looks like mike has been busy

Well, busy, yes...but this one found me, actually. Vintage Display name "1984" (Robyn M) recently started a new company which offers discount shipping to people who are shipping bikes and bike parts (among other things).

The discount you will realize is up to 30% off of what you'd normally get if you just went to UPS.com and entered the order.

We're going to have him as a guest on our next Podcast, talking about the service, and answering your questions...so if you have any shipping-related questions, ask here, and we'll answer them on the program. If you have specific questions on how his service works, click on the button at right or banner when you see it up top and check out the site.

Thanks, Robyn, for choosing Vintage, BMXNOW, BMXBID and BMXnews as ad outlets to get your company rolling!

Best,

M

i just typed in a calculation of a bicycle going from my home in Rhode Island to another home in California with the correct dimensions

Did the same calculation with Federal Express

Your charge - $112.96

Federal Express Charge - $40.46


Is there a mistake?

Hey Kerry, maybe you didn't include dimensions for the FedEx quote?

I just quoted a typical MTB box, 50" x 28" x 8", weighing 28 lbs. going from Rhode Island zip 02807 to Cali zip 91001.

If you send it Next Day Air, which is not likely, UPS is $263, FedEx is $263, ShipYourBicycles.com is $184.

Send it Ground, which is much more typical, UPS is $66, FedEx is $60, ShipYourBicycles.com is $52.

You can book your package at our site, print the prepaid label at our site, attached the label to the package and either drop it off at any UPS counter (including Office Depot and Staples) or even a business that has a daily pickup or delivery (like a bike shop, hardware store, grocery store, leaving it for their regular driver) or when you are booking it, schedule a pickup from your home or office.

The rates are hard coded on the site- NDA is always set at 30% off the UPS rate, and the Ground discount varies, but it is never less than 20%.

Saving $14 over the UPS rate on that box isn't bad at all, and it is super easy to book it at your computer. Of course, a complete BMX bike, packed up and ready to go, would be a smaller box, and cheaper still : )

i did it again except this time it is 30 cents cheaper your way than last time but still $80+ more expensive. Hmm...it didnt ask me any special questions or settings. Simply diameter, weight and from and to zip codes.



yes, and both quotes were ground....$230+ for next day

Maybe your auto fill is adding an extra digit in there somewhere?

I just did another quote, came out the same, well, my same : )

Do me a favor, just send me your specs that you are using to quote. I just used a couple of random zip codes in RI and CA.

I GOTTA solve this conundrum here for you. In three weeks of being live at AllProShipping.com, we have shipped over 700 packages, and saved those customers over $14,000 in shipping (our initial shipping market is predominantly Next Day Air). There must be a simple explanation as to why you are getting a weird quote, please help me find it, send me the details that you are using so I can punch them in myself.

I would really appreciate it!

sent you the pm back to try to solve this...i can tell you this much, great customer service skills =)

Can't let there be unsolved questions on our first live day at Vintage!

Well, no unsolved questions on our 1000th day either : )

From your PM:

"ok, i did "instant shipping quote" 60x8x36" 44#'s from 02888 to 90210"

Holy giant box Jones! That box is 5 ft by 3 ft, are you shipping a Penny Farthing? : )

You are into the Oversize box "3" category!

With that giant box, you will have to enter the dimensions at FedEx to get the accurate FedEx quote. It may weigh in at 44lbs, but the dimensional weight, which is HxWxL, divided by 194, is 90lbs. That is what UPS or FedEx will charge you. Whenever the dim weight is higher than actual weight, you get charged the higher of the two. At this box size, both FedEx and UPS will charge you a super premium regardless.

The UPS charge on that box is $150, the FedEx charge is $120, the SYB charge is $112.

But again, that is a big giant box, not typical at all. But still, we can save you money on the shipping, over both FedEx and UPS. Our site prints you out a UPS prepaid label, UPS is indeed doing the shipping, we just give you a stronger rate.

Take a more typical BMX complete bike box, 44x24x7, 30 pounds of chromo love. Same zip codes, going Ground, all the way across the country, UPS charges $51, FedEx $45, ShipYourBicycles.com charges $39.

I knew there was a mystery in there somewhere, just needed the details to find it. When you do your FedEx quote comparison, you have to use "detailed quote" so you can enter the dimensions, that will make the FedEx quote accurate and give you the right comparison : )

When you get a quote on our site, we give you the UPS rate, the SYB rate, and the difference between them, you savings.

