Shipping UPS

[Dan Schultz]

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]

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]

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.