Anyone tried Greyhound for domestic shipping?

[William]

I know of people using them to ship some larger Landcruiser parts around the country. Supposedly cheaper than UPS or FedX. Anyone tried shipping frames or full bikes?

Just curious,

http://www.shipgreyhound.com/





William

[Nooch]

To echo, as far as car parts go, it seemingly worked well. Had a fender shipped many moons ago without incident, picked it up at the depot, and was pretty reasonable if i remember correctly.

[William]

Originally Posted by Nooch

To echo, as far as car parts go, it seemingly worked well. Had a fender shipped many moons ago without incident, picked it up at the depot, and was pretty reasonable if i remember correctly.

Same here. Everyone I know who has used them for parts had no issues and pricing was very reasonable. I don't see why boxed full bikes or frames couldn't go the same way if one wanted to.





William

[SpokeValley]

I recently used these guys to ship a full bike. Really easy. I had the LBS box it, then used the Bike Ship standard box dimensions to buy the shipping tag. Then dropped the box at the local FedEx and it was outta here.

http://www.shipbikes.com/

[nighthawk]

I had a bad shipping experience with Greyhound, but it was almost 10 years ago. Some of the details are fuzzy... but my gf at the time was living in Vancouver, BC and she was returning there after visiting me in MA, USA. I had built a bike for her while she was visiting and we decided to send the bike on the 'hound to Bellingham, WA where she was able to pick it up and bring it back to canada. It was a full touring bike, with panniers, packed well into a standard bike box. Long story short, when we picked it up, a hole was torn in the side of the box and the panniers were missing. Greyhound refused responsibility.

I don't remember if the cost was so cheap that it was worth it...
Also... keep in mind, the many number of hands that the package passes through, and the thankless job that a package handler for greyhound must be. Anyone that has ridden that stinking bus will know what i mean. I don't think it's a good idea.

Ofcourse... this was 10 years ago.. things may have changed.. they may have better tracking, they may have insurance that I shouldve gotten.

[Don49]

I once received a complete bike via Greyhound with no issues. I had to make a trip to the depot to pickup.

A bike box sized package would probably be loaded on it's side, maybe with other stuff on top, so really good packing could be important to avoid damage.

[Ken Robb]

The baggage compartments on a bus are not very tall and the driver/loader has to squat to push items in so I think it's unlikely that there would be much concentrated weight on a flat bike box.

Many years ago I shipped an antique folding chair from Mass. to CA. by Greyhound with no problem at all.

[tiretrax]

I used Greyhound to ship a large object halfway across the country. It worked well and the price was priced reasonable.

[fogrider]

maybe 8 years ago now I had a chair shipped from Florida to San Francisco...a chair I am currently sitting in...and it was a great price.

[downtube]

I have used Greyhound to ship antique furniture several times and have had no issues.Their process for shipping packages seems very good.

[giverdada]

although this may be a thing with canadian greyhound (see post above), i tried to ship two bikes to NYC from toronto in order for my lady and me to ride the NYC century in 2007. long story short, i "shipped" them from toronto's depot on tuesday, we arrived to pick them up in NYC on saturday, and after much negotiating, found that the bikes were still in toronto, in the hallway of the shipping depot. they never apologized or fixed the problem or rented us bikes or anything at all. thankfully my cousin was an avid collector of things two-wheeled, and we all rode anyway (very painful century on a borrowed bike and running shoes, but really fun!). i vowed never to ship with greyhound again. but that's just me, and your mileage may vary.

[pinkshogun]

ive recieved a lot of boxed bikes through fed ex, usps, dhl and even greyhound on occassion. i prefer fed ex. they handle the box more delicately and have more precise online tracking

ups once delivered a complete b'stone in a box 5 feet high and 4 feet wide. i assume the original box got damaged and this is what they had available

[Nooch]

Originally Posted by pinkshogun

i prefer fed ex. they handle the box more delicately and have more precise online tracking

having worked at a fedex sorting facility, i'd have to say it's no different than any other providers.. boxes travel all around on big conveyer belts, slide down a chute where a package handler loads it into the truck. said chute is prone to backing up, packages getting a little crushed from all sides in the process, belts eating packages, etc...

i don't miss that job... it was a good workout, for sure, but man was it stressful..

[William]

Originally Posted by Nooch

having worked at a fedex sorting facility, i'd have to say it's no different than any other providers.. boxes travel all around on big conveyer belts, slide down a chute where a package handler loads it into the truck. said chute is prone to backing up, packages getting a little crushed from all sides in the process, belts eating packages, etc...

i don't miss that job... it was a good workout, for sure, but man was it stressful..

I know a few people who worked at "Brown" in the past and I've heard stories of impromptu football games with packages, hail mary passing, "shot putting" and various other stories that you don't want to hear when you ship a lot of stuff. How true or wide spread I don't know....




William

[Nooch]

Originally Posted by William

I know a few people who worked at "Brown" in the past and I've heard stories of impromptu football games with packages, hail mary passing, "shot putting" and various other stories that you don't want to hear when you ship a lot of stuff. How true or wide spread I don't know....




William

the smaller the box, the more likely it was to be tossed to the front of the trailer.. essentially the job was a giant game of 3d tetris, building a wall in the front of the trailer, then starting another one. small packages that couldn't fit in the wall typically got tossed in between the walls.

while there was never any football or horseplay on my sort, it certainly wouldn't surprise me..