John H. Rodgers on wed 4 mar 98
-- [ From: John H. Rodgers * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --
Thought this might be of benefit to the members of the list that ship their
work.
I have learned that the United States Postal Service, USPS, has a web site.
From there you can get international as well as domestic rate calculations
by plugging in the country of destination and the weight of package or
envelope. The above mentioned web site is at: http://www.usps.gov/ .
In Alaska I found it was as good, more convenient, cheaper, and safer to use
USPS as opposed to other methods, for shipping our products. Nothing moves
timely unless it goes by air, and its costly. We shipped everything insured
first class, which meant 3 day delivery. Use of other services was cost
prohibitive. Of course, Alaska benefits from adjustments in the postal rates
to make us compatible with the rest of the nation. We get the same service
for the same price, but USPS operating costs are higher in Alaska than the
Lower 48.
A funny case in point, a contractor won a bid to build a school in the
remote community of Fort Yukon on the Yukon River a few hundred miles north
of Fairbanks. Access was by air only year round, and barge in the summer. No
way to get there with building supplies until after the Ice went out in May
or June, and barges could get get upriver from the coast, hundreds of miles
away. This meant supplies would arrive way over in the summer building
season, really to late to get the maximum use out of the building season,
which would end in September.
All the other competitors for the job were really curious how the contractor
could bid so low, get the job, and then get materials into the Town in time
to build in a single season, short of flying everything in. Which of course
would cost them so much their bid would be below actual cost of construction
, much less yield a profit. And of particular concern was how the 80,,000
concrete blocks to be used in construction were going to dealt with. That
was a lot of weight.
Well, you can imagine the postmasters consternation when the contractor
showed up with trucks loaded with neatly packed and sealed cardboard boxes,
one block to a box, each marked for parcel post delivery, addressed to the
contractors site in Ft. Yukon ..... all 80,000 of them.
Yup, they all went regular parcel post mail at surface rates, but in Alaska
, that meant they flew ...... '" Cause they ain't no roads out in that bush!
" Saved the contractor a bundle, and he had them all on the job site ready
to go when the ground thawed out in spring.
Just a funny story about bizzare events in life in the Far North. Strange
but true.
John Rodgers
An Alaskan in Alabam!
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