Shippers With Heart by Matthew Hogan
In any business, there are the companies that hold their bank account as higher than the priority of its customers, and there are businesses like Ship Smart, who help people. It is important for businesses to exist that can compete with existing shipping companies. The largest companies like FedEx and UPS have so many boxes that it is nearly impossible to ensure every last package to arrive to its destination safely. As is natural with a capitalist society, the profit-concern has outweighed the need to guarantee a trusting service. Before, these larger companies were the perfect solution to anyone's shipping problems. They were the best businesses to move things from point A to point B. But things are different, now.
Jeff Bezos changed the game. With Amazon and other following companies, online shipping has now become the most-used method to shop. People sometimes go into the store to compare prices only to return home and order the product online; less than a decade ago, the exact opposite was true. Now consumers opt to have their purchases delivered.
Everything is sent through these large companies like UPS, and FedEx. They have the option to offer a lower price. With so much volume, and with having a large-enough company to qualify for large-scale benefits, these companies can afford to offer unbeatable prices.
They can offer to ship it for cheaper because there are so many customers. As if package volume was not reiterated-enough as increased over the years, a portion of packages going through these companies are returns--the very same packages shipped by the very same company days earlier. So, some packages even ship twice.
Getting so large, these businesses cannot be relied upon when your packages matter most, especially if they are fragile. It is not a guarantee, as they might lead on. When the package has one shot to get to its recipient, those large businesses are a gamble. People require other services such as Ship Smart. Any business that can communicate directly with the customer to achieve satisfaction provides better service. I recently experienced, a customer-mover service called, "College Hunks Hauling Junk," which I thought was simply marketing genius. I checked out their website; it is college hunks, wearing collared shirts, hauling junk. That is exactly the kind of thing the big companies cannot offer: a personable touch.
A shipping business based on the guarantee of shipment, and not a concern based on maximizing volume, abusing employee efficiency projections, and obsessing over operations analytics, is what helps the customer feel like their stuff is safe. There is a negative connotation with all shipping companies that their employees simply do not care. This is not the case.
There are simply too many boxes. More often than not, a box is damaged by other boxes, as they are squeezed through an economically designed opening with space meant for less volume. As with anything, when the purpose of a business becomes solely a means for money, it ceases to serve its customers. Lastly, it is vital we sustain the healthy of our postage system; the day when electricity and digital connectivity fail, our postage systems may make the difference in terms of survival.