
Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on box - Someone
https://medium.com/vanmoof/our-secrets-out-f21c1f03fdc8
======
charlieegan3
Related:
[https://www.atheistberlin.com/study](https://www.atheistberlin.com/study) \-
Shoe company finds relationship between lost packages and package branding.

~~~
icanhackit
Atheist shoes? I'd worry they'd arrive without soles...

...I'll see myself out.

~~~
throwaway2016a
While off topic. This is pretty great. If I ever run into someone with these
shoes I need to remember this.

------
GigabyteCoin
Popular Mechanics found different results when they did a similar study [0].

>"One disheartening result was that our package received more abuse when
marked "Fragile" or "This Side Up." The carriers flipped the package more, and
it registered above-average acceleration spikes during trips for which we
requested careful treatment."

[0]
[http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/reviews/a6284/whi...](http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/reviews/a6284/which-
shipping-company-is-kindest-to-your-packages/?click=pp)

~~~
Dylan16807
Across a sample size of 12 trips total.

~~~
GigabyteCoin
That was a disappointingly small sample size given the nature of the magazine,
I agree.

On the other hand, I doubt this technique has been tried with hundreds of
bikes yet either. So everything about these statements could just be worthless
information I suppose.

------
analog31
I should paint a TV on _myself_ for when I'm riding my bike in traffic.

~~~
J-dawg
A researcher from Bath University found that drivers gave him less space when
he was wearing a helmet.

They gave him the most space when he was wearing a long blonde wig.

[http://archive.cosmosmagazine.com/news/blonde-wigs-safer-
hel...](http://archive.cosmosmagazine.com/news/blonde-wigs-safer-helmets-
cyclists/)

~~~
analog31
That study is cited in every debate about helmet use, yet it was barely
scientific -- the researcher was his own test subject.

It would be interesting to see if the effect is reproducible under better
experimental controls, such as analyzing video recordings from places where
there is a lot of mixed car and bike traffic. Of course the analysis would
have to be automated to avoid bias.

The data could then be combined with an estimate of the actual increase of
crash risk correlated with passing distance, e.g., how many crashes are due to
drivers passing too closely. _What actual risk is being influenced here?_

In my experience (anecdotal of course) of near-misses, the drivers were not
aware of my presence at all, typically because they only look for what they
expect to see. It's hard to imagine a mechanism in their brains, scanning for
helmets but not cyclists.

------
delinka
For Science: Let's see if LG's willing to have some TV boxes printed with
bicycles...

~~~
muthdra
BREAKING: Television manufacturers receive threats from printing companies.

~~~
jrockway
Why?

~~~
slyall
The joke the previous poster was making is that the boxes were printed "by"
bicycles instead of being printed by printers. Hence the printer companies
would be unhappy.

~~~
mistersquid
OT, I know, but I find it amazing how slippery language and meaning can
sometimes be. (I was once a professional word nerd.)

In particular, your read is in a completely different direction than mine
which is:

1\. Premise (GGGP): TV boxes printed (by printers) depicting bicycles on the
outside.

2\. Joke (GGP): TV manufacturers are threatened by printing companies
demanding protection money, which if not paid will result in printers
depicting bicycles on the outside of boxes containing manufacturers' TVs.

Your read is much more sophisticated than mine and, in my opinion, is a fairly
novel and creative joke, at least neutral if not intriguing.

While the joke I see is predictable to the point of tedium, I'm not sure it's
so bad or offensive it's worth hitting GGP's karma.

EDIT: formatting

~~~
jrockway
The "..." in the original implies omitted words. If the meaning was to print
by using bicycles, the sentence would have ended with a single period.
Instead, it elides "on them" ;)

------
has2k1
This is analogous to Batesian mimicry [1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batesian_mimicry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batesian_mimicry)

~~~
Kapura
"Capitalism Imitates Life"

Spot on comparison though. Just proves that millions of years of evolution has
solved a bunch of problems for us if we know where to look.

------
WalterBright
Unfortunately, the boy who cried wolf will apply if this is more widely
adopted, and then pity the poor folks who order TVs.

~~~
creshal
Maybe the resulting increase in shipping insurance payouts will finally force
logistics companies to actually give a fuck about their quality. It's about
time.

