Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Recently I have run into this situation twice, and I'm not sure what to do about it. When I go to ups or fedex's websites to estimate shipping costs, the delivery time for next day air is given as end of day instead of 10:30am. I've run into it being noon instead of 10:30am before due to it being a remote location, but never end of day. How do you ship to these places? Do I just need to not sell to these people? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Matt Crabe

You can still ship, I've had a few shipments over the years get delayed for various reasons and not delivered till second day.

BUT....

You need to cover the basics.

1. Use the insulated boxes (may want to either get one with 1/2" or even one with full styrofoam cooler.

2. CHECK WEATHER, both for your area (less important) deliver to area (very important). IMO, the snake will do better if it arrives cold then if it gets too hot. Either way, extreme temps are not good. I held up a shipment to Minnesota for two months last winter....to cold to ship.

3. Get the longer lasting heat or cool packs, plan on the shipment being delayed another day.

4. Pack the shipment well to minimize heat transfer either into or out of your package.
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Matt I recently shipped to Linda Hedgpeth, she is pretty rural. When I did UPS Next Day it said end of day also, I paid the extra for Early morning arrival. She got it by noon, not exactly early. Everything was fine though. I actually went to the airport to drop it off with UPS at the latest possible time, to minimize transit time.

Yeah, I thought about paying extra, but that ups the price from about $50 to like $100. Not really worth shipping at that price. I guess I'll just pack it extremely well and hope for the best.

That surprises me. When I shipped from PA to CA the cost was only $48 plus a $1.33 fuel surcharge. The package was 6lbs, and was insured for $800.

I noticed in your ad it said California as your location. I may have got confused below, I live in Pennsylvania. One thing about boas, if you ever do have to sell them, because of the huge investments you can usually get nice quick cash.

Chris...I think I met you at the Hamburg show before right?? If it was you, it was a pleasure meeting you. I saw you in Daytona, but you were busy talking with someone. Anyway, I appreciate your posts.
As for shipping, I am just outside of Rochester, NY and shipping from here to CA. has always been huge dollars. Maybe it depends on the area you ship from. I once was going to ship to 2 different people in, CA and the deal was cancelled because they wanted like $90 for overnite, and my packages were less than 4 pounds.

What I would love to see is a animal shipping company get started. It would sure be nice to know the shipping end was more secure. Take care, Andy Federico

You must have me mistaken for someone else. I haven't gone to Hamburg before, although I have wanted to! I was in Daytona though?

Sorry, I saw you in Daytona and thought I had met you in PA. Take care. Andy

Just use those same coolers you hooked me up with and you should be fine. I shipped those to 2 different places and used UPS on one and FedEx on the other. Both rural and both were late...noon instead of 10:30am and 3pm instead of 10:30am. Both shippments were perfect! Those boxes work great! Also it was hot then. Now it seems to be cooling off all over, but I would still check temp conditions and ship only when less than 90 degrees, if possible. How hot are the temps?? Take care Andy

Yeah, I plan on using those coolers. It's worth the money to me for the piece of mind they give me. I'm just worried that they will only guarantee delivery by end of day, so that means it will be on the truck all day long. Plus, if it gets delayed, then it would be the day after.

Rich Ihle talking about a package that he shipped that was lost. I do not know of the contents, could have been a Bloody Salmon, Sharp Sunglow, or Sabogae group. All I know is that it went Delta Dash and was insured for $10K.
It went missing after arrival at an airport, it was supposed that someone saw the $10k insurance and lifted the package. Anyway he called everyone he could and it seemed the package had vanished. Well, a week later, the package arrived at the destination, delivered by U.S. Postal service, and was fine (luckily). Evidently it got sorted incorrectly off of the Delta flight, and mixed with regular mail.
It caused a lot of trouble because Delta opened an investigation, with a 10k insured value they would have taken a hit from the loss.

Just thought you would find this interesting.

Ruben Michel

FedEx facility to pick up the package. It is not worth it in my opinion to risk the animals life for it to be sitting in the back of a truck all day long. No matter how well you pack it heat happens. If I lived rurally I would be willing to drive a hundred or 2 to pick the package up. Good luck Matt!!!

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Greg Holland
GM HERPS
www.gmherps.com
gmherps@sbcglobal.net