3 ms·

Same story for many businesses shipping from Japan at the moment. Japan Post has shut down most of the usual avenues for shipping overseas from Japan, leaving o

Same story for many businesses shipping from Japan at the moment. Japan Post has shut down most of the usual avenues for shipping overseas from Japan, leaving only cost prohibitive international courier and freight forwarding options available.

tpmx 6y ago
Because of misplaced fears of fomite-based covid-19 infection vectors?
- robjan 6y ago
  Because there are no flights for airmail to travel on. We have the same problem in HK since the border is almost completely closed. We can only send mail by ship to most destinations unless it's couriered.
  - tpmx 6y ago
    I had assumed commercial flight operators would have MacGyvered passenger aircraft to handle things like this by now, to get some kind of revenue stream. I guess the economics didn't work out. Edit: This is also nicely illustrated by Fedex stock almost tripling in value since the beginning of the pandemic.
    - Hamuko 6y ago
      I believe there are some passenger airplanes with seats taken out for cargo but I have no idea how widespread that is or how much of the regular cargo traffic it can actually replace. https://www.aircargonews.net/freighters-world/how-coronavirus-has-turned-the-airfreight-market-on-its-head/ https://www.aircargonews.net/freighters-world/how-coronaviru...
    - pm215 6y ago
      One specific postage option I noticed Japan Post had cancelled was the "surface air lift" which is a kind of middle-option between airmail (fast, expensive) and seamail (very slow, cheap). My assumption is that this was partly because if there's less capacity on planes then you might as well use it all for expensive airmail rather than cheaper SAL. But I've not investigated whether this is really true. I think more generally trying to jury-rig cargo on a passenger plane isn't economic -- IIRC early last year some companies did a bit of it when passenger air travel was essentially zero, but they've all stopped now because (a) the cost effective way to fly cargo is to use cargo planes and (b) air passenger travel picked up a little again.

tpmx 6y ago

Because of misplaced fears of fomite-based covid-19 infection vectors?

robjan 6y ago
Because there are no flights for airmail to travel on. We have the same problem in HK since the border is almost completely closed. We can only send mail by ship to most destinations unless it's couriered.
- tpmx 6y ago
  I had assumed commercial flight operators would have MacGyvered passenger aircraft to handle things like this by now, to get some kind of revenue stream. I guess the economics didn't work out. Edit: This is also nicely illustrated by Fedex stock almost tripling in value since the beginning of the pandemic.
  - Hamuko 6y ago
    I believe there are some passenger airplanes with seats taken out for cargo but I have no idea how widespread that is or how much of the regular cargo traffic it can actually replace. https://www.aircargonews.net/freighters-world/how-coronavirus-has-turned-the-airfreight-market-on-its-head/ https://www.aircargonews.net/freighters-world/how-coronaviru...
  - pm215 6y ago
    One specific postage option I noticed Japan Post had cancelled was the "surface air lift" which is a kind of middle-option between airmail (fast, expensive) and seamail (very slow, cheap). My assumption is that this was partly because if there's less capacity on planes then you might as well use it all for expensive airmail rather than cheaper SAL. But I've not investigated whether this is really true. I think more generally trying to jury-rig cargo on a passenger plane isn't economic -- IIRC early last year some companies did a bit of it when passenger air travel was essentially zero, but they've all stopped now because (a) the cost effective way to fly cargo is to use cargo planes and (b) air passenger travel picked up a little again.