Just for today I will be happy. This assumes that what Abraham
Lincoln said is true, that “most folks are about as happy as they make
up their minds to be.” Happiness is from within; it is not a matter of
externals.
Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is, and not try
to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my family, my
business, and my luck as they come and fit myself to them.
Just for today I will take care of my body. I will exercise it, care
for it, nourish it, not abuse it nor neglect it, so that it will be a
perfect machine for my bidding.
Just for today I will try to strengthen my mind. I will learn
something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something
that requires effort, thought and concentration.
Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do
somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two
things I don’t want to do, as William James suggests, just for exercise.
Just for today I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can,
dress as becomingly as possible, talk low, act courteously, be liberal
with praise, criticize not at all, nor find fault with anything and not
try to regulate nor improve anyone.
Just for today I will try to live through this day only, not to
tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do things for twelve hours
that would appall me if I had to keep them up for a lifetime.
Just for today I will have a program. I will write down what I
expect to do every hour. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have
it. It will eliminate two pests, hurry and indecision.
Just for today I will have a quiet half-hour all by myself and
relax. In this half-hour sometimes I will think of God, so as to get a
little more perspective into my life.
Just for today I will be unafraid, especially I will not be afraid
to be happy, to enjoy what is beautiful, to love, and to believe that
those I love, love me.
The lowly cardboard box: it's more than something you hurry out the door and give to a shipping clerk. It's a way
to boost your brand, market yourself, and boost your profits.
This
article focuses on that last item - improving your profits by making
your boxes as cost-effective as possible.
Choosing the right box and, optionally, cutting boxes down so they fit
around an item as snugly as possible can reduce postage costs. That will
become even more important early next year, say shipping experts, when
UPS and FedEx apply their new dimensional
weight shipping rates to ground and freight shipments.
Size Matters
All the carriers have size limits. When you go over those limits, you
can pay a lot more for shipping. Eric Nash, Senior Director of Online
Marketing for Stamps.com, describes just one example:
"For Priority Mail, the USPS has a maximum box size of 1 cubic foot (12" x 12" x 12")," he explains. "If your box
is over a cubic foot, then you'll need to pay an extra fee known as "balloon pricing" or possibly Dimensional Weight pricing."
For example, a 2-lb. package traveling from Los Angeles to Washington DC (Zone 8) would be:
12" x 12" x 12" - $9.97 via Priority Mail
13" x 12" x 12" - $32.95 via Priority Mail
"That one extra inch puts the box over a one cubic foot into "balloon pricing," which significantly increases the
price," he said.
To ship First Class with USPS, package size cannot be over 108" inches total if you calculate Length + 2X Width +
2X Height.
With private carriers, similar limits apply. And the move to dimensional weight pricing means you need to be even
more aware of them, says Endicia CTO and co-founder Harry Whitehouse.
"With
the private carriers changing their pricing structure, you'll want to
begin taking box size into consideration,"
he says. "Effective December 29, 2014, and January 1, 2015, UPS and
FedEx, respectively, are applying dimensional weight pricing to all
Ground service packages. Once this new pricing goes into effect, you'll
want to choose the box size carefully."
To determine shipping costs, the dimensional weight is compared to the actual weight of the package, and then the
highest value is charged.
"A small adjustment in width or height could impact the DIM rate with the private carriers in 2015," says Nash. For
example, take a look at the measurements of the following two boxes similar in size:
10" length x 8" width x 6" height = 3 DIM weight in 2015 with private carriers.
8" length x 8" width x 8" height = 4 DIM weight in 2015 with private carriers.
A small difference in measurement can add up to a 1-pound or greater difference in cost.
Choosing the Right Box
Once you are aware of size restrictions, you'll want to avoid higher
shipping charges by choosing boxes that fit your package as closely as
possible. One of the best sources for free boxes is the USPS, which will
ship Priority Mail containers to you for free.
But as Whitehouse adds, "Most carriers provide packaging in a variety of sizes and typically at no cost." The USPS's
boxes come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, however, and some are tailored to specific postal rates.
