TubeNet

I've had tubas get halfway across the country in one day. But on the other hand I've also had one take 11 days.

Greyhound is fantastic for shipping.

It depends on where you live. I live in South Dakota. Sioux Falls doesn't have a ton of buses running through. It generally takes a little longer to ship and receive things here.

I have had excellent results from Greyhound. I have no problem shipping with them.

Living near Dallas... you have a distinct advantage. In the unlikely event they would lose your shipment, the final destination for Greyhound's lost stuff is in Dallas.

ohrlund wrote:It depends on where you live. I live in South Dakota. Sioux Falls doesn't have a ton of buses running through. It generally takes a little longer to ship and receive things here.

Agreed. I am also in Sioux Falls, but it only took about 10 days for a tuba to travel from the Northeast to here.

58mark wrote:
I was stunned, I thought the knock on greyhound was slow shipping. If it makes it there that fast for that price, I'm going to be a huge fan

My only knock on greyhound is that their package tracking stinks, so there is a bit of anxiety knowing where exactly the package is in transit. But the price and handling of my tuba was great. No damage.

Recently had a horn sent to me from Dallas to Phoenix. Arrived in less than 24 hours and no damage. I didn't even have time to track it. Doesn't get better than that.

Only use Greyhound these days... Cheap and no damage.

Just remember, it's actual people loading/unloading the packages. If it happens to be huge/heavy for a person to carry (boxed up sousaphones, large flight cases with tubas in them, etc.), they might stay at a station a bit longer. Rather load smaller boxes than a tuba.

Ohio to Boston in less than 24 hrs

I've had really good luck with Greyhound. Items arrive in a reasonable amount of time and you can't beat the price compared to UPS or USPS. Their tracking does leave something to be desired but they have come through for me more than once.

Unless there have been recent changes, they have divided the country into 3 zones - if you are shipping within one zone the tracking works pretty well and delivery can be very fast. If you are shipping across multiple zones it is a crapshoot as to how long it will take. A really large box, like for a Helicon will probably be sitting around some transfer points a bit, waiting for a bus with enough storage space for it. Still, it is way cheaper than anything else and I have had no damaged shipments (five of them!)

I'm having my first experience wondering if an exception to the damage-free rule has happened.

I sent a tuba last week to another part of the country, and the recipient tells me it arrived with the first valve not working. This is very perplexing to me. It's hard to see how it could have been damaged by the shipping, as it was packed the Pearson way and sent Greyhound.

But that valve (and the whole tuba) was fine when I wrapped it up. It's going to be interesting to find out more about this.

The Dog rules!!

I just tried shipping via Greyhound Express. It was an easy drop off and log in process. I learned that the tracking system has a quirk. If you just drop a horn off and do not set up an account on line, you cannot see the tracking by entering the tracking number on line. The only way to track under those circumstances is to contact customer service. They get back to you with the tracking information, it just takes an extra step and a day to two for them to get back to you.

bloke wrote:' requires "faith". I bought something from the extreme-left coast. It last tracked in Lost Wages a week ago.

Oh oh...you know what they say:

What happens in Lost Wages stays in Lost Wages

I used to LOVE greyhound. I have been shipping with them for about 15 years. Until last summer. They LOST my tuba. It is gone and I never got it back. and good luck getting the "insurance" money. I needed to provide them with a receipt of purchase on "official business stationary". Well, that is impossible because I bought it used from a private individual... no receipt=no money. So, I hope you have an official receipt and maybe get this... https://www.snagg.com" target="_blank

I wish I did.

Four days from St. Paul to New Orleans.

Just sent a tuba from New Orleans to Rockford, IL and that took 4 days. Box weighed 48Lbs, cost $90ish to send. Good experience, would do it again with a similar or cheaper horn. I don't know If I would risk it with a more expensive horn.

Two days from New York to Chicago....

There are typically two ways that I ship tubas now - motor freight or the bus lines. Anything else has proved to be too expensive and/or risky. After a couple of really bad experiences with UPS tuba shipping, I had a field representative visit my shop, where he witnessed how I was packing tubas. He said that looked well-packed to him, but that "any package that goes through our system and travels through the distribution centers with overhead conveyors needs to be packed to withstand a fall of 12 feet in any direction onto a concrete floor." It was at that moment that we agreed that I would never ship a tuba through UPS Ground again.

I have business insurance that covers anything that I ship, whether it is shop-owned or customer-owned. So, I do not bother getting additional insurance from the carrier, which helps keep costs down.

For really high-priced instruments, I prefer to pack them securely in a triple-wall box (about $55.00 from U-Line), filled with packing peanuts (about 15 cu.ft.), shrink-wrap it on a 40" x 48" pallet, fill out the forms and call YRC Freight. They do a wonderful job of safely transporting anything, and if it can be delivered to a business location and no liftgate service is needed (extra service fees can pile up fast), a tuba can be shipped from here to anywhere in the US for under $300.00 with very little angst and typically in 5 days or less.

Where budget is a real concern (most of us), I'll pack smaller and ship using the Trailways station in Davenport, Iowa. As Bloke mentioned, I see a number of car parts also being shipped. To keep price and packing to a minimum, if the instrument has a solid case, I will insert a bell plug consisting of bubble wrap in the bell and pack it in it's case. The bell plug goes into the bell about a foot, but sticking out enough to keep the bell rim away from the end of the case. This is the single most important thing you can do to prevent bell damage in transit. I then shrink wrap the case in plastic wrap, tape the corners and edges for extra strength, cut a slit across where the handle is, pull the handle out and tape under it to keep the plastic strong. Handlers seem to really appreciate having access to the handle. With the plastic wrap, no old latches can come loose, and it will be very obvious if anyone has tampered with the case.

Trailways and Greyhound are owned by the same parent company, but that does not mean that they always communicate well with each other. Sometimes the service is amazingly fast, particularly going south or west, but not so much for getting an instrument into NYC/NJ/Philadelphia. Depending upon the distance traveled and size of case/box, I find that I can ship most any tuba via the bus lines for between $55.00 and $135.00. Based on experience, I'd say DO NOT use any "bus station" that is not a legitimate, full-service station, such as the country store, gas station or similar type of pick-up/drop off scenario. They just are not very safe or secure for your package. A customer dropped off a tuba at such a place last year, and since it was a dinky place, he got a hand-written receipt instead of one that actually placed the busbill into the system. When the tuba did not arrive in Davenport after a week, then two weeks, we suspected trouble and were told that the busbill number was not in the system and could not be tracked. The customer went back to the dinky bus stop and got no help, he and I both called stations between here and there to try to locate it, and never did. I do not know if the customer ever posted it on TubeNet as stolen, but I really think that it was stolen in a poor-security environment. I think I'll encourage the customer to post it on here with make, model and serial number, because there are just not that many of that instrument in circulation, and he deserves to get his instrument back.

I'm sorry if this is long, but I've been shipping tubas on a daily basis for 15 years now and consider it important.