FedEx Panda
February 4, 2010 8:06 AM Subscribe
As mentioned previously, two pandas are flying from the US back to China. Or rather, are being shipped by FedEx. Which explains why FedEx has its own Panda shipping website, complete with Panda tracker. And a link to other unusual FedEx shipments.
ExitPursuedByBear
Presumably a panda...
posted by sodium lights the horizon at 8:13 AM on February 4, 2010
Presumably a panda...
posted by sodium lights the horizon at 8:13 AM on February 4, 2010
From the website it looks like they fly with the panda on the outside of the plane just behind the cockpit. Is that first class?
posted by srboisvert at 8:13 AM on February 4, 2010
posted by srboisvert at 8:13 AM on February 4, 2010
I still can't get over the fact that there's an arrow in the FedEx logo. I managed to miss it for 25 years, and now I can't see the logo without experiencing the same shock and excitement I felt when someone first pointed it out to me.
Also, yay pandas!
posted by greekphilosophy at 8:14 AM on February 4, 2010
Also, yay pandas!
posted by greekphilosophy at 8:14 AM on February 4, 2010
I wonder how much they paid for the advertising opportunity.
posted by delmoi at 8:20 AM on February 4, 2010
posted by delmoi at 8:20 AM on February 4, 2010
Do they send rabbits through "hare"-mail.
Only in Quebec.
posted by battlebison at 8:21 AM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Only in Quebec.
posted by battlebison at 8:21 AM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Am I a bad person for looking for something like this?
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:21 AM on February 4, 2010
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:21 AM on February 4, 2010
I have to share this. It's a stuffed toy, but I didn't know that the first time I saw it, but wouldn't have that been AWESOME?!?! I mean beside the fact that it is a bear with teeth and stuff.
posted by spec80 at 8:22 AM on February 4, 2010 [10 favorites]
posted by spec80 at 8:22 AM on February 4, 2010 [10 favorites]
This is great until they're on the last FedEx truck, the driver decides that he's done for the day, and falsifies "attempted delivery; no one home" in the tracking log.
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:26 AM on February 4, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:26 AM on February 4, 2010 [4 favorites]
"FedEx Express, the world's largest express transportation company, will transport two Giant Pandas from Beijing, China to the Memphis Zoo in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A., on April 7, 2003."
They don't have a tracker for this panda shipment?
posted by vivelame at 8:30 AM on February 4, 2010
They don't have a tracker for this panda shipment?
posted by vivelame at 8:30 AM on February 4, 2010
What does this have to do with Kevin Federline?
posted by AwkwardPause at 8:38 AM on February 4, 2010
posted by AwkwardPause at 8:38 AM on February 4, 2010
This is great until they're on the last FedEx truck, the driver decides that he's done for the day, and falsifies "attempted delivery; no one home" in the tracking log.
That's what I was thinking. Utah!? How'd my panda get to Utah?
Detroit? WTF Fedex
posted by graventy at 8:47 AM on February 4, 2010
That's what I was thinking. Utah!? How'd my panda get to Utah?
Detroit? WTF Fedex
posted by graventy at 8:47 AM on February 4, 2010
On a related note, the Georgia Aquarium had 2 whale sharks shipped via UPS.
Feh, pandas. Minor leaguers.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:47 AM on February 4, 2010
Feh, pandas. Minor leaguers.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:47 AM on February 4, 2010
Castaway II: Cuddly and Marooned
posted by generichuman at 8:54 AM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by generichuman at 8:54 AM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Huh, this reminds me of way back in the day when the mother of a friend of mine who worked for FedEx was involved in shipping the (one of the?) Batmobile(s) to some dude in South Africa who'd won it in a contest. Pandas... Batmobiles... Tom Hanks... is there anything FedEx can't ship?
posted by Never teh Bride at 8:57 AM on February 4, 2010
posted by Never teh Bride at 8:57 AM on February 4, 2010
On a related note, the Georgia Aquarium had 2 whale sharks shipped via UPS.
