[NHCOLL-L:118] re: insuring specimen shipments

[Doug Yanega]

Robin wrote:

>I beg to differ.  Registering a package slows its delivery considerably.  This
>is because every person who handles the package must fill out a form stating
>where and when s/he did so.  I would expect that this is true of almost any
>form of package-tracing in the USPS.
>
>On the other hand, UPS has automatic tracking with those bar codes they put on
>every package.  You can track it yourself on the web and it doesn't seem to
>slow things down.

Having shipped a lot from all over - including about 40 packages of
specimens in alcohol to and from Brazil - I'd tend to agree with Robin, and
add the warning that for international shipments, FedEx may need to be
avoided. Myself and several colleagues in Brazil commonly found that agents
at the cargo-shipping facilities there would sign for FedEx shipments, keep
them for a few weeks, and eventually send a telegram to the intended
recipient informing them to come to the airport and pay a series of fees to
get their package released. The simple fact is that the FedEx people are
presumably not supposed to let anyone but the recipient sign the form, but
at least in Brazil they do so routinely, and not only that, they don't
notify the *shipper* what has happened to the package; their "tracking
system" apparently stops the minute the package arrives on Brazilian soil.
If FedEx works like that in other foreign countries, they shouldn't be
trusted with *anyone's* type material. On the other hand, first class mail
works just fine to and from Brazil. Never lost a package sent that way.
Just declare that it has no commercial value, and things seem to go
smoothly.

Peace,


Doug Yanega       Dept. of Entomology           Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82