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.

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

Here We Grow Again....Nostalgia or Are Times Really Changing?

While it is difficult to always answer a question about what true direction our economy is actually
heading in, I am fortunate to be able to announce that Box Brothers is officially growing again, like we used to......

Box Brothers of Las Vegas, is officially getting a new expanded facility, just across the highway
from the famous, Las Vegas Strip.

What is most exciting is that our Las Vegas operations will now have a centralized location near all
the Casino's, and adjacent to Highway 15; that our Custom Crating Division and our Casino Services
Division will not only be closer to our clients, but these two key divisions of Box Brothers, will have expanded capabilities to do more of these services, as demanded by our clients.

This is our 19th year in the Las Vegas market, and we are very proud of our staff and our operations
as we have a reputation in Las Vegas as being one of the best service providers in this large and ever
changing environment.

We look forward to our grand opening celebration, which is scheduled to take place just before the
July 4th holiday, but our operations will begin in our new facility on June 4, 2012.

Our new location is at 4255 Dean Martin Drive, Unit H, Las Vegas, Nevada 89103.   We can be reached
at 800 355-7917, or on our website, boxbros.com

We can actually attest to the fact that we are growing again.......

Leap Year From Las Vegas.

February is supposed to be a month of catching up from the hustle and bustle of the holidays, but our store has been running non-stop. Me and Cowboy had to crate 5 huge 8'x8x8' dragon statues for the Wynn Casino while Chris had to pick up and pack over 100 awards. We filled a whole Fed-Ex Truck twice with all the boxes and lucky for us the Fed-Ex driver didn't even complain once! Aside from the usual strange size pictures we have to pack up and the normal household freight Gus/Cody get out each day the month has been steady. Gus even picked up a 700lb bronze statue from the Fashion Show Mall on the Strip. He had to go down a flight of stairs and across the whole mall, I have no idea how he managed it but it gone done on time like usual. 

I wanted to talk about how long our boxes last, a customer came in the other week requesting a generalized box. She brought in an old box brothers box that had tons of old tape and labels on it. She told me the artwork that traveled in that box brothers custom cardboard box has traveled around the world 3 times and has been to over 50 countries. I was pretty amazed that it has held up for over 2 years while traveling so far while keeping its structure. We made her an exact box and told her we will see her again in another 2 years!

Happy leap year everyone!!
Jacob P.

Has the Economy Really Turned a Corner? A Small Business Perspective....A Mixed Bag In an Election Year

I have written before that I, myself, a small business person of many years, would actually see
the recession weary economy--would actually get stronger as the months before the next national election, this coming November, 2012.

For most small businesses, with retail and online offerings, it is no secret that sales fell off a cliff
when the recession started and no matter what anyone says, or reports (unless you are in the oil
or insurance business), business has not come back to the level it was prior to the recession.

Many of us have been holding on, figuring that business had to improve at some point, but for many, I have found, they have lost their ability to even be optimistic. That is one of the reasons, I believe, that there is so much emotion built into this coming election. People are tired
of this suffering and they somehow think that electing a new leader will change that, or that staying the course is the best option.

I really do not care, and many of those who know me might now believe me, but I simply want my business and my employees to be better off than they were a month ago, a year ago or even
two years ago--but that is not the case and I am right there with them.

Those hopes of better times and more business due to the election, due to the improved job numbers, and monthly governmental reports--all seemed to indicate, especially with today's jobs report, that times are actually getting better. Allow me to indulge some of what I saw and heard in the last week.

I was visiting Las Vegas on business last week. A giant concrete show was just ending, but when I was there midweek, the town was pretty empty, no gambling tables were full and most if not all of the casinos were at less than 60% capacity. Then I saw two to three construction sites half done, work abandoned, like a giant sculpture of our times: incredible promise and beauty, unfulfilled. Then I heard that some homes actually went up a little.......when I returned to one of our retail stores, I was helping a customer who had come in looking for a box and some packing supplies. He was shipping an auto part. I asked him if this was for his business, and he told me
that it was not; that he was picking parts off his car to be able to pay the rent, selling them on eBay. I gave him some free materials for his shipment.

I then dealt with a customer who sold an old beer sign to someone on eBay, and it broke in transit and the buyer nixed the sale through Pay pal, so the customer was out $250.00.
She called us screaming, like we had assaulted her, as Pay pal took her food money, apparently.
She blamed us and then I asked her for a little time to put the facts together and do an investigation on her behalf, as the service we provided to her was from another one of our
local Las Vegas outlets.

I spoke to the manager who handled the transaction and recalled the details and had put together a file, just in case something happened. He told me that he informed the customer
that in order to prevent damage, she had to protectively pack this item with cushioning on all
six (6) of its sides, as just wrapping the item with Bubble Warp or Paper, would not ensure its
safe arrival. After, we do this for a living, we always inform the customer so they can decide
if they want to take the risk or pay the cost of doing it right.

This customer chose not to do it right, for two reasons: one, today, the package carriers charge for size and packing this sign right meant that she would be charged more for shipping it, due to the enlarged size, and two, she did not want to spend the money to have us guarantee pack the sign.

