Responsible Shipping practice w/ fish and coral

[johnd651]

As I was crawling around the internet today at work i found this:

http://www.senseaware.com/SA/default.html

It is something FedEx will be introducing allowing you to track package progress in real time, temperature, light, etc.

I thought this would be something great in shipping livestock like fish and coral.

It would also help track the conditions that the package are put through!!! Thats responsible...

 

[phuzzykins]

Is this data that you really need in real time? I don't think that there's really anything you could do about it even if you found a shipment whose environmental conditions were outside of your expected parameters.

I think it would be useful for a shipper (LiveAquaria, BlueZoo, etc) to put into random boxes just to make sure that their packing practices were adequate for the conditions their packages were experiencing. Not so sure that it would be useful for a hobbyist.

 

[johnd651]

yes, it is in real time.

and i just thought it might be something we see in the future, as the system gets cheaper, especially with shipping insurance and such

 

[jrlim]

Shipping will for sure cost a lot more initially since these are extra features you are getting. It's nice and all to know where your package is in real time, current temp, etc. But like phuzzykins said, there isn't much you can do when your package is in transit. All you can do is call up the shipping company and complain about it.

I work in a biotech company and we ship out temperature sensitive stuff all the time. We use the approved temperature regulated shipping box and add a temperature monitor in the box. As long as the box is approved to do what it is supposed to do, stuff in the box should be fine. Plus, making sure you know how to pack the box. No need to have real time data or what not. Plus the box is shipped overnight and recipient gets the box the next day. If you were to ship something overnight but the box shows up 2 or 3 days later, then yes, there's a problem there.

 

[phuzzykins]

There are also environmental and logistical issues associated with this. Such as...

If you receive a package containing a telemetry device, you have to make sure that it gets back to the owner. There's a transport cost associated with that.

These are battery powered electronic devices. There are costs associated with manufacture and disposal of these devices.

I don't see it as being much use to a hobbyist. To my knowledge, FedEx doesn't provide a guaranteed SLA for temperature in transit, and that's really the major thing that would be of interest in shipping livestock. So, your fish were shipped at -5 degrees? FedEx never promised they wouldn't be.

It would be cheaper and easier to build a device that just logs time & temperature every few minutes, and can be sent back to the vendor in a prepaid padded envelope via USPS. Tiny, and cheap enough that losing it wouldn't be a big deal. No real-time tracking, but I don't see the value in real-time tracking anyway.

 

[johnd651]

oh i know...just sharing what i found

i work for a chemical company, and we ship with all types of monitoring devices (shock sensors, temperature senors, moisture sensors) but there is only so much you can do

even today we received a package labeled "Reactive - DO NOT GET WET" and the box was dripping in water from the bottom. luckily everything was sealed on the inside

 

[saltwaterpimp]

Yeah this a great topic ! That service is worthless IMO. shipping test should be done as a dry run with no livestock to make sure its right before shipping your prized / fish corals. Phuzzykins i bought this logger for this very reason. The logger was 55 bucks..Awesome by the way ! Well worth the investment..and its reusable / and there is also one time use loggers.You guys would be shocked at the drastic changes in those shipping boxes..

http://www.microdaq.com/occ/pendant/temperature.php

 

[phuzzykins]

Oh, don't get me wrong... I think it's cool stuff. The engineer in me loves it.

 

[saltwaterpimp]

Yes very cool but, not for the average hobbyist..Straight from that site ''FedEx initially plans to market the service for $120 a month per device." After a 4month period with one of these you could buy your own equipment(Maybe not the GPS) ....

 

[oldblu]

this would be cool to see down the road on live fish shipments.

 

[NorthCoralNewB]

The cost would go up and all I can see that one would benefit is to see how cold it gets at the hubs etc... But because every day is different and there are so many factors that one can not expect this would be useless

 

[saltwaterpimp]

So your saying you would pay 120 bucks to see what the temp is inside a hub ?
Maybe i dont see the big picture here ? NorthCoralNewb can you explain those factors ?

 

[NorthCoralNewB]

No I wouldn't pay. But if you are sending off a really expensive piece then a $120 charge would be justified.

- Knowing the temperature is great to get a rough idea how cold it gets and whether a heat or a cool pack is needed.

Factors such as weataher, human error, and others are examples as uncontrollable.

 

[saltwaterpimp]

No I wouldn't pay. But if you are sending off a really expensive piece then a $120 charge would be justified.

- Knowing the temperature is great to get a rough idea how cold it gets and whether a heat or a cool pack is needed.

Factors such as weataher, human error, and others are examples as uncontrollable.

Yeah..But for that same 120 dollar Charge you could do 100,000 shippments with your own equipment,So why pay FedEx 120 a month to track Temp, and as a tracking aspect of this whole thing<fedex does this with a tracking number...Sorry for the rant, But i dont like to waste my money..