I know this has been disscussed here before but I could not find the thread
I am shipping 2 boxes, one contains cannondale bike without the wheels, it is a big box, probably weighs 30 lbs. The smaller is still a bike box but it is smaller, contains 4 wheels, and some Misc parts, weighs probably 25 lbs. They charged me $125 to ship from basically St. Louis to Atlanta. Does this sound reasonable? It was $80 for the weight and the rest was for the oversized boxes. If this is inline OK, but I thought someone had said it should be cheaper than that. Anybody with experience in shipping?
Thanks, MIke
Just shipped my bike (in an ironcase)DHL from Phoenix to St Joseph Michigan for Steelhead for $46.47 including $2000 in insurance. My suggestion is to ship it fom a main DHL store like Office Max. If you go to those small stores in the strip malls (poste net, mails boxes, etc) they charge a huge markup - they wanted $125 to ship the item back to Phoenix - so I went back to Office Max and shipped it again for 46.47…
You can get the DHL rates and sotre locations from their website…
Shipping oversized packages, dimensional weight is the figure they charge you by. That is unless the actual weight is more, which in the case of a bike box, wouldn’t be the case. So, just go to the UPS website and price out the shipment. My business ships large boxes with bodyboards in them every day and back in January, UPS started a new rate structure (Fedex too) where packages over 3 cubic feet are all charged dimensional weight, and that fee increased dramatically over the prior rate structure where there were oversize 1, oversize 2 and oversize 3 packages. So, in short, yes, that rate sounds right.
UPS just picked up my bike from work today. It’s going from MN to CA, insured for $1500 it was $45. The box weighed about 30 lbs but because of the size they billed me for 65lbs. I priced sending the box with my wheels seperately and it was $35 for the extra package. I know I should have been able to get the wheels in the bike box but I just was not comfortable with how it packed. So I am planning to take the wheels as checked baggage (for free I’m presuming). I was able to use my work account to get a regular pick up but the quote from the ups website was the same but I needed to drop it off at a UPS location (not a UPS store). I would not use a UPS store as they mark up the regular rate that you could get from their website. Another note, I preprinted my return label here from work and packed it with the bike so that I already have it set up for coming home, all I have to do is drop it off at a UPS location in CA.
So many things can affect price with UPS, like value, size to weight ratio, residential vs. business delivery, special pick up vs. drop off, etc… The price you are paying seems on the high end of the range but not too much for essentially two bike boxes. I have heard of people using Mail Box etc… type stores and paying more than that for one box.
Thanks for the replies, man I sold this old bike of mine on E-bay and thought I had put enough in for the cost of shipping and packageing. I thought I did great when it sold for what it did, well at least I cleaned out some room in my house and did not lose money on the deal, but I did not make as much as I thought I would. Oh well live and learn. Next time it looks like I will charge more for shipping and go with DHL.
Mike
Go to Fedex.com, ups.com and DHL.com and you can find out yourself by entering the dimensions, weight, and destination.
I’ve found FedEx Ground (2-3 days in the US) and DHL to be the same price until you add insurance which is quite a bit more with DHL… and UPS is much more expensive shipping and insurance-wise.