"The
USPS offers Flat Rate and Regional Rate packaging where the pricing is
based on the package type and size selected,
rather than on the weight of the item," he says. "If your item can fit
in one of the Flat Rate or Regional Rate packages, this could be a great
money saver." (You can find more tips on the
Endicia website.)
The USPS free Priority Mail boxes come in 29 varieties, adds Nash. "There are many sizes that sellers are unaware
of." He points readers to Stamps.com's guide (PDF) that describes all the dimensions and includes the USPS skus for easy ordering.
UPS, for its part, offers free Express Envelopes, Paks, Tubes, and other containers for shipping a variety of items
(see this page on the UPS website. There's even special Hazmat packaging for items such as lithium batteries.
FedEx provides a similar range of boxes, envelopes and packs on this page on
FedEx.com.
Getting the Right Fit
If you're not shipping Priority Mail or one of the UPS or FedEx express
shipping options, however, you have to purchase a generic box from one
of the office supply stores or other outlets. You can also recycle
"pre-used" boxes that have been discarded by stores
or your own neighbors, as long as they're clean and in good shape. But
it's to your advantage to find a box that fits your item and the padding
around it as closely as you can.
"Overall,
smaller boxes always help to lower shipping costs and should be a goal
of every shipper, as long as they
can keep their products safely protected from damage," says Nash.
"Smaller boxes require less tape and box filler, helping to lower
ancillary costs as well."
If these boxes don't fit what you want to ship, you can cut them to a smaller size using a special box-cutting tool.
Aviditi sells one on Amazon.com for $17.99, and Bubblefast.com has one for $21.95.
And if you do a lot of shipping, you might want to purchase a machine like this one on
PackSize.com that can cut each box to an exact size.
However, both of the postage/shipping experts I consulted cautioned against making your boxes go "under the knife"
and recommended this only as a last resort.
"Carton
reducers can be a bit of a hassle to use and could eat up time better
spent on other activities," said Whitehouse.
"If the reduction in box size is significant, though, it could help
when dealing with dimension weight pricing. But, if the reduction is
minimal, it may not be worth the effort."
"Cutting down a box could possibly impact a box's structural integrity and could even create an odd customer experience,"
added Nash.
The Bottom Line
Heading into the holiday season, the current shipping rules still apply.
Currently, if you ship with UPS Ground or FedEx Ground/Home Delivery,
the magic number is 3 cubic feet. After 3, dimensional pricing starts.
But on December 29, dimensional pricing will
apply to all UPS Ground and UPS Standard to Canada shipments. Similar
changes apply to FedEx Freight and Ground as well on January 1, 2015.
USPS
is a worth considering because its Priority Mail rates have just been
lowered in time for the holidays. "Business
owners who use Priority Mail will find the biggest savings on packages
between 5 and 25 pounds for those using Commercial Base Pricing, and
between 5 and 35 pounds for those who qualify for Commercial Plus
Pricing," says Whitehouse.
Finding
the right box for your product is going to be more important than ever
if you ship large, light-weight merchandise.
For small packages, there's not much difference, a 6 x 6 x 4 box has a
dimensional weight of 1 lb. But online sellers who ship larger packages
than this might see a jump in rates when dimensional pricing takes
effect.
"Know at what dimensions your box will add a secondary fee," Nash recommends. "Sometimes, the elimination of one
inch can help place the box in a different pricing table."
About the author:
Greg
Holden is EcommerceBytes Contributing Editor. He is a journalist and
the author of many books, including
"Starting an Online Business For Dummies," "Go Google: 20 Ways to Reach
More Customers and Build Revenue with Google Business Tools," and
several books about eBay, including "How to Do Everything with Your eBay
Business," second edition, and "Secrets of the
eBay Millionaires," both published by Osborne-McGraw Hill. Find out
more on Greg's website, which includes his blog, a list of his books, and his fiction and biographical writing.
