WTF So I just dick'd my butt

I just shipped 450 pounds of dildos into Amazon for $120. That's $0.27/pound. LTL would have been even cheaper. How the fuck do these shipping companies actually make money?
Sorry fly - I typed the shit below because I didn't process correctly. You were pondering the difference between a UPS turd truck and why UPS Freight can be so different. Yeah, I ordered $4k of glass last year, then realized I pulled the trigger before including a few items for the WIFE in the online process. The friendly voice on the phone was like" no problem - and by the way, Freight will save you $450." I was already committed to the money spent - more shopping, please. :lol:

[The shit below]
I wondered the same thing at the last job since I had to setup shipping and APIs all that for 4 different shippers plus USPS. Mindblowing differences between "Negotiated rate" and regular customer rate. I'm thinking the consumer counter and fancy services are the only real money on the table for the shippers to fight over. Ironically, like 90% of the Fedex, UPS and DHL drop off locations are really just franchised stores that those particular trucks come/go to.🤔


FLip-side - by charging say a flat rate of $8 but shipping by first-class package($3.50 with tracking?), guys like us can pump $5 bucks into the sale. Even more if you have the volume to justify hooking up with SHipStation or similar for the swweet negotiated rates. I love my small products where the profit on the product is like $1-2, but I ship in an envelope with a stamp. My flat rate shipping is $8 - rarely do I hear a peep about it. I use ebay the same way - I'm using them to get my foot in the door with my watch customers. No profit needed on the item, crush any erstwhile competitor's nutz. :lol:
 
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Everything but last mile shipping must be razor sharp margins. I mean, I can have 3-4 tons of merch shipped from China by boat for probably less than $600. None of it makes sense.
 
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Everything but last mile shipping must be razor sharp margins. I mean, I can have 3-4 tons of merch shipped from China by boat for probably less than $600. None of it makes sense.
Bulk shipping, it adds up I think. I remember that stupid shipping wars TV show awhile back. It made sense for those private haulers to take on side jobs next to their big hauls to add extra money (I think those side jobs is where they made good profit).
 
Everything but last mile shipping must be razor sharp margins. I mean, I can have 3-4 tons of merch shipped from China by boat for probably less than $600. None of it makes sense.
Just think - if you were shipping 160 lbs or more to someone domestically, you could cut the shipping $100 by going freight. On free-standing sites you(fine, me) set the flat rate shipping to not show on checkout until they hit weight, then it displays "if you select freight shipping you can now throw another $100 of merch in the cart for free". Sell them the freight at ground rate - none of their business that it's cheaper. To be fair :) . . you are giving(selling) them more dildos.

GIF by Identity


20' shipping container, 7-8 tons. $3200 Michigan to France. Yeah, really good deals if you can use the space.
 
Everything but last mile shipping must be razor sharp margins. I mean, I can have 3-4 tons of merch shipped from China by boat for probably less than $600. None of it makes sense.
Someone explained it to me that the Chinese want our American goods so much, they are willing to send containers at almost no cost, so they are available to be rotated and sent back for THEIR benefit. It's an insane system - using the "vin" that's painted on the containers, almost every viable container in the world, owned by anyone, sitting any fucking where, is supposed to be locatable. idk, I thought they were just shitboxes of steel and plywood.
 
Someone explained it to me that the Chinese want our American goods so much, they are willing to send containers at almost no cost, so they are available to be rotated and sent back for THEIR benefit. It's an insane system - using the "vin" that's painted on the containers, almost every viable container in the world, owned by anyone, sitting any fucking where, is supposed to be locatable. idk, I thought they were just shitboxes of steel and plywood.
I sincerely doubt we are sending them *anywhere* near the volume they send us, which puts that theory right on its head.
 
