Anyone who has taken the time and made the effort to ship a package through UPS or FedEx knows how important it is for that item to arrive to its destination undamaged and on time. Most people have had at least one bad experience with the big shippers that have led them to lose trust in the process. In academic circles however, colloquial stories, “He said, she said” events or, “This one time…” tales amount to what is called: Misleading Vividness. Misleading Vividness referrers to that phenomenon of people having fear based on a story a friend told them when the statistics are sharply against them. The truth is, both FedEx and UPS have more than 95% success in delivery of freight: top tier shipping assurance. Less than five percent of the packages that go through their systems encounter problems that damage the product. Less than fifteen percent of their shipments arrive late. This extreme success ratio is what the two companies built their reputation upon. Yet, some people do not care for statistics. For anyone who needs more than statistics, a brief overview of the sorts of policies that protect shipments might be encouraging.

Both FedEx and UPS have full, money back guarantees for any packages that go through the system, retaining damage, arriving late, or being lost by the shipper. No company would offer such a guarantee, if they could not fulfill the terms the vast majority of the time. Moreover, both companies have employee policies in place that assure proper handling of packages.

Anyone who has stepped foot into a UPS or FedEx shipment warehouse will quickly see why these companies have such high success rates for their packages. The vast conveyor belt systems route packages flawlessly to trucks, where each employee working a truck has a scanner that enters the information on the package (this ensures than no items enter a truck that do not belong there). The employees go through lengthy training to learn packing techniques that keep boxes safe from shifting during transit.

Many other systems exist that prevent these shippers from failing their customers and providing shipping assurance. When compared to smaller operations, the level of monitoring that takes place for every individual box is exceptional. Mistakes do happen, but they are the exception to the norm.