ORIGINAL: deatonbt
I don't have anything to say about any retailers and just want to talk about the cost of shipping.
I am an independent courier and have a contract with a company that does deliveries for some retailers; some may be ordered online. The company is not UPS or Fedex. On small boxes the company often loses money on the delivery. Other deliveries subsidize the small box deliveries that are out in the boonies. Say an18'' X 18'' X18'' box pays the driver $5 to deliver. If the box is in a busy area or an area that is close to civilization, the driver makes good money along his route. But say that the address is 15 minutes away from a major drag and there are no other deliveries in the area. That is a 30 minute round trip plus his gas at 12 miles to the gallon. A driver cannot make money if he has too many of those boxes on board. So, the driver cherry picks his deliveries, and nobody blames him. The company is going to have to call a courier like me to deliver the box. I am not going to a warehouse and pick up a load of boxes at 2 to $5 a box and deliver them out in the sticks. I am going to charge a bit better rate by charging by the trip. The company that handles the deliveries looses a fair amount of money on those deliveries when considering the slim profit margin after payroll and overhead.
If you live out in the sticks and are receiving small boxes, you are getting a really really good deal.
- Brian
Good post and I totally agree. I realize that where I live has to do with cost more than anything else and I have always been willing to pay reasonable to get something to me, however gouging is another matter entirely.
I often will ask a vendor to send the item when they are shipping something else out in the area, or I would even pick it up somewhere else to help them out. It does not always work and is not always feasible. Sometimes if I desire something quickly I realize I have to pay the additional fees.
There is good and bad in this. Delivering a $5 dollar box and spending $10 dollars to get it there is a loss in anyone's book. However in areas where there are main routes that is not so much of an issue.
Also, some companies will let you use them for receiving packages for a small fee or if you just need a package once in a blue moon they will do it for nothing. You can ship to a business much cheaper than someone out in the sticks.