~~~
toomuchtodo
More shock stickers on all products please!

~~~
saidajigumi
Thought experiment: for sufficiently fragile & expensive products, attach a
small black-box style "smart tag" equipped with a accelerometers. It's reset
when yielded to the shippers, and read when the shipment is delivered. If the
recorded accelerations are out of bounds (e.g. beyond the shipper's SLAs,
beyond packaging standards, etc.), then there's ready evidence of shipper
abuse.

~~~
Gracana
Simple and cheap versions of this exist:
[https://www.uline.com/Grp_332/Damage-
Indicators](https://www.uline.com/Grp_332/Damage-Indicators)

[edit] Uh, maybe not so cheap from this particular company. You probably
_could_ do this for less with a little electronic device.

~~~
SapphireSun
I think they send you a box. You have to divide by 10 or 100 or whatever to
get the real price per a unit. 5 bucks for a damage indicator for a very
expensive item isn't too unreasonable.

Thanks for the link, these little devices are super interesting!

~~~
nucleardog
When I've seen these it's not even "one sticker per item", there's been one
attached to an entire pallet of TVs or other electronics, which is probably
why the price looks a little high on a per-item basis.

------
massysett
I wonder if the number of stolen boxes (either while in shipment or when left
on porches) went up?

~~~
jrockway
Will any delivery company actually just leave a TV on your porch?

~~~
Consultant32452
In the same week UPS made me sign for a set of $5 kitchen utensils I'd ordered
off Amazon but left a Mac Mini on my doorstep no problem.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
Been there. It's worse with condos too where they often refuse to deliver
unless you're there, they won't even take a signed note. Really annoying when
you have a textbook delivery and an upcoming assignment.

~~~
hunterwerlla
Even worse when you can't get your package because they give no delivery
window and attempt to deliver it to you during class, make you pick it up
somewhere, then say it's your fault for not being at home 24/7.

~~~
startling
My apartment door buzzer calls my phone. Generally _they don 't even attempt
to buzz me_, and then make me pick it up on the other side of the city.

~~~
kaybe
Wow, cool. Where did you get that? Does it also have other features such as
allowing you to talk to the person in front of the door?

~~~
mschuster91
There are interfaces for most common door buzzer systems. I have mine linked
to my FritzBox, super nice if you're taking a bath and someone rings...

------
userbinator
I wonder what sort of damage these bikes are receiving, because they're
designed to be ridden by a person... a TV is definitely far more fragile.

~~~
at-fates-hands
Honestly I'm not sure. I worked at a bike shop and we would box and ship a
bike for $50. I sold and shipped probably 4 bikes when I worked there and they
all were received without so much as a scratch.

I'd lay this one on the bike company. I'm guessing they didn't have big enough
boxes for cardboard to sit between the bike and the outer box, or didn't add
enough padding around the tubes or some combination of both.

~~~
taeric
You are also working on a much smaller sample size than the bike company. :) I
see the story says a 70% to 80% drop in damages. I don't see the total
numbers.

My guess is that it it was still a low percentage, but that this was still
worth the change. And, it would have been immeasurable at the scale you were
talking about.

------
Darthy
I see a possible solution here using technology:

Senders should add a small $1 "black box" recording acceleration data, and
shipping companies should be able to query for a certain package and a certain
timestamp, which employee was accountable at that moment.

Then when you receive a broken package, the black box tells you the timestamp
when it was thrown to the ground, you tell that to the shipping company, which
then finds the employee at fault and gives him/her a warning/sacks him/her.

~~~
Maxious
Products similar to this do exist including "intervention services"...
presumably for more than $1 though
[http://customcritical.fedex.com/us/services/secure/monitorin...](http://customcritical.fedex.com/us/services/secure/monitoring.shtml)

------
xir78
Boeing puts a picture of a Lamborghini on their first class seats while in the
factory in Evert to covey the cost of them -- amazingly they do cost about as
much as one too.

