Boxes for Shipping Wine

 

Guidelines for Shipping Alcoholic Beverages

Contrary to what many may believe, shipping wine — or any alcoholic beverage — via a shipping carrier without an officially recognized alcoholic distributing license is actually possible. Although it’s illegal, if caught the alcohol will only be confiscated, but the act in itself is not a crime and you won’t be charged with any official violation. Therefore, if you’ve decided that losing the alcohol to a slim chance is worth the risk then keep reading.

To get around this loophole, simply approach the situation in this way: because what you wish to ship in a package can legally remain private, all you have to do is refrain from telling the shipping carrier the contents of your package.

A bit of a warning for you. Whatever you do, do not use USPS. It is against the law to ship alcohol though the USPS.

 

One very important thing to remember is that even if the delivery of the package arrives at its destination successfully, you don’t want the beverage sitting for hours in the sun on either your front porch or someone else’s. This is especially important for wine. To get around this issue, opt instead to specifically use FedEx over UPS. Note that because FedEx employees are personally held responsible for any mishandling of the packages they’re delivering they’ll follow the package requests more honorably. In this case, request with the carrier to require a signature of the package in order to avoid it being left to the mercy of unforgiving weather.

UPS employees, on the other hand, are not personally held responsible for mishandled packages and therefore even if you request that a signature of the package is required — if they arrive at the destination and find that no one is home, they may still leave the package on the doorstep regardless (re: because they’ve been made intentionally unaware of the contents of your package). Remember, use FedEx instead of UPS for weather-sensitive beverages.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s address now on how to best package an alcoholic beverage for delivery. Of course, you don’t want to ship the product out in a box that’s blatantly signifying that it could possibly be alcohol. Be discreet but also use packaging that’s durable enough to withstand small tumbles and crushing weights. The idea or the goal here is to use a material (plastic, wood, or even strong cardboard) that will hold firmly together the soft materials you will use to line the inside of your package to ensure the safety of the beverage. Whether the beverage is encased in glass or aluminum, you don’t want to risk the chances of the glass breaking or the aluminum being crushed. All you need to do is to make sure the packaging around the bottle(s) or can(s) won’t allow much room for them to bounce around too much and that everything is snug.

If every condition is met accurately, go ahead and send that bottle of vintage wine over to your best pal. It’s a cinch!

Don’t forget to track your package with PackageFox. If your wine is late PackageFox automatically handles the refund process for you.

Are you sending a out bunch of FedEx or UPS shipments every month? Chances are your invoices contain refund opportunities. Let PackageFox help you save some money.

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