Do You Buy Meat By The Cube Foot...... No !

Sometimes, people in the moving or shipping industry, use a term of measurement, that for whatever, reason,

they never seem to ever define.   Does anyone know the definition of a cube, is?   The simple answer is no.  There

is no such thing, unless you are referring to some sort of object…..

The cubic foot, is a standard of measurement, often used in air shipments, ocean shipments and as a means of

alternative calculations for weight.   It has to do with density.  Still confused, me too….

Here is some truth to add to this discussion.  Movers have used cubic footage pre set measurements, for quite a

long time to actually measure a potential customer’s goods so that they can give an estimate to someone who is

moving….allow me to shed some light to this matter

Mover have used a cube sheet, which lists furniture items, organized into small groups by room designations:

…a dining table is listed among the dining room options, and chairs, with or without arms, and china cabinets

are also on this list…..and any other items that relate to a dining room.  Likewise, in the bedroom sections of the

movers cube sheet, there are items like beds of different sizes, dressers, mirrors, nightstands, etc.

Movers have agreed, that each items has a preset designation of cubic footage next to it: like a dresser would be

30 cube or 40 cube, and a nightstand would be 15 cube, for example.   When the mover gets through walking through

the home, asking if this item is going or not going, he is checking to include or exclude a particular item, and at the end

of the process, he or she will add up the cubic footage, cumulatively, and then use a weight factor to multiply against

the cubic footage count.  

For example, if you have 800 cubic feet on your load or move, movers generally use a factor of 7 pounds per cubic foot,

so in this case, the move is estimated at 5600 pounds.   This is the secret to how movers estimate your home, for cost

purposes, as when the mover comes for this kind of (long distance) move, the mover will weigh his truck prior to the move

for the empty weight, and after the shipment is loaded, the mover gets another weight (heavy) and the difference is the

total weight of the shipment that is being moved.

The problems do come as a result of customers not getting rid of things, finding more items to move than they told the estimator

about, of maybe the estimate was off, as this is possible, but the larger the shipment, the less this does happen provided that

conditions have stayed the same.

The real issue with cubic footage, is that no one understands how to measure it, as the moving or shipping van, counts from floor

of the van to the ceiling, so when a “mover” tries to sell you space on a cubic footage basis, more often than not, if you as the customer

have to load the shipment, you will end up with more cubic footage, as it is hard for the consumer to know how to load a truck like

a professional does.   The customer ends up, usually, looking for a bargain and he or she gets just the opposite.

Movers, professional movers, have cubic footage measurements, like a ruler, that run across the length of the trailer so they can,

at a glimpse, see how the shipment looks, packed in the truck, as if the shipment is scheduled for say, 300 cubic feet or 2100

pounds (7 lbs per cubic foot, general rule).   If the shipment takes more than 300 cubic feet, then something is amiss.

But generally, charging for domestic transportation by selling it on a cube basis, is nothing more than a trick as the only way

you can get a good pricing result is if you have good density, like just boxes of bricks, they are small and weigh a lot and if stacked

floor to ceiling, that shipment will take less space than one that does not have that density nor the ability to stack furniture safely,

floor to ceiling.   This is what the movers, in my opinion, do wrong, they do not stress that professionals, can save the customer

not only money, but a lot of heartache in the moving process.

O’h yea, cube = Length x Width x Height…….divided by 1728 (which is the number of cubic inches in a cubic foot)…

we have a table that is 72 inches long and 48 inches wide, and 36 inches tall, you would do it this way: 72x48x36 divided by 1728

equals 72 cubic feet……I just hope most of you are not sorry you asked this question………

Mark S. Frydman

Box Brothers Corp.

1-800-842-6937

www.boxbros.com

 http://boxbros.com/services/#

This Horse Is Not Going To The UK.

As the President of Box Brothers, I oversee quite a few operations that focus both on the provision

of services to our customers, from both our retail outlets, and our crating and shipping warehouses.

As we have grown from our humble beginnings, we have been fortunate enough to have retained

some very key people (I do not think the word employee is sufficient to explain their true value here)

that make up the Box Brothers Family, as we like to refer to it, as these are the people who have always

treated customers and their possessions, as if they were part of their own family treasures.

I have often commented upon the fact that it would be easy in this business—the business of helping all kinds

of customers move their goods, possessions, investments, and family heirlooms—to say that we have facilitated a move

from one place to another, but it is more than that.   After more than 25 years of Box Brothers helping families come together

for good and bad reasons, to help kids get to college, to help those with the task of distributing estates, to the sending of prizes from

contests, to auction purchases and the even the sending of perishable items like breast milk, we have come to realize

that this is not just moving, or shipping, or even packaging, it is the movement of life and a very important journey for

those who undertake it.    And we at Box Brothers, feel this is an honor that has been bestowed on us by them.

