UPS can be no better. one is not necessarily better than the other. It's a matter of luck/ chance, to some degree. Fed ex is simply more likely to pay out when things break, IMO and IME. But more expensive as a shipping service, when going international. I have an ~40% ups discount rate due to volume. (not unusual)
To prevent this from being an issue: At (our particular company) the factory, we designed a packaging method that seemed ridiculous.
That we'd bubble wrap the product with about 4 inches of padding on all sides. Then an over spec'ed cardboard box. Then the box is almost completely taped. all seams and joins, taped. We used overspec adhesive tape, the shipping type, not the gentle use in house type. We used a slightly thicker substrate tape and the tape is the ultra wide type of packing tape, not the tiny 48mm type, but the 72mm wide (3") tape and tape guns. Then this, all over the cardboard box. (all seams)
After we showed the person how to make the package...we'd hold the package..turn away from the work bench..while holding it in front of us..and heave it up into the air, with a good solid spin. This is a ~20lb (~10kg) parcel, on the higher side, but not unusual. That the parcel would spin in the air, at head height..and then smack hard onto the cement floor, about 6 feet down from it's peak 'flight'. the person would look a bit bemused, and we'd say,
"that is the kind of abuse that the parcel will be required to handle, on about one dozen occasions, before it is delivered. This is a worst case scenario, but it is not unusual. You have to build a shipment to this level of protection. every time."
The point is that the vast majority of the electronics that one buys has packaging that is designed to be on skids, and then gently shipped across countries and oceans, or on trucks, all while still skid packaged...then the skid of goods disassembled at the end point.. and the product gently put on store shelves. That packaging for postal, UPS, or Fed-EX shipping has to be notably more robust and protective.
It is, in my experience, not good to assume that the packaging for lets say, a 24" Samsung PC monitor, it's box..is robust enough to be the shipping box for sending it cross country via UPS or another shipping service. That 9 times out of 10 the item will survive the trip. But when shipping not just one to some person who won an auction on your ebay sale, that this is a case of hard numbers, if one is shipping the same thing out constantly. Which is the case with XXk items. That if packaging is not not carefully planned, the losses, as a percentage, can get ugly.
Tight packaging, with no loose aspects... and in the hard contact points on the given inner styrene or cardboard substitute... a peak g-shock reduction layer of foam or the like (that is not overcompressed!.. otherwise-it is useless). Nor can the given g-shock reduction layer have too much contact area, as this would severely reduce it's effectiveness. That sort of acceleration reduction is enough to keep things 'safe'. Thus, if anyone here is shipping stuff cross country or whatnot, this is valuable information, gleaned from being deep in the 'shipping war trenches' for about a decade. That with the extra bit put into the shipping packaging, our losses dropped to a near zero, well below 1%.
In how this related to having your dev kit ship -is simple: Don't panic.
I'm not involved in any way, and I'm a chicken little barking at ghosts, all for the sake of making conversation.
Intelligence... is not inherent - it is a point in understanding. Q: When does a fire become self sustaining?
) but you oculus guys have to be sure to write a 100% perfect form!
