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[nafex] Re: Plant shipping costs
I appreciate knowing more about how costs work for the nursery trade
and its unfortunate that the nursery trade is being squeezed.
Unfortunately, this leaves me the "avid" gardener consumer in
somewhat of a bind. I found ordering mail-order a few years ago was
relatively inexpensive, generally high-quality, and allowed me to get
varieties or forms of plants I wouldn't otherwise have been able to
get. And when I bought my house a 2+ years ago, and in the first
year did a great "planting" out (over $600 in nursery plants alone)
the shipping costs were a small portion. But now that I want to "fill-
in" or try something new I'd pay $50 for a single tree. I can get
many things by scion exchange, but I'm "locked-out" of the newer
patented varieties.
Most local retail nurseries seem to cater to a very low common
denominator. And interesting varietal selection is almost nil.
There is one mail-order/retail nursery an hour away that does carry
some interesting varieties of apples and peaches, but not things like
pluots.
Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6
--- In nafex@egroups.com, john bunker <jbunker@p...> wrote:
> Some time ago there were a number of emails posted discussing
shipping
> charges of nursery stock. There was some suggestion that shipping
and
> handling charges were excessive and may be used as a way of simply
> making more money for the nurseries.
>
> As someone who owns (cooperatively with a number of other people)
a
> mail-order nursery, I thought I might attempt to shed a little
light on
> the problems of shipping trees and why it might seem so expensive.
>
> What you may not know is that it is hugely expensive to ship trees
by
> UPS. If it were simply a matter of weight, it would be pretty
straight
> forward, like most other products you might receive via mail-order.
But
> this is not the case. UPS in essense does not want our business.
They
> want to send out small-medium sized regularly-shaped packages that
are
> easy to process at the shipping centers, fit easily in their trucks
and
> are are easy for the delivery men to carry.
>
> What this means for nursery owners:
>
> Bags v Boxes. We used to ship our trees in big bags, or wrapped in
brown
> paper. The bags/paper are inexpensive and easy to use. As of
several
> years ago, UPS now adds a surcharge of $5.00 per package if the
package
> is not a box. That alone forces nurseries to buy boxes or pay an
> additional $5 for every order. We were paying about $1.00 per bag.
Now
> we pay $2.50-5.00 per box depending on size.
>
> Addtional handling. UPS adds a $5.00 surcharge for every package
over
> 60" in length. That includes virtually any order we might send.
>
> Residential v Commericial destination. UPS adds another $1.00
surcharge
> for any package sent to a "residential" address. That's most
customers,
> since it's those folk who tend to buy nursery stock.
>
> Oversize 1. If the combined lengths and widths (ie "girth") of a
> package is more than 84" and less than 108" and less than 30lbs,
then
> the package is charged at 30 lbs, regardless of weight. This means
that
> for most nurseries, even very light packages of one or two tree are
> routinely being charged the 30 lb rate.
>
> Oversize 2. If the combined lengths and widths (ie "girth") of a
> package is greater than 108" and less than 70 lbs, then the package
is
> charged at 70 lbs, regardless of weight. This means that for most
> nurseries, larger boxes -even those that are not heavy- are charged
at
> the 70 lb rate.
>
> Combining the automatic bump up to higher rates with the forced
expense
> of using boxes and the unavoidable surcharges of $5.00-6.00 per
pacakge,
> you might be able to see why it looks as though you're being ripped
off
> when you buy a tree. It is quite possible that if you buy one
tree, the
> actual costs of the packaging combined with the shipping costs and
> surcharges might easily exceed the cost of the tree itself, not
even
> including anything for the labor of processing the order and
packing it
> up.
>
> And, not only that, but these charges go up and up every year. As I
> said, it appears that UPS is doing a lot to discourage nursery
business.
>
> But, even so, why not just figure each person's shipping charges
on an
> individual basis and charge them accordingly? It sounds equitable,
but
> to do this for evey customer, with all the variables, would add
even
> more expense to every order. Someone has to figure this out, and
do the
> paperwork involved in the billing. And, it's incredibly
complicated. We
> do everything we can to give our customers a simple -and fair- way
of
> figuring charges while at the same time not overcharging them. In
the
> process, we know some customers get charged slightly more than the
> actual shipping expense and some, less. However, every year we
analyse
> our figures and it always comes out about even. We're not making
money
> on shipping trees to our customers, and we're trying to be fair.
>
> Perhaps this just sounds like a rationale for gouging customers
with
> excessive shipping/handling charges. If so, so be it. Perhaps
there
> are some companies who engage in such pratices. But my guess is
that
> not many companies are getting rich on shipping. It's particularly
> complicated and expensive for anyone who ships trees. I know of at
> least two mail-order nurseries who called it quits this year. This
is
> not an easy business.
>
> Sorry to be so long-winded, but perhaps this might help in the
> discussion.
>
> John Bunker, Coordinator, Fedco Trees Box 520 Waterville Me 04903
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