DHL shipping

[WesP]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ewSX1f22Cg

This comes from Adelaide airport DHL depot filmed short time ago.
Very interesting to watch how do they treat someone's properties and being paid for that as well...

Cheers,

Wes

[Bob38S]

Don't think that it is just this company - it appears most of the freight companies seem to draw from the same labour pool.

Mark an item "Fragile" and it appears to "fly" higher and further.

[Chesand]

When I sent parcels in a past life, I always marked them "throw gently" but never sure if it made any difference.

[Chris Parks]

Par for the course for any freight company. Do it for a job five days a week and the care factor lessens very rapidly.

[bsrlee]

Well, at least they are not driving a truck over them or submerging them in water (Australia Post). And they are probably in the right hemisphere (Parcel Force UK) or demanding a ransom to return the goods when they haven't made it across the Equator (ditto).

[Chris Parks]

Every freight company has major issues without exception. I used TOLL for three years with only one hiccup and that was to a customer who had a prior bad experience with them. Stuff happens is all I can say. I loaded and drove trucks for AP for 25 years the last few years supervising interstate parcel dispatch and only saw a few incidents of unintentional damage in all that time. No one goes to work to intentionally damage parcels or mail or at least no one I knew.

[jhovel]

I just sent a small parcel to South Africa by DHL. Paid for in full this end.
Before delivery to the address in SA DHL demanded a further "release payment" of Aus$24 (in Rand) off the unsuspecting receiver.... Bloody thieves!
Unfortunately their post office is on go-slow strike and wasn't an option....

[Chris Parks]

I think it was UPS who tried the same stunt with me some years ago, they called it a customs opening fee. We had a robust discussion on the phone and they waived it and said that they would not do the same again. I told them there was no problem with that as I wouldn't be using their services again. That turned out not to be true as I used them extensively to air freight the early cyclones as their price was so good.

[Evanism]

This thread reminded me of an article some years ago, but easily found.

It PROVES that marking a parcel "fragile" sujects it to more bumps, drops, turns, G-forces and bashings.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...-your-packages

The finding? "Our package received more abuse when marked Fragile or This Side Up."

[Chris Parks]

There is a saying in the industry, "we don't do a fragile service" so the item gets no special service. I once saw a woman try and post a vase with flowers in it but the kicker was she wanted the water to stay in the vase so the flowers would survive. She had limited English and the explanations as to why it would not work were very funny.

[rrich]

It's not just package delivery services.

It was a rainy Friday afternoon at then Washington National Airport. (Now Regan National Airport)

A garment bag had fallen off of a luggage cart and was laying on the tarmac. The crowd in the terminal, waiting to board our plane, was watching intently. Three different "tug" drivers drove next to the fallen garment bag, assuming to look at the luggage tag. All three just drove off without touching the fallen garment bag.

Finally a tug driver drove over, leaned over and picked up the garment bag. As he drove off, the crowd in the terminal let out a loud cheer. All obviously glad that some poor traveler would meet up with their possessions at some remote destination.