freight cost from USA and alternate shipping methods.

[Blueadventures]

Just got a quote for a small long item (nose leg for a skyranger) from the USA.

 

Quoted wrapped in bubble the steel nose leg  (About 1.2 meters about 8kg; don't have exact measurements) at $450 USD and no guarantee of delivery.

 

If boxed guarantee of delivery and $1,700 USD.   The guy getting the quote was surprised at these quotes; same for me.

 

I'm going to check if Australia post doe the better more reasonable postage pricing anymore.  The quotes seem well over the top.

 

Any current better methods or any share shipping chance is appreciated.

 

I'm tempted to gopro my mates expression when I tell him the shipping price for the part; and then add I've committed him to paying the quote bill:)

 

(The part is for a mates aircraft repair and the guy in the USA is gifting the part for free.  The part is made in Ukraine and was due for shipping this week with another 30 parts and other parts.)

 

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

Thanks 

Mike

[Kyle Communications]

Any freight from the USA is expensive...UPS or Fedex..non std box size is always expensive. But go online and see the UPS site. Sometimes it can surprise you

 

[Garfly]

3 hours ago, Blueadventures said:

Just got a quote for a small long item (nose leg for a skyranger) from the USA.

 

Quoted wrapped in bubble the steel nose leg  (About 1.2 meters about 8kg; don't have exact measurements) at $450 USD and no guarantee of delivery.

 

If boxed guarantee of delivery and $1,700 USD.   The guy getting the quote was surprised at these quotes; same for me.

 

I'm going to check if Australia post doe the better more reasonable postage pricing anymore.  The quotes seem well over the top.

 

Any current better methods or any share shipping chance is appreciated.

 

I'm tempted to gopro my mates expression when I tell him the shipping price for the part; and then add I've committed him to paying the quote bill:)

 

(The part is for a mates aircraft repair and the guy in the USA is gifting the part for free.  The part is made in Ukraine and was due for shipping this week with another 30 parts and other parts.)

 

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

Thanks 

Mike

What do you reckon a new one would cost freighted from Flylight (in the UK) Mike?

Do you expect all Skyranger parts to become scarce because of the war?

[cscotthendry]

Mike;
I'll second what Gary said about getting one from the UK. They are the main distributors since Phillipe died.

[Marty_d]

Is there anything complicated about it?  Might be cheaper to get one welded up here.

[onetrack]

Have you looked at Planet Express?

[KRviator]

That's (Sadly) believable. But in an unbelievable twist, I ordered a 'Candoo programmer' last week (it's like a car's OBD reader but for jetskis & boats) in its' 3kg briefcase-sized Pelican case from Tampa, Florida. Shipping to NSW was just $35USD and took precisely one week! I had it in the hangar only an hour or two short of 7 days since I ordered it online. I thought for sure there'd be extras or their website was wrong, but nope. Just $35 shipping and it arrived on Tuesday morning.

Then again, try ordering an A4 padded envelope of knickknacks from Spruce or Vans and you'll be in for an unpleasant surprise! To ship, for example, 125 AN365 nuts (50 -832, 50 10-32 and 25 624) from California using Fedex International Economy(the same shipping method my Candoo used) will be $236 USD! For 125 small nuts in a padded envelope! Even reducing it to just one nut it is still $236USD. WTF?!?

Edited March 9, 2022 by KRviator

[bushcaddy105]

Another freight example -

I ordered a $23 parking brake cable from India for my old Suzuki Sierra ute (actually an Indian-made Maruti under the badge). Free postage included, expected delivery about 4 weeks. It arrived here in country SA 7 days later.

Go figure!

[gareth lacey]

7 hours ago, KRviator said:

That's (Sadly) believable. But in an unbelievable twist, I ordered a 'Candoo programmer' last week (it's like a car's OBD reader but for jetskis & boats) in its' 3kg briefcase-sized Pelican case from Tampa, Florida. Shipping to NSW was just $35USD and took precisely one week! I had it in the hangar only an hour or two short of 7 days since I ordered it online. I thought for sure there'd be extras or their website was wrong, but nope. Just $35 shipping and it arrived on Tuesday morning.

Then again, try ordering an A4 padded envelope of knickknacks from Spruce or Vans and you'll be in for an unpleasant surprise! To ship, for example, 125 AN365 nuts (50 -832, 50 10-32 and 25 624) from California using Fedex International Economy(the same shipping method my Candoo used) will be $236 USD! For 125 small nuts in a padded envelope! Even reducing it to just one nut it is still $236USD. WTF?!?

Try aeroparts Beaconsfield they have most bolts and nuts and costs only Aus post costs IE 400 solid rivets cost 8.65 for post 2 day delivery

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

I often back out of a purchase when ridiculous postage costs arise. One method I once used was to put my address down as that of a mate in the USA and then ask him to repost the item. I don't like doing this because it is imposing on them and also a bit of extra work on my part.

I would hope some internet person would see a business opportunity here and provide a service but alas I don't know of such a business.

[cherk]

Then there was PostMate (iirc) US based postal service of AusPost.

Send your purchase to yourself @ PostMate for the US postal rate and they then shipped it to your address at what was pretty reasonable (at the time)rates. Sadly AusPost stopped the service last year.😒

[onetrack]

There are plenty of businesses in the U.S. (and based in Australia) that do parcel and mail transhipment/forwarding. Unfortunately, most rort you on pricing as well.

It doesn't help that the ATO is out to nail every company doing shipping to Australia, so they get their GST added to it. Even $2.00 items from China through AliExpress now have GST added.  

 

There's no such thing as cheap global parcel express any more. International flight numbers are one-third of what they used to be, and USPS has a massive inherited cost structure from years gone by, such as massive pension entitlements, due to overpaying employees.

