UPS Lost my Engine!

malcoholio

malcoholio

Pre-Flight
Joined
Jan 8, 2013
Messages
31
Location
Monterey
Display Name
Display name:
Malcoholio
You all are going to love this one.

Working with our A&P to send our engine to the builder (Not TBO, but a precautionary IRAN.) Empty crate was shipped, A&P remove the engine, packed it in the create, and shipped it back. All logistics handled by the builder. Now, UPS is showing the 700 lb. create as lost.

  • Builder has not yet received the crate. UPS shows it 'in transit' but suck for days.
  • When called, UPS admits it's lost, but they are confidant they will find it. Eventually. Maybe.
  • We are attempting to figure out the insurance on the shipping, and what our options may be.
  • The Airplane is sadly sitting in the hanger with buckets of rocks holding down the nose.
Not sure if I have a question. . but any advice would be appreciated.

-m
 
Thanks Geroge!
Looks like that story ended well (UPS Found the engine). But it was filled with horror stories about UPS denying claims. I hope our is found, but need to prepare to go after UPS if it's not.
 
I posted a similar tale on Sept 5, in the "I now hate Fedex more than I hate the post office" thread.

My club ordered a rebuilt engine for our Skyhawk, and somewhere between Illinois (I think) and NJ, Fedex lost it!

They found it within two or three days, but it left a lot of people here shaking their heads in disbelief.
 
FedEx dropped the crate that the landing gear from my work airplane was in while it was being moved to the overhaul facility.
 
Groundpounder said:
FedEx dropped the crate that the landing gear from my work airplane was in while it was being moved to the overhaul facility.
Click to expand...
Dropping a 400 pound, 3’ x 2’ x 2’ crate is more understandable than not knowing where the hell it is.
 
malcoholio said:
You all are going to love this one.

Working with our A&P to send our engine to the builder (Not TBO, but a precautionary IRAN.) Empty crate was shipped, A&P remove the engine, packed it in the create, and shipped it back. All logistics handled by the builder. Now, UPS is showing the 700 lb. create as lost.

  • Builder has not yet received the crate. UPS shows it 'in transit' but suck for days.
  • When called, UPS admits it's lost, but they are confidant they will find it. Eventually. Maybe.
  • We are attempting to figure out the insurance on the shipping, and what our options may be.
  • The Airplane is sadly sitting in the hanger with buckets of rocks holding down the nose.
Not sure if I have a question. . but any advice would be appreciated.

-m
Click to expand...
I have been lucky that I have been able to deliver/pickup important to me items in my pickup truck over the years. Numerous racing engines, parts and even whole cars in my race car trailers.

when you want it done now and safely do it yourself.

When I was younger I made many road trips by myself. Luckily I was able to get away from work to do it.

I would hang up the phone at 4pm and be in Iowa, Oklahoma etc the next morning.

The seller knew I was serious when I would pull in before breakfast! Lol
 
Last edited:
Thanks Gary! Seems I am not the only one learning this lesson the hard way.
 
Sucks.

I hope they find it right away and no claims have to be filed.

We put a ladder and pad under the tail instead of buckets of rocks up front. Never thought of the weights up front. Its amazing how much pressure is on the tail when the engine is lifted off the mounts.
 
I once had FedEx lose an entire server rack. They wanted to just pay the insured value, but it would have been a pain to rebuild the server and frankly, there was information on there that I didn't want to fall into random hands so I pressed them to find it. They eventually did. The only problem is that the server had a cache internally that times out after two weeks which caused all kinds of fun when it was booted.
 
For my employer I shipped a cardboard tube of blueprints from Duluth to Indianapolis.

The ability to track shipments online was not a feature that made us have confidence in OOPS!

