Freight Woes & a Possible Solution (I hope!)

So… it’s that time of year again!

It’s time to figure out a way to get all of our freight to Ontario, California for the Road to California Quilter’s Showcase!

Actually… I started working on getting our freight to California just before Thanksgiving, because here’s the deal… whether we’re shipping to Houston or to Ontario, the process of getting our freight to and from one of our shows has always been stressful and expensive. You might recall that several years ago we started driving ourselves to the Houston shows due primarily to the incredible cost of not only shipping our freight, but due ALSO to the HIGH storage & cartage fees once our shipment arrived there.

But since driving coast-to-coast in the middle of the winter just isn’t in the cards for us, we’ve continued to use a freight carrier to get our supplies to the Road2Ca show. But here’s the deal… this has also been EXPENSIVE and annoyingly stressful & frustrating due primarily to the ineptness of UPS! Let’s face it, being a no-show for a scheduled pickups or delivering freight 5 days ahead of the scheduled time is NOT endearing, especially when doing so results in penalty fees for US (to the tune of $150 per DAY)! Last year’s fees alone resulted in over $600 in penalty fees due entirely to UPS not being able/willing to follow instructions! Needless to say, something HAD to change!

Enter the FedEx flat-rate Freight Box!

I was complaining about this situation to a fellow vendor at Quilt Market and she recommended thank Kathleen) that we check out the FedEx flat-rate freight boxes so I did, and what I found out was actually almost too good to be true! The boxes are free, come in two sizes and you can ship as much as you can cram into the box (almost irregardless of weight) for get this…. 44+% of what we’re accustomed to paying!

Now don’t get me wrong. Dealing with FedEx has NOT been all rainbows & roses. For one thing, getting a freight account set up at FedEx has been a slow & confusing process mostly because it’s SO difficult to get set up with a sales representative, due primarily to the elaborate phone labyrinth one must first navigate. Long, LONG story short, the potential for savings will hopefully make all the aggravation worth it & now that I’m FINALLY hooked up with a fantastic sales rep, I’m looking forward with optimism to a much improved experience for this Road2Ca show! And as you can see below, we can easily fit ALL of our supplies & products into the large freight box… almost like it was made for US!

So there you have it!

But do stay tuned! I’ll update you in a future post (after the show) about how the whole procedure worked out for us. I hope I’ll be a satisfied customer! And remember, we love reading your comments and answering your questions too, so please feel free to leave either or both in the space provided below.

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