None of the items you listed have a bearing on the shipper's price though,or do they?
Shipping of live fish is soooo expensive?
- Thread starter PartyHacks
- Start date
I suppose they COULD, but I don't think they would make the price be over $100.
Could but not likely since all of that stuff is usually already inside the box and sealed up by the time it is at the shipping point lol.
I have shipped fish across the country via UPS and the weight of the box didnt bringb the charge to one hundred dollars.It has been quite a few years though.
That is likely so. $25 to ship from Jersey to NYC from TUIC. Up to six small fish.
Indeed, the Wet Spot just secured new rates. For Oregon and Washington it's $29.99 all others that they ship to $39.99
The rates follow the oil/fuel, and airline trends. They go up and down DAILY. Some states (or specific area of a state) are cheaper or way more expensive to ship into. I can ship to Vegas for nearly the same as FL simply because more flights are regularly going to Vegas. Shipping to some rural section of say south western North Carolina(much closer to me) can be double the rate because of less flights. Then add in the current lack of workforce yikes! I exclusively use UPS. 90% of my shipping is Next Day Air. In the warmer months I can ship locally (NJ, parts of NY, PA, CT, MD, MA) via ground and it will still arrive the very next day. I make $0(or nearly $0) on the shipping I charge my exact discounted rate from UPS rounded to the nearest whole dollar. It is a pretty significant discount. Shipping overnight from NJ to CA on a small box is easily $60-70 usually. Bigger the box the higher it goes. Cargo rates as a whole have gone up nearly 55% since covid. It is highly unlikely that they will ever go back to what they were before 2020. Add the current cargo rates, hefty fuel surcharges, and it gets expensive quickly. I ALWAYS encourage clients (some of you reading this I have probably asked to check) to take the dims and weight of the box I am shipping and go to the UPS website, punch in the info shipping from my place to them and see what the actual rate is.
I am not relatively close to an airport so I do not really ever use Air cargo, but, even that is really no bargain. I can pack an order ship it at 7pm and have it at your doorstep by 10:30 am. No sitting in traffic, no fuel wasted by traveling to the airport, no waiting(sometimes for HOURS) for it to be available for pickup. nope roll right out of bed and go to the door in your pjs. Usually for not much more cost. Of course, when you get into the large and extra large boxes it gets pricey. My large 17x17x9 container is what most vendors use as a regular. I rarely need to use that container.
Many vendors 'overpack' the fish. Huge bags, gallons of water, crazy amounts of 02. All of it is is quite unnecessary. Anyone who has ever received my medium sized box can vouch for how many singly packed fish I can fit into it perfectly safe and (bragging here) packed significantly better than pretty much anyone else in the industry.
Gosh, don't even get me started on the 2-3 day shipping of your LIVE ANIMAL! A customer will spend $500 on fish and not want to pay to have it the very next morning. It is mind boggling. The longer it is in transit the greater the chance of something going wrong and that risk rises exponentially with each day it is traveling. Of course if you pack 6 1" fish into a 17x17 box you can use tons of water and o2 and they will be fine for days but, its costs more to ship that larger box. You can have it in 2-3 days for $70 or you can have it 12-15 hours for $100. Would you ship a dog with 2-3 days with limited to almost no tracking ability(USPS)? That's cruel to the animal and honestly obsurd lMO.
Always read the fine print. some vendors do not offer a live arrival guarantee on everything they sell and the flat shipping rate does not apply to all species they sell either. Likely because they are not used to shipping large or aggressive species. I can offer one of the best, if not the best, live arrival guarantee because of how I pack and the method I ship. I can count on 1 hand how many doa I've had this year and if someone reading this was one of them how did it get handled? Did you pay anything to have a replacement sent? No other vendor pays for the reshipping. none. they may send you the replacement fish for free but not the shipping.
I've battled with UPS for than more 9 months to get flat shipping rates similar to the WS. My own rep cannot understand how they get that rate. I ship ALOT (10 boxes a day x 5 days a week) for a private seller with no retail store and I still did not qualify for that rate. I can only assume they make up the difference on the walk-in retail store side or because they ship dry goods or plants that they make out on the shipping of those which are typically cheaper/lighter to ship.
I shopped FedEx while battling with UPS and they couldn't even come close to the discount UPS provides me. Rate are the rates. It used to be cheap to ship. It is no longer that way. Less than 20 years ago fuel was literally under $1.00 per gallon.... prices go up.
if I could ship for less I would be ecstatic. Less shipping costs means more fish being sold. I sell fish, not shipping, so I would certainly like it that way.
I am not relatively close to an airport so I do not really ever use Air cargo, but, even that is really no bargain. I can pack an order ship it at 7pm and have it at your doorstep by 10:30 am. No sitting in traffic, no fuel wasted by traveling to the airport, no waiting(sometimes for HOURS) for it to be available for pickup. nope roll right out of bed and go to the door in your pjs. Usually for not much more cost. Of course, when you get into the large and extra large boxes it gets pricey. My large 17x17x9 container is what most vendors use as a regular. I rarely need to use that container.
Many vendors 'overpack' the fish. Huge bags, gallons of water, crazy amounts of 02. All of it is is quite unnecessary. Anyone who has ever received my medium sized box can vouch for how many singly packed fish I can fit into it perfectly safe and (bragging here) packed significantly better than pretty much anyone else in the industry.
Gosh, don't even get me started on the 2-3 day shipping of your LIVE ANIMAL! A customer will spend $500 on fish and not want to pay to have it the very next morning. It is mind boggling. The longer it is in transit the greater the chance of something going wrong and that risk rises exponentially with each day it is traveling. Of course if you pack 6 1" fish into a 17x17 box you can use tons of water and o2 and they will be fine for days but, its costs more to ship that larger box. You can have it in 2-3 days for $70 or you can have it 12-15 hours for $100. Would you ship a dog with 2-3 days with limited to almost no tracking ability(USPS)? That's cruel to the animal and honestly obsurd lMO.
Always read the fine print. some vendors do not offer a live arrival guarantee on everything they sell and the flat shipping rate does not apply to all species they sell either. Likely because they are not used to shipping large or aggressive species. I can offer one of the best, if not the best, live arrival guarantee because of how I pack and the method I ship. I can count on 1 hand how many doa I've had this year and if someone reading this was one of them how did it get handled? Did you pay anything to have a replacement sent? No other vendor pays for the reshipping. none. they may send you the replacement fish for free but not the shipping.
I've battled with UPS for than more 9 months to get flat shipping rates similar to the WS. My own rep cannot understand how they get that rate. I ship ALOT (10 boxes a day x 5 days a week) for a private seller with no retail store and I still did not qualify for that rate. I can only assume they make up the difference on the walk-in retail store side or because they ship dry goods or plants that they make out on the shipping of those which are typically cheaper/lighter to ship.
I shopped FedEx while battling with UPS and they couldn't even come close to the discount UPS provides me. Rate are the rates. It used to be cheap to ship. It is no longer that way. Less than 20 years ago fuel was literally under $1.00 per gallon.... prices go up.
if I could ship for less I would be ecstatic. Less shipping costs means more fish being sold. I sell fish, not shipping, so I would certainly like it that way.