Day One: MSP-ORD-MKE
Day Two: MKE-ORD-MKE
Day Three: MKE-ORD-MKE
Day Four: MKE-ORD-MKE
Day Five: MKE-ORD-MKE
Day Six: MKE-ORD-MKE
Day Seven: MKE-ORD-IND

Multiple calls to OOPS resulted in multiple OOPS employees denying that the item was caught in the "Kenosha Triangle" pinging and ponging between Chicago and Milwaukee. But it arrived in Indy the day on the computer said it did. So the OOPS idiots were blatant morons or big fat liars.
 
Gary Ward said:
I have been lucky that I have been able to deliver/pickup important to me items in my pickup truck over the years.
Click to expand...
IIRC the first Maule was built because B.D.M. was concerned about the "full load with full fuel" performance of the C-180 he was using to deliver rebuilt aircraft engines in...
 
Boundary Waters said:
For my employer I shipped a cardboard tube of blueprints from Duluth to Indianapolis.

The ability to track shipments online was not a feature that made us have confidence in OOPS!

Day One: MSP-ORD-MKE
Day Two: MKE-ORD-MKE
Day Three: MKE-ORD-MKE
Day Four: MKE-ORD-MKE
Day Five: MKE-ORD-MKE
Day Six: MKE-ORD-MKE
Day Seven: MKE-ORD-IND

Multiple calls to OOPS resulted in multiple OOPS employees denying that the item was caught in the "Kenosha Triangle" pinging and ponging between Chicago and Milwaukee. But it arrived in Indy the day on the computer said it did. So the OOPS idiots were blatant morons or big fat liars.
Click to expand...

I was expecting an inbound shipment of an oxygen system for my plane. Not a big ticket item...about half an AMU. It got to California, and then supposedly through a couple of other UPS locations, then to my local UPS distribution center, and then nothing. No movement for a couple of days.

So I drove over to UPS and asked to pick-up the item since the tracking said that it was there, but hadn't been delivered yet. The guy at the counter turned his computer screen to me and pointed out what were, essentially, virtual scans, which he explained were entries in the system when something should have happened (e.g., movement from one location to another). He further explained that even though the online tracking showed that the item was at the local distribution center, the last actual physical scan was just after the item got to California. From that point on, he said, everything listed in the tracking was when something should have happened (but never did).

I contacted the seller, and they immediately shipped me a new unit, which arrived on schedule. About a month later, the original shipment showed up on my doorstep.

Bottom line: Don't assume everything you read when checking UPS online tracking is accurate.
 
SoCal 182 Driver said:
I was expecting an inbound shipment of an oxygen system for my plane. Not a big ticket item...about half an AMU. It got to California, and then supposedly through a couple of other UPS locations, then to my local UPS distribution center, and then nothing. No movement for a couple of days.

So I drove over to UPS and asked to pick-up the item since the tracking said that it was there, but hadn't been delivered yet. The guy at the counter turned his computer screen to me and pointed out what were, essentially, virtual scans, which he explained were entries in the system when something should have happened (e.g., movement from one location to another). He further explained that even though the online tracking showed that the item was at the local distribution center, the last actual physical scan was just after the item got to California. From that point on, he said, everything listed in the tracking was when something should have happened (but never did).

I contacted the seller, and they immediately shipped me a new unit, which arrived on schedule. About a month later, the original shipment showed up on my doorstep.

Bottom line: Don't assume everything you read when checking UPS online tracking is accurate.
Click to expand...
That's irritating. And explains a lot.
 
This thread gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "We've lost the engine!"

Some 20 years ago UPS lost an overnight envelope being sent to me. This was a problem, because it had a check in it. Uh, a $56,000 check. I needed that check. The sender didn't want to stop payment on it and send another one, which was driving me crazy.

It had been scanned at a sorting facility, but hadn't left it. Four days later it was discovered wedged in an overhead conveyer system.
 
So... what about insurance for lost things. (shipped a $7K part yesterday with suboptimal coverage so it's too late for that). But, an engine is coming my way in a few months. My experience is that the premium for big ticket items is pretty hefty....and I've had fun and games with things such as "we obviously ran over it but we are still denying your claim".
What would say, $100,000 of coverage cost?
11 hour drive; will have to think about it.
 
