Slow Shipping

glennerd · May 29, 2019

bkrownd said:
Beware - some people don't understand that there IS slow-boat shipping to/from Hawaii, and all the shipping services can be a little deceptive about that. You have to make sure that something to/from Hawaii is going by air, because the slow boat takes 2-10 weeks. (they will only quote you the best case senario) Yes, I've waited 10 weeks for a package that got on the slow boat once.

Don't you also have that weird import rule where foreign items have to go to the mainland USA before they go to Hawaii?

Also, I've had things ship pretty fast from China to Canada and then get stuck in a customs backlog for 6+ weeks too.

bkrownd · May 29, 2019

glennerd said:
Don't you also have that weird import rule where foreign items have to go to the mainland USA before they go to Hawaii?

Also, I've had things ship pretty fast from China to Canada and then get stuck in a customs backlog for 6+ weeks too.

I think customs either only randomly chooses a tiny fraction of things to inspect or has some particular target items. I order stuff from various countries and they usually arrive in 3-4 days with no sign of physical inspection.

Rllink · May 30, 2019

My thing was that when we lived in Puerto Rico a lot of sellers in the US would not ship there. So I would choose USPS if I could and have it shipped to my home in Iowa. I was having my mail forwarded and USPS would forward the packages to my address in PR. It took three days for a package to get forwarded. Why can't the sellers just send it there? Same USPS, same UPS, same FedEx, I don't understand. Same with Hawaii and Alaska, I see a lot of times sellers say that they won't ship to Alaska or Hawaii. They all have the same carriers, what is the problem?

Peter Frary · May 30, 2019

Jerryc41 said:
But you live on Hawaii!!!

HMS was out of stock—they said for 3 or 4 months—and I got impatient and bought the last one on earth, which happened to be in California. Should have waited! But I've moved on to greener pastures...

RafterGirl · May 30, 2019

My peeve at the moment is Amazon. I ordered three items last Wednesday. One item will arrive this Saturday. The other two items haven’t even shipped yet. All three were listed as in stock and fulfilled by Amazon. I hate waiting.

Peter Frary · May 30, 2019

That's a feature and not a defect! Amazon slow ages all products before shipping, thereby insuring you receive it at the optimal time.

YogiTom · May 30, 2019

glennerd said:
... if you put a body of water between you and the seller, you remove the option to ship by truck (for the whole trip anyway).

And yet, when we ship mead to customers in Hawaii, FedEx gives us three options: overnight, 2nd day Air, and “ground”. They must know something we don’t!

Jerryc41 · May 30, 2019

bkrownd said:
Beware - some people don't understand that there IS slow-boat shipping to/from Hawaii, and all the shipping services can be a little deceptive about that. You have to make sure that something to/from Hawaii is going by air, because the slow boat takes 2-10 weeks. (they will only quote you the best case senario) Yes, I've waited 10 weeks for a package that got on the slow boat once.

It's the same with eBay items from China. They usually offer free shipping, and that can mean less that a week, or more than a month. I just don't like paying for fast and getting slow.

Remember the old song "Slow Boat to China"? They're still slow - no hydrofoils crossing the Pacific.

Jerryc41 · May 30, 2019

YogiTom said:
And yet, when we ship mead to customers in Hawaii, FedEx gives us three options: overnight, 2nd day Air, and “ground”. They must know something we don’t!

I'd like to see how a ground shipment to Hawaii would work.

glennerd · May 30, 2019

Jerryc41 said:
It's the same with eBay items from China. They usually offer free shipping, and that can mean less that a week, or more than a month. I just don't like paying for fast and getting slow.

Remember the old song "Slow Boat to China"? They're still slow - no hydrofoils crossing the Pacific.

I seem to remember a few years back they figured out that if they ran the ships a little bit slower they would save a ton of fuel, So they might be even slower now!

Rllink · May 30, 2019

Jerryc41 said:
I'd like to see how a ground shipment to Hawaii would work.

Semi pulls container to to port, container to ship, ship to Hawaii. We shipped a container of supplies to Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria. That was how it went and that was considered ground shipping. I think that ground means that it doesn't go by air.

Peter Frary · May 30, 2019

I use UPS and FedEX ground from Hawaii most of the time. It's a lot faster than USPS Parcel Select.

bkrownd · May 30, 2019

Rllink said:
I think that ground means that it doesn't go by air.

UPS ground goes by air over the water. It's usually 3 day service.

