Shipping forces soy change

[Kim from Nevada]

Whew! I think we westerners are paying thru the nose for shipping! I've used GB 435 and 415 for years now, but I will be switching to Calwax CB3 as I can pick it up and save costs. Shipping of wax and jars has risen tremendously, and I don't think my customers are willing to pay much more for their candles. It seems everyone is feeling the financial pinch.

Can someone tell me how Calwax CB3 compares to the GB waxes?

Thanks,

Kim

[8-GRAN-ONES]

Before you make the change..have you checked Peaks shipping prices?..I live in Calif. by ordering several cases you can get the shipping down quite abit..Give them a call and have them price you shipping for 4 boxes..there is a discount for over 200 weight..and that 200 weight is for anything else you buy from them too..

But for calwax I have never used it..

[Kim from Nevada]

I already did that. I was told UPS no longer ships hundred weight to residences. For 4 cases, shipping is $112. Ouch! At least for my pocketbook!

Thanks so much!

Kim

[Beth-VT]

I already did that. I was told UPS no longer ships hundred weight to residences. For 4 cases, shipping is $112. Ouch! At least for my pocketbook!

Thanks so much!

Kim

That is correct. Is there no commercial address you can ship to...like your job, a local business that you frequent, or even a local UPS hub is considered commercial, they can ship there and hold it for you to pick up?

[perkyaim99]

I use Calwax but not the wax you're asking about. No joke about soy being expensive here! Doesn't really matter the brand it seems to run at least $20 a case more from west coast suppliers than east coast, and then if it's shipped!! I get the wax from Swans in Tacoma. I use Calwax CW30, sorry can't help you but feel your shipping pain!

[Kim from Nevada]

I teach school, and I know our secretaries would be a little peeved to have 4 50 pound boxes sitting in their space! But I definitely will check into the hub thing. I'll call UPS Monday. Thanks!

And It's so true. We pay so much more in the West for our supplies.

Thanks,

Kim

[8-GRAN-ONES]

Kim another thing to check..They don't carry GB wax, but they carry several other brands..Try...letitshineusa.com...They are based in Washington, but have a warehouse in Sacrameno Calif....Maybe if enough asked for them to supply GB for us on the west coast they would supply it.HTH

[kandlekrazy]

Kim,

I pm'd ya!

[perkyaim99]

CandleSoylutions.com in Eugene OR carries GB

[ah-soy]

There is a rep from GB who is a member of this board. I think under the name of Golden Brands. You might try finding his email in the members list. He pops in from time to time and I know in previous posts was talking about western distributors.

[kandlekrazy]

I'm in CA and shipping from Peak's is not bad for 50# of 415.

[so-soy]

I need to ask you where you heard UPS doesn't ship hundred weight to residence addresses anymore? I was trying to find info on this on the UPS site and couldn't find anything, I would like to know if this is absolutely true or not because if they stopped doing this, oh boy, shipping is going to kill an awful lot of people...thanks!

[8-GRAN-ONES]

That is sure true..I think alot of us will be finding and using what ever is the closest to us..or trying to co-op in our area and finding a central place of shipment and driving to pick up..

[so-soy]

When does that take effect then? I ask because I see some suppliers are still saying you can get the hundredweight shipping discounts on orders over 200 pounds...

[Burned Out]

Kim,

I totally empathize! I'm on the West Coast, and shipping costs on wax and glass are unbelievable!

I ended up renting a mailbox with a locally owned business (instead of one of the large chains like UPS Store), and the owner is kind enough to deal with my enormous number of heavy boxes. Because her business is in a Mall, it is technically a Commercial address, and I qualify for the UPS Commercial Rate. It can be a bit of a hassle loading everything in the car and schlepping it home, but I save a LOT in shipping costs.

I also ended up renting a storage unit in a Mini Storage space recently, after several of my private label customers wanted me to store their unique glasses, jars and boxes. So if I have a shipment of something that is large enough for Motor Freight, I arrange to have it delivered there. Most of the freight companies will work with you to arrange an appointment time, so you can meet them on site to sign for the shipment. If the shipment is large enough, Motor Freight will save you a lot of money. Just be sure you request they send it in a truck that has a liftgate, so they can get the pallet out of the truck.

I agree with everyone that has recommended Peak. They have a great selection and the shipping has always been reasonable to the Northwest where I am.

Swan's is also terrific. They have a nice selection of waxes, and they ship FedEx which I find is always less expensive than UPS. They also charge actual shipping cost and don't mark-up the shipping expense in any way. Very nice folks.

HTH!

[AAngels]

What part of Nevada do u live in?

I just started ordering a little from Peaks and also Lone Star. Peaks arrives a little faster too. I really try to order from closer states also, I live in Las Vegas.

[PSPjen]

I am in Az and have been ordering from Peak. I am not at the point where I need to order 200lbs at once, but hope to be soon and boy does that stink about UPS.

I really wish I had the money to open up a candle supply store here in AZ as there is nothing here. If I ever did open a store, hubby and I own a small trucking company so maybe he could go pick up my stuff!

[kandlekrazy]

This really doesn't help with the situation, but it made me laugh. I got this quote from Maxine in an email:

"It used to be only death and taxes were inevitable. Now, of course, there's shipping and handling, too."

[Stella1952]

I already did that. I was told UPS no longer ships hundred weight to residences.