~~~
Veratyr
Do you have anywhere I can read more about this? It sounds interesting.

~~~
xir78
Go to their factory tour. :)

Could just find a mention here:
[http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/inside-the-
dreamlin...](http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/inside-the-dreamliner-
factory-a-tour-of-boeings-1174074)

But it's on a seat cover and it's a cheesy clip art pic. Not much to it.

------
hanoz
Printing wolf on the box would see them some careful handling too, for a
while...

~~~
whoopdedo
Or a bobcat. Or just put one in the box.

Is the success rate of printing the decoy box that much better for the
relative cost compared to just putting shock stickers on the box, though?
Probably. But one is an accidental effect with no guarantee that it will work,
versus a tool that is designed for this specific purpose.

~~~
dredmorbius
[https://www.xkcd.com/325/](https://www.xkcd.com/325/)

------
satysin
Wonderful (part) solution. I love things like this that tap into the mind so
subtly.

~~~
Waterluvian
My favourite is how it's easier to sell a couch for $20 than it is to give
away. Proven three times in undergrad.

~~~
colejohnson66
Maybe the thought process is "well, if it's free, it must be so bad he doesn't
even want $5 for it, so I'll pass". Could be wrong though.

------
losteverything
The "never get damaged" parcels are the live chicks we deliver (and the return
empty).

If someone told me they improved shipping damage by a simple outside change
that much I would say the have poor parcel design and strength to begin with.

Daily I see idiotic mailers with improper packaging. Examples diapers normally
on a grocery shelf with open space on the underside (Amazon is famous for
this) that are exposed

Liquids that spill over other unprotected parcels and slugs.

LPs with soft cardboard.

Anything sent from an Etsy source. It's a serious joke.

The article claim is very questionable in my mind from my perspective. Even
the worst package gets through unscathed. I deliver coconuts from Hawaii with
only a stamp and Sharpie address.

The greatest factor in the proper safe arrival of a parcel is NOT the delivery
BUT THE PACKING. Take that to the bank.

------
jaimebuelta
The details of shipping are quite interesting. Martin Guitars (a well know
brand) removes absolutely every reference to their brand or the fact that they
are guitars or musical instruments in the external packaging, while keeping an
internal box with their logo, etc... a box within a box

They started doing so after having issues with "disappearing" guitars in
transit (though probably at the moment with all the new tracking systems this
is more complicated nowadays)

Their packaging is also quite protective, as you can imagine with a musical
instrument...

------
0xmohit
Fantastic.

Now I hope that some car manufacturers would introduce new models that look
like a TV thereby resulting in fewer accidents and lost lives.

------
younghak
In Korea, the magic phrase is 'contains kimchi' and you are guaranteed of safe
delivery. All hell break loose when kimchi leaks; boxes get wet and smelly,
kimchi stains don't come off easy so delivery people take extra measures to
prevent it.

------
kylehotchkiss
When I ordered my bike from UK (Evans cycles is awesome), it shipped via DHL.
They're pretty high on the meh scale. The box had double corregated cardboard
and the bike was packed for war. I'm sure it wasn't handled gently. That seems
like the expectation with shipping. Super cool this hack is! Maybe one day
they'll try a picture of a glass chandailer too.

This all said, 90% of the boxes I get from Amazon via UPS are in perfect
condition - it's remarkable how well they handle small packages.

There's a national geographic show called "ultimate factories" that has an
episode called "ups worldport". Super fascinating. I recommend it!

~~~
hkmurakami
Can attest to the variance in shipping packaging quality.

Bought an 80's Italian steel bike from an Italian brick and mortar restoration
shop -- excellent packaging, foam padding, positioning, etc.

Bought an 80's steel bike from a US individual -- really shoddy packaging and
positioning of the bike (why would you leave the rear derailer and drop outs
exposed to external shock?) that resulted in a trip to the shop to get the
drop outs bent back into place. Luckily no damage to derailer.

Moral of the story -- I'll be looking specifically for "professionally
packaged by bike shop" for future purposes.

------
backtoyoujim
I have a conspiracy theory that the entire delivery infrastructure in the US
(all the u's, p's s's, and f __ __' s) have been infiltrated by
Scientology/Chucky Cheeze.