Just wondering if you insure a package/crate for say $20,000. How long does it take to get reimbursed from the shipper?
 
malcoholio said:
You all are going to love this one.

Working with our A&P to send our engine to the builder (Not TBO, but a precautionary IRAN.) Empty crate was shipped, A&P remove the engine, packed it in the create, and shipped it back. All logistics handled by the builder. Now, UPS is showing the 700 lb. create as lost.

  • Builder has not yet received the crate. UPS shows it 'in transit' but suck for days.
  • When called, UPS admits it's lost, but they are confidant they will find it. Eventually. Maybe.
  • We are attempting to figure out the insurance on the shipping, and what our options may be.
  • The Airplane is sadly sitting in the hanger with buckets of rocks holding down the nose.
Not sure if I have a question. . but any advice would be appreciated.

-m
Click to expand...

Shocked UPS does such large items.
 
In 1990 I shipped two 75 kVA Piller 415 Hz motorgenerators from Dallas to Atlanta to get the bearings changed and to have a load bank test performed on them.

Typical insurance coverage for OTR trucking firms covered something like $5.50 per pound for damage and loss. These MGs, used to power IBM's largest 3090-600J mainframes, cost around $70,000 new. I bought a supplemental policy before shipping them, valuing the equipment at $85,000 each because I had a performance clause in the delivery contract. The buyer had a data center going live in two weeks or something like that.

They arrived safely in Atlanta, and after a week or so they went back on a truck headed for Dallas. These two machines were the only freight on the truck.

When they arrived at my facility, the driver opened the doors of the trailer and backed up to my dock. About this time I came out into the warehouse to inspect them, and looking into the trailer I could see both MGs up in the nose of the trailer, on their sides. Some of the exterior cover panels had detached while they were pinballing around in the trailer, and various bits of wire and metal were scattered about.

They were a total loss. It took some gymnastics, but I found replacements and received payment from the insurer fairly quickly.

I dodged a bullet. Most people assume that when they ship something on an LTL or OTR carrier, insurance covers damage. Nope.

In my case, if I hadn't procured additional insurance, the trucking company would have paid the $5.50/lb coverage they carried, and I would have received $17,600. That was a bit short of their actual value.
 
Our internal transportation crew managed to lose a 4’ tall, 5’ wide, 17’ long crate that weighed about 1900 pounds. Loaded on a 40’ flat bed with 10 or 12 dexion crates for fuel tanks and it vanished between the receiving dock and my dock a half mile away. Transportation was pretty laid back about losing it til they found out it was worth around 1.2M$. I finally found it 8 days later, in a storage hangar buried under a pile of fuel tank crates.
 
3393RP said:
This thread gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "We've lost the engine!"

Some 20 years ago UPS lost an overnight envelope being sent to me. This was a problem, because it had a check in it. Uh, a $56,000 check. I needed that check. The sender didn't want to stop payment on it and send another one, which was driving me crazy.

It had been scanned at a sorting facility, but hadn't left it. Four days later it was discovered wedged in an overhead conveyer system.
Click to expand...

That happens regularly, but is usually found pretty quickly. I worked at a UPS location in Opelika, AL when I was in college at Auburn. I found thin letter type packages in the conveyer belt about once a month, plus small packages in the trailers as well, typically hidden in the plastic wrap. That was not a large center.
 
When I shipped my engine I used YRC Freight at the recommendation of my builder.

It would be interesting to hear, of those who have shipped engines, which shippers were used.
 
Domenick said:
It would be interesting to hear, of those who have shipped engines, which shippers were used.
Click to expand...

I'll start, though I've told the tale here previously. But if folks want to keep adding to this post we can build up a list.


FedEx My club had a rebuilt engine shipped from Illinois to NJ. FedEx lost it for a couple of days, though it was subsequently found and it arrived here undamaged.
 
3393RP said:
This thread gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "We've lost the engine!"

