Holiday Shipping Tips
Tips for Making your Shipping Easier this Holiday Season

It seems like everything gets a little busier during the holidays, including shipping. We have some suggestions to help reduce your shipping stress and make your holidays a bit more merry and bright.

Proper Packaging
One of the best ways to ensure smooth and trouble-free shipping is to make sure that your shipments are packaged properly. Improper packaging is a major source of claims and damages, and can be avoided with a little care and know-how.

Make sure the packaging you are using is appropriate for the product it’s protecting. Cages, crates, cartons and blankets can all be effective. As you create pallets, keep the following in mind:

• Keep the top of the pallet as flat as possible.
• Try to keep container sizes as uniform as possible. Failure to do so may weaken the overall strength of the pallet and cause imbalances.
• Avoid having cartons overhang the edge of the pallet, which can cause damage from lack of support.
• Once your pallet has been completed, wrap it as tightly as possible with shrink- or stretch-wrap. This will allow better loading in the tight confines of a trailer.

Proper BOL Preparation and Classification
The bill of lading (BOL) is a contract that states the details of the shipment, including contents, where it was shipped from and the destination. Extra time and care should be taken to ensure that the BOL is filled out completely and accurately. Here are a few BOL pointers:

• Make sure the stated weight of the shipment is accurate. Carriers inspect shipments, and can charge for changes to declared weight. This also applies to NMFC classification. Deliberately misstating the weight of a shipment to save a little money should never take place.
• The rate charges, and the carrier’s liability, are based on the classification of the shipment. There are a host of reasons why the NMFC code should be included and accurate. Legally, carriers need to know the accurate weight and content of a shipment, and if the classification is wrong, rebilling can occur. In addition, if the classification is changed, the density can be altered as well, which adds further penalties.
• If the NMFC code is left off the BOL, some carriers will charge a fee to look it up and do the classification themselves.
• If you are concerned or unsure about the size, weight or class of your shipment, contact your local Unishippers franchise for assistance.

Damaged Shipments
Sometimes, despite all precautions taken, damaged shipments can occur. Here’s how to deal with this situation if it happens to you:

• Always inspect shipments very carefully immediately upon arrival. Once a receipt has been signed, there is often little recourse for visible damage discovered later. If there is visible damage to the outside of the shipment, note it immediately on the delivery receipt.
• Concealed damage discovered during unpacking should be reported right away, as there is usually a fairly small window for making this type of claim.
• If you do file a damage claim, make sure it is properly notated.

Shipping during the holidays can be less worrisome and more enjoyable by abiding by a few simple rules. Unishippers wishes all of its customers happy shipping and happy holidays.

Customer Chronicles
Multimusic Helps Satisfy Growing Demand for Hispanic Music

In its warehouse in Inglewood, California, music distribution company Multimusic stores tens of thousands of Latin music CDs, filled with music tracks that will soon provide spicy rhythms for parties, thumping beats for dances and even background music for karaoke sessions.

Multimusic was founded in Mexico more than 25 years ago by Luis Alberto San Martin. Having grown up in the music industry, Luis was passionate about getting exciting, rhythmic music into CD players of eager consumers and he quickly built a successful music distribution company. Recognizing the growing demand for Hispanic music among the rapidly increasing Spanish-speaking population in the United States, Luis decided to expand the company into the U.S. He acquired warehouse space, hired a team of employees and went to work creating a new distribution network for his music.

Oscan Bobadilla, who works as the general manager of Multimusic’s U.S. distribution center in Southern California, says that the company’s distribution channels continue to expand across the nation as the Latin music fan base grows. The Hispanic-Latino population in the United States now accounts for nearly 44 million people — roughly 15% of the total population — and those numbers are expected to increase significantly in the coming years. But Oscar says that Hispanics are not the only ones who are listening to and buying CDs from Multimusic. More and more of his customers are “cross-over fans” who come from different cultural backgrounds, many of whom do not even speak any Spanish — they simply love the music’s flavor and style.