So our duty, and we define it as such, is to provide the very best we can and we do this by acting and treating all items

we touch and handle, as if they were our own.   We double check, triple check, and we never cheat on materials, on labor

or on how we approach the safe transport of whatever item needs to be moved.   Why, elevate the status of service, when

no one even expects good service anymore?  Cause that is our duty to our customers, and I challenge anyone in this business

to have such a solid and great record, both in brick and mortar (on the street) and on the net.

I find this truly remarkable, as none of our so called competitors, have our record of safety, taking care of their customers,

and making sure that they received not only our best effort, but a great result each and every time.

I invite any and all of you to see some of how our family packages items that are large, heavy, high value and difficult in

terms of size, weight and density, such as statues, silver settings, and an architectural model for one of the largest

commercial developments the Western United States has seen in a number of years, the Las Vegas City Center.

But so we are clear and unequivocal, each and every customer we work with gets our best, and our records, reviews and

customer testimony, make this abundantly clear.  

Please enjoy these pictures and know that they come from retail stores, in Los Angeles, our packaging warehouse and

ship centers in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Northern California, and Seattle.   From our family to yours.

Who Is Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf ?

For as long as I can remember, the biggest and most treacherous animal out there,

in the “retail” marketplace has always been Walmart.  I think books—many of them have

been written about the “big bad wolf,” that many have labeled Walmart to be, claiming that

they have been so successful in attracting customers, they have decimated so many small and

independent businesses, that they are a “jobs killer,”, as their detractors have claimed.

As someone who has retail locations, Box Brothers has been in business for a long time, but while

everyone is entitled to their opinions, I for one, do not share this opinion, that Walmart is the “big bad

wolf out there, as if they are all of that, as some claim, how come no one complains about the marketing

tactics of Target, or even the goings on with some other large national chains, like Home Depot, for example.

My premise is that while businesses, retail and otherwise, have gotten not only larger, more complex, but

also more dominant in this society, than at any other time since the inception of the series of rules normally

referred to the Antitrust laws of the United States.   My point is that, for whatever reason, these laws are not

working as they should to protect the American consumer and the American small businessman.   Further,

it is also my contention that Walmart has other detractors, unions for example, as the national supermarkets

simply have higher costs of labor than does Walmart, or even Target.  But why Target is never the target of these

groups, is beyond me and the point of this blog.

For example, this past week, I got some emails from Home Depot, and guess what business Home Depot now wants to be

in, this week?   Flowers—yes, I was solicited from Home Depot to buy roses for Valentines Day on February

14, 2013.   From a warehouse that sells lumber, nails, and everything else under the sun, except groceries.

Leverage is not just a television show, I guess, it is what large firms do to make sure they hammer on smaller

competitors to make sure they out muscle them, out market them and convince potential customers that they

are all that.  In that vein, I also saw a story about Home Depot being the place that is going to hire so many new

employees this year, that they alone will pull this region out of its unemployment doldrums….They used an employee

from the local Home Depot, and they put on a 30 second clinic in how they were such a great place to work, etc, etc, etc.

So, why does not our media ask Home Depot what the starting salary is for these positions, how many people they let

go last year, and how many of those who they are hired are in upper management, today.   And even more telling, how

many of those employees can afford to buy a median priced home in Southern California, or even Las Vegas, for that

matter?  The answer is no one working at Home Depot can even afford to rent a median priced apartment in many parts

of Los Angeles, or Las Vegas.   The same holds true with Target, 95% of all of their employees on the floors of their stores,

make less than $12.00 per hour, with little to no benefits.

If I may, my personal experience is one I would like to offer, to show how sometimes truth can be trampled.   I went to Home Depot

to get some Poinsettias at the start of the holiday season.  I went to Home Depot per their heavy advertisements

offering them, at a good price.   So I went there an hour after the start of the sale, they were sold out.   I asked this

same woman who did the tv spot for them, and she told me that they only got a few and were sold out before the

sale even started…….this from one of the world’s largest retailers and the lady laughed at me, saying what did I

expect.   I told her, that I expected the largest hardward store in the world to make good on their offer as I saw

it as a way to simply get me to their store to buy something else… she walked away and that is the extent of the

help and customer service I have had at Home Depot, as their service stinks.   Why is bait and switch not relevant for

Home Depot, as their TV personality said it to me and called me a fool to think otherwise.   I guess it’s fair for them to

do as they please.

If you follow this line of reasoning, they are justified to go after the flower guys, as why not, the supermarkets hammered

the small independent flower guys years ago (did anyone notice, or care?), but the supermarkets did not get blamed for

hurting the small mom and pop flower stores that were hit with competition from well healed money interests, such as

Safeway and Kroger, a couple of behemoths in their own right.  But Safeway and Ralphs (and Walmart) do not presently

have any presence in the flower delivery business.

