Hello List:
QAZX57A@prodigy.com writes, expressing dissatisfaction with TRF's
shipping charge:
> I called in an order to TRF..needed a few of those black
> snaps on the door of my spit......
> 50 cents each!!! wow......so i ordered a
> few......understanding that
> the have to feed their families too......
> so i get get the "package" in the mail...a little manila bubble
> mailer with my snaps...........
>
> cost 65 cents to mail....so what do you think the "shipping charge"
> was? 5.00 !! hO HO HO..
> YOU WOULD THINK THAT they could at least charge something close to
> the actual cost.....
>
> oh well...my business will go to spitbits, Moss, NW Briish
> parts...or
> others....if thats the"TRF policies" they have...so much
> for customer
> oriented!!....
> oh yes the snaps do look like they will fit....
While I understand your dismay at this seemingly excessive cost, having
spent some part of my youth packaging and shipping aircraft parts, I
would like to attempt to mitigate your anger a bit, if I might, and
perhaps soften your heart towards TRF, and their policies, and the
hidden cost of shipping, in general.
When we sold a part, the price of the part covered the cost of the part,
the cost of receiving it ( i.e shipping to us ), the projected cost of
financing that part, ( and the space to store it until it was sold ),
the cost of inventorying it, marking, moving, pulling and placing it in
our parts room, unpacking it, the cost of invoicing it, the cost of
ordering it in the first place.
Now, like many other fields, aircraft parts are very price-sensitive.
This, coupled with differing levels of shipping requested, prevented us
from including the cost of preparing a part for shipment, and actually
shipping it, in the stated price. This, of course, is not uncommon.
Shipping a part entails finding it in the computer ( if using such ),
physically verifying that the part exists, pulling it from its
bin/shelf, finding suitable packaging, securely wrapping the part,
printing an address label, logging the shipment, ( possibly also filling
out a shipment manifest ), and possibly loading the package. This is in
addition to any other shipment recordkeeping triggered by the shipping
of a part that a particular company might implement.
Additionally, we had a fairly generous return policy, which necessitated
allowing a bit of money in the shipping process to be set aside as a
reserve in order to fund the occasional return.
Given that it may take a few minutes to find a part and perhaps jot down
some instructions on finding it, a few minutes to walk back, verify that
it is the part that the customer wants, and pull it, a minute maybe to
find a appropriate package, a minute to pack it, find the documentation,
check that everything has been enclosed and seal it, a few minutes to
print an address label and take the package to the shipping door,
possibly pausing to fill out paperwork at one or more steps along the
way, we find that the mere shipping of a fifty cent button can easily
consume as much as eight or ten minutes. In order to run a business, a
commonly held ratio of employee compensation to actual cost is in the
2.75:1 to 3:1 range, meaning that for each dollar an employer pays an
employee, he or she pays between $1.75 and $2.00 to cover rent,
utilities, advertising, benefits, and so forth. Hence, even though I
made only $5.50 an hour, packing and shipping aircraft parts, it cost my
employer, even to break even, between $15.00 and $16.50 an hour. If it
took 10 minutes to find, pack, and ship a part, that cost my employer
between $2.50, and $2.75. Presumably, the parts-room people at TRF make
more than $5.00 an hour. However, at a 3:1 cost to wage ratio, and ten
minutes to pull and pack a part, If the employee makes any more than
$8.70 an hour, TRF _loses_ money on the shipment! ( ( ( $8.70 x 3 /6 ) +
$0.65 ) ). I doubt that $8.70 an hour on the East Coast is considered
to be an excessive wage for an experienced parts-room worker, and
likely, is rather low.
TRF is probably _not_ trying to gouge you on shipping, but rather have
their shipping cost pay for themselves, so that they do not have to
artificially augment their parts prices to recover shipping losses. In
a competitive industry, where many of a company's products are
commodities, buyers often compare unit price only, and being forced to
adjust this price to cover hidden costs can be disastrous in terms of
sales lost.
Stuart Steele
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