 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2022-10-30 17:26
Hi,
I wondered if anybody might be able to recommend a good courier company in the UK for shipping a musical instrument with full insurance cover to £2500?
The tech that I am sending my clarinet to usually uses Royal Mail special delivery, but the postal service is on strike a lot at the moment, which makes things complicated.
Also I have recently has this service fail on me and don't want to risk it again. (I sent a Buffet Icon clarinet barrel. When it got lost in the post I couldn't claim on the insurance, because the computer system had failed to log the parcel when it was dropped off.)
Thanks!
Jen
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Author: clarimad
Date: 2022-10-30 23:39
My understanding is that Royal Mail will not cover musical instruments at all. I use UPS who do not have such on their restricted list and will insure for £1000 but sadly not for the amount you wish for.
Hope that helps a little.
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Author: smokindok
Date: 2022-10-31 05:31
How far are you from the tech? When I had my bass clarinet overhauled and modified a few years back, the 1,000 km round trip was a long, but manageable and worthwhile one day drive. It avoids the whole shipping risk, especially that of a perfectly regulated instrument being knocked out of adjustment on return shipping. But, the biggest advantage is being able to play test the instrument on pickup, while with the tech, so any little adjustments for preferences can be made.
Of course, there is the consideration that the replacement cost of a lost or severely damaged bass clarinet would be significantly higher than £2,500, and the anatomy of a bass clarinet perhaps makes it more susceptible to adjustment issues caused by rough handling. In your case mailing may be worth the risk.
John
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2022-10-31 09:46
Hi John,
I definitely can't make the journey, otherwise that would be a good option.
I just checked online and the royal mail doesn't say anything about exclusing musical instruments, so it may be that I just need to be really persistent about making sure that the parcel has gone into the system properly when I hand it over.
Jen
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2022-10-31 23:33
SunnyDaze wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I wondered if anybody might be able to recommend a good courier
> company in the UK for shipping a musical instrument with full
> insurance cover to £2500?
>
> The tech that I am sending my clarinet to usually uses Royal
> Mail special delivery, but the postal service is on strike a
> lot at the moment, which makes things complicated.
>
> Also I have recently has this service fail on me and don't want
> to risk it again. (I sent a Buffet Icon clarinet barrel. When
> it got lost in the post I couldn't claim on the insurance,
> because the computer system had failed to log the parcel when
> it was dropped off.)
>
> Thanks!
>
> Jen
I hope you find a solution Jen. If so do share.
In the meantime, for the right price of course, perhaps contracting Jason Statham's Frank Martin character from the Transporter might be an option.
https://youtu.be/7FnbLyv2oio
(I'm not sure he offers explosion insurance though . )
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2022-11-01 17:30
Thanks SecondTry, I think I'm going to have grit my teeth and try the Royal Mail, carefully avoiding strike dates.
I think this time when I hand the parcel over, I will ask the person to wait until I have received the tracking number. Last time they had only gone a couple of minutes before the email arrived to say that the system had failed to register the parcel. Fingers crossed. :-/
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2022-11-02 00:07
I have found this one company (https://directcouriersolutions.com/cart/) that will do it under "small musical instrument delivery" but it's £39 each way, which is way out of my budget, so it's still looking like Royal Mail special delivery.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2022-11-02 01:27
Whatever you do, don't use Hermes or Yodel and whichever one of those companies has since changed their name to Evri given their track record of delayed, damaged and lost packages.
I've had no problems using Parcelforce/Royal Mail when sending instruments through the post or having them sent to me, only with all the industrial action going on, check social media or even your local post office (that's if you still happen to have one locally) for their proposed strike dates and try to avoid getting caught up in it all.
And only ever send anything off from Monday to Thursday as sending anything on a Friday will mean it ends up languishing in some freezing cold warehouse over the entire weekend.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2022-11-04 16:27
Hi,
I think I figured out the trick to sending valuable things by special delivery. The important thing seems to be to drop it off at the actual post office, rather than organise collection from the house.
If the parcel is collected from the house, then the tracking number and collection confirmation comes by email after the postman has gone, so if the computer glitched and the system claims that no parcel was handed over, then you find out when it's too late.
If you go to the post office, then the man hands you the confirmation with the tracking number on a piece of paper, which definitely works.
In practice, for a whole clarinet with £2500 insurance, the parcel is only allowed to be dropped at the post office and collection from the house is not allowed.
