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Parcel Sensor Knows When Your Delivery Has Been Dropped
First time accepted submitter Hamsterdan writes "If you're tired of finding that your stuff has been smashed during shipping after opening your package, this device is for you. 'Called DropTag, the gadget combines a battery, a low-energy Bluetooth transmitter, an accelerometer and a memory chip. Stuck on a parcel as it leaves an e-commerce warehouse, it logs any g-forces above a set risky shock level that it experiences. The idea is that when the courier puts it in your hands, you turn on Bluetooth on a smartphone running a DropTag app and scan it before you sign for it.'"
Why not just use a shockwatch and stick it on the outside? That's what they're for, and having one obviously visible is certainyl more of a deterrant to mistreatment than a normal 'handle with care' sticker.
Many of the things I have ordered lately have been so grossly over packaged that you could nearly smash the entire package before actually hurting the contents (I'm looking at you Amazon). I can see how this would be really useful for ordering overly fragile things, but if it costs more than shipping insurance is it really going to be worth it?
I got here through a series of tubes
These things already exist. Tip'n'tells, shockwatch, and drop'n'tell. Damage indicators
The only thing new about this is it's electronic
Or you could just use a far less expensive, simpler ShockWatch sticker.
If customer's are willing to pay a bit more for this feature, would it not be viable for online retailers? Especially those of the technology scale...
Please stop using the term g-force. It's a force coming from hitting something else. This force causes uneven acceleration which can be measured in multiples of gravity.
don't have Bluetooth-enabled smart phones?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
This is a good idea, but there are simpler, and probably cheaper, external mechanical plastic tags that record shock (at least in one plane, so you'd
need two of them...) above a threshold, and are visible at the time you receive the package. Don't know how much they cost, but it
can't be much more than a buck or two...
Oh, kind of like the ShockWatch labels we used all the time on shipments then?
I don't want my fine china opened by a bomb squad.
...can finally know if he should sign for that mail-order cat?
Who will recycle the sensors? All we need is more electronics and batteries ending up in the landfill.
Doesn't matter, at best they refund the sender and you have to hope the broken bits are insured - you're not getting anything from the shipper no matter how it happened.
Been there, done that, had an obvious fork tyne hole through a box containing a server with a bent chassis. In the face of that evidence FedEx refunded the shipping to the guys that sent the server but I was left with a bent server. It still ran for a couple of years but it's resale value was zero.
inside of the package. Same idea with the bluetooth, no? Catch the negligent bastard behind his back?
UPS says that they might drop your package from a height of three feet onto a concrete floor, on a corner.
You are supposed to secure the contents so that they can withstand this without damage.
I bet a lot of people are going to find that the package was in fact not mishandled, but inadequately packaged.
Don't get me started about newegg and how they package their drives
Highly informative video.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q6_9A90cUk
I worked loading and unloading parcels on a plane years back. If it isn't dropped it will be thrown (or passed), squished, kicked and cushion heavier items guaranteed. Marking fragile means nothing as every package is marked that way. If those involved in the transportation of your package, treated every package as fragile our parcel delivery system would slow to a crawl. These guys deal with literally tens of thousands of packages daily. Most companies have figured this out and package products to absorb a few bumps and bruises. If people actually used this product they would never accept a package again.
How much does the sensor cost and would it be less expensive to just use better packing materials to absorb the impacts?
I'm not sure why they are talking as if this is a new thing.
I remember receiving a large box at work ten years ago; it was something very expensive, I believe from IBM. There was an electronic shock sensor in the package, with a clock and everything that would log the time of any excessive shock or tipping.
This was between 2001 and 2003. In fact I STILL HAVE the thing, it's in a desk drawer somewhere at work.
So yeah, nothing new to see here, move along.
if you ever have a job where you have to sling around heavy rectangular objects all day, you will eventually realize that 'over packaging' is really the solution to most of the problems in the cycle.
it helps machines that auto-sort work faster and better
it helps people who handle stuff work faster
it helps the seller
it helps the buyer
if the industry had to 'coddle' every package it would slow down the entire line - from the machinery based roller setups to the people packing stuff in trucks to the people leaving stuff at your door.
it would almost make more sense for a shipping company to auto-matically 'repack' flimsily packaged items with the identical address and only ship them after doing so, just to avoid the hassle of people who dont understand how the system works.
When your delivery has been dropped
Sorry about that, it was the best packaging I could find at the moment and I was a little peeved that the drive auctioned for so little.
These things (shock/impact recorders) already exist and aren't all that expensive in comparison to truly high value products. A few things to bear in mind..
1) What shock level should you trip at? 10g? 100g? "delicate optical equipment" often has a 10g rating which is quite gentle. Most electronics can see 50-100g without too much trouble. (Compare: drop something 1 meter, and if it takes 1cm to stop, that's 100g. More likely, it takes 1mm to stop (due to case deformation) and that's 1000g). A "shockwatch" set to 50g on the outside of the box is almost useless.
