This is topic Airborne in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 12-15-2000, 03:16 PM:
Just read Mike Blakesley's post on Technicolor. They are generally not too bat to us. BUT, AIRBORNE is another story. Ever wonder why shipping reels are busted? Watch Airborne handle anything. Today I watched as the cans we shippped were thrown from the back of the truck against the screen behind the seat and fell to the floor, then slammed against some other cargo labeled fragile. Occasionally they call to say the driver was on our street but could not find the theatre. It is a five story building in the midst of single story shops, has a BIG sign, a marquee over the sidewalk, has street numbers prominately posted and no, it is not new. Are these people stupid or what? Given the chance they could break an anvil and deliver the remains to the wrong place, if they could find it.
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-15-2000, 05:55 PM:
Yup. TES does not break the reels or bend the cases...the bad thing is that they keep USING them!
Posted by Erik Schill (Member # 675) on 12-15-2000, 11:04 PM:
does anyone find that Airborne is really sketchy with drop off times, Every thursday Technicolor always has the prints there promptly at 11:00am, however, our airborne prints don't come in sometimes till 6:00pm or later, once in a great while they'll be there before noon, but that is a ratety, the other day we has a sneak of something, don't remember what, and the sneek was at 7:10, and we didn't get the print till like 5:30 that night
Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 12-15-2000, 11:53 PM:
Eric made the statement that the Technicolor prints were there promptly as shoudl be, but the Airborne prints were always late.. or something to that effect...My point.. from everything *I* have been told, Airborne is basically the *sole* delivery system for Technicolor prints and have been for, what, two+ years now?
I read here that they could now use UPS & USPS if need be in more rural areas..
Correct me if I am wrong...
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The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 12-15-2000, 11:58 PM:
Airborne Express is SUPPOSED to be a "large package" shipper who specializes in packages 50# and over. So, okay... film cans are that heavy but it seems that Airborne is delivering small packages like letters and "overnight boxes" too. I think PART of their problem is that they are trying to compete with FedEX and UPS for the regular overnight business and that's causing them to get overloaded.I think it's a case of trying to do too much with too little.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 12-16-2000, 05:45 AM:
Interestingly, in smaller towns, it is fairly common for the "Airborne" drivers to not really be Airborne employees at all, but rather so-called "subcontractors." In other words, it's people who deliver movies on Thursday nights as a part-time job. These are the people who would show up at 9:00pm to pick up a print of a film that was scheduled to end at 9:15. Anyway, they seemed alright...instead of being the big, strong Airborne gorillas, they were usually incapable of carrying shipping cases filled with film without using a special little wheeled dolly thing that looked like it was designed for transporting film containers.Oh, BTW, does anyone else think that ICC film shipping cases were really poorly designed? It's as if they're intentionally designed to roll over and crash into things if you try to put them in a car in an upright position. The only way to transport these is to either wedge them between the front and back seats or to lay them flat in the trunk or back of a station wagon, where they will slide all over the place and make thumping noises.
I guess the one good thing about Airborne is that they charge only $16 per film, which is about half of what ETS does, both of which are a bargain compared to shipping films via UPS (to/from Kit Parker, etc.) at $40-50 each way.
My favorite shipping company is FedEx, but they almost never ship films, unfortunately. They're pretty expensive, but they deliver on time and don't damage things. Just don't send anything via "FedEx Ground" which is the old RPS, which does tend to damage things...
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-16-2000, 11:42 AM:
Scott,You're still only paying $16 for Airborne? We've been at $17.50 for around a year now and it's supposed to go up to $18-something next month. (fuel costs are blamed.)
Posted by Erik Schill (Member # 675) on 12-16-2000, 01:06 PM:
All of our technicolor prints are dropped off by Fed Ex, everything else comes through Airborne, and UPS in basically useless, they swing by like once a week and MIGHT bring a trailor, but that's it, oh and a poster every now and then