Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Instead of sending out mass emails I thought I would let some of you know that I passed my Fedex package inspection and am "almost" ready to ship harmless reptiles through fedex. All I have to do now is sign some legal stuff. Just thought I would share the news.

Hey matt I'd like to know what you had to do to initiate that and what you needed to do to pass the inspection. Most are now shipping on the sly. it sure would be nice to see things on the up and up again!

Tony, Fedex will be glad to ship your reptiles too, but there is a process to go through. First, set up a free shipping account on fedex.com.....it is easy.

1. Pack up a box EXACTLY like you would if you were shipping snake, except leave the critter out of course..lol. Go to www.fedex.com and print out a Packaging Services Application. Fill it out, and tell them what you will be shipping (ie...harmless reptiles).

2. Place the application in the box, and ship it to the address on the application. They will inspect your package to see if it fits their minimum requirements for shipping live animals. So if I were you I would pack the best, most secure, insulated package you can. Place styrofoam on all inner surfaces, and use newspaper or foam peanuts to fill the empty space. Place a delicup or bag in the center.

3. Wait on your package to return to you, and it will include a list of factory specs from the engineer all about your package testing. It will also tell you if you were accepted or failed.

Do not call fedex and discuss this with them, and ask all kinds of questions, like "Are you guys shipping live snakes now?" or anything else cause all the customer support folks and operators are obviously told to tell people they don't ship things like that, or they don't know their companies policies.

They WILL be very glad to ship your reptiles following this process. I think it is one way to weed out the crap. You have to really want to ship through them to carry out this process. But hey it is free.

One more thing.......when you get the package back with results you are NOT ready to ship yet. Either your account representative will call you, or you need to call fedex and leave a message for your rep to call you back. When they do they will discuss a few things with you, and send you some legal paperwork. It's basically a contract. After that ship away!!

Like I said, they have been very friendly and even anticipate shipping my reptiles. So this is a good way for us reptile owners to get respect and show a little at the same time.

Good luck!

Thanks Matt. Sounds easy enough.

First off, yes most of the people you talk to will have no idea. You need to ask to speak with you local area sales rep. You can try to post the area you are in and see if anyone from that area knows their reps number. Once you get them you just let them know what you are planning to do and they will get you going. It is a sale for them so they are happy to help you.

When you send the box send it ground and you will save money. Inside the box you need all the things that Matt and one thing he didn't mention. Set the box up like you are sending babies. Put in the styro and newspaper and the main thing they want to see is douple packing. That is put the deli cups in a bag. Tie off the bag and you are golden.

The most difficult thing is getting to your sales rep. You usually need to leave a message for them. Oh and as far as the Fed Ex people are concerned you can only ship business to business.

Later Jason

Yes, on the waiver one of the very specific statements is that you are to ship from your business to another business only, and not to residential addresses. My sales rep said it was ok if I was shipping to individual collectors, but for reference tell them that you agree to their terms.

I have only been using FedEx a short time but I have already learned one trick. As long as you use a business name they will deliver. For example I used a guy's name and added Co. (John Doe Snake Co.) The thing they are trying to avoid is having no one home. So signing the deliver with no signiture line on the shipping ticket also helps. You just lose the ability to tell if anyone was home when the box was dropped off. Oh and if you have a legit business name than you have no problem.
Later Jason

Posted by: snakesunlimited1 at Fri Oct 14 15:17:53 2005 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

I have only been using FedEx a short time but I have already learned one trick. As long as you use a business name they will deliver. For example I used a guy's name and added Co. (John Doe Snake Co.) The thing they are trying to avoid is having no one home. So signing the deliver with no signiture line on the shipping ticket also helps. You just lose the ability to tell if anyone was home when the box was dropped off. Oh and if you have a legit business name than you have no problem.
Later Jason

Whats the point in setting this up if you have to lie and use tricks anyway? Whats the difference if you decieve them after or misrepresent the shipment before?

I have a suggestion...JUST DON'T TELL THEM WHATS IN THE BOX!

Well Rainer for one if you do not label the outside of the box with both the common and latin name then you are breaking the Lacy Act which is a federal Law that governs all interstate shipping. The next thing would be for those of you who choose to ship by the post office your are actually breaking a law there as well. Not that you would ever do that or anything. Lastly if you have a shipper who is empracing our hobby why not reward them with business.

