Shipping Experiences?

Can anyone share shipping experiences please from a donor or recipient perspective? We've read the MilkShare document with general instructions, but how have you made it easiest on the donor when there is a large amount to ship? Did you pay for the dry ice and container via credit card, or the donor paid and you reimbursed them when the milk arrived? Has anyone used the dry ice pellets vs. the chunks that need to be broken up?

Has anyone shipped via 2nd day air instead of overnight? How do you calculate how much dry ice is needed per ounces of breast milk for 1 vs. 2 days shipping? I know the document says 5-6# is good for 24 hours, but how much milk is that for and what's the largest amount you've had shipped to you and did it all fit in one container?

Thanks for any feedback/experiences ~

I am a donor. My reciepient (Sarah) bought a syrofoam cooler that came inside a box. It was made for shipping. It really wasnt that big but I dont remember the exact measurments of it. Anyway she set up a fedex account so that I didnt have to pay for shipping it was billed to her. I did pay for the dry ice and then told her how much it was. I could only find a place that sold the pellets and the least he would sell was 10 lbs at a time. I got all 10 lbs and put 1/2 in the bottom of the container and covered it with newspaper. Then I put all the milk in. I think I was able to fit about 75 bags in there I think. Truly I cant remember how many but I remember thinking it was about 400 oz. Then I put newspaper on top and put the rest of the dry ice on top of that. I really liked the pellets because they fit into all the small spaces and was easier to fit everything in. I put the styrofoam lid on and didnt tape it. I closed the box and taped the box all up. I took it to the fed ex location and we sent it overnight from NC to VT. It made it there with dry ice left over. We both decided that because it was Aug and so hot that we would do overnight but that in the winter months it would have been fine to do 2nd day. Then she would put the money for the dry ice into the box and ship the empty box back to me via the cheepest method. We found that this box only survived a few round trips. I think it was only like $14. I think if had a donor that you were working with ongoing that I would get a more sturdy option but that this box would be great for those 1 time donations. Anyway if you have any other questions feel free to ask.

Jennifer

Whenever milk has been shipped to me, I've used styrofoam shipping coolers. I purchase mine at www.cameronpackaging.com or www.mrboxonline.com .

In my experience, dry ice is not necessary in the cooler months as long as the cooler is packed very tight, and stuffed with newspaper in any remaining air spaces. This is for 2 day shipping.

Whenever a mom ships to me, she calls me from her cell phone at the UPS store and I pay for the shipping over the phone. When I have used dry ice, she would tell me how much it is and I send a money order ASAP.

Good luck!

Found this online, we are going to try and use them, take up so much less space than styrofoam, have read really great things about them. They even have one box called the Milk Shipper! You can order online for your donor and have it sent to them:

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

http://www.dryiceinfo.com/ControlTempPack.htm

What have your experiences been as far as cost? Just to get an estimate for what it would be to ship, say, 100oz, 500oz and 1000oz. I have no idea what it would be.

I'm not sure as I haven't received my first shipment yet, but will in a week or so. FedEx allows dry ice, but I'm not sure UPS does (I think I read that UPS and USPS do not). So I've only checked FedEx rates. It's in the hundreds of dollars range. I calculated that 1000 ounces would weigh about 76 pounds, I think (a liter of water is 2.2 pounds, so that's about 34 ounces of liquid, or 76 pounds). I don't know how much milk will fit into the shipping containers we chose, so it all depends, plus the weight of the dry ice and container itself. I calculated from the mid-U.S. to California is about $182 for 2nd Day Air with FedEx and that's for a 50# package. It really varies by zip code. You can calculate by zip on the FedEx site. We are doing 2nd Day Air b/c it's much cheaper and the milk is in deep freeze, plus it's winter. I think that we will not be able to fit 1000 ounces in one box that has a 13x13x13 area for the milk and ice, probably will only get in 200-300 ounces I imagine, maybe less? So I think it will weight less, but we'll need to do more shipments. Was a toss up between getting a huge container and paying an overage for size, versus sending a few smaller boxes separately. I had asked someone else what their experience was and they said for overnight they paid $120 to $180 for 200-400 ounces. I don't know where the shipment came from. I can post what the total was after we do this and let you know how much milk fit into a 13x13x13 space with the milk frozen so it can be neatly stacked.

Hi Everyone! I am noticing concerns about using dry ice, and the amounts. In our experience dry ice is the best option and will give plenty of ship time if there are any problems with the shipping company, we have also had moms that have had success just using frozen Gel Paks! Another note, we have also had moms use as little as 5 pounds of dry ice in our 15x15x15 coolers to keep milk completely frozen. With our coolers you can also achieve ship times of 2-3 days on average. Depending on your location and the donor's, some might even be able to use ground shipping!

Tip: Do not pack the empty spaces too tightly! If you pack the box too tightly and fill in gaps with news paper you are constricting air movement and not allowing the coolant to do it's job. Loosely crumpling news paper or a brown paper bag and putting it in the gaps will keep the milk and coolant from being tossed around and still allow air flow throughout the cooler.