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I have to send a framed and glazed painting to someone. This is always worrying which is why I tend to over package.
Glass protected by special long tube version of bubble wrap.
Then it is taped to a piece of 5mm hardboard that extends beyond the edges of the frame in all directions.
Then it is completely wrapped in two layers of bubblewrap.
Then it is encased in a strong cardboard box with Gorilla tap on the edges.
It is then labelled FRAGILE in red twice on each side of the parcel.
It arrives at the customer with the box in tact but inside the frame has been hit so hard on the side that it has actually splintered the wood, not just broken the glass but actually cracked the wooden frame!
I wish you the very best of luck in dealing with getting some recompense.
Top tip for the road, never send anything by ParcelFarce.
That could easily have happened with any courier I'm afraid.
It's shit, but don't send anything you care about that's even remotely fragile by courier, no matter what you write on it.
I sent an architects parallel motion drawing board to someone once.
The legs arrived, but the actual board never did.
They were one unit when it left and very well packaged.
I did try to get Fedex but they only accept international packages from private individuals. I tried to argue that sending it from the nation of England to the nation of Scotland was international but I guess they consider it North Englandshire.
I was going to use UPS but a couple of people on the art forum said they were worse than Parcelfarce. Neither of these ever pay out for damage whatever happens it appears.
If anyone has a suggestion other than driving from Southampton to north englandshire to deliver I would appreciate it. I have offered the customer a refund for the cost of the frame and am just thankful the painting itself wasn't damaged.
I feel your pain. I’m presently staring at a commission that’s a 1.5 metre print on to aluminium plate. I’ve somehow got to get it to Surrey. Under normal circumstances I’d drive it and use it as an excuse to go and see my sister in that there London, but obviously that’s a non-starter at the moment.
I’m having palpitations about entrusting it to a courier to get it there as I reckon that no matter how well I package it, the chances of it arriving undamaged are slim to non-existent
And it’s not just parcelfarce. They’re all terrible. And you find out that the additional insurance you take out isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on if you try and claim for damage
Do you think there is a market for couriers who don't kick shit out of whatever they are given?
I could launch one and be a disrupter in the market place. I can see the slogan "Send your treasures with WorldClassAccident - what's the worse that could happen?"
Conversely of all the showers of shite out there when it comes to parcel couriers I actually find PF the best and if I’m sending anything of any particular value it is they I’ll use.
[i]onversely of all the showers of shite out there when it comes to parcel couriers I actually find PF the best and if I’m sending anything of any particular value it is they I’ll use.[/i]
It was someone on the Art forum saying similar that led me to use them. I guess it is all just pot luck.
If anyone does find a safe courier then please let me know. The paintings are less than £300 so it is not viable to use the specialist art movers and normally I deliver paintings or they are collected in person. The previous postings have been okay with PF but very slow at approximately 1 week for express 24 hour deliveries but there were comments about the packaging looking a bit battered which is why I looked for something different initially.
Binners - you could deffo drive it there it's your work and you need to continue it for food and heating.
do bicycle transport companies take more care of the goods? they seem to specialise in one-off so although it's a different product I'm sure they wouldn't mind the trade
I know you shouldn't have to but it might be worth making a protective hardboard/OSB shell for the whole painting.
I had a glass splash back sent by courier at the end of last year and it came wrapped in bubble wrap, corners covered in plastic protectors and then 2 x 3mm sheets of OSB screwed to wooden batterns all the way around. The void between the wooden outside and the glass was stuffed with bubble wrap. It looked like it would have survived just about anything.
I had a picture delivered recently that had a separate cardboard box edging inside the main box to protect the frame - ie a long narrow cardboard box along all four edges. Acts like a crumple zone. It arrived intact despite squishes, damp cardboard (weather had been terrible) and a few tears to the outer box.
Plan for the worst, hope for the best.
Yeah - I thought that the oversized hardboard on one side would protect the frame from any impacts and make it idiot proof. I underestimated the power of the idiot
I received a tall chipboard flat pack kitchen larder unit the other week.
