On Thu, 15 Aug 2002 08:53:36 -0400, M. P. Edison
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Material failure on the order of 5% would seem an astronomical figure
>to me. I can remember going through a period where we were getting a
>lot of UPS damage to our small shipments, and when I told the UPS rep
>that it was only about 1% of our shipments for that month, his
>response was that 1% would be enough to put them out of business.

geez, you musta had a different UPS company than I did!
one of my biggest headaches with UPS and LTL shipments (small jobs of three
or four partitions, etc)
was that I was receiving about one damaged box for every three sent...
UPS and the trucking companies claimed the
packaging was inadequate, and
the shippers claimed the material belonged to me once it left their
docks....
the trucking company OS&D usually offered me half of half the value of the
damage, or one quarter, and I still had to meet the insurance investigator,
rebox the material, file a claim with documentation, wait for trucking
company pickup, and pay freight on the replacement material, which was
always late, and usually damaged, as well...

the bottom line is that unless a problem costs someone money, they will not
be motivated to solve it...
my solution was to buy a big ole truck and drive to indianapolis a couple
times a week to pick up materials myself
since I was losing at least $8K a year to freight damage on materials only,
not counting the handling and ill will costs the damage and missed
deadlines created, it didn't take too long to pay off the truck...

and the girl scouts
loved having it for the big campouts   ;)
when I returned from a long weekend g.s. event and attended a small family
reunion and was able to produce, at a moment's notice, tarps, board games,
camp stools, and a dining fly, my brother dubbed the truck "the world's
biggest purse"

(all the boy scout troops had busses and fancy wells cargo pull-behinds,
but we were the only girlscout troop in the three state area with our own
box truck -- it sure cut down on minivan clutter at limited parking
campsites)

deb

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