Shipping

[TUBAD83]

I'll repeat the same old story I've repeated 10 times.

I sold a euphonium to a tubenetter and we decided to ship it Greyhound. It arrived at the greyhound station for the guy to pick it up, but before that, the greyhound clerk decided to steal it and sell it for drug money.

Days and days passed and finally I got a hold of the manager of that specific station. He informed me they caught the guy stealing it on camera but had no way to find out who the parcel belonged to. They prosecuted the kid for stealing the horn, but he DIDN'T GET FIRED.

When you ship greyhound, you are blindly sending expensive instruments into a world of night time travel, shady greyhound stations all over the US, no tracking system, no insurance (regardless of what they tell you or you may think).

Parcels that don't fit under are stored up top, as well as if the cargo bay is full. This gives greyhound riders an opportunity to steal your stuff or tamper with it as well. Your stuff also can sit, yes, I quote, "up to about 20 hours" on the tarmac where ANY CUSTOMER OR EMPLOYEE CAN TOUCH IT.

Pay the big bucks and send it UPS. Send it a certified packing store and damage is 100% gauranteed.

You take the same chance with UPS or FedEx--I can regale you all with stories of damaged/destroyed/lost packages at the hands of both over the years (and have you been to a "typical" UPS terminal? The one here in Houston I would NEVER attempt to go after dark) and both will look very HARD for ways NOT TO PAY FOR DAMAGES including dragging out the process as long as possible.

IMO, the very best way to ship a tuba and have a good bit of "peace of mind" is via a trucking freight company (Old Dominion or ABF, for example). They are NOT cheap but you know it will get there and they will pay for any damages.

[djwesp]

and both will look very HARD for ways NOT TO PAY FOR DAMAGES including dragging out the process as long as possible.

I have shipped 25+ instruments via UPS and had 4 claims. They were resolved in a matter of minutes.

When you ship from a UPS store and use the Guaranteed Packing it has gone, for me, without a single hitch.

[Donn]

IMO, the very best way to ship a tuba and have a good bit of "peace of mind" is via a trucking freight company (Old Dominion or ABF, for example). They are NOT cheap but you know it will get there and they will pay for any damages.

Now you're talking. The expense might be an issue if you were going to send every old beater that way, but I believe that's how the big guys do it - WW&BW, for example, unless they've changed their act.

It's a shame normal shipping is so nearly suicidal for instruments you'd think were relatively robust, like tubas, trombones, baritone horns etc., so we are treated to the spectacle of your instrument arriving on a flatbed truck as if it were some unmanageably gigantic thing. And flying, not to bring up another sore point, but the current state of affairs seems to be you can't fly with your tuba, and you can't ship it via any normal consumer carrier. Wonder if folks would pay extra for shipping, and airline tickets, given the absurdly minimal promise "we won't smash your stuff?"

[SousaSaver]

My employer has Sousas and Tubas shipped through Greyhound regularly and we have never had an issue with them.

On the other hand you are shipping something of great value that you want to be able to track. Insurance is also another very important issue. While it is terrible to think about, accidents do happen with packages. So pack the item as best as you can giving special attention to the bell flare area. Fill the bell flare with bubble wrap to try and maintain the shape if the box gets dropped. It should help absorb some of the shock of the fall. It is my opinion that one should never use packing "peanuts." Use the large bubble wrap. You can purchase this from Kinkos in a large roll.

[Erin]

When shipping Greyhound, do most of you buy additional insurance from a third party, or do you just put your baby on a bus, blow it a kiss and hope for the best?

I like the sound of shipping with Greyhound, but I'm concerned about their "insurance", which only allows the shipper to declare a value of up to $1000... it doesn't look like Greyhound offers additional insurance options.

[Liberty Mo]

The key with UPS is to have them package the horn. If they do it and you buy insurance, and the horn is damaged, they process a claim fairly easily. Just make sure the recipient immediately reports the damage and leaves the package as is.

On the other hand, if you have UPS package the horn, they may likely remodel your 100 year old Martin from this


To this

[TUBAD83]

I just shipped a tuba out west to CA via Greyhound and my new 20J is coming via Greyhound (should arrive today). Greyhound Express here in Houston is very good--never had a problem at all.

JJ

[MartyNeilan]

USPS. The good ol' Post Office.
As long as it is a smaller tuba, you pack the living daylights out of it, and you clearly mark it FRAGILE on all sides, you should be OK. Cheaper too. Once you get into the post office oversize, then you have to do Parcel Post only. Unfortunately, most larger tubas when well packed are still too big to meet even the oversized requirements.
For F tubas and 3/4-small 4/4 tubas, USPS has never let me down.

[bort]

I've shipped a number of tubas over the years, and several coast-to-coast. Have always used UPS Ground, and have had zero problems. I wrap the entire tuba in a few inches of bubble wrap, then make sure to include a several inch buffer of styrofoam peanuts all around. inside the box.

The trick for me has been using extra pieces of cardboard to keep the tuba from settling within the peanuts (so for example, 3 inches of foam on the bottom, then a layer of thin cardboard on top of that to prevent settling.

Not hard to do, and I have never had any trouble with it. A little expensive (like $225?), but for 3 or 4 day door-to-door service and delivery without any problems, I'm 5 for 5 with UPS Ground.