I sincerely doubt we are sending them *anywhere* near the volume they send us, which puts that theory right on its head.
It's not about the volume, it's about the shortage of shipping containers moving various directions. Seriously, the Wall Street journal has ran articles on it at times. A few times when I was shipping bikes to EU we had to wait for one to be available, despite there being thousands of them stacked up in Detroit 25 miles away? Da fug!
It's a super tight market. Like I told ex'ange - really hard to find a slightly shit container for $800. It doesn't exist. But you can get a decent refurbished one for $1600+. It's a mob thing I swear to dog.

And no, you turned it backwards imo - because I agree we don't send them as much. That is a big part of their problem - they don't want to have to keep making containers, it's cheaper to just have them shipped there. Even empty.
 
It's not about the volume, it's about the shortage of shipping containers moving various directions. Seriously, the Wall Street journal has ran articles on it at times. A few times when I was shipping bikes to EU we had to wait for one to be available, despite there being thousands of them stacked up in Detroit 25 miles away? Da fug!
It's a super tight market. Like I told ex'ange - really hard to find a slightly shit container for $800. It doesn't exist. But you can get a decent refurbished one for $1600+. It's a mob thing I swear to dog.

And no, you turned it backwards imo - because I agree we don't send them as much. That is a big part of their problem - they don't want to have to keep making containers, it's cheaper to just have them shipped there. Even empty.
The argument of "demand for American goods" things still makes no sense. There is an insane inequity between what China sends here, and what we send there. So if the Chinese were really offering cheap shipping so "they could get American shit shipped back" - they'd probably need 1/10th of the containers. That's a guess, as its probably much less.

Also, I don't think the large shipping companies are Chinese anyway. Maersk is Danish.
 
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The argument of "demand for American goods" things still makes no sense. There is an insane inequity between what China sends here, and what we send there. So if the Chinese were really offering cheap shipping so "they could get American shit shipped back" - they'd probably need 1/10th of the containers. That's a guess, as its probably much less.

Also, I don't think the large shipping companies are Chinese anyway. Maersk is Danish.
They buy a lot of low dollar per square foot stuff off of us. Boat after boat full of containers, full of American wheat, rice, corn,etc. CHina is less than half liveable or farmable land. We could starve those pricks out in a few months.
Why do we care about who is the biggest? Other fuckers are getting a piece of the pie - Greeks, Brits, Norwegians, even India. FUcking INdia is one of the top scrappers of old boats and freighters. FInd a pie chart showing how big Maersk's slice is (Please, I STILL love you) before you shove that in my face with whip cream on it. Or did someone blow a seal? :)
It's late, I'm trying to shit and enjoy a beer and a bowl. Big planet, whole lot of shipping going on. I'll submit if it makes you happy.
 
They buy a lot of low dollar per square foot stuff off of us. Boat after boat full of containers, full of American wheat, rice, corn,etc. CHina is less than half liveable or farmable land. We could starve those pricks out in a few months.
Why do we care about who is the biggest? Other fuckers are getting a piece of the pie - Greeks, Brits, Norwegians, even India. FUcking INdia is one of the top scrappers of old boats and freighters. FInd a pie chart showing how big Maersk's slice is (Please, I STILL love you) before you shove that in my face with whip cream on it. Or did someone blow a seal? :)
It's late, I'm trying to shit and enjoy a beer and a bowl. Big planet, whole lot of shipping going on. I'll submit if it makes you happy.
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Arrive for a morning job interview and they're running ten minutes late. Why is that okay but me turning up ten minutes late would be a no no? Not impressed!
Everywhere - dentist, dr. mortgage broker. Your time is shit, their time is money.

Related: Dentist writes me a letter busting my balls because I bailed on my cleaning appt., because I had called while driving there(thought I might be 5-10 LATE) and was informed I'd have a different hygienist. Ok BUT - I don't feel like flipping hygienists that morning, going for my covid shot from there. They note in the letter that they understand people have preferences in hygienists. Ok. So why didn't they inform ME? "Amber" moved to their other office 3 months prior. :wtf:

Your time is shit, their time is money.Your time is shit, their time is money.