A good shipping service for large computers?

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: Devin Davison

    > I am uncertain of a good service to use for the task, i need the
    > machines to be packaged up / put on a pallet at the pickup location

I have had good luck with PakMail (http://www.pakmail.com/); I've had them
ship a couple of 6' racks (one from Arizona, one from Toronto), and been very
happy with the results.

The shipping cost in the Arizona case may not have been the absolute lowest
possible I could have secured had I been on the spot, looking around, but.. I
wasn't on the spot, looking around; and it was pretty reasonable (I've
shipped a number of large items from the West Coast, so I think I'm
reasonably well calibrated).

And they went to the person's house, picked the thing up, put it on a pallet,
and shipped it.


A tip for keeping costs down when shipping via freight (i.e. on a pallet,
which generally is a key thing to do to keep costs down) to one's house (i.e.
not a place with a loading dock): if you have a vehicle which can hold the
item(s), have it/them delivered to the nearest freight terminal, not the
house, and go pick it up. That way, they won't have to roll a truck with a
lift-gate to your house, which is an extra cost.

Every line I've ever used (SAIA, FedEx Freight, etc) were happy, when one
arrives to pick it up, to dump the shipment in their yard, and let one take
everthing off the pallet and load it all into your vehicle. (But check with
your local terminal first, to make sure they're OK with it. And check the
weather prediction to pick the day to go get it! :-) And you generally save a
couple of days, too.

I have discovered that a Ford Taurus wagon nicely holds an H960 6'x19" rack
(I joked that the car must have been designed by someone who collects old
gear :-), so I have been able to pick up a shipment consisting of _two_
H960's this way: one inside, and one on the roof rack. With only one person,
one has to remove the heavy units first, and put them in the car separately,
but it can be done.

	Noel