Slackkey007 · May 30, 2019

This is the very reason why I ship via USPS Priority Mail Express 2 day shipping and pay the higher shipping price whenever I sell any of my ukes. Even when I buy a pre-owned uke, I will pay the difference of what the seller was willing to pay for shipping to have the uke shipped via USPS Priority Mail Express 2 day shipping. The longer it takes for an instrument to be shipped, there's a higher probability of it getting damaged for many reasons.

For a private seller, I think I offer a great deal for the buyer in regards to the price of the instrument including the hard case and the included USPS Priority Mail Express 2 day shipping, insurance, and professional packing. Every single instrument that I've sold and shipped within the U.S. and Internationally over the years arrived undamaged and in the condition described in my for sale ad. Each buyer has thanked me when they received their ukes undamaged and complimented on the great packing and fast shipping.:shaka:

Rllink · May 30, 2019

bkrownd said:
UPS ground goes by air over the water. It's usually 3 day service.

I'm wrong again. Never ends. Story of my life.

RafterGirl · May 31, 2019

slackkey007 said:
This is the very reason why I ship via USPS Priority Mail Express 2 day shipping and pay the higher shipping price whenever I sell any of my ukes. Even when I buy a pre-owned uke, I will pay the difference of what the seller was willing to pay for shipping to have the uke shipped via USPS Priority Mail Express 2 day shipping. The longer it takes for an instrument to be shipped, there's a higher probability of it getting damaged for many reasons.

For a private seller, I think I offer a great deal for the buyer in regards to the price of the instrument including the hard case and the included USPS Priority Mail Express 2 day shipping, insurance, and professional packing. Every single instrument that I've sold and shipped within the U.S. and Internationally over the years arrived undamaged and in the condition described in my for sale ad. Each buyer has thanked me when they received their ukes undamaged and complimented on the great packing and fast shipping.:shaka:

I also use USPS 2 Day Priority when I sell a ukulele. The nice lady at my post office told me she would never recommend regular ground shipping for a musical instrument. She said that the 2 Day Priority has a weight limit of either 50 or 70 pounds (can't remember which). Ground can be much heavier packages. She said that even though my ukulele is well packed & in a hard case, there's always a chance that a 200 pound package might get thrown on top of it.

One of my three items that I ordered from Amazon last Wednesday arrived today. The other two still haven't shipped. Ugh.

YogiTom · May 31, 2019

I’m waiting on some supplies to ream put some friction peg holes to make way for UPTs, and instead of arriving yesterday as expected, USPS tracking now says “package is still en route to the next distribution location and will be arriving later than expected”...and the company I ordered from is only a few hours away...:wallbash:

Jerryc41 · May 31, 2019

glennerd said:
I seem to remember a few years back they figured out that if they ran the ships a little bit slower they would save a ton of fuel, So they might be even slower now!

Courtesy of Google -
"Current bunker, that’s the technical term, prices for fuel oil are between $309 and $340 per tonne, depending on where you are in the world.
A cargo ship can use anything from 1 tonne per hour to 16 tonnes per hour for the largest ships traveling at 23 knots.
So a super large ship like the new 399 metre vessels could cost as much as $5440 per hour, $130560 per day of steaming."

glennerd · May 31, 2019

Jerryc41 said:
Courtesy of Google -
"Current bunker, that’s the technical term, prices for fuel oil are between $309 and $340 per tonne, depending on where you are in the world.
A cargo ship can use anything from 1 tonne per hour to 16 tonnes per hour for the largest ships traveling at 23 knots.
So a super large ship like the new 399 metre vessels could cost as much as $5440 per hour, $130560 per day of steaming."

Haha, you know, I suspected that would come back to me! I referred to the colloquial ton, not the literal tonne! The article I just read quoted an example which worked out to saving about 568 tonnes, $250k (2010 prices, so more than a few years ago), and an extra four days from Hong Kong to Long Beach. Up from 10 days to 14, so the crew is going squirrelly and doing who knows what with your package.

Fuel is cheaper now so not sure whether they stuck to the slow speeds.

Jerryc41 · May 31, 2019

Rllink said:
Semi pulls container to to port, container to ship, ship to Hawaii. We shipped a container of supplies to Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria. That was how it went and that was considered ground shipping. I think that ground means that it doesn't go by air.

We were on the Big Island years ago, and we saw a lot of Harleys riding around. A couple of times a year, they load their bikes into shipping containers on the various Hawaiian islands and have them shipped to the Big Island. Then they ride together. I bet they wish there was a bridge. : )

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