Shipping UPS

cjk · Post by **cjk** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 6:24 pm

How tall is it and how big is the bell?

Do you mean that 146" is length+width+height ?

My rule of thumb is 6 inches of padding in every direction. It really depends on the dimensions of the tuba whether 146" does that or not.

Christian, "who packs tubas like he expects gorillas to handle them"

funkcicle · Post by **funkcicle** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 6:28 pm

Haven't shipped a tuba, but I've shipped/had shipped to me various speaker cabinets that have been comparable to the size and weight of a tuba. In my experience, UPS generally costs at least double the cost of FedEx ground.. recently somebody sent me a bass amp/cab combo weighing about 80-90 pounds and with dimensions slightly smaller than what you described.. he ABSOLUTELY INSISTED on UPS ground, and since I absolutely insisted on receiving this item I didn't have much choice. The UPS bill was $92(Louisiana to NY).

Last month I sold this cabinet/amp and shipped it FedEx from NY to California for $32, insured for 20% more than the purchase price. Maybe there's something special about UPS that I don't know about, but for the life of me I can't figure out why anybody would use UPS to ship anything more than books.

(I don't know if this is still true, but UPS also used to have a limit on what you could insure stuff for.. a ridiculously low limit, like $300---EVEN IF you declared a higher value and purchased insurance. It was worded to purposely mislead you into thinking that you could insure for a higher amount.. but still within the realm of the law.)

my $.02

cjk · Post by **cjk** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 6:39 pm

I concur with funkcicle.

FedEx ground kicks a$$. Every Kinkos is a drop point.

165" might be plenty well packed.

Say the tuba's 36 inches tall with a 20 inch bell. I'll add a foot to 20 (guess) to get 32 to account for how wide the tuba would be (or tall if it's in the case) and then add 6 inches in every direction (12" for both sides) and I get 124".
# bc
36+12+20+12+32+12
124

MikeMason · Post by **MikeMason** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 7:47 pm

i recommend greyhound. cheap,fast, and no conveyor belts to fall from. hand carried by driver/employee to and from bus..

Rick F · Post by **Rick F** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:30 pm

UPS (or more accurately "oops") damaged a euphonium I had shipped to me about 4 years ago. Never thought it safe to use them after that. I think FedEx is safer... or even Greyhound bus.

Rick F · Post by **Rick F** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:30 pm

< delete dbl post >

Gorilla Tuba · Post by **Gorilla Tuba** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:42 pm

I have shipped tubas and bicycles via UPS. Although generally more expensive than Fed Ex, it still gets there. However, when damage does occur, I have been better served by Fed Ex Ground. Fed Ex Express is pleasant to deal with and not much more expensive than ground, but I have had a lot less damages with ground.

Greyhound is cheap. I know someone who lost a Nirschl tuba and got almost no compensation from Greyhound. I guess you get what you pay for.

cjk · Post by **cjk** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 10:10 pm

just received a tuba packed in a case from Chuck G via Amtrak. From Portland Ore to Worcester Ma - $62 skins, insured, reliable...... good deal! Check to make your local Amtrak station accepts Express Shipping.

And Mr Chuck(G) is a swell guy to deal with!

pg · Post by pg » Sat Mar 19, 2005 8:00 am

montre8 wrote:I just received a tuba packed in a case from Chuck G via Amtrak . . .

You still need to be careful and pack well with Amtrak. I had someone ship me a tuba via Amtrak and it came with a new crease in the bell. I guess someone noticed it would take up less space standing on the bell end (there were metal feet on the case for that purpose afterall). I'm pretty sure it was "set down" off the 4 ft high train onto those feet too.

With Amtrak - you need to inspect the horn and claim the damages when you pick it up at the station. It was too late for me since the crease was on the underside of the bell and I didn't notice it till I got home. Fortunately, it was an older horn, a simple job for the local repair rep and the horn was going to a school where they were just delighted to have a tuba.

If that had been a nice new shiney silver horn, it would have been a different story . . .

--paul;

edgarb · Post by **edgarb** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 12:44 pm

I received a tuba via UPS that was damaged, bell all crumpled in looked like it was crushed. It was in a hard case inside a carton marked fragile. So far they have not made good to the shipper which means I am out the shipping charges even though I paid for insurance!!

davet · Post by **davet** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 1:23 pm

My opinionated ratings of the shippers I have used:

1. FedEx: low cost, adequate insurance, good tracking, friendly

2. Greyhound: low cost, super friendly, poor tracking, will not insure for real value (actually they don't "insure" it but use some other term), the instrument never gets high off the ground, so damage is less likely

4. UPS: expensive, arrogant counter personnel, tough to get insurance claim settled, instrument must be in hard case

There is no number 3, but I don't like UPS at all for instruments. They're great for regular stuff, and I like being on the receiving end of a UPS shipment.

Dan Schultz · Post by **Dan Schultz** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:02 pm

LV wrote:
MikeMason wrote:i recommend greyhound. cheap,fast, and no conveyor belts to fall from. hand carried by driver/employee to and from bus..
And no insurance of any significance...

Greyhound's liability limits vary depending on the destination. However, I think the upper limit in every case is $1,000. That would not prevent you from purchasing a 'one time' policy to insure the horn privately. I have purchased insurance to insure a horn in transit with a deducible equal to Greyhound's liability limit. That way, Greyhound would cover a horn arriving damaged and your insurance would pick up the difference if there was a catastrophic loss. I use Greyhound a lot! I recently shipped a set of timpani via Greyhound.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 11:38 pm

I've written a lot on this subject before, so I'll try to limit my comments to my experience with UPS along with my favorite shipping method.

I have shipped two tubas via UPS ground. Both were shipped to Baltimore; one from Texas and the other from Iowa.

The horn shipped from Texas was in a form fitting Anvil flight/shipping trunk. I took it to the UPS depot in Dallas because of the nature of the package. It was inspected, and deemed well packed and they agreed to insure it for what I asked. It made it to Baltimore in about one week, but arrived with a smashed top bow! So, I made an insurance claim with UPS, and after some phone calls, a fax or two with bills, ads for comparable new tubas, proof that the horn was shipped with the damage already there, and a Baltimore area employee "inspecting the damage," they issued me a check to cover the damage and the cost of shipping. Although the horn was damaged, I feel that the situation ended up turning out as about as well as it possibly could have.

I shipped another tuba from Iowa to Baltimore about 4 1/2 months ago. This horn was also in an Anvil case and was also inspected and insurance was purchased. The tuba made it to Baltimore in 5 days with zero damage reported to me by the receiver. I did the entire transaction online (printed my own shipping labels) and had the horn picked up at my home for c. $80.

I've also shipped empty cases to myself several times via UPS without damage. I'd use UPS ground again, but (if your city has it) Amtrak is my first choice.

Liberty Mo · Post by **Liberty Mo** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 7:58 am

Last month I took a Jupiter 582s 4/4 tuba in hard case to the local UPS store who custom made a box (a washer-dryer box) with a very strong honeycomb shell around the case and then filled it with peanuts and then tapped it like it was a mummy. The entire packing job cost me $40 bucks. I put it on an Amtrak train from Kansas City to Boston for $50 bucks and $3500 in insurance for $10. So for a $100 bucks it worked great and took 4 days to arrive, which is probably faster than UPS or FedEx ground.