No registration is required to get a quote, just box info and zip codes!

mine comes in correctly thru fedex with those dimensions and I do have an account with them total cost is $87.40

You are comparing our public rate with your business account? That is not fair : )

We offer savings off of the public rate on our site, what you would pay at the UPS/FedEx counter.

With a business account, you are getting a discount based on the volume you are shipping, the more you ship, the better the discount gets.

So you are getting a better rate than a "regular dude" shipping at FedEx Kinkos or the UPS Store/UPS Counter/Office Depot/Staples.

But we have a Business Client division just calling your name : )

We offer businesses and large shippers even deeper discounts based on the volume they bring to the table. I have a business client that ships $300,000 a year, that is his shipping bill. With the discount we offer him, we save him tens of thousands of dollars a year in shipping. I am sure we can save you money on your shipping, contact me off the site and I would be glad to send you a rate packet to look over.

Our AllProShipping sites are targeted to the Peer to Peer hobbyist that pays counter rate at a walk in shipping counter like the UPS Store or FedEx Kinkos. We offer a great discount over those options, and we offer terrific service.

We have a site for live reptile shipping, ShipYourReptiles.com, next up is ShipYourAquatics.com, as well as ShipYourRC.com, and of course, my personal fave, ShipYourBicycles.com.

But if you are already doing good volume, and getting a good discount, give me a chance to make it better, I GUARANTEE we can : )

Why is USPS not considered in any calculations? Generally, I have found them the cheapest.

USPS (at least in our experience here at my shop) isn't so great when it comes to big boxes. By big, I mean bike size. FedEX and UPS has destroyed them in the past when it comes to rates on bikes, since USPS uses balloon rates for oversized boxes.

To say nothing of the fact that, with USPS, the tracking numbers you get are not true tracking numbers. They will tell you whether or not a package has been delivered (which is, in itself, not always very reliable), but will not tell you where, in the process the package is. Also, in many cities (Chicago, in particular) the personnel of the USPS care about as much for your mail as the garbage man cares for what's inside your dumpster...and I am not kidding.


M

Im lucky to work for a decent sized company that has Fedex and Ups always fighting for the contract. Out of respect to our newest supporter, I wont say what I can ship a whole cruiser cross country for, but it would make you spit coffee at your screen! Fedex and Ups make a killin off us.

Absolutely true, Mike. The number (especially on Priority stuff) typically will tell you nothing until after a package has been delivered.

At first I was confused, since ShipYourBicyles doesn't actually ship your bicycle. But now I think I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong here. Basically, what SYB does (in essence) is allow low-volume or one-time shippers to use SYB's UPS account number, which, since it's a high-volume account, qualifies for a fairly significant shipping discount. The end-user is still doing all the packing and bringing the box to UPS, but by piggybacking onto SYB's account, he can save $10+ off of the cost of normal UPS shipping, with no extra effort. Pretty cool concept, actually.

Yep Dave, you are correct. It is YOU that ships your bicycle, parts, books, perishables, auction items, whatever you need, we provide you with an online interface to get it booked and paid for, at a signficant savings. You print your label at your computer, drop off your package, and then go spend your savings on your wife.

If you don't have a wife, then you apply your savings for your future wife, you know, the dowry and all. Or husband, as the case may be. Or bikes, in the case of this particular community : )

For our shippers doing Next Day Air shipments, they are seeing savings of $35 per package, on average. Ground savings are fewer dollars, as the overall rate is lower, but the discount is never less than 20%.

We booked our first frameset shipment, UPS Ground. Egggggsalent!

I used this service yesterday for a complete cruiser. Very Impressed with how easy and reasonable it was.

I got one for you.

Shipping 2 20" and 1 24" BMX race bikes from 90503 in Torrance, Ca to Adelaide, Australia.
I guess they would fit in typical BMX cardboard boxes and maybe I can get 2 in a slightly bigger box and put the cruiser in it's own, I'm open to suggestions.
Also, I'd like to ship the back home. I could even take them as check on luggage and then only ship them home. I heard this may be really expensive and not quite worth it.

Andy

We only do domestic shipping at this time, sorry : )

Freight shipping and export shipping are options we are looking at for down the line, but the export aspect might be a year or so down that line : )