What is common among all large businesses, is that they have forgotten their humble beginnings, and moved onto

what they consider, as, greener pastures: another way of saying they can hammer competitors that are small independently

owned businesses easier and faster, than they can larger for well healed ones.   So they all hammer on the small guy, who

has no leverage and today, it is my feeling that the American consumer has simply confused price and service and forgot about

service.  How else can you understand just how large these firms have become so dominant and omnipotent?

What I do not get, is that I have yet to find any of these large firms, that dominate American Business, that are open,

accessible, fair and reasonable—but most importantly, they all would rather hire a focus group to hear what they think

their customers want, instead of simply being brave enough to simply meet their customers and ask them to their face. 

Why?

Cause these decision makers, are so far removed from their actual places of business, and their customers, they would not even

know what to ask or how to answer a question from a customer.   If you own a business, why would you not want to meet and greet

your customers, or speak to them about what is right or wrong with your firm?  Instead, you hire surrogates to come up with what you

can find out on your own, again, I ask why?

Today they make a TV show called Undercover Boss, and no one says how dumb it is that these owners/CEO’s have to

hide their own identity in their own firms, to learn what is going on….so we have now, an entertainment focus group….

how appropriate and no one has the balls to come out and say, is this the best that you can do?

Perhaps the more important question is why do we, as a people, spend our money with those firms who do not care about

them as customers, or who, are even willing to speak to their customers?  Ever try to speak to someone at American Express

who was not a $10.00 per hour employee at a phone bank in El Paso, Texas?  Ever get a letter from American Express from a

corporate officer who had no return address, phone number or a way to engage him with a question? 

How about at Home Depot?   Once I was enticed, as a customer of ADP, the world’s largest provider of processed payroll services,

and they said if anyone ever had an issue with any part of their service, I could call up their corporate offices and speak to one of

their officers.   It worked, I signed up and when I had a problem with one of their phone room people who messed up some of my

employees checks by being negligent and careless, I got put on hold, and they never called me back, they had no idea who was to speak

to me or anything.  It was a pure lie.   And they benefitted by their lies, and then like other large dominate firms, they just spend more

money on branding, trying to get all of us to believe how great and benevolent they are.

As I said earlier, the antitrust rules are not working today, as intended, as large companies are the only firms who can go do work

in China, or Mexico, or some other place with low cost labor, not small businesses, and we have seen a general lack of competition

in trucking, package shipping (only 2 national firms do all of the private transport in the United States), hardware, appliance sales,

and this discussion leaves out the large dominant online firms—that’s for another day.

What is troubling is that when these large firms get comfortable maintaining their market share, they refrain from competing as they

should, and that will lead to some stagnation in our economy, I believe, as they become allegiant to maintaining the status quo, and

not taking any competitive risks.   Since only large firms can have access to money or capital today, this is a hidden plaque on all of us

in America today.  The only new entrepreneurs we will have will be those whose family had the money to get them going, as the large

businesses out there just want to divide a market and maintain it, just like the oil companies, do, and so long as our government allows

this kind of thing to keep going on, the divide between middle class and the wealthy will only get bigger, as this last recession has clearly

shown.

By looking at this picture fairly, and I have no hope this will be done any time soon, that    

Mark S. Frydman

Box Brothers Corp.

1-800-842-6937

www.boxbros.com

Measure Correctly, Mistakes are Costly

For many years, there have been rules associated with shipping that vary according to the mode,

or how you decide to ship your items.

For example, it used to be the case that for most domestic ground packages, your charges would be

simply based upon the actual weight of your shipping container, but today, there are rules about the

how big your package can be, or maximum limits on weight, or even limitations on how long an item can

be for shipping.

For as long as we have been in the shipping business, we have seen it all.   UPS used to have a rule for many

years that nothing could be shipped if the length, width and girth (yes, girth) did not exceed 140 inches, and

they used to give out chains to their customers to use to see if the package in question did not exceed the length

of the chain…….

Today, almost every package that goes into a system (ground shipping, air shipping and international shipping)

has rules associated with how big or how heavy a given package can be.   For the international arena, the rules

get more complex as several nations have their own set of rules about size, etc.   For those of you who have also

had to take a box or a package on a plane trip or use an airline’s cargo division, to ship a pet or something else,

the rules can be not only daunting, but I tell anyone and everyone who asks, to check no less than twice when

getting the permissible sizes.

I had been visiting one of our locations in Nevada and I happen to meet one of our customers, actually a young

married couple with a story that illustrates how these rules for shipping can be complex, easily misunderstood and

often they can end up with some harsh results…..

This couple has two Saint Bernards, and you can tell, to this couple, they are as close to being their children as any

pets can be.   They needed to travel by plane and in their research, the airlines told them they had rules for shipping

pets, that they needed pet carriers, and gave them the maximum size permissible for flying animals on a commercial

airliner.