How to Determine Billable Weight
Billable
weight is the weight used to calculate the rate. For domestic and
international services, the billable weight will be the greater
of the dimensional weight compared to the actual weight.
The days of clutching plastic-foam cups in New York City are numbered.
The
city on Thursday became the latest in the U.S. to ban such containers
for food and drinks, completing an initiative begun during the Bloomberg
administration. Environmental advocates applauded the move, but others
questioned the scope of its benefit.
The new law, which also
eliminates the loose packing materials known as “peanuts,” will take
effect July 1. Other cities such as San Francisco, Seattle and
Washington, have passed similar bans on the once-ubiquitous cups and
takeout clamshells.
Environmentalists noted that the lightweight
plastic foam, known as expanded polystyrene, breaks easily, clogging
waterways and posing a threat to marine life. A coffee cup used for 20
minutes, they said, can take decades to degrade—if not longer, lingering
in landfills. In processing facilities, the dirty food containers are
difficult to clean, while the market to buy and recycle the product,
they say, remains uncertain.
“This is an important and
encouraging step,” said
Eric Goldstein,
New York City environment director for the Natural Resources
Defense Council. “There’s a growing recognition that they cause
disproportionate environmental and pollution problems and there are
readily available substitutes. And so why not make the change?”
The
decision completes a yearlong analysis by the city’s sanitation
department of whether there was an effective way to recycle the
materials, as required by a law passed in December 2013. Their answer?
No.
“It did not make environmental sense to try and separate it
out because there’s no place to sell it,” said sanitation department
Commissioner
Kathryn Garcia.
That assertion was vigorously contested by Dart Container
Corp., which negotiated with the city in a failed effort to prevent the
ban.
“I’m baffled and disappointed,” said
Michael Westerfield,
corporate director of recycling at Dart, which is the largest producer of foam cups in the world.
Mr.
Westerfield noted that the city’s ban doesn’t cover all expanded
polystyrene products, including egg cartons and packing materials used
for fragile electronics like for televisions. The city estimates the ban
will capture about 90% of expanded polystyrene in the city.
The
ban also doesn’t address the annual 30,000 tons of rigid
polystyrene—the hard plastic found in items like some yogurt containers
and CD cases—generated by New Yorkers that will continue to be dumped in
landfills.
Dart offered to cover the costs of infrastructure
needed to sort both kinds of polystyrene products and guaranteed a
market for the materials for five years, city officials and Mr.
Westerfield agree.
“They’re spinning like it’s a win,” Mr. Westerfield said. “Well, it’s not.”
“I
thought it was silly,” said
Nickolas J. Themelis,
director of the Earth Engineering Center at Columbia University,
noting that expanded polystyrene products are a fraction of the city’s
curbside waste stream (0.79%, according to city data).
“It’s
touching a small part of the whole problem,” said Mr. Themelis, who has
done studies on other topics funded by the American Chemistry Council,
which lobbied against the ban.
Foam’s airiness and insulating
ability means that less material can be used, he said. For instance, it
doesn’t require additional protective heating sleeves like some paper
coffee cups.
City officials said they were skeptical that the
polystyrene would be recycled into new products and that they would be
stuck once Dart’s five-year guarantee expired.
Changing the
recycling habits of the city’s 8.4 million inhabitants is “a big lift
and we want to make sure we have a very clear message before we go out
and make that change,” said Ms. Garcia, the sanitation department
commissioner.
Many restaurants have already stopped using plastic foam for takeout containers. But for some, the habit is hard to break.
At
Fisherman’s Cove, a tiny Caribbean carryout restaurant in Crown
Heights, oxtail, jerk chicken and roti dishes are served almost
exclusively in foam containers.
“It’s going to be a difficult
task. We’re going to have to restructure how we do everything and it’s
going to take money,” said cook
Andrew Smith.
Plastic foam costs between 50 to 70 cents per container,
while replacements can cost $1.30 to $1.50, estimated the New York State
Restaurant Association, which supported the legislation after
exceptions were made for small businesses.