This is NOT TRUE!

There is another thread about this in the Business forum...

http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57053&page=2

...where I posted the reply I got directly from UPS customer service about this rumour. UPS customers (shippers) who qualify for Automatic Daily Pickup can ship hundredweight to residential addresses. I don't know WHO told whom what, but as you can read from the UPS Customer Service rep who replied to my question, this is a rumour. When in doubt, contact your supplier or UPS themselves! They know their shipping terms and deals with UPS (which may differ from small suppliers to larger ones).

Some people do not understand that as the recipient of a package, you are NOT the UPS customer - the SHIPPER is the UPS customer as THEY are the ones doing the shipping! Shipping to commercial addresses has always been less expensive than shipping to a residential address, so perhaps that is where some of the misunderstanding lies, but any shipper who has Automatic Daily Pickups is eligible to ship hundredweight to residential addresses. I hope this clears up the confusion...

[so-soy]

Yes that's true, but now with UPS increasing their prices at the beginning of this year, they put a 'surcharge' if you will, on the hundred weight residential delivery so in fact the 'savings' you used to get, isn't really there anymore for ordering the hundred weight shipping. This is what I was told by a supplier.

[littlebrownbug]

Thanks for the posting Stella.....whew! I was thinking my discount was gone already:confused: I'm guessing that all suppliers are not equal????

Mike

[Stella1952]

Here's the question I put to UPS Customer Service last night:

Name:Stella

Comments:I understand that shippers may ship products to residential addresses using the hundredweight service (so long as they have automatic daily pickups). I also understand that a fuel surcharge is added to the hundredweight shipping charge. Is there any other kind of surcharge added when the hundredweight shipment is sent to a residential address as opposed to shipping the same shipment to a commercial address? Are there any OTHER charges that might apply in this scenario... I am trying to figure f the Hundredweight 'deal' really IS a good deal for people with residential delivery addresses or whether to request another carrier for my hundredweight shipments..

Thanks.

Stella

Here's the pertinant information they sent me:

Thank you for your inquiry. UPS Hundredweight is the ideal alternative to traditional LTL (less than truckload) service for shipments weighing less than 1,000 pounds. UPS Hundredweight Service is for multiple-piece shipments sent to a single address on the same day and offers guaranteed, on-schedule delivery to every address within the 48 contiguous states.

Hundredweight Service is available only to UPS daily pickup account customers with a 6-digit account number and can be picked up along with your other UPS shipments -- no special preparation required.

This service is available for all domestic air shipments (except UPS Next Day Air Early A.M.) of 100 pounds or more and for UPS Ground and 3 Day Select shipments of 200 pounds or more. Optional Saturday Delivery of Hundredweight Next Day Air shipments is available at no additional charge.

...

...

For additional information on UPS Hundredweight please see the following links:

http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shipping/time/service/hundredweight.html

http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shipping/time/service/hundredweight/download.html

An additional $20.00 is added to the appropriate rate for each UPS Hundredweight Service shipment going to a domestic residential destination.

This is en excerpt about the fuel surcharge that UPS charges its customers (the shippers)... It would be reasonable to expect a shipper to pass on this charge to the shipper's customers (that would be us)...

If you have a UPS account number, the fuel surcharge will be included on your weekly bill. If you are an occasional UPS customer and do not receive a weekly bill, a fuel surcharge will be included in your charges.

The following table illustrates the Fuel Surcharge history:

90-Day Fuel Surcharge History The following table illustrates the fuel surcharge history:

Effective Dates:

Ground Surcharge:

Air and International Surcharge:

September 3, 2007 -

4.75%

14.50%

August 6, 2007 -

September 2, 2007

4.50%

14.00%

July 2, 2007 - August 5, 2007

4.50%

13.50%

...

Services Affected

Ground Fuel Surcharge

The Ground Fuel Surcharge will apply to all domestic and international transportation charges for the following services:

UPS Ground Commercial, UPS Ground Residential, UPS Hundredweight Ground Service, and UPS Standard to Canada. The surcharge also applies to the following accessorial charges (where applicable):

• Pickup Charges
  
• Return Services Charges
  
• International Extended Area Charges
  
• Delivery Charges
  
• Residential Surcharge
  
• Large Package Surcharge

UPS and other larger shipping outfits (like motor freight) have tacked on a fuel surcharge ever since the Arab Oil Embargo in the 70s... Sometimes it's higher than others... I dunno if the US Postal Service has the same deal or FedEx or Purolator or any other small package delivery companies... might be worth checking into for those of you receiving frequent hundredweight shipments.

So what I am seeing is that the only thing unexpected here is the $20 per hundredweight shipment surcharge to deliver to a residential address. For such a large shipment to be delivered to my door and not require me have to pack it all from wherever to home, that would be worth $20 bucks to me...

Hope this clarifies things for those worried about higher shipping rates... I have no doubt that shipping has increased in the past year - it will most likely keep increasing with the price of oil, as will everything else, including the cost of shipping products from manufacturers to our distributors...:undecided Getting things closer to home is always a better idea not only for our pocketbooks, but also to save on the petroleum products it requires to ship stuff farther... But if one can afford to buy in larger quantities, such as the hundredweight option (if it is cost effective enough), we might all still be able to afford products we would rather buy that are not local to us.