Oscar and his small team of employees know that having a good shipping partner is essential to their operations. Since, as a distributor, they do not record or produce the CDs, their business depends almost entirely on their ability to import the CDs from Mexico and then ship them to retail clients for sale to consumers. According to Oscar, CDs are still very popular within the Hispanic community, and Multimusic is working hard to open new distribution channels, such as Wal-Mart, Circuit City and Best Buy. Oscar believes these mainstream distribution channels will make the Latin imports even more accessible to the general public and will increase general demand.

Unishippers franchisee Darrell Chamness, who runs the office in Long Beach, California, says that Multimusic is a great customer and says his team strives to always give them the very best service. “We know that our shipping carriers provide a service that Multimusic cannot live without,” Darrell says. Whether importing pallets of CDs from Mexico, shipping cases of product to their extensive U.S. distribution network, or fulfilling individual CD orders placed through Multimusic’s website, shipping has to be simple and efficient process. According to Oscar, Unishippers’ technology and carrier partners have made it so.

“Unishippers has done a great job for us,” Oscar says, reporting that ever since Multimusic became a Unishippers customer, the company has been able to count on Unishippers for on-time delivery and superb shipping support. He is confident that through its network of carrier partners, Unishippers gives him the best freight rates, which is very important to the company’s bottom line. Oscar says he looks forward to a positive, long-term relationship because Unishippers is so responsive. “If we ever have any problems, the people at Unishippers are always willing to lend a hand — they are very interested in our success.”

Did U Know?
Environmental Sustainability at the Forefront for Roadway^® and UPS^®

As awareness of environmental impact and “going green” continue to rise, many of Unishippers’ carriers are making great strides towards being as environmentally friendly as possible. In this issue of Update, we highlight the efforts of two of our leading carriers: Roadway and UPS.

Roadway
Roadway participates in programs and processes for protecting and preserving the environment. The company aggressively promotes pollution prevention, waste reduction, and conservation across its daily operations. Two major initiatives the company is at work on are reducing fuel consumption and recycling.

Fuel
Roadway voluntarily uses biodiesel fuel at select locations across the U.S., in addition to locations where use of biodiesel is mandated. ULSD (ultra-low-sulfur diesel) is used at all fueling locations, which enables cleaner emissions of NOx (nitrogen oxides) and particulate matter. Also, 20 LED (low-emission diesel) tractors (equipped with diesel particulate filters) were introduced into the Roadway fleet in 2007, with 240 low emission tractors on order for 2008.

Continued use and evaluation of new engine oil and lubricant technologies allows extended service intervals, greatly reducing waste product generation. In addition, Roadway makes continued evaluations of fuel-savings initiatives and policies such as the use of computers to automatically shut down an idling engine, tractor speed governance, fuel-efficient tires and tread designs, and aerodynamic modifications to tractor and trailer configurations.

Roadway also has several practices to reduce emissions, include limiting on-duty idling to 5-15 minutes, eliminating overnight idling by lodging drivers in hotels, and capping tractor speed at 62 mph.

Recycling efforts
Roadway oil filters are generally drained of oil and crushed at all garage locations, and the garage properly disposes of the canisters. Additionally, most Roadway locations purchase new batteries through a national distributor who properly disposes of the used ones.

Each garage also has a separate scrap metal hopper to separate scrap metal from other garage waste. The metal is purchased by a recycler for further use instead of going to a landfill.

UPS
At UPS, the "green factor" is part of the aircraft acquisition process. UPS looks at the maintenance, price per unit as well as the emissions and noise footprint when selecting a power plant.

"We ask the engine manufacturers to give us their best picture of the environmental impact of their engine," said Bill Simpson, vice president of long range planning. UPS doesn't set a benchmark, said Simpson, preferring reality-based calculations come from the engine maker. In the mid-1990s, UPS was the launch customer for a low-emission version of the General Electric CF6-80C2 power plant for its many 767 freighters.

There are other considerations to turning green. "Ethically, as a business, it is the right thing to do," said Simpson. "We also want to anticipate and encompass new environmental regulations."

