Hwarang said:
Well my post was a little abrasive. I should elucidate ...
When I said "understandable, because you are primarily a LR company" ... I mean that in the sense that does McDonalds want to sell clothing too? Nope, they're only interested in burgers. So maybe TBS and other LR companies simply don't wanna go there (stomatopods). In fact, it should be noted that shipping livestock has a different set of caveats and overhead than shipping LR...
But I see opportunity for LR farmers, and especially TBS.
Good insight..
We use an industry/airline/fedex approved shipping box. We buy 500 at a time. They are 17x17x10 with a heavy duty cardboard and a Styrofoam liner and lid, to withstand shipping and temp considerations. There is no other box available in the industry here that meets airline/fed ex criteria for shipping.
We do not set the shipping charges, we abide by the rules the carriers have for shipping live animals.
Sure it would be nice to stick a mantis shrimp into a cigar box and ship it out.....but what good would that do? The box get squished, temperature get to hot and the animal arrives dead, what good does that do anybody?
And it is easy to say, "well if I could get one shipped to my door for $20..." is a pipe dream, all shippers have minimum shipping rates.....even if I ship an EMPTY box of ours the fed ex charge is the same as if it does not weigh much they go by dimensional weight......and 17x17x10 comes out to $80. If the same box weighs up too 20 pounds it is $80.....same with the airlines, ship one pound $60 or ship up too 100 pounds...$60...
It cost $20 to fed ex a letter priority overnight....think about it...
I ship mantis shrimp all the time, up too 20 per box and they arrive alive and in good temp zone....there simply is no other way to do it cost effectively for single animals.....other than picking them up at our shop...
Hope this clears up some shipping issues...
Richard TBS