Snapped.
Do you think there is a market for couriers who don’t kick shit out of whatever they are given?
No-one would pay what it costs to do, the money isade in the volume only for couriers. One of my old duties in my old job was to collect the master copies (secure boxes full of data cassettes and hard drives) of transactions for a major bank from all over the south west then deliver them to Peterborough, the cost of one man in a small van doing it was £900 a day! I know you can get the cost down by doing multiple deliveries but the market will be pretty small so jobs could be all over the place. Seeing as a parcel with the big players can easily cost £40-50 then the charge could be over £100 for an item like a glazed artwork. Customers just won't pay it.
Send your treasures with WorldClassAccident
You might want to rebrand your username...
Binners – you could deffo drive it there it’s your work and you need to continue it for food and heating.
+1 You can still travel for work if needed.
OP - Have you tried taxi companies including Uber etc. or 'man & van' type operations? Probably prohibitively expensive these days but I knew people years back now who used Addison Lee for this type of thing. A lot of the man & van people can be pretty cheap and don't really care if they are transporting a van load or one item.
I did try to get Fedex but they only accept international packages from private individuals.
I think one of the Parcel2Go type "brokers" provide a solution to this. Of course then you have an extra layer of argument when it goes wrong - but in my experience if you insure it with them they will pay out up to their insurance limit.
I tried to argue that sending it from the nation of England to the nation of Scotland was international but I guess they consider it North Englandshire.
You are just a bit premature!
I was going to use UPS but a couple of people on the art forum said they were worse than Parcelfarce. Neither of these ever pay out for damage whatever happens it appears.
I've never been shipping art - but in my experience, they are all as bad as each other - and what do we expect when for not much money we want a box moved 400+ miles via multiple hubs / touchpoints etc, delivered the next day often with a specific time slot, signed for and traceable.
There are of course people who will do fragile shipments... for a price. All you can do is look at what the big companies are doing to protect frames (even empty frames) they ship out.
Anything valuable - might be worth checking out Shiply for a door-to-door service - I'm not that familar with the ins and outs of it but it seems like there are chaps who will build a route of collections and deliveries moving across the country. You might have to wait to fit into their schedule but in the past I've shipped expensive furniture, a very delicate JDM car body kit, an adult trike etc. It doesn't get to spend the night in a depot somewhere, there's no sorting office or transfers, the chaps pick it up, strap it down and cover it with blankets, and then it's there until it's delivered from the same van.
Appreciate it might not be cost effective but I've always been nicely surprised by how cheap it can be...
If you've ever worked at the post at christmas and chucked parcels into a york you would be surprised that any parcels got through unscathed. As parcels may be sorted several times from receipt, at each sort parcels are thrown several feet into a york - which is basically a large sack hanging in a wheeled frame. When they get fullish you can either ram the parcels down , shake the bag or just as usual kick the bag to settle the contents. You can hear the badly packed items break when they hit the sides of the metal cage or bounce off and hit the floor, if your aim is not 100% accurate especially as maybe throwing from a distance of 6 to 12ft. If i ever send anything either my royal mail, parcelforce or courier I go mental over the packing because I've seen how they are treated and it involves a lot of throwing.
Never had a problem with PF either sending or receiving, & I mostly (recently) have been sending model aircraft kits.
Hermes on the other hand. Anything could end up anywhere, in anyone's garden, In YO51.
Have a look at palletising it, can be worth it sometimes
Never mark things as Fragile. In the tongue of the ancient courier people it means throw
I did some agency work for parcel force on night shifts, terrible pay, crappy conditions, long shifts some proper shifty coworkers, regular spliff breaks round the back etc
Lorries roll up rammed to the roof with parcels
A conveyor belt is wheeled up & parcels are loaded on at a fair rate and I had to stand at the bottom & throw them into the giant hoppers with each post code on (if it misses the hopper it falls down the back never to be seen again).
I've seen ones marked fragile punted the length of the warehouse
I'm amazed any parcel makes it in one piece tbh
the big hoppers are called yorks. see my post above.