I'm still fine tuning it.

------
lttlrck
Bikes are not packed particular well. The top and bottom staples pull out
quite easily and could pop out under reasonable twisting. They really should
be strapped.

I bought a bike from Jet and it arrived damaged, the box popped open, parts
had fallen out. Returned that (trouble free which was nice) and ordered
another from Amazon instead.

Amazon have a checkbox to have large deliveries that would normally not be in
an Amazon branded box placed in one at no extra cost. Checked that box knowing
it would act as sacrificial outer layer.

------
Nanite
Pretty decent piece of stealth marketing! Catchy blog posting about a fragile
goods shipping hack, raises brand awareness for a company, it's products and
its mission.

------
slovette
This does not surprise me. To inflict change, you don't need to control the
person, you just need to control their perception of reality.

~~~
Etheryte
Everything clever seems obvious once you already know it.

~~~
hinkley
I encourage you to seek a better class of cleverness.

There are a bunch of clever things that I still have to remind myself exactly
how they work. Several kinds of data compression come to mind.

------
williwu
Genius idea. Similar idea applies for iPhone's anonymous shipping packaging
and plain envelope for credit cards -> reduce theft.

------
logicallee
True, but they could reduce damage even more by putting a picture of a stained
glass window and giant letters "HIGHLY FRAGILE DELICATE STAINED GLASS WINDOW!
HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE!!" on it. That would certainly reduce damages
further.

The problem is that it isn't one (a TV). Why would someone feel mortified if
they accidentally drop a packaged bicycle from 2-3 feet (typical carrying
height) when a fully assembled bike can be dropped from 2-3 feet, and this is
packaged, so it should be even safer. On the other hand no one would feel free
to drop a packaged LCD TV from even half a foot because people know it
includes a giant pane of essentially glass, and they know that there are
limits to what packaging can do.

So, yeah, by failing to meet expectations when it comes to packaging a
bicycle, they can reduce damages by writing on it that it's a TV instead. All
right.

But isn't this still them not meeting expectations exactly? If they write on
it that it's a delicate stained-glass window, that would still be not meeting
expectations. If the handler is the one with unreasonable expectations or
behavior (if 2-3 feet isn't a reasonable drop height and should be considered
a failure), then maybe educate the handler with some writing or warnings on
the packaging.

isn't the real issue here that handler's expectations of bike packaging does
not meet bike packaging's characteristics? so, you could tackle it head-one by
writing care instructions.

alternatively, the article says only 70-80% reduction in damages was achieved.
Maybe by lying and saying it is delicate stained-glass, handle with extreme
care, they could up that to 95% reducted. I guess I've just saved them 15% of
their former damages (even higher percentage of their remaining damages) with
this one neat trick.

~~~
maxerickson
With the smallest bit of planning you can just never drop any box.

I honestly wouldn't expect a packaged bicycle to survive a 3 foot drop; the
air in the tires does a lot of the work when you are riding it, in the package
you might accidentally drop much of the load on a sensitive point or whatever.

I get that you are arguing they should package the bike to your expectations
so that it shouldn't matter if you drop the package 3 feet onto the most
sensitive point, but I wonder why you expect them to accurately read _your_
mind instead of skimping on packing material.

~~~
jononor
I've probably dropped some tens of manufacturer-packaged bicycles 3-6 foot,
they were practically all OK. Not that I would advocate such practice, it
would be very risky. Each spring 3 of us would haul ~500 bikes into our shop
storage over couple of days. The bikes are usually stored stacked up, 3 ontop
vertically if you got the ceiling height[1]. Sometimes 3 vertical + 1/2/3
horizontal uptop, then you have to toss the last ones up there. End of a long
day you get tired&sloppy, so sometimes one topple over or don't get all the
way there...

1\.
[http://www.camdencycles.co.uk/images/uploads/website%20Doc/b...](http://www.camdencycles.co.uk/images/uploads/website%20Doc/bike-
warehouse-boxes.jpg)

------
kalefranz
This makes me smile inside. Hacking at it's best.