It used to be that if USPS hired someone, they were obliged to pay them at the pay scale of their training and education levels - not what they were actually doing.

So they had mail sorters with Masters degrees getting US$100,000 a year - for just sorting mail.    Then when those people retired, they were entitled to massive pensions based on their massive pay rates.  

 

Cherk - The Aust Post transhipping organisation was called "ShopMate" and was based in Portland Oregon. AP was supposed to close ShopMate on 25th February 2022, but the date was extended to 15th March 2022, with final deliveries having to be done by 31st March 2022.

I just got a ShopMate delivery from Wisconsin (my last ever), but Shopmate was never cheap or fast, and they stuffed plenty of people around over the years.

 

I once had 2 small hydraulic motors sent from Florida to ShopMate to be transhipped to me. ShopMate complained to me the hyd motors were leaking oil, and couldn't be transhipped.

They wanted to dump them (at $600 each!!). I checked with the seller, who assured me they had no oil in them.

I organised for the motors to be sent to an engineering mate in Granite Oregon, for checking for leakage and repackaging. He reported the packages were dry, and showed no signs of leakage.

But he repackaged them anyway, and sent them back to ShopMate for transhipment to me - who transhipped them without a problem. However, all this cost me an extra US$63 - all for nothing!

[Blueadventures]

On 09/03/2022 at 4:46 PM, Garfly said:

What do you reckon a new one would cost freighted from Flylight (in the UK) Mike?

Do you expect all Skyranger parts to become scarce because of the war?

Hi Gary.  Have had the order in for about 4 months. with Flylight Airsports.  They are great and this is out of their control. There has been a quality issue with rust and welding first; and these were sent back to the manufacturer, part of reason was shortage of material of good quality (good to see QA happening)  Then material sourced.  Parts were due despatch from Aeros in Ukraine this week.  (The main issue currently)   Mounts ago I asked for build specs to have made over here but not provided to date; however will sent email request tonight and ask if I can get specs to build a nose leg.

 

The leg my mate requires is a wide one and will settle for a standard one to get flying.

 

He is visiting USA in June so will arrange postage there and he can add to his luggage.  Just means not having to miss flying to Old Station late May.

 

Thanks for all comments.

 

Regards

Mike

[440032]

22 hours ago, onetrack said:

Have you looked at Planet Express?

[cscotthendry]

5 hours ago, onetrack said:

 

 

There's no such thing as cheap global parcel express any more. International flight numbers are one-third of what they used to be, and USPS has a massive inherited cost structure from years gone by, such as massive pension entitlements, due to overpaying employees.

It used to be that if USPS hired someone, they were obliged to pay them at the pay scale of their training and education levels - not what they were actually doing.

So they had mail sorters with Masters degrees getting US$100,000 a year - for just sorting mail.    Then when those people retired, they were entitled to massive pensions based on their massive pay

Um, I have to pull you up on that little fudge. The thing that sent USPS to the wall wasn't paying PHDs to sort the mail. It was when the Republicans legislated that the USPS (unlike ANY other business or government enterprise) had to find ALL the money for the pensions for ALL their employees in perpetuity (in cash in advance) and pay it to the Fed for keeping. It amounted to billions that USPS had to find and is still trying to stump up. That caused massive cost cutting and price increases and is still going on because that law is still on the books. THAT was the Conservatives way of pricing the USPS out of business in favor of the private carriers who, BTW, donate heavily to Republicans.

[onetrack]

Ahh - but your explanation is considered to be only half true - and it originates from an AFL-CIO post on Facebook in April 2020, that has been widely disseminated as the entire truth about USPS's financial position.

 

Yes, the prepayment of USPS pensions has placed a major burden on the USPS. But it's not the only reason the USPS is bleeding red ink on a major scale. There are other reasons as well.

 

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/15/afl-cio/widespread-facebook-post-blames-2006-law-us-postal/

 

Some of the other reasons are USPS does not have a satisfactory business model, because of Federal interference in its operations. Basic postal delivery costs for the U.S. are kept flat by Federal laws.

As with Australia Post, letter delivery is a costly burden to both agencies, and it's a rapidly declining source of funds, thanks to electronic communications.

But both agencies still have Federal laws that mean they have the right to, and must deliver letters, no matter what the cost.

But that arrangement is a guaranteed money loser, particularly seeing as sending letters has dropped to very low levels.

In the case of the USPS, they are obliged to supply a daily mail service - even when there's no mail. At least AP was allowed to reduce mail delivery days.

 

Australia Post had better business opportunities given to it overall, and it has successfully ramped up parcel deliveries, and turned post offices into retail stores. They engineered agreements with LPO's that were good.

AP was even allowed to buy into Startrack, a commercial operation - something that USPS is not allowed to do.

 

But the biggest problem with USPS has been the poor decision-making by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, particularly with regard to mail sorting machines. The USPS has been removing mailboxes and mail sorting machines for years, due to declining mail volumes - but the 2020 election ramped up the mail volumes, reversing the previous trend, as people preferred to vote via mail during the time of the pandemic.

This brought about a massive outcry as the USPS buckled under the weight of postal vote mail - and DeJoys decisions were seen as a political move designed to cripple the USPS. DeJoy has no previous mail or parcel experience.

 

The end result has been major incriminations that USPS was involved in voter fraud by not processing the mailed-in votes, and of course, massive backlogs of both parcels and mail, as USPS buckled under the additional burden of missing employees as they called in sick with COVID.

The whole USPS operation is simply a mess, with excessive political and legal interference, poor management, no long-term business plan - and both Republicans and Democrats can share the blame for that.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_Postal_Service_crisis

 

Edited March 10, 2022 by onetrack

[spacesailor]

Why didn,t they do the Aussie trick and declare bankruptcy  ,.

spacesailor