Some 20 years ago UPS lost an overnight envelope being sent to me. This was a problem, because it had a check in it. Uh, a $56,000 check. I needed that check. The sender didn't want to stop payment on it and send another one, which was driving me crazy.

It had been scanned at a sorting facility, but hadn't left it. Four days later it was discovered wedged in an overhead conveyer system.
Click to expand...
FedEx (back when they were still Federal Express) lost one I sent. Apparently it had gotten stuck to the bottom of someone else's box that had tape residue on it. It turned up a few days later. FX at least refunded my overnight fees.

I had a trucking company lose a $26K (back in the early 90s) IBM disk assembly. The crate was probably about 4' x 4' x 3'. They never did find it, and the shipper had not insured it, so the trucking company paid something like $75 or so.

More recently, Dell shipped three laptops to me via FedEx. Two showed up the next day. The third was still unaccounted for several days later, so I called Dell and asked them where the hell it was. FedEx said it was in Maine, and would be here in a couple of days (remember, this was an overnight shipment to begin with). We waited for it until 6 PM on the delivery day and had to leave for a while. When we came back, there was of course a FX sticker on the door saying they needed a signature. Odd, considering they had never asked for a signature before. The next day we found a battered, smashed, taped-up box laying on the porch -- the FX driver had tossed it and ran. Inside was a laptop that was missing most of the packing material, no power supply, and was BENT.

All shippers suck to some degree, it's just who sucks more on a given day.
 
Rgbeard said:
11hr drive is 100% do-able. I would take 0.001 seconds to think about it.

I like control over things such as this.
Click to expand...

And what's your (or the other party) auto insurance going to say when you tell them about the $100k engine that was in the back of your pickup and is now a total loss?
 
Bill said:
And what's your (or the other party) auto insurance going to say when you tell them about the $100k engine that was in the back of your pickup and is now a total loss?
Click to expand...

This is a conversation to have with your aircraft insurance carrier. If it isn't already covered under the policy, there may well be a rider for either the aircraft owner or the A&Ps insurance that would cover it, likely at a cost far less than LTL carrier insurance.

FWIW, it was a over a decade ago, but our engine shipped via Oak Harbor Freight with no issues. It honestly wouldn't occur to me to ship a large expensive item with UPS or Fedex. While I know they have LTL services, I would stick with a company that specializes in LTL work.
 
Domenick said:
When I shipped my engine I used YRC Freight at the recommendation of my builder.

It would be interesting to hear, of those who have shipped engines, which shippers were used.
Click to expand...
I have shipped large (200-300 pound) items by Old Dominion without incident.
 
Bill said:
And what's your (or the other party) auto insurance going to say when you tell them about the $100k engine that was in the back of your pickup and is now a total loss?
Click to expand...
My A&P did that, without business insurance on the car or at all. My Aircraft insurance covered it as my policy included parts for my aircraft but not attached. His auto insurance pointed to their policy and laughed at me.

Also, if you're paying for an overhaul or any big ticket item for the plane be sure to call and update your hull value as soon as you write the check, not when the plane comes back from the shop.
 
3393RP said:
In 1990 I shipped two 75 kVA Piller 415 Hz motorgenerators from Dallas to Atlanta to get the bearings changed and to have a load bank test performed on them.

Typical insurance coverage for OTR trucking firms covered something like $5.50 per pound for damage and loss. These MGs, used to power IBM's largest 3090-600J mainframes, cost around $70,000 new. I bought a supplemental policy before shipping them, valuing the equipment at $85,000 each because I had a performance clause in the delivery contract. The buyer had a data center going live in two weeks or something like that.

They arrived safely in Atlanta, and after a week or so they went back on a truck headed for Dallas. These two machines were the only freight on the truck.

When they arrived at my facility, the driver opened the doors of the trailer and backed up to my dock. About this time I came out into the warehouse to inspect them, and looking into the trailer I could see both MGs up in the nose of the trailer, on their sides. Some of the exterior cover panels had detached while they were pinballing around in the trailer, and various bits of wire and metal were scattered about.