------
kardashian007
Handwritten address, "Do the right thing" and "family sentimental heirlooms"
might also work.

------
santoshalper
What a great idea, but this really feels like the kind of thing they should
have kept quiet about.

------
seesomesense
Time to replace the humans in the logistics chain with robots.

------
TorKlingberg
Blogspam. Original: [https://medium.com/vanmoof/our-secrets-
out-f21c1f03fdc8](https://medium.com/vanmoof/our-secrets-out-f21c1f03fdc8)

~~~
Someone
I saw that, but decided to go for the secondary source because they hugely
improved the title. _" Our secret’s out"_ is way less informative and, IMO,
too much attention-seeking.

Yes, I could have tried to mix the new title with the original post, but I
feared that would get changed back.

Also, in a sense,
[https://twitter.com/jasongay/status/772556605548326912](https://twitter.com/jasongay/status/772556605548326912)
is the original, but that's _" [citation needed]"_

~~~
sctb
OK, we've updated the URL from [http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-
news/bike-manufac...](http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/bike-
manufacturer-reduces-delivery-damage-70-per-cent-printing-tv-box-285180) but
kept the title.

------
aluhut
It seems like people who are responsible don't care anymore. Maybe it's the
wages, the pressure or whatever. It looks like it's about time to replace even
more humans from the equation.

~~~
Noos
The wage for a UPS driver is somewhere around $11 an hour, with seasonal
temporary help making less. Most of them are part time drivers, so they have
to work a second job to make ends meet. Surprisingly, if you pay people crap
and force them to look for new employment while working for you due to low
wages, no hours, and poor advancement opportunities, you tend to get bad
service. And if you rely on seasonal temps you WILL get bad service, as they
have little loyalty to you beyond the month or two you pay them.

But no, first answer is always "remove people" I guess. Like you even can, no
robot is going to be able to do a UPS job any time soon.

~~~
alistairSH
Source for those wages? Anecdote: I have several high school friends who
drive/deliver for UPS, it's a union shop, they appear to be reasonably well
paid (both own homes in typical middle-class neighborhoods, take vacations,
etc).

~~~
jonknee
They are pretty well paid, but it's probably not the drivers doing the damage.
Drivers don't load their trucks.

~~~
alistairSH
That's definitely true. The trucks are loaded in the early AM, so the drivers
can hit the road ASAP. Does make me wonder what surveillance systems are in
place in the warehouse and loading areas? Or if that would even make a
difference? I have no idea, never worked in a warehouse.

~~~
asddddd
Quite likely they get damaged even before that, while they are on semi trucks
(feeders). Assuming that loaders don't realize these are vulnerable to crush
damage, they could get stacked on top of each other at the bottom of a loaded
semi with moderately heavy stuff on top. Judging from boxed bikes I've seen,
there is minimal or no padding, so this could easily result in damage. Not
sure if it's official UPS policy, but it's _much_ less likely for a
presumably-expensive TV to end up stacked like that.

Surveillance - that's what supervisors are for. Really though, you have
800-1000 packages to load into 3-4 cars over 3-5 hours. When you have 20 of
these bikes arrive on the conveyor belt in a 30 minute window and nowhere to
put them (since it's hours from shift end and you can't put them in the
delivery truck yet), they get dealt with fast and not so gently. That could
easily mean a 3-4 ft drop onto concrete, and a supervisor would be unlikely to
care since they know the pressure to go fast. The official policy is "hand to
surface" for every package, but in reality you have to work at a pace where
this is impractical - so it's ignored apart from egregious abuse of packages.

edit: as for discussion elsewhere here about proper packaging, here's FedEx
guidelines/testing:
[http://www.fedex.com/us/services/pdf/PKG_Testing_Under150Lbs...](http://www.fedex.com/us/services/pdf/PKG_Testing_Under150Lbs.pdf)

Some of the criteria, such as dropping the package 10x from a 30" height,
might seem absurd if you haven't seen how the sausage is made. It really
isn't.