Technology plays a significant part in UPS's green play. The eventual installation of Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast technology in all aircraft is expected to save UPS a million gallons of jet fuel per year, which will provide a 30 percent reduction in noise and a 34 percent drop in nitrous oxides emissions.

UPS has also recently announced purchases of vehicles equipped with hydraulic hybrid systems. In a prototype vehicle, this new technology was able to demonstrate a 45-50 percent improvement in fuel economy compared to conventional diesel delivery trucks. UPS is very optimistic that these results are achievable in real-world daily driving.

As major logistics companies like Roadway and UPS continue to invest in efforts to reduce wastage and improve environmental sustainability, the future keeps looking brighter and greener.

Unishippers has a new carrier for express and ground shipping: UPS^®

Unishippers is pleased to announce a groundbreaking new relationship with UPS, one of the world’s largest package delivery companies. UPS is one of the best-known and most respected brands in the world today, making them the perfect choice as Unishippers’ new express and ground shipping carrier.

UPS offers more choices, more flexibility, superior reliability and a better value for our customers. UPS offers guaranteed delivery to more than 200 countries and territories, including every address in North America, and also has more than 60,000 convenient drop-off locations and boxes. Along with the power and reach of the UPS global network, Unishippers customers will have access to a local shipping consultant backed by a terrific sales team who knows their area and their business. Unishippers will also provide one clear invoice for all its customers’ shipping needs, along with the personal service, flexibility and value that customers have come to expect.

Unishippers select UPS as our new express and ground carrier because they have the operational excellence and commitment to integrity that we have always embraced. Unishippers and UPS both place a high premium on trust and integrity, and are dedicated to providing customized support and solutions to each customers’ unique shipping issues. You already trust Unishippers as your shipping advisor, and alongside our new carrier UPS, we’ll continue to work hard every day to earn that trust.

To start shipping with UPS through Unishippers, contact your local Unishippers office today for a free small package shipping assessment.

Saving U Time, Trouble and Money
Unishippers' Freight Manager Tool Now Includes Multi-Browser Support

As part of its constant effort to improve our customers’ shipping experiences, Unishippers recently released a new version of its Freight Manager software tool. One of the major upgrades in this release is the support (still in testing phase) of Mozilla Firefox on Windows and Safari on Macintosh. Further details on each supported browser are as follows:

Windows – Internet Explorer: The application is optimized for Internet Explorer version 7.0, and we strongly recommend upgrading to that version. You can download Internet Explorer 7.0 from Microsoft.com.

Windows – Mozilla Firefox: The new release includes support for Firefox Version 3.0 on Windows. You can download Firefox 3.0 from Mozilla.com. Previous versions are not supported.

Macintosh – Safari: Safari version 3.0 is currently in a testing phase. Limited support is provided, and previous versions are not supported.

Other browsers are not supported at this time, though there are future plans to encompass support for other options, including Firefox on Macintosh and Opera on both operating systems. Further updates will follow as these browsers exit the testing phase and are fully supported.

By expanding support of its Freight Manager tool to multiple browsers, Unishippers hopes to increase its convenience and ease-of-use even further. It is hoped that this heightened availability will save our customers time and trouble as they manage and monitor their freight shipments. For more information on Unishippers’ powerful Freight Manager tool, visit www.unishippers.com or contact your local Unishippers office.

Freight Carrier Holiday Shipping Information

UPS Freight^sm
UPS Freight will be closed on December 24 & 25, 2008 and January 1, 2009. There will be no pickup or delivery service unless it has been scheduled in advance.

UPS Freight will be providing limited service on December 26, 2008 and January 2, 2009. UPS Freight will be open on those days, and pick and delivery service will be available if arranged in advance. Contact your local Unishippers office for more information.

Roadway
Holidays for standard service shipments observed by Roadway are December 24, 25 & 31 2008 and January 1, 2009. Contact your local Unishippers office for information regarding Roadway Time Critical™ Service.

Other Carriers
For all other freight carriers, please call your local Unishippers office.