[ILL-L] Shipping Costs--USPS/UPS/Fed-Ex

[Tom Bruno]

We use FedEx for all shipping.  It costs us on average $9 to ship a
book via 2-Day Express within the Continental U.S. and $20 to ship
internationally, although we've been advised by our account rep that
the rates are about to go up again as of January 1st.

As Ed points out with UPS, the ability to track your books is the main
reason why we assume the added cost involved with a commercial
carrier.  Last year we loaned 14,000 books and returned about 6,000
that we borrowed.  Being able to track these shipments online has
saved us hundreds of staff hours and thousands in replacement costs.

Another advantage:  as an Express 2-Day shipper, we get all of our
boxes and envelopes for free!

Best,
Tom Bruno
Head of Interlibrary Loan
Widener Library
Harvard University


On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Document Delivery <DocDelivery at iona.edu> wrote:
> We use UPS, but it is more expensive. The reason is that it tracks every
> book, so we can tell if someone received the book or not, and it might
> be faster,
>
> Edward Helmrich
> ILL Office
> Ryan Library
> Iona College VXI
> 914-633-2352
> docdelivery at iona.edu
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
> [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Shuping
> Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 12:00 PM
> To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
> Subject: [ILL-L] Shipping Costs--USPS/UPS/Fed-Ex
>
> Hi all,
>
> Our Admin team is setting up the budget for the upcoming year and have
> asked some questions about shipping costs in ILL.  They've noted that
> a large portion of our shipping costs seems to deal with loaning and
> returning books via ILL.  They do recognize that this is a necessary
> portion of ILL, at least for the time being, but they want to
> investigate and see if their are cheaper options for shipping.  I've
> not had experience with shipping items via FedEx or UPS so I was
> wondering libraries that are using these options can share some
> reasons why.  Do they provide better service?  Are they cheaper if you
> have a contract?  Etc.  Any information would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
> Andrew Shuping
>
> Robert Frost - "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned
> about life: it goes on."
>
>
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