They were a total loss. It took some gymnastics, but I found replacements and received payment from the insurer fairly quickly.

I dodged a bullet. Most people assume that when they ship something on an LTL or OTR carrier, insurance covers damage. Nope.

In my case, if I hadn't procured additional insurance, the trucking company would have paid the $5.50/lb coverage they carried, and I would have received $17,600. That was a bit short of their actual value.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I used to be somewhat involved in the freight industry for a few years. I can’t remember if it’s a federal deal (interstate commerce) or not, but freight is insured for very little per pound. Always check coverage on what you ship. FedEx and UPS, if I remember correctly, insure for some flat amount like $100 or so.
 
Boundary Waters said:
I have shipped large (200-300 pound) items by Old Dominion without incident.
Click to expand...
I received a new auto car hood in a plywood box through Old Dominion that was un damaged, they did a good job.

I have shipped a lot of packages over the years for work and personal. 20 years ago I shipped about 260 e bay antique parts that mostly were irreplaceable.

IMO poor packaging get's less respect from the shippers.

When I was buying something heavy, expensive and used(like a racing engine) I went and inspected the item in person, then hauled it myself like I said in a earlier post. I have never been disappointed doing it that way. Yes it cost me time and maybe more money doing it that way in person.

I have never trusted a trucking company to deliver a engine until last year.

I ordered a lycoming rebuilt motor for my 172 and the freight both ways was paid up front when I paid air power for the motor.

So I trusted them to get it to me safely which they did. The only bad part was it in showed up on a rainy day. lol

UPS sent a semi truck to deliver it and it was in perfect condition until it got a little wet from the rain.
IMG_7773.JPG

I was really digging this tip over indicator on the side of the box. Kudos to Lycoming on a well packed motor that has been running great for over 300 hrs now.
IMG_7774.JPG

Then for whatever reason they had me ship the core back through fedex which I assume it made it back ok since I received full credit for my core.
I did invest $50 bucks for this strap pac kit to strap it to the skid like the new one was and to secure the box to the pallet. Tried to do it professionally to help insure I got my $16000. core deposit back.
323.JPG
 
Last edited:
Bill said:
And what's your (or the other party) auto insurance going to say when you tell them about the $100k engine that was in the back of your pickup and is now a total loss?
Click to expand...

I'm not ignoring the risk of this.

But I consider the risk of this event to be less likely than the risk of a carrier losing/damaging the box and fighting me forever with a claim.
 
I’ve had good and bad experiences with FedEx, UPS, USPS, and DHL. I’ve had good experiences with ABF and Old Dominion but I know other kit plane builders who have had bad experiences with both of them. Nobody is perfect. And to paraphrase Eugene Mirman, filing a lost or damaged freight claim with any of these companies is like hiring an insincere baby with amnesia to solve a crime that it committed.

But it’s all just money until your father’s ashes get lost in the mail. I had someone call for help dealing with that once. That one was the post office but it could easily have been any of the others.

Good luck finding your engine. It certainly didn’t cease to exist, but it could be in another dimension somewhere, buried under a pile of socks lost in the dryer.
 
I think nowadays if I was to ship something valuable I would stick a Tile tag or an Apple Airtag on it, which would at least allow you to give the shipping company a hint as to where the package is - or at least - where it has been.
 
CaptainXap said:
I think nowadays if I was to ship something valuable I would stick a Tile tag or an Apple Airtag on it, which would at least allow you to give the shipping company a hint as to where the package is - or at least - where it has been.
Click to expand...

A bluetooth-only solution won't work, you need a GPS tracker that will network. I'm actually looking at getting these, as FedEx has been repeatedly misplacing time-sensitive shipments of samples my company sends (for various reasons, UPS isn't a good option for us). If anyone has experience with GPS trackers, please share, I'd like to hear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top