the US mail has been cheaper - hence the staying with. UPS is more
expensive, but does a better job -- except for large heavy things.

There is a major hub here and I know many that work there (from an archery
club). They have many times talked about just kicking things from top level
to the bottom floor if something is too heavy to lift to the conveyor belt.
Of course, I'd think they'd only try that once or twice w\ith a package
marked Live Bees.  From personal experience, my mother received a pair of
heavy speakers UPS - they had driven a forklift into them and bashed the
outsides, putting a fork completely through one of the speakers (box and
all, and out the other side. The delivery person then attempted to tell her
she had to take delivery and work out any claims with the original sender
(not true by the way, luckily she refused the delivery). The damaged
delivery rate is part of their evaluation as drivers, so they don't want to
let you inspect damaged goods in some areas, hoping you want something bad
enough to sign even though the package is obviously damaged or opened, or
will be bullied into thinking you have to get with original sender on the
problem.  Of course, as a sender, once the package is signed for, you lose
the insurance paid for on the package, as it is now out of UPS's hands. One
sporting goods store has to have everything sent in unmarked boxes, as he
has had several items lifted over the years (mostly archery equipment, but
it is worth thousands all together).

Lest you think I am down on UPS -- we receive items from them several times
a week and have seldom had a problem, even with large amounts of clearly
marked computer equipment. And our driver always lets us inspect if there
appears to be damage on the outside (most stuff is so well padded, we
haven't had any problems with internal damage).  Fedex and Airborne also
make many stops at the office, ditto on their records here. Although I
prefer Fedex for anything of value, they seem to take a little better care
of the boxes, plus don't insist on re-opening and inspecting everything you
take down to the delivery point. Why do they think I spent the time to
properly package and seal it up in the first place?

One other reason some places like to use the US Mail -- you can send just
about anything, of any size, from a "rural" office. Those PO's in cities
have many rules - no live stuff, nothing over a certain size, etc... Those
rules do not exist at the PO's designated as rural.  I would think that so
long as you don't mind taking your chances, you will still be able to ship
bees and chickens by the US Mail -- just not overnight airborne.

Just FYI, the announcement of the Fedex deal is at
http://www.usps.gov/news/2001/press/pr01_059.htm. You will note they are
announcing that Fedex will have drop boxes in SOME PO's. And they will use
shared transport in some areas (to cut down on freight costs). There is no
actual mention that types of delivery items will be cut. There is also no
mention of that in the various publications concerning shipping bees. I have
sent a request to the USPS for clarification, but so far there doesn't seem
to be any cause for concern. Two others on another list have called local
postmasters and been told there are no changes in bee shipping requirements.

-Karen Oland

-----Original Message-----
From: James Fischer

I agree that UPS does a better job than the US Mail, and is
worth the small difference in cost.  Strange that so many bee
breeders stayed with the US Mail...