I promised jared i'd respond to his 10/14 questions re: shipping air freight. Here's his post and some opinions of mine.
>Terry, I notice on your site that you only ship using airline shippers. I have a
>few questions for you:
>1. Does this hurt your business? Almost everyone on kingsnake classifieds
>ships using door-to-door shippers.
A: YES, it probably does. there are always people who would rather take a chance to save some money or time. (or, in fairness, who haven't yet gotten approved as a "known shipper" in order to be allowed to ship air freight.
When people ask me if I'll ship by an overnight, to-the-door courier, I tell them I can't. Simple truth. Airborne won't let me ship snakes that way. FedEx won't. UPS won't. A tiny handful of people i tend to trust have reported that their local offices will let them ship a snake. But the rest of the herp world--and each of those companies' national policies--prohibit it. So to use them, you have to a) lie about what you're shipping; b) hope they don't ask, so you don't have to tell; c) label is something else, like crickets or lizards or perishables, depending on what the given carrier will accept. But it comes down to being dishonest. I'm not gonna lie to save a few bucks or a few miles.
But there's a more important reason, imho, to use air freight: it's safer. That's not rocket science: the airlines, especially Delta, carry large volumes of reptiles, most of their cargo offices have special rooms in which such packages are kept until picked up; and the packages can be honestly labelled so the guys handling them know they're handling a live animal. I got a snake shipped to me by one of the overnight services just a couple weeks ago, and the box felt hot. I opened it quickly, removed the snake, dropped in a max-min thermometer, and closed it again. Half an hour later i opened it, the thermometer had registered 90 degrees, and that's AFTEr the box had been briefly open and thus some heat vented.
But you can't blame the guy delivering it: He had no idea there was a live animal in it. After the snake made the same (arguably, but doubtfully) safe flight, instead of waiting in a temp-controlled room for an experienced herper to pick it up and take it safely home, it got loaded on a delivery truck making deliveries for hours and hours and...you get the idea.
Nuff said. That's why i don't think it's safe. I think if someone cares enough to buy a snake, they should care enough to be willing to drive half an hour or an hour each way to pick it up. I have friends who live hours from some airports however and i am sympathetic to the difficulties that creates for them. I'm merely explaining why I do what i do.
>2. Can you show me a photo of packaging you use that meets IATA
>requirements for shipping using airlines? Is a plywood box with some
>airholes drilled into it sufficient for the external package?
No picture handy, but no, it's not plywood--i've only been forced to do that using IATA rules for international shipments with British Air. Domestic flights are made using standard styrofoam liners-in-corrugated cardboard boxes. The ones i use are preprinted "Live Reptiles" on the outside. I'll occasionally get a handler who requires me to poke air holes in the box. In extreme heat I include a carefully fixed-in-place and well-wrapped cold pack; in very cold weather i do the same but put the "cold pack" in hot water until it's very warm, and affix it to the inside of the box. I wrap them well enough that the snake containers (deli cups, etc.) can't come in contact with very cold or very hot spots. I had a fella ship to me once with dry ice in the box, unfastened, and not only was it no doubt flying around in the box like a loose rock, but the baby snakes in deli cups were ice cold when I removed them from where they'd been sitting on top of pieces of dry ice separated by only a single sheet of newsprint.
>The reason I am asking is that I am trying to get set up to ship using airline >shippers and would like a little advice from an apparent pro.
Well, I've paid my dues so if that makes me a pro, so be it. The hard part is getting approved, becoming a "known shipper". Since 9/11 that's a big deal. But as near as i can tell, in most markets, it's just a matter of applying, going thru some procedures and a home visit/inspection (they want to be sure you're raising snakes and not living in a house with AK47s stacked on the floor, i imagine). It's not my favorite part of raising snakes either, but bottom line is it can be done, at least it could when i went thru the process, and it was pretty painless. I view it as just one more thing we need to do if we're gonna conduct our hobby/business properly. Be aware there are those who disagree with this point of view. These are just my opinions.
Good luck in your efforts.
peace
terry
thanks in advance....
