Shipping via Greyhound

[TexTuba]

Hello,

This question is for those who have experience shipping/receiving tubas via Greyhound.

For the shippers: Is Greyhound pretty strict on their Standard-Only shipping for tubas traveling over 650 miles? I saw that 650 was the magical number between Priority and Standard.

For the receivers: What was the time in which it was shipped and received? Was the horn damaged? What kind of horn was it?

I want to get as much information as possible as I will ship with them. Thank you!

[David Richoux]

Greyhound has Zones (Atlantic, Mid-East, Mid West, and West as I understand it - maybe more or less parsed than that.) Any time a box goes outside of a zone they don't like it, so add a few days and expect a lot worse service for cross-continental shipments.

I sent a helicon from California to South Carolina a few years ago - it did eventually arrive with no damage, but it was a great mystery as to what happened to it in the 4 weeks the box was wandering around the USA...

[Eflatdoubler]

I received a tuba from greyhound from 1600 miles away and was surprised that I had it within 48 hours of shipment. It is great that the greyhound in my area is open 24 hours a day weekdays and regular business hours on weekends. It was about half the price of other shippers and it arrived safe and sound. The only downside is that insurance is not available above a few hundred dollars when the distance increases and even locally it appears limited to a thousand dollars. Based on my limited experience I would definitely use them again. I have always been happy with FedEx but the savings and speed were quite impressive using greyhound.

[David Richoux]

Sometimes you get lucky! It all depends on how much passenger luggage there is on a particular bus, and the size of your box. A large box can sit in a station for a while, or it coud go right on through... but it might go via Texas or Minnesota. I don't like the lack of accurate tracking or real insurance - is that worth the savings in shipping fees?

[Dan Schultz]

As one poster already pointed out... it's a matter of zones rather than miles. 'Priority' only means '1st bus out' and has nothing to do with how the schedule stacks up as the package move across the country. If a shipment will 'hit' while a station is normally closed... it will sit at the last stop for a while. You will also notice that the available insurance will drop from $1,000 to $300 depending on how many zones the shipment has to travel travel.

Uncomfortable with these conditions? Not me. Greyhound has a great track record... FAR better than UPS, FEDEX, or USPS.

The packaging standards for UPS, FEDEX, and USPS are so stringent that by the time you meet the specs, the carton is usually too large to qualify for reasonable rates. You don't need 'bullet-proof' packaging with Greyhound. All of their freight travels only a couple of feet off the ground and never sees a conveyor belt.

[TexTuba]

Thank you very much for the replies. The horn will be going from Texas to Ohio. Y'all have definitely given me some piece of mind.

[Dan Schultz]

Thank you very much for the replies. The horn will be going from Texas to Ohio. Y'all have definitely given me some piece of mind.

I'll wave to it as it passes through here!