Does UPS or any other (i.e. FedEx, USPS) open or inspect in any other way what they ship?
Except in case of obvious emergency (a package with smoke coming out of it or some such thing), it is illegal for anyone except a Postal Inspector to open US Mail and they can do so only with a warrant.
I have noticed, though, that USPS is now asking about the contents of packages they accept. I recently tried to mail a box containing two bottles of wine. It was refused. Why? "Alcohol is flamable." I tried to explain that wine is nominally 7% Alcohol and not flamable or explosive. But, they wouldn't budge. So, I offered my second package. That one, I explained, was much more hazardous than the previous one since it contained two photographs printed on flamable paper. But, if those pictures were to catch fire, you could pour the wine on them and put the fire out. They accepted the box with the photographs.
UPS, is a very different story. A couple of years ago now, there was a post here on BF.C from a member complaining that the UPS clerk had, right in front of him, opened his outgoing package, unpacked it, inspected the contents, and then repacked it and taped it up.
I was shocked. I couldn't believe it. Now, I'm no friend of UPS, but I hate seeing a company trashed for something so obviously not true. So, I e-mailed UPS Customer Service asking them to respond.
The response shocked me. The response was, "Yes, we're not quite there yet, but our goal is to open and inspect 100% of packages accepted from individual shippers."
I replied and asked why they would do such a thing. The answer was to protect their employees from hazardous package contents.
I replied asking them to, without going into detail, cite some examples of how package content had endangered their employees. I also asked them to comment on why they felt that they were getting all of the dangerous packages since none of their competition seems to feel that this is enough of a problem to warrant such inspections.
The reply was that they would not discuss specific cases because of employee confidentiality and that they could not comment on the policies of other carriers.
About this same time, another person posted that UPS had decided not to ship firearms anymore. Well, I figured that this was some sort of political thing, so I e-mailed 'em complaining. They replied that the poster was wrong. They would still accept firearms, but only in their more expensive, faster, "Blue Label" service, not in the less expensive "Brown Label" service. That makes no sense. If the reason is political, then that policy just upsets everyone. If the reason is safety, then this policy also makes no sense. Why would guns be any less save in the Brown Label service than the Blue?
So, I asked them to explain why. The reply is that they'd had to much trouble with employee theft of guns from the Brown Label service. The faster, Blue Label service is handeled less and tracked closer, so they have less problem with theft from it.
Instead of trying to deal with their own employees stealing customer's property, UPS's solution was to pass the problem, and the cost, onto their customers by requiring them to use Blue Label. Cute.
I combined the two ongoing discussions together and asked UPS if they felt that there might be a relationship between employees inspecting the contents of packages and employees stealing the contents of packages? The response was, "We've forwarded your comments on for further consideration."
Since then, I've talked to a former UPS employee who confirmed my theory. The clerks don't steal anything. There are to many eyes watching them. But, what they do is somehow mark the package, a little extra pen mark, even just an extra crease in the packing tape. The folks in the back, who are sorting and loading the boxes, watch for those marks and, if they feel that the moment is right, the boss isn't looking, etc., they open the package, remove the contents, tape it back up, and send it on its way. The clerk gets his percentage later.
The vast majority of packages do not contain anything worth risking one's job over. There's not a big market for a stolen box of grandma's homemade cookies. So, on the average, workers are much better off sorting and loading the packages just like they're supposed to and accepting their paycheck at the end of the week than trying to steal stuff out of the packages. But, if you change that average by allowing workers to look through the packages and determine which ones are ripe for theft, you're gonna suddenly have a big problem.
Grudgingly, I took my box of wine to UPS and they accepted it without asking or opening.
), but if they don't allow anything with alcohol, then howcome you can get those little liquor bottle thingies to drink on the planes. Or can you not do that anymore? It's been awhile since I've flown anywhere...
I must be going to the wrong Post Office...they always charge me for delivery confirmation...