I'll bet most people have NO idea just how sensitive the thing they are shipping is. The real purpose of a shockwatch (or a logger) is to know "did it break".
2) You should be packaging things to tolerate "normal shipping" which is pretty rough. You use the shock sensor (on the inside, attached to the thing being protected) to tell you whether your packing material failed, or there was some unusual event, in which case inspection and/or test is called for. Most shipping companies go by a "visible damage to the packaging" sort of standard. They do NOT care what your packaging is, or whether you have enough.. that's your problem.
3) Do you attach the sensor to the outside (which sees high loads, aforementioned 1000g) or to the thing your protecting? As noted above, attaching to the outside is useless in a practical sense. On the inside it actually tells you something.
4) packaging design is hard. It's not just a matter of "put 6" of foam around it". How dense is the foam, how much does your thing weigh, etc. You want the foam to compress under the load of the box accelerating/decelerating, but not bottom out. Ideally, it just fully compresses as you hit the peak load:
5) Peak shock often isn't the important thing. Often it's the integrated load over time that's important. In the shock world, you talk about a Mass Acceleration Curve...
6) A logger is a great thing for *testing* your packaging. You make up a structural mass model that is like whatever you are shipping, attach your accelerometers to it, package it up, then ship it. Then, look at the log when you get it to see what kinds of loads it actually saw.
BTW, an iPhone makes a lousy shock logger.. power consumption is high, and max g is ridiculously low (a few g).
"I ship my pillows via UPS so they arrive all pre-pounded and fluffy"
C|N>K
My UPS guy is super nice so if a package looks like it went through a war, he says "That looks damaged. You might want to open it and check it out before signing for it." So if it's demolished, and I don't sign for it, then what? My senders don't insure stuff. I don't think UPS even offers insurance. What do they actually do? Just drive off with my package?
The simplest device is a sticker that shows "TRUE". I never saw any transporting firm that had any respect for the parcels.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
What is this "puts it in your hands" of which you speak?
I haven't had a courier service have me sign for anything in a couple of years, even if the package is clearly labeled as such. I have lost sleep, trying to make sure that someone would be home to sign for valuable packets, only to have the courier plonk it down on our stoop, and, quite literally, RUN AWAY without even ringing the doorbell. I have video surveillance of both doors of my house, and I sometimes amuse myself by comparing the running styles of UPS and FedEx deliverygoblins.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
-H. L. Mencken
As others have pointed out, for the receivers perspective, shock watch stickers are a perfectly good alternative - I don't care when it was dropped, or who dropped it. I just care if it was dropped. I don't need telemetry across time to decide whether to sign for the package.
If you're looking at this as the shipper's way of determining "who broke it?" In the case of a return, then a short-wave Bluetooth device being read by the receiver doesn't really get me anything - I'm the one who needs the data. Which means I need the package, including the device, sent back to me. And if I have the device back, do I need Bluetooth? A USB port is probably cheaper, and unless I'm amazon.com, I'm really hoping my "returned-damaged" rate is awfully low...
That said, there's a question whose problem ANY solution to this solves. Why would a shipper do this? I suppose it's a nice courtesy to a customer to be able to "prove" something like an HDD wasn't dropped. But if the sticker is tripped, I get a return before the package is even signed for. Without it, it gets signed for, plugged in, and returned only if its DOA, and it might fire up even if dropped. Where's my incentive to increase my return rate as a manufacturer? I can see the receiver wanting this, but it seems like they're not seeing it as enough of a strategic differentiator to insist on it today. And it's not like "shockwatch didnt trip" is a guarantee against DOA - while its a convenient excuse, in my experience broken items are broken before shipping more often than they get broke in transit. So it seems like an expensive nice-to-have that customers don't deman and shippers don't really want.
This just won't work in most areas. UPS in my area just drops the package on the porch, knocks on the door, and then runs for their vehicle (even if the package is clearly marked "Adult signature required"). They'll be a block down the street before you can even open the door.
I hope that $2 sensor comes with an iPad or iPhone.
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=33371
Sounds pretty cool .. and my classmate Chuck developed something like this for a workshop project of his .. in 1982.
This idea is fine and good, but if they make you sign for it, then the customer ends up taking responsibility and eating the loss. Not at first but it could easily move in that direction. Why else go to the expense of putting it in there? They just want a way to shift the blame. Either force the customer to take responsibility by signing, or force the delivery company to take responsibility due to jostling. Either way the seller no longer has to eat the cost of damaged merchandise.
Do you sign if it took several medium bumps? Do you EVER sign? What if it was defective, or only took a mild jostle to break?
If you don't sign and send it back, but it turns out it wasn't broken, do you still have to pay the shipping?
This will lead to having to insure every shipment, or take your chances.
Ace Ventura package delivery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q6_9A90cUk