~~~
barnassey
I worked for ups about 5 years ago and i can for sure say that you are
absolutely right about the hand to surface not being used due to package load.
I still have friends that work there and now they have to scan packages before
they pack them as well. Also the load has gone up. You generally have to load
about 200 to 2800 packages over your shift. So its pretty much hell. They also
blacklist you if you was seasonal and had to stop working for the company for
any reason. So that lowers who can go back as well.

------
gnipgnip
I wonder if this works when flying :P

~~~
Symbiote
A picture of a bicycle works well then.

Most baggage is clothes etc, but the handlers understand a huge box with a
bicycle drawn on the side.

(I've only flown twice with a bicycle. London Heathrow accepts a bike in a
thick polythene bag, and SAS accept one with no bag at all. The bike wasn't
damaged either time.)

------
orblivion
Clever, but seems ethically questionable.

Why do the shippers care about breaking a TV? Presumably there are
repercussions, such as an insurance plan. So why don't those repercussions
just apply to bicycles? If they're fined for enough bikes being broken, they
should probably learn that they need be more careful than they thought, right?

EDIT: Toning down my choice of words.

~~~
civilian
Organizations are bad at communication. How do you disseminate that the
information that "look guys, bicycles are fragile too" to ten of thousands of
logistics workers?

This is an awesome hack, and it's a great way to fix behavior without having
to collide with bureaucracy.

It's not ethically fraudulent because the shipper shouldn't be breaking
anything. And I'm sure they do pay fees for what they break, and the shipping
company is trying to do what it can fix that, but putting a picture of a TV on
the box is _still_ more effective than whatever the shipping company is
trying.

I'm scared to think what else you would view as ethical fraud, if pictures-on-
boxes qualifies. I tell baristas that I want "room for cream" in my Americano.
But I never put cream in it--- I just want less volume so that when I walk I
won't spill hot coffee on my hand. #EthicalFraud

~~~
orblivion
Well I didn't say it was a huge deal necessarily. Just not totally clean.
Perhaps fraud was a bad choice of words and I changed it. And I agree it's a
very interesting hack.

I don't necessarily agree that a shipper shouldn't be breaking anything. I
think that they should meet whatever the agreement was. If the agreement is
"we'll try super hard not to break stuff" and they're clearly not holding up
their side of the bargain when it comes to bikes, then sure, changing the
picture is fair game. If the agreement is "we'll pay for anything that
breaks", then they should determine how careful they want to be, since they're
footing the bill for it. Making that determination for them by changing the
picture, I think is not totally honest, unless they also have a history of not
paying up.

~~~
c22
I think it's ethically questionable to carelessly break things people are
waiting for just because the thing is perceived to have low monetary value.
The shipping company may have to eat the dollar cost of the item, but the cost
to the sender and receiver in time and hassle is non-negligible.

~~~
21
I don't think it's about the monetary value. Your typical bike is more
expensive than your typical TV (but your average shipping guy might think all
bikes cost like the super-market ones)

I think it's just the perception that bikes are "rough" and that they can take
a beating. Which is true, but only when fully assembled and driven on
road/terrain, not when you bang at it from the side.

------
Theodores
Most things arrive fully assembled. With that TV you just plug it in and that
is it. You don't have to adjust the HDMI sockets with a screwdriver or double
check the earth lead is correctly bolted on. You don't have to get a spanner
out to adjust that five degree tilt to one side in the base.

But with a bicycle, it is an entirely different story. The seat is not
centered on the rails, nice and level. Much has to be assembled and that is
understandable, however, the brakes and the gears rarely work as well as
Shimano intended. The bike is part assembled and the consumer is left to do
the rest. Rarely is the finished result as polished as the fit and finish that
the TV arrives with.

If a bicycle manufacturer jost got that final assembly together so that only
seat height adjustment was needed with nothing else needing a double check,
then they might be able to sell to the end customer properly. As it is there
is no quality in the final delivery, bikes sent to the customer will be far
from expertly 'tuned'.

~~~
21
If the consumer doesn't want to assemble it himself he can take the package to
his local bike shop (or order it through them). They will also give you a
"tuning" if you want.

It's sort of like IKEA furniture.