Nonprofits and small
businesses that have less than $500,000 in annual revenue can receive a
financial-hardship exemption if they prove the cost of the switch is too
expensive.
“People care more now about sustainability,” said
the restaurant association’s New York City director
Chris Hickey.
With the hardship exemption, “we’re taking care of the people
that can’t afford it, but at the same time we’re taking care of the
environment.” Write to Sophia Hollander at sophia.hollander@wsj.com
Polystyrene foam – commonly, but not always correctly referred to by the brand name Styrofoam — is cheap, strong and light and used in everything from consumer goods packaging to take-out food containers.
And it's increasingly unwelcome in communities across the USA.
The
New York City Council last week passed a ban on polystyrene foam food
containers, as well as the sale of loose polystyrene foam "peanuts" used
in packing. Both go into effect July 1, 2015. Albany County, N.Y.,
passed a law in November banning use of polystyrene foam food
containers, joining the ranks of such cities as Portland, Ore.; San
Francisco; Seattle; and Amherst, Mass.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray is proposing a ban there.
"Some
businesses ... are already phasing it out. It's a matter of pushing it,
making it a policy," said Chicago Alderman George Cardenas, who is
co-sponsor of legislation introduced earlier this month that would ban
the sale of polystyrene food packaging in the Windy City. "It's not
eco-friendly, if you will. This is just something that needs to be
done."
The bans are the result of decades-long campaigns by
environmental advocates, said Andrew Moesel, a spokesman with the New
York State Restaurant Association: "Styrofoam is a useful material. It
maintains heat. It's cost effective. But the fact is, it's not very good
for the environment."
Technically, Styrofoam is a trademarked
polystyrene product of Dow Chemical used in such applications as
building insulation and craft products, not in food containers.
For
foes of polystyrene foam food containers, its problems are numerous.
"Polystyrene foam doesn't break down easily, and it's easily dispersed
by the wind," creating a litter problem in streets and local waterways,
said Garth Schultz, city operations and environmental services manager
for El Cerrito, Calif., where a ban will go into effect Jan. 1.
Aside
from the litter problem, Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy pointed
to concerns about the health affects of the chemicals that make up
extruded polystyrene foam in justifying the ban. "You get takeout, the
steam melts that lid," he said. "It's going into your food. Eventually,
you're going to get sick from it."
Opponents of such bans, such as
the American Chemistry Council, have been pushing for communitywide
polystyrene recycling programs in places like New York City as an
alternative to proposed bans there.
Restaurants themselves are
increasingly turning a cold shoulder to polystyrene foam food
containers. Fast-food titan McDonald's Corp. announced in September it
would phase out foam cups at its 14,000 U.S. restaurants in favor of
paper cups in coming months. It quit using polystyrene clamshell
containers for burgers in 1990.
And Dunkin' Brands Group, the
parent company of the Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robins chains, said in
its most-recent corporate social responsibility report that it is
rolling out an in-store foam cup recycling program at all its locations,
but that it hopes to introduce an alternative cup within two to three
years.
Moesel said the restaurant industry "generally likes to be
on the cutting edge of environmental protection, make it more green. But
(alternatives) have to be affordable. Our concern has always been the
bottom line, especially with mom-and-pop and ethnic-type restaurants. If
you're running a small Chinese restaurant, you can run through 500
cartons a day."
Brookline, Mass., which started a ban on
polystyrene foam food containers and disposable plastic store bags in
November, has so far handed out more than 50 waivers to affected
businesses as they look for workable alternatives and work through the
stock they have on hand, said Alan Balsam, director of public health and
human services
Starting next month, the town will probably start
issuing warnings. "Ultimately, we'll fine people, (but) we don't want to
hurt anybody's business," Balsam said. "With the (town's) trans fat
ban, after the waivers expired, people complied. I think the same will
happen here."
Moesel said that as more major communities such as
New York City change over, "that will have an impact on the marketplace.
That hopefully will ultimately drive down the price of alternatives. We
believe this is the future."
Daneman also reports for the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle
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