These are general shipping tips applicable mostly to (legal) gerb shippers,
ones I thought of while hossing freight about the other night. Thye apply
to non-gerbil shipping as well. Think of them as helpful.
-Writing "fragile" or "handle with care" on your box means mostly nothing.
It's not that your shipper doesn't care, it's just that everyone writes this
on thier box, and the guy sorting them has a lot of boxes to sort.
-If shipping live animals, make it VERY CLEAR on the packaging that that's
what's inside. While most folks will ignore a "fragile", most are
concientious enough to take a reasonable amount of care with a live animal
package. Packages that don't have this get thrown, kicked, put on conveyor
belts and generally manhandled. It's a rough life, being a box.
-If the company you ship with has a "special handling status" where they
take extra care, you might want to get it. These labels don't get ignored.
It may mean your gerbs bounce a lot less, or that they're handled by hand
most of the way.
-If you ship by air, make SURE the company knows that this package has
critters in it. For one thing, it's a violation of FAA law (and they can be
real bastards) to lie/misrepresent, and for another thing, placement in
certain parts of the plane (particularly places where small, loose boxes are
kept) can lead to your favorite rodents being frozen, asphxiated, or both.
-Provide adequate packaging for your box. Accidents happen, and I've seen
the boxes labs use to ship rodents rip open. Realize stuff may get set on
your box, live animals or no.
-Realize that if you ship illegally, you run the risk of not only being in
trouble with postal law, but also the DOT and the FAA. That last in
particular is quick to prosecute, as poorly packaged rodents can crash
planes. Two escaped mice last month grounded two planes for fumigation and
searches - they can chew up wiring and such, and everyone involved was
pretty pissed. Following the ValuJet thing a few years back, they're real,
real touchy on the subject of mislabled goods.
Just a few thoughts.
Chris Keil
BAX Global Sorter, by night
University of Toledo Instructor, by day
