big post office processing terminal, he worked in a 100 mile radius, He was happy to take a box, skid, or a whole truck load and if it was in his route, it would be very fast and cheap. He actually had the keys to my warehouse and when I was at another place he had those keys so he could pick and drop after hours. This is an ideal situation and well worth finding. A few years ago I would also send my then teen age son or step son off on these trips, mostly to keep them busy for a few hours, but that is not a reliable option.

Almost all the plating vendors in my area have free pick-up & delivery on a weekly schedule, their own truck. In this area on Tuesday, that one on Thursday....seems to work well and reduces costs.

I don't mean just local stuff either, BTW. I've seen the Springfield MA-based Valley Plating truck way south into CT, far north in VT and elsewhere. Their competitors are out there too. They want the business, so they go get it.

I live 100 miles East of the MPLS/StPaul area. There are shuttle services/courier services that I was not aware of, but deliver or pick up for about $35. Ask around there might be an airport shuttle service or similar.

Otherwise, it's drop the supercab into drive.

We use an anodizer that's about 3 hours away. Fortunately, they come to the area twice a week.

Have you asked the anodizer how close to you their truck actually comes? You might be able to find a friend's shop that's only an hour away, that the truck picks up from. Then at least your drive is shorter.

UPS is out of the question because of your weight and the amount of packaging needed to adequately protect the parts from their chimpanzee army.

If I were you, I'd calculate exactly what it costs to send your own guy on an all day road trip, and then try to find any other solution that's less than that. If you're paying the guy $10/hr, he's costing you at least $100/day (more like $170 in CA), plus a 400 mile round trip at 20mpg with gas at $2.75/gal, and you're at $55 for gas. If you could get a trucker to deliver the parts for $155, it costs you the same, but you have the added productivity of your guy being in the shop, instead of driving around.

converterking said:

I send my wife for things like that.

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I had my wife take some parts over to my waterjet guy once. She came back and said she's never delivering anything for me again. Said the guy never looked her in the eye and he stared at her chest the whole time. I'm on my own when it comes to parts delivery...

I deliver most of my parts 500 miles away but my deliveries are only 4-5 times a year and I can visit my daughter in the same town on the trip.
Usually take 3-4 day mini vacation and write most of the trip off.
One of my independent contractors (can't afford employees) does other part time work picking up and delivering. That's her making noise on the punch press in the back.

Run an ad in the classifieds. Have them get an EIN and fill out a disclaimer stating that they are an independent contractor and not an employee and you should be home free. Better yet have them get a business license.

Hesstool: My old lady would have brought the guys nougats back in a bag.

The IRS allows about 50 cents per mile for car/light truck operation, and you can bet you're not gonna come out ahead with their allowance, so a 300 mile round trip is costing you $150 in vehicle operation, maintenance and depreciation. Add the employee's wages and overhead, and you can afford to spend a fair bit on freight.

I'd build a good reusable shipping container from 3/4 plywood, glued and screwed with blocking at the corners. 4 x 4's on the bottom spaced properly for fork and pallet jack access (most LTL's have a pallet jack for shuffling freight around in the trailer). If the parts repeat, you might want to add compartments and some lift out false floors to the box. Make the top such that its got a framework that slips into the top of the box. Hold the top on with a few studs and wingnuts, and then band the box with strapping when its ready to ship. Stencil your company name and address on it in a few places. Avoid the temptation to attach the top with a nail gun or drywall screws as the lid and top rim will be ruined in no time.

But first, get with one of the LTL's that runs from your area to the destination and get yourself a rate based on the weight and value of the parts. I think you'll be surprised at how cheap it is compared to what you're spending now. If Southeastern serves your area they might be a good one to check with. Also Averitt. My B-I-L is in the glass business and he gets a lot of shipments from both of them, all in one piece a very high percentage of the time. Shower enclosures weighing in the neighborhood of what you mentioned cost him about $65 from Jacksonville FL to here. I'd avoid Overnite (now UPS Freight). They weren't that great as Overnite, and UPS's handling practices have probably made them worse. Don't know if Roadway is still around or not, but if so they're another one to avoid. They were so bad for damaging goods and denying responsibility that the largest HVAC distributor in NC (based in Charlotte) forbid them to even come on their property.

A well made, reusable shipping container will pay for itself in no time as compared to cardboard gaylords and such, and your parts will have far less likelihood of damage. The trucking companies like strong things they can stack other things on top of as well, because they get less damage claims. A shop near mine built boxes to ship jet engine components to GE and Pratt using the construction I mentioned above with good results on common carriers.

I like the reusable container idea. You can get latches from mcCarr or TCH

KIMFAB said:

Hesstool: My old lady would have brought the guys nougats back in a bag.

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LOL Although not married, I know several ladies like that.

I will never figure out why a lady with a nice cantalivered balcony on full display, objects to the target audiance noticing. I mean when you have the grand canyon running between the grand tu tons, how can a guy resist. Maybe I should discuss this with my wife, or maybe not. hmmmm

You only list "North Carolina", so I can't tell if you are near a major metropolitan area...

But even if your anodizer IS, and you are not, look into courier services. Near Chicago, where I am, there is a service called UDS that will do flat-rate all the way to Milwaukee (~100mi.). It beats every possible other carrier by far for $35. They're great---just like a personal mailman.

300lbs on a skid would cost me about 130$ to go from Idaho to California. Look into it a bit. Tell them how much you will ship thru them on an average month and make them fight for your business. Right now i am getting 70% off with one company and 64% with another. You need to talk to a sales rep, not just anyone that answers the phone.