With the strikes, they also say that we shouldn't send anything on a strike day, and that we should send well in advance because of delays.
I never did find any other viable option for shipping, other than special delivery with the Royal Mail. It was £18 cost for £2500 insurance + 2kg weight, versus £39 for the nearest competitor.
My clarinet has now arrive safely at its destination. Yay!
Jen
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2022-11-05 19:32
I used to use UPS for this purpose, as there was a time when Royal Mail really hadn't got its act together for these sort of high-value parcels. But I always felt I was being ripped off by UPS - particularly by their insurance charges, which are 1% of the declared value, i.e. an extra £25 in your case. Are we really supposed to believe that one parcel in 100 goes missing? If the service is truly that unreliable, then I certainly wouldnt want to be using it, even with insurance. But Royal Mail seem good these days: I've sent a lot of (mostly small) parcels with tracking in recent years and never had one go missing.
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2022-11-05 22:44
Hi John,
That's very reassuring that things have gone well for you with Royal Mail. I think part of the problem with mine was that it was going overseas, and probably that in addition to the failed pick up on the system, was too much for them to manage.
I see what you mean about the 1% insurance cost. That is a lot certainly.
Jen
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Author: Hunter_100
Date: 2022-11-07 18:24
John,
Insurance rates are not based on the number of packages lost, but on the total lost value for the entire company (or at least the geographic area). They certainly don't lose 1 out of 100 packages, but some actuary somewhere determined that charging you 1% of the declared value helps to make up the total losses elsewhere in the company. Unfortunately for us the insurance rates on all the little packages are covering the losses every time UPS drops a million dollar package off the back of the truck on accident.
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2022-11-09 00:07
Sorry, I don't follow that reasoning, unless you are suggesting that really expensive packages don't get charged insurance? If you consistently lose 1% of your parcels and charge 1% insurance uniformly, you will break even - there are no "losses elsewhere" to cover. But I have trouble believing that the loss rate is that high - and I bet it's particularly low for extremely expensive packages, where no doubt extra precautions are taken.
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Author: Hunter_100
Date: 2022-11-09 01:43
An across the board 1% rate will not cover the losses unless their loss rate is significantly lower than 1/100.
Let's say you have 100 boxes to ship, and 99 of them have a $100 object inside. The 100th box is expensive and has a $10,000 object inside. If UPS charges 1% of value for each package, they will have collected $199 in insurance money. If you happen to lose one of the $100 packages, then UPS pays out $100 and has $99 in profit. But if they happen to lose the $10,000 box, then they are suffering a huge loss.
In a second scenario, lets suppose than instead of 100 packages, we now have 10,000 packages, with 9,999 of them valued at $100 dollars and the one expensive package is still worth $10,000. UPS collects their 1% fee which now equals $10,099. Now if they lose the expensive $10,000 package, their losses are covered by all the small package fees. And if they lose a few of the small ones, they still make a lot of profit.
The real rates are probably in between these two examples based on some complex risk model that UPS uses. But my point is that UPS or whoever uses insurance rates on cheap packages to cover potential losses on the expensive ones and make a profit in the event that the expensive packages make it to the destination intact.
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2022-11-09 10:46
That's very interesting. Thank you for explaining.
It's interesting also because I got really conflicting instructions from different people on how to ship the clarinet, as follows:
Clarinet tech: Just take the two joints, wrap them in bubble wrap and then post in a small carboard box. That keeps the cost down.
Small private courier company: Put the clarinet in its hard case, wrap that in bubble wrap, then put it in a strong cardboard box and seal that well. Then ship the box.
In practice, I think the difference in cost is only about £8, because the insurance cover is what costs the money, not the extra weight of the well-padded box.
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Author: Hunter_100
Date: 2022-11-09 17:08
I think in the US they charge for boxes based on the sum of length width and height of the box as well as the weight, but I think size is most critical to overall cost. But in your case I bet the delivery insurance is going to cost just as much as the shipping charge.
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Author: clarimad
Date: 2022-11-16 00:16
In my earlier response to the question I stated Royal Mail would not insure musical instruments.
Parcelforce state "Enhanced compensation is available for an additional fee on most services to a maximum of £2500 (£500 for global value). Enhanced compensation is not available on musical instruments".
Because of Parcelforce's above statement I would advise you look again at Royal Mail's stance as I think of both as the same organisation.
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