This was not about fairness, equity or what she did not do or if she got what she bargained for,
as all of that was true, but she was just going crazy cause she had no money to feed her children
because Pay pal took her money unilaterally.

I hope that the jobs numbers are actually true, as help needs to come quick to those who need it most, and the problem from my perspective, is that these recoveries are often uneven and unfair as sometimes, the rich get richer before the poor or middle class gets better, but I am not
talking about politics here, it is just that housing, which got hit hard in this recession, affects those in California, Nevada and Arizona more, as that was our economic core driver in the past, since we do not make or manufacture anything in the west anymore.

I have seen signs, as some might suggest that our business--selling moving boxes, helping people move, small loads, packaging and crating, stock boxes, packaging aid, shipping, moving, etc., are all activities that lead to more activity. If a customer buys a few moving boxes, and moves, he engages all kind of services, from alarms, furniture, carpet cleaning, maid service, painting, plumbing, remodeling, construction, water bottle service, not to mention a new customer for the dry cleaning, the hear salon, the restaurant, etc. They used to say that one move results in 7 other moves as a domino effect, but I really am not sure how that number was obtained.

I do know that we are seeing more activity in some of our stores on the west side of Los Angeles,
our locations in the bay area have seen more improvement too. I am hopeful that these are signs of improvement, but I definitely do not want to do a forecast as I have been hopeful before, too. But I am hopeful that with this election and with the hope for better times a head, considering how long we have been under this recession, one can't help but hope that maybe, just maybe, better times are really on the way. For all of our sakes, lets hope so.

The New Milkmen Delivers.

We take our job here at box brothers seriously. When we got a call to pack and ship breast milk from city center we were suspicious of this new territory. The job is quick work for us though, since we build foam lined boxes all the time. The hardest part of getting something frozen across the country is keeping it that way without actually solidifying the liquid. The first step is to determine the amount of interior space needed. Next you have to build a styrofoam lined box and get the dry ice ready. It is very important to wrap the dry ice in kraft paper so the ice will not crack the bottles of milk and make a huge mess plus an angry customer. Surround the bottles with the papered dry ice and make sure the item is secured with enough paper. Last important tip is to not exceed 5.5 lbs of dry ice otherwise it is considered a hazardous material deemed by UPS. Seal up the box and shake it lightly, if you feel anything rattling around pack some more paper in the box until tight. Close and seal the box, then send it overnight priority! We have done 8 shipments so far including: MGM, Wynn, City Center, Planet Hollywood and every single one of them arrived on time and safely. We keep babies happy and full! So if you are ever in the Vegas area and are staying away from your kids, give us a call and we will make sure they are fed.

We are the future of milkmen! 
http://boxbros.com/locations/las-vegas-nevada/

Brian at Box Brothers Westwood.

Hello,

My name is Sherry and I am a long time customer of Yelp - Box Brothers in Westwood, I want to write to you about Bryan, the Manager of this location, he has always been nice, professional, helpfull and knowlegable with a million dollar smile.

I want you to know that I do appreciate the way he is handling this business and its customers and to say thank you in a more official way. I keep taking my business there, and I hope he gets more appreciation from his other customers as well as his management.

Sincerely,

S.

Box Brothers Westwood

1351 Westwood Blvd.

Los Angeles CA.

310.477.1770

Chris Lomax, in East Lake Mead Las Vegas

Hi Box Bros! I had to write and commend "Chris" for his excellent customer service he provided me on 1-4-2011. I knew he couldn't be a Nevadian when I walked into your store and began talking to me. I think I will go there more often, only to see Chris. Thank you so much for hiring such great employees.
http://www.boxbros.com/summerlin-nevada
Mrs. Crenshaw

Slow November Sales.....

Usually, we go into November expecting low sales and customers spending money for Christmas gifts instead of moving and buying boxes..... We seem to have started November with a surge of of business...... I would show photos of the items that are in the pallets, but it would look like a mess in the alley we pack out of in Las Vegas..... I hope the trend stays consistent through the month of November, but we know Thanksgiving is right around the corner and everybody is gearing up to travel to families and friends for the turkey feast..... Here are some photos of what we did yesterday in Las Vegas.... Oh; and my son was playing with my phone.... He had lots of candy the other night...... http://www.boxbros.com/green-valley-nevada

Bring out the Ritz as in Ritz Carlton that is

Las Vegas office helped the Ritz out today by moving 350+ flat panel tv's and boxes. Not as tasty as the crackers but much more important!! http://www.boxbros.com/office-moves

Today in Las Vegas

Today in Vegas weather has warmed up and lake season is due soon. All of our atv/offroad adventures will be turning lakeside. It's great working with guys that you get along with and also share the same interests off the clock! I am still pondering how to market out on our adventures in the wilderness.... Elementary schools love our small,medium, and large moving boxes for storing everything until next school session. A customer just informed me how wonderful of a job we did here crating and shipping his flathead v8 engine and car parts we do it all!!! http://www.boxbros.com/summerlin-nevada