Long story short, the couple arranged for us to make them crates for their animals, as there were no pre made pet

carriers for dog breeds as large as Saint Bernards (how they can even get a Great Dane, Newfoundland,  or a Mastiffs….

into one of those smaller dog crates is beyond me…..our crates are custom, so we made them to the maximum size,

and we had air grates on both sides so the air would flow, we made wood receptacle frames for food and water

containers, easy access doors, to ensure that there would be no issues.

Our customers loved them, as they were genuinely concerned that these containers were safe, complied with the rules

of the airline, and would house their “loved ones”  for the trip to visit their grandparents.   Only problem is that our customer

was misinformed by the airline, and this resulted in them having to have two more crates made to conform to the airline’s rules.

I know there is more to this story, for sure, but the point is that we were directed to make a set of custom crates for a specific

purpose and this was not a happy ending for them since they had to have the crates remade, through no fault of their own.

So, always be careful when you need to comply with shipping rules, as they are easily misunderstood, complex and largely

inflexible in many cases.   Or if you need to, it never costs more to ask us to confirm measurements and maximum sizes for

different modes of shipment—at Box Brothers and this is the best advice when you need to ship something to a faraway place.

I am very proud of the way we worked with our customers as they told us that almost all other crating firms they contacted were

not interested in helping make a crate with the features that we added for the safe transport of their large family (dogs) members.

For Box Brothers, the customer and their needs are what we come to work for each and every day.   Ask any of our customers,

they know who we work for, even if they are Saint Bernards.  Kudo’s to our staff in Las Vegas, for doing such a great job helping

our customers.

Mark S. Frydman

Box Brothers Corp.

1-800-842-6937

www.boxbros.com

Is Bigger Better?

As the President of Box Brothers Companies, I am often in the proverbial hot seat when it comes to issues

with personnel, customers or in the shipping business, matters to do with shipping damage, delays, as well

as all kinds of other issues.   Just part of running a robust and diverse company with multiple locations and a

very strong commitment to our customers, for the last and only 27 years of since our beginning in 1985.

Of course, with hundreds of packages shipped daily from our retail stores, and dozens of LTL shipments

being shipped daily to our crating services, where this week, we will complete and deliver over 100 crates

to our respective customers---there are bound to be some customers or employees who have issues that

go no further than my desk.

It is important today, to be accessible, as that is the one GINOMIS trait that all of the larger well to do firms

have in common, no matter what their industry segment is, that no one in senior management will purposely

engage any of their customers.  Ever.

While there are exceptions, if I were to be able to give out “academy awards for bad service or a Lip Service Award”

(which means they all talk service but do not talk to their customers), one would have to go to American Express, for

having the biggest phone room without any supervisor ever being present, let alone any corporate officer, as that

info is more than top secret, I know cause I tried…..but UPS wins one of those awards, so does Home Depot, and how

about Avis and Hertz and United Airlines, who is supposed employee owned……

On the contrary, when a customer has an issue, they want to take it to as high a place as they can, so they can

communicate how they feel to be one of your customers.   What I do not get, at all, today, is how they all get

away with it.   I think these firms, who undoubtedly use focus groups, but why imitate what you have already,

customers and why are you afraid to speak to them?   Again, why people patronize these firms when they have

options to patronize firms who are smaller and for whom, your purchase means so much more than just about

anything else.

Today, I got a letter sent to me by a customer in the top (upstate) corner of New York.   One of our managers in

the Bay area, received a letter from this customer after our efforts to get her a set of antique chairs, to her remote

residence, was something we undertook for a customer we did not know prior.   This customer was so amazed at how

personable and friendly and committed to get her this small shipment, at a cost less than any van line in America could

or wanted to do………that when she got the chairs—and even though they were purchased online and when she finally

got them---they turned out to not work for the area she intended them to go----she wrote to us that it did not matter

that they chairs would not work as she intended them to, but that our service and our outreach by our manager, Connie.

was so great, it did not matter, cause now, our customer, has a friend in the shipping industry.   A fan too.

I tell this story as it helps define what we do at Box Brothers and why how we do things, makes all the difference to our
customers and that is why each and every one of our customer, rich or poor, small or big, are crucial to our ongoing success,

and I would not have it any other way.   Any one of our daily thousand customers a day, can call me anytime, or any of our

managers, employees or staff, as customer service, the real customer service is alive and well here at Box Brothers, as that

is who we come to work for each and every day, and to the rest of the world, spend your money where it counts as true

value comes when someone cares about you as a customer and your needs, you are not just a footnote on a balance sheet

and you are not just a number.   To us at Box Brothers, you are the reason we are here.   May we help you?

Mark S. Frydman

Box Brothers Corp.

1-800-842-6937

www.boxbros.com