Shipping options for those who work full time?
Shipping options for those who work full time?
I work full time, during normal business hours, as does my husband. Day care is only open during certain hours, and my baby won't take a bottle except at day care. It looks like there is exactly one place I can buy dry ice in town, and it's not in a convenient location--exactly the opposite direction of my job. I don't think I can get dry ice, pack a cooler, and ship either before I have to be at work or after work before the shipping places close on a weekday. And none of them are open on Sunday, either for drop off or for delivery
My milk currently lives in a deep freeze. Would it be better to just pack a cooler, maybe with extra ice packs also deep frozen around the sides, and ship overnight on a weeknight? Or should I get dry ice and ship on a Saturday for Monday delivery?
cwws- Posts : 5
Join date : 2010-02-19
Re: Shipping options for those who work full time?
I'm the recipient who originally turned down your milk. I can give you some insight into how the shipping process works from a recipient standpoint. Fedex can do what's called "scheduling a pickup" which is what I did for the donor I had in South Dakota. Fedex comes out to your home and all you have to do is be ready for them. I believe they had to schedule it for 4:30pm so the donor would be home from her teaching job. We did overnight shipping, which didn't require any dry ice because the milk stayed cold enough (this was in August). The milk arrived safe and sound the next day around 10:00am.
A recipient should be willing to pay for the costs of shipping, and most likely will have an account number set up with Fedex or UPS. The recipient should be able to set up the process of scheduling a pickup, and that means all you have to do is have the milk ready. I even shipped to the donor the cooler I wanted it sent in. It worked out really well.
Hopefully you will get a proactive recipient who will do all this for you and you can find a home for your milk! If you don't get any takers, I could possibly still take it off your hands in a few weeks (right now, we've got 1500oz in our freezer but our little girl goes through about 170oz/week along with my small supply). Our current donor has milk going back to when her daughter was 4 months old, so I don't think the age of the milk will be a huge problem.
bhtimm- Posts : 102
Join date : 2010-01-04
Re: Shipping options for those who work full time?
I have shipped milk via UPS a couple of times, and I work full time, too. Finding the right time to drop the milk was a big challenge for me, too.
If you or your recipient can send you a good cooler, you may not need dry ice. One of my recipients sent this box http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1263588612/ref=sr_nr_seeall_2?ie=UTF8&rs=&keywords=Control%20Temp%20Packaging&rh=i:aps,k:Control%20Temp%20Packaging,i:office-products This box had pretty good insulation and I sent my milk over 2-day-air without dry ice and milk arrived okay (just around the edges of some bags were starting to melt a little but rest of the bags were okay, according to my recipient).
As PP mentioned, if the recipient can set up their own FedEx or UPS account, it'll make it easier on the donor. That way, donor can print the shipping label at home, and it's already paid for by the recipient. I don't know about your area, but there is a actual UPS Customer Center in my town that is open until 6:00pm. I come home from work around 5pm, so I was able to go home first, pack, and drop off the box at the UPS customer center for that day's shipment. You may want to check at your UPS or FedEx center and see if they have later closing time.
Before I found out about the UPS Customer Center, since I work really close from my home, I just used my lunch time to go home, pack, and drove to a nearest drop-off location. I'm not sure if you have that kind of option, though.
Another option I can think of is to bring packed box at your work and schedule a pick-up. Not sure how much extra your recipient has to pay, though. But I'd use a good insulated box to keep the milk frozen as much as possible. I have used a cheap styrofoam box from Walmart (then put it inside the cardboard box), but this cheap styrofoam box from Walmart got broken inside the cardboard box, so it's probably not the good option for shipping.
I was fortunate to be able to work around my schedule (e.g. took longer lunch hour and made it up next day etc.). Good luck!
watawata- Posts : 25
Join date : 2010-01-04
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