[gocsick]

I just sent a Holton Eb sousa by UPS, without a hitch. I brought it into the UPS store had them pack it and ship it. $89 for packaging and ground shipment from Philadelphia to New Mexico. I had it insured for $1,000. I was going to package it myself but I was told at the store that insurance claims are processed without a hitch if they pack it. On the other hand I I pack it and it is damaged UPS has a real easy out by saying the horn was not packaged correctly. Shipping took 7 days. The only problem was it took me a week to get all the foam peanuts out of the horn! I didn't think about blocking the bell with something.

Baltimore Brass sent me a horn fed-ex ground. Came in 3 days cross-country from Maryland to New Mexico. They packed it in a box the size of a refrigerator with more bubble wrap then I have ever sen in my life. The local fed ex guy refused to deliver it to the door. I had to come out to the truck and he gave it to me in the street. Otherwise there way no problem.

If you are sending the horn to a rural area Greyhound can be tough. The nearest Greyhound freight office is 3 hours from my house. Freight, UPS or Fedex were the only ways that would work for me.

[Tom]

I've tried lots of different things:

FedEx Ground

Shipped an F tuba in an Anvil flight/shipping trunk cross-country (to myself, actually) without any problems. I made all the arrangements online and arranged and had it picked up by FedEx the next day without any problems. Cost wasn't unreasonable, but totally depends on size, weight and where the package is coming from and going to. Depending on the location of the recipient, FedEx could be one of your only options, as they seem to go just about everywhere.

Overall: No problems.

UPS Ground

Shipped the above mentioned F tuba in the same Anvil case that had gone through shipping and air travel (with no problems). The recipient discovered that the top bow of the tuba was partially crushed in transit. I had made the shipment from a real UPS drop of location (mostly for air cargo), not one of those mailboxes/pack-n-ship type places, and had insurance on it. I made an insurance claim on the damage, UPS "investigated," and I ended up with a check from them that covered all of my shipping expenses (including return shipping to me) and full repair costs to restore it to former glory.

I used them again several years later to ship a tuba inside a gig bag and inside of an Anvil trunk. Did the arrangements online, had it picked up and shipped with no questions asked. That time, no problems whatsoever.

Overall: 1 good, 1 bad. Paid on insurance claim (though I wouldn't count on this always being the case).

DHL Trucking

Shipped a MW in an aluminum flight trunk. Case got a little banged up (as you might expect), but no serious damage to case and none to the tuba. I'm not really sure if that's a testament to the MW case or the way DHL ships things though...

I also received a tuba this way (packed in huge cardboard box) without incident.

DHL was pretty cheap when shipping, too (c. $30 something dollars, as I recall).

Overall: No real problems. Case getting banged up was inevitable.

Greyhound

Shipped a big CC tuba from Texas to far northern Michigan via Greyhound (at buyers request). Package service on Greyhound is cheap, but they don't provide service everywhere like FedEx or UPS does. Greyhound also offers no tracking service and very little insurance coverage. It might also be worth mentioning that with Greyhound your tuba is never more than a foot or so off the ground. That doesn't make it damage proof, but it sure helps.

I recently received an empty tuba case shipped via Greyhound. No issues and transit time from New York to Indiana was under 10 days, as I recall.

Overall: No problems in two uses.

Amtrak

I've sent and received tubas via Amtrak. It has always been under $50, fast, and reliable, and incident free for me. In addition, they let you (or at least did) buy insurance in whatever amount you want. The kicker is that you have to live somewhere that Amtrak provides their package express service. They don't do it for all of their stops. Their paper work also serves as a way to track the shipment.

Overall: No problems. My personal favorite.

Things I've learned:

-Nobody really cares about your stuff. They will throw it, stack stuff on it, drop it, leave it unattended, set it down in a puddle, etc. Be prepared for that.

-Don't ship a tuba in a case. I've had mixed results with this. My UPS shipments were with custom form fit Anvil cases, which are a lot beefier than the cases most people use and I still got damage. On the other hand, the big CC I shipped via Greyhound went in a regular wood case (though the horn was tightly packed inside) without any problems. I consider myself lucky when it came to shipping in cases and wouldn't ship that way again.


I think the biggest problem with shipping is that the shipper doesn't pack the tuba up very well for the type of handling it will be subjected to. When I received a $1x,xxx tuba from Baltimore Brass (since sold) it came in a huge box full of packing peanuts and bubble wrap and held together with large brass staples that could have probably fit 3 tubas inside. They don't ship that way for fun, folks. No damage.

Trying to sneak through by shipping a tuba in a typical hard case or in a really-too-small box without enough wall clearance is just asking for it. Go back and read about the damage I got using ANVIL cases! Most damage that is shown and discussed on tubenet seems to happen because the horn does not fit will in the packing, usually a case. If the horn can move at all in any direction in the case, especially at the bell end, you're very likely to end up with damage. Most bell crunches and wrinkles happen because the bell slammed into the end or the sides of the case or box. It doesn't matter if your tuba is on a plane, train, or automobile...if it's packed poorly, it will likely end up damaged. Most (not all) well packed tubas will end up being too large to go FedEx, UPS, or USPS. Pack your tubas how they need to be packed...ship them by whatever means you have to in order to move a package that big. You'll probably discover that your typical "consumer" shippers aren't the best option.