To reduce shipping damages, a Dutch bike company printed a television on their boxes

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this will not work for very long or on a big scale. its like being the first to wear make up, sure you look prettier but once everyone wears it you fall on the same place as before.

[laminutederire]

1 hour ago, Deli said:

Don't know how things work in the US.

 

In the Netherlands and Germany, because of the EU regulations and in the name of open up the market and bring in the competitions. Many workers in the delivering business are either hired part time through employment agencies, or work as freelancers. They aren't employees of the shipping company. And their earning depends on the number of parcels they delivery. The more they delivery, the more they can earn. So speed is essential. Even for part time workers working in the sorting center. They have to meet a quota per hour. if the container has many big heavy items, you won't make the norm. If you keep missing the norm, you will lose your job. I worked one summer in those place a few years ago..

Don't know either I live in Europe as well.

Only experience I have is how delivery drivers are treated (badly) and if the whole warehouse is treated like that, that may explain why people do stupid things without much respect 

[Deli]

1 hour ago, laminutederire said:

Don't know either I live in Europe as well.

Only experience I have is how delivery drivers are treated (badly) and if the whole warehouse is treated like that, that may explain why people do stupid things without much respect 

If you have to handle thousands of package every day. They will become just an "item". Not saying people will smash it as if it is junk. They just want to get it done quick. To a large extent, it is the responsibility of the sender to have the package packed with enough protection. You won't believe how flimsy people pack their stuffs. I've seen enough.

 

Having said that. I shop online frequently, like everyone. And the postman is a nice guy, always come on time, nothing broke so far. Pretty happy with the service.

[Blackie Sheen]

18 hours ago, VPrime said:

Original Article from the Verge: To reduce shipping damages, a Dutch bike company printed a television on their boxes

 

Image copyright due to Jason Gray - hopefully this is fair use

 

I just thought this was really cool and a practical solution - maybe the way to prevent damage is to make people think they are carrying a big TV.  It's not like the weight will tell them any different.

-snip-

The weight is extremely different. TV's are extremely heavy particularly considering one that would fit in one of these boxes. The weight comparison is not even close. But nonetheless, still a brilliant idea. People still would'nt dare to break a tv even if they are not sure there is one in the box.

[laminutederire]

55 minutes ago, Deli said:

If you have to handle thousands of package every day. They will become just an "item". Not saying people will smash it as if it is junk. They just want to get it done quick. To a large extent, it is the responsibility of the sender to have the package packed with enough protection. You won't believe how flimsy people pack their stuffs. I've seen enough.

 

Having said that. I shop online frequently, like everyone. And the postman is a nice guy, always come on time, nothing broke so far. Pretty happy with the service.

That's mostly because online shop, all the more if they're specialized in computer hardware, pack everything correctly and choose their delivery company wisely.

[Deli]

1 hour ago, Blackie Sheen said:

The weight is extremely different. TV's are extremely heavy particularly considering one that would fit in one of these boxes. The weight comparison is not even close. But nonetheless, still a brilliant idea. People still would'nt dare to break a tv even if they are not sure there is one in the box.

The bicycle company is selling street bike, not MTB or light weight road bike. Many of their bikes range from 16-20Kg. While a 60" LG TV is about 25Kg. The difference isn't that big.

[Blackie Sheen]

1 minute ago, Deli said:

The bicycle company is selling street bike, not MTB or light weight road bike. Many of their bikes range from 16-20Kg. While a 60" LG TV is about 25Kg. The difference isn't that big.

That makes more sense to me now. I guess I could of searched for that information beforehand but I just expected a traditional bike.

[colonel_mortis]

This is interesting, but it's not tech news, so I've moved it to Off Topic.

[iamdarkyoshi]

11 minutes ago, colonel_mortis said:

but it's not tech news

[dalekphalm]

11 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Pretty sure thats another bike obscured in the background. I don't think the shipper is going to bother peeping into the carry holes to verify the contents.

 

Clever use of the box shape. My only concern is that bikes and TVs may fall into separate classification for the purpose of cross border shipping and taxes.

They probably would be different categories. But all their shipping paperwork, border clearance, etc, will all still be filed under "Bicycles" and whatever category that falls into. Literally all they've done is stuck a picture of a bike on the box. That won't change what category it gets sorted into. They don't sort things based on the box picture, they sort it based on the category that the barcode tells them. They scan the barcode, and it'll tell them everything they need to know about classifications, etc.

 

And since the box is for shipping purposes only, and not for advertisement purposes, there's no risk of false advertisement, etc. So there's really no downside to doing this. They can't get in trouble for it.

47 minutes ago, Deli said:

The bicycle company is selling street bike, not MTB or light weight road bike. Many of their bikes range from 16-20Kg. While a 60" LG TV is about 25Kg. The difference isn't that big.

Indeed, some bikes can easily outweigh a TV.

 

Hell, we got a 60" LED LCD TV at work that weighs practically nothing. I guarantee that my Mountain Bike weighs twice as much as that TV at work.

 

Now my 50" Plasma on the other hand? Probably weighs close to 50kg or something - it's heavy as fuck, because the screen is one giant sheet of actual glass.