Shipping danger...winter!

[Cirrus]

I got back from an airport drop off this morning, heard that someone's shipment of fish from Vancouver to Saskatoon yesterday never made it. It was going from Vancouver to Saskatoon, via Calgary; the snow in Alberta led to flght delay; temps were -20C. The fish sat overnight before being shipped back to Vancouver. Hopefully they are still alive, hopefully the customer in Saskatoon was not too inconvenienced.

Moral of the story: If you are ordering fish now, you better check your local forecast to make sure it is okay for the shipping day you choose.

If you are shipping fish now, you better use double heat packs, and make sure you ship DIRECT! Do not ship via another city; this can lead to delays. If your shipment misses a connecting flight you could be in trouble...

 

[exoticaquaria]

hmm thanks for the info Theo.

im suppose to be shipping a package to saskatoon on thursday. 1 stop over in calgary. i think i better call westjet and see what other options they have.

 

[Cirrus]

Yeah Mike, be very careful. I wonder who it was who shipped fish from Vancouver to Saskatoon yesterday...?

Anyway, just to add to this story, I get an email late afternoon from Westjet as follows:

Good Afternoon,

Please be advised that due to a bulk out, cargo for ws286 YVR/YYC has not been loaded. We have re planned on contingency flight WS202 ETD16:00 ETA18:18

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Needless to say I was a bit worried. Good thing I followed my own advice and did extra heat packs. It was cold today in Vancouver, and those fish sat in the warehouse for something like 6 hours before take off!

Good news is the customer called and the fish made it okay. Phew!

 

[exoticaquaria]

Good thing! I plan to add double heat packs and make sure i tape that lid shut!

I dont like shipping anything expensive this time of the year. Its definately more risky.

 

[Joey]

I always felt as if it was safer to ship around this time.... Its easier to heat water in a box, than it is to cool it.

Although i did receive a box of dead discus once.... with ice in the bag.. due to a delay of 24 hrs.

 

[Cirrus]

Kenta and I lost a BBXB and another high end cross back in a bum Westjet shipment back in December 2007; Westjet lost the fish! They were shipped straight to Calgary from Vancouver, very short flight. But on arrival, they could not find the box for the customer and concluded that the fish had been forwarded on to Toronto. Hours later when the plane landed in Toronto they could not find the fish there either! By then the office in Calgary had closed (it was past midnight and before they had 24/7 hours there), and told us to call back the next day. Next day they found the box in Calgary - it had been there all along, under some other boxes; they just did not see it. The warehouse was unheated and temps were very low. The fish were dead. Westjet offered us a $100 shipping voucher, but we were out over $3000 wholesale of fish. Quite the stress for everyone involved.

Two years later Westjet implemented live cargo shipping embargo for most of December. I don't think we were the only ones to have this happen.

 

[bksze]

I remember when you shipped me mine, it got lost as well. Luckily we were able to find it 5 hours later and my fish was okay.

Airlines should give the option to tag expensive cargo with GPS or long range RFID tags so they can never get lost.

 

[chen88]

I had a WC Black Diamond shipped to me from Oliver out of Montreal during a cold winter night. I was at the Westjet cargo and after 2 hours they had told me my box was left back in Montreal as there wasn't enough room due to the passengers fully loaded and it was the last flight of the night!. Luckily Oliver wasn't too far from the airport and I called him and he rushed over to grab the ray(s) before they froze...they were reship on the next flight out in the morning and all was fine!....both of them are still with me..this was 3 years ago.

 

[exoticaquaria]

awesome chen. you saved those poor rays and you saved oliver some cash. im sure he was grateful!!!

 

[damtrees420]

I had a box fall off the shuttle once they found it on the next trip sitting out on tarmac i got lucky as they found it right away but that could have sucked