How are we, as a community ever going to get any respect, unless we show our collective purchasing ability. The thing that gets noticed in this country is money. If we have a company that notices a chance to make money by treating us as respected a business then why not take that chance to prove that if given a chance we are a good group of people to deal with. As the saying goes money talks.

Or you can just keep sneaking around and when a snake gets out in a truck it will hit the papers and give the powers that want to end our hobby one more thing to bring up to the goverment. Yeah your right why not just keep being a bunch of guys who break the little laws?? I mean really what are they gonna do... Pass more laws that are even worse than what we have now????

Thanks for your insite I am gonna go cancel my contract with Fed Ex so I can be lazy

Later Jason

ya whatever.

Good answer

Good answer

oh snap

.. if you do not label the outside of the box with both the common and latin name then you are breaking the Lacy Act which is a federal Law that governs all interstate shipping

Are you sure about this? I've read this regulation many times and have never found where it says you must label the OUTSIDE of the box with the contents. While its true you must have correct labelling (ie, you can't send alligator teeth across state lines labelled as sharks teeth) I've never been able to find where it says the OUTSIDE of the box must be labelled. Of course any deli cups or bags inside the box should be clearly and correctly marked. Thanks for any insight. Ken

To be honest Ken I have never read the document myself and have heard about it second hand. So in reality I may be wrong on the exact reading of the law. The thing is I have heard the same thing from 4-5 differant people but they may have all talked to each other, so who knows. If you have read the Lacy Act then you have first hand info and I would be interested to see how you read it and applied it to reptile shipping.

Thanks Jason

I have been going to a FedEx pickup point, like a postnet or mailbox ex. and tell them exactly whats in the box. It costs a little more, but I'm not lying and I can actually insure them because I'm not lying about what's in the package.
Jim

I would be interested on how you are insuring your shipments. As far as I know Fed Ex will not insure any live animals shipments.

As far as shipping to a hold box, yeah any Fed Ex store or kinkos can be used but some people just want deliveries to there house. I spoke with Fed Ex about this and they said that as long as it is a home business they are fine with delivering. The problem is we are going by individual interpretations by Fed Ex employees. Some don't care and some do. Please let me know how you are getting insurance.

Thnaks Jason

Kerby...

ive got kind of a silly question. did you have to use the same shipping option (overnight) to ship the inspection package as you would an actual herp or can you ship a cheaper option for just the inspection?
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1.1 HIGH yellow JCP
1.1 reduced pattern regius
1.0 pastel regius
1.1 hog isle boas
1.3 dumerils ground boas
0.1 sumatran short tailed python
0.1 granite burm
0.1 suri
1.3 BCI
1.1 argentine boa
0.1 ball python loving spouse

Actually, I was worried about the same thing. I shipped to them via Fedex Express Saver option. It still gets there is a couple of days, but it costs about half the price of the fedex express overnight option.
As far as I know they only inspect the box and inner packaging, not the shipping method.

So save yourself some $$ and ship the cheapest way for you I guess.......until you ship the actual snake of course..lol.

awesome...one more thing. ive been looking for a good shipper for sometime now, and this seems to be the easiest (legal) safe way to do it. i cant find the application you were speaking of. i have a fedex account already, where did you find the Packaging Services Application?
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1.1 HIGH yellow JCP
1.1 reduced pattern regius
1.0 pastel regius
1.1 hog isle boas
1.3 dumerils ground boas
0.1 sumatran short tailed python
0.1 granite burm
0.1 suri
1.3 BCI
1.1 argentine boa
0.1 ball python loving spouse

I passed my Fedex package inspection and am "almost" ready to ship harmless reptiles through fedex.

This isn't intended to be a stupid question. Have you confirmed with FedEx that "live harmless reptiles" includes harmless snakes? There used to be other shippers that allowed harmless reptiles that had a separate rule banning snakes.

Just worth checking.
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Chris Harrison
Central Texas

Yeah I told them I was only shipping snakes. No hots no problems.
Later Jason

Chrish, when I filled out the application I noted Live Harmless Snakes on it.

I also made it clear with my rep what would be in the box so there could never be any problems.