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WARNING: Mailbox ovens

thbjr

Don't eat me,... Mr. Flytrap
Well, this is likely old hat for you more experianced members, but for a noob like myself, it was a big lesson learned.
I recently recieved some VFT's from another member in a trade. They were well packaged, shipped Priority mail, all the normal precautions taken. Unfortunantly, they sat in my mailbox for about 2 hours, in direct sun, on a typical Phoenix June afternoon with temps in the 110's before I got home from work to retrieve them. I knew the moment I opend the box that I was in trouble. The plastic baggie filled with damp LFS they were packed in, aside from being hot, smelled like steamed vegetables when I opened it. I was SICK! So, I'm posting my experiance to help others avoid having 'steamed CP's'.
I have come up with a couple of tips to help avoid catrastophies like I had. First, request the shipper mail the plant so that they have the best chance of arriving on a day that you will be home to recieve the package or alternitivly, shipped with reciept signature reqiured. That way, if your not home to recieve them, they go back to the Post Office and wait for you to collect them, and not into the 'mailbox oven'.
The other thing that works, at least for me, is to also ask the shipper to send them in a larger box. The plants that got cooked were shipped in the USPS's smallest 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" x 1 3/4" free Priority box. That box appears to have been designed to just fit into the old standard size home mailbox. You know the kind of mailbox that's at the end of the driveway in most residentual neighborhoods. My front porch is always in the shade, and by using a larger box, the letter carrier will leave it by the front door, in the shade and out of the solar heated 'mailbox oven'.
I have no idea what the temp gets up to in mailboxes else where. It would be nice to know, if some of you in other areas of the country would like to put a thermometer inside your mailbox to check, and post results, that would certainly help. Here in Phoenix, my thermometer pegs out at 120 in no time flat during the afternoon heat. My guess is it got close to the 140-150 degrees in my mailbox. Poor plants ... :cry:
I'm sure some of you senior members can add some more tips to this, so please do.

I'm including a picture of the death trap box, in it's flat state, like you get them from the Post Office.
DSCI0167.JPG
 
Write big on the box: "Do not place in mailbox or direct sun!"
 
Write big on the box: "Do not place in mailbox or direct sun!"
Most mailmen I've seen barely even glance at the mail before they put it in the mailbox, so I doubt that would work.

Thanks for the warning, thbjr.
 
Sorry to see that but it's another reason for a PO Box! Up here mainly we worry about cold mail trucks and freezing mailboxes. If you get the smallest box it's only about $75 a year and all your packages of plants will be kept in a nice air conditioned post office til you pick them up.
 
Hmmmm, a PO box. I hadn't thought of that. I knew senior members would have some more helpful ideas ...!
 
You don't have any control over how someone packages your plants when you order them but if you are shipping any, make sure to use a larger than needed box and fil it tightly (not lightly) with balled up newspaper or some such cushiony material.
I work in mass mailing and I'm at the airport PO annex on a regular basis dropping off for my company and you wouldn't believe how package mail gets sailed through the air in a room full of mail carts with an attendent at each as they're being sorted for the planes. If a box is small enough to fly - it flies before it ever gets on the plane.

"Zip 237?"

"Here!"

-fling-<FLING>
 
US Soccer team at their best!!!
 
Just out of curiosity, how much does a PO box generally cost?
 
I always mark my packages "LIVE PLANTS" and have the PO stamp them "FRAGILE" and "PERISHABLE".

As mentioned before it depends on the motivation of the mail carrier to actually look at the labels.

You'd be surprised how much your delivery service improves if you give your regular carrier at Christmas time a card with a $5-10 tip in it.
 
  • #10
It also helps if you talk to your mail carrier on a regular bassis and he or she knows you have LIVE plants comming in reguardless of size of the box. My mail lady talks to me all the time and she knows i get live plants and HOW IMPORTANT it is they come right to my door even if the box is SUPER tiny. She has been making sure i get my boxes hand deliverd/ face to face and shes always curious as to what i have in the box.. LOL!! Anyways atleast i know i have had a GREAT friendship with my mail carrier over the last 13yrs, when i use to get tarantulas in she would always come to the door and say "Hey Trace you gota get this box outa my truck it might be one of your T's and IM NOT TOUCHING IT"... then she would ask what size it is and everything.. Shes a real hoot!!!! :-)) :-))
 
  • #11
thats why i ship stuff to my works PO and not to home..........ive had boxes marked fragile be crushed just the same as if they werent......tipping your mail carrier at x-mas time can help if your sending stuff to your house......but im in a small town and know everyone at the post office....most any damage to the package is done to it well before it enters my local PO........
 
  • #12
The smallest PO box in my town is $75 per year, they just have a tub in the back with my box number on it since I'm always getting lots of stuff for my magazine's website way more than will actually fit in my box (the box is the size of a small box of #10 business envelopes (9" x 4" x 4"). The PO just puts a card in the box that says I have mail to pick up in the lobby.

Yeah, I make cookies for my house mailman, Kevin. He even bought some of the LP my avant garde record label released in the '90s since he's a vinyl collector as well even though he didn't particularily go for the music. But usually the local PO isn't the ones wrecking stuff, the airport annex is my #1 suspect. My boss who trained me knew I do a lot of a shipping on my own and couldn't wait to show me the airport sorting room.
 
  • #13
I have all packages sent to my office. My front porch faces due south on a busy street.

And also...I never check my mail. :)
 
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