Yep, UPS seems to do the heavy lifting...they helped move Keiko, the Free Willy killer whale, on two different occasions.
posted by tdstone at 8:58 AM on February 4, 2010
Yep, UPS seems to do the heavy lifting...they helped move Keiko, the Free Willy killer whale, on two different occasions.
posted by tdstone at 8:58 AM on February 4, 2010
From the "unusual shipments" page:
"Rescue Equipment - A four-ton high press water drill and 5,700 lbs. of equipment were flown to Midland, Texas, to rescue 18-month-old Jessica McClure from a well in 1987."
I watched the made-for-TV movie about Jessica McClure a few times a week when I was a kid. That is, until my mom taped over it on purpose. Come to think of it, she did that to a couple of my favorites...
posted by Kimothy at 9:10 AM on February 4, 2010 [2 favorites]
"Rescue Equipment - A four-ton high press water drill and 5,700 lbs. of equipment were flown to Midland, Texas, to rescue 18-month-old Jessica McClure from a well in 1987."
I watched the made-for-TV movie about Jessica McClure a few times a week when I was a kid. That is, until my mom taped over it on purpose. Come to think of it, she did that to a couple of my favorites...
posted by Kimothy at 9:10 AM on February 4, 2010 [2 favorites]
Unfortunately, nobody was there at the zoo gates to sign for the pandas, so they are currently exhibiting at the central routing office in Beijing.
They will attempt to deliver them again tomorrow, and might leave them behind the ornamental bamboo to the right of the front gate.
posted by markkraft at 9:13 AM on February 4, 2010
They will attempt to deliver them again tomorrow, and might leave them behind the ornamental bamboo to the right of the front gate.
posted by markkraft at 9:13 AM on February 4, 2010
The only unusual shipment FedEx has ever managed to pull off is getting one to my business address on time without the lazy bitch driver claiming to have attempted delivery despite doing nothing of the sort...but, you know, I digress.
I wouldn't trust them with a stuffed panda, let alone a real one.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 9:33 AM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
I wouldn't trust them with a stuffed panda, let alone a real one.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 9:33 AM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Now I really want to see what other kinds of wildlife I can ship; I'm thinking a full-sized sulcata tortoise wrapped in brown paper with a label stuck on the side would be an awesome thing to walk into a FedEx station with.
posted by quin at 9:57 AM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by quin at 9:57 AM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
So anyway, we open the panda crate, and wouldn't you know it, the damn thing was dead. Upchucked its bamboo. True story
posted by griphus at 10:13 AM on February 4, 2010
posted by griphus at 10:13 AM on February 4, 2010
Wait, they get breakfast, lunch and dinner? Next you'll tell me that there are free bloody marys too. Next time I go anywhere I'm flying with FedEx.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 10:16 AM on February 4, 2010
posted by kuujjuarapik at 10:16 AM on February 4, 2010
Air holes, people! Don't forget the air holes.
(my long term best friend insisted that we poke air holes in the stuffed animal moving boxes and bags well into adulthood)
posted by poe at 11:43 AM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
(my long term best friend insisted that we poke air holes in the stuffed animal moving boxes and bags well into adulthood)
posted by poe at 11:43 AM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
I still can't get over the fact that there's an arrow in the FedEx logo.
here's another one: their trucks never turn left. ever. they use proprietary navigation software that calculates the best right-turning route and they end up saving a ton of gas.
posted by sexyrobot at 11:50 AM on February 4, 2010
here's another one: their trucks never turn left. ever. they use proprietary navigation software that calculates the best right-turning route and they end up saving a ton of gas.
posted by sexyrobot at 11:50 AM on February 4, 2010
Oh shit, the air holes go in the top of the *box*
posted by craven_morhead at 12:15 PM on February 4, 2010
posted by craven_morhead at 12:15 PM on February 4, 2010
Let's hope they do a better job tracking Butterstick than they did with the Canadian dollar coin master dies.
posted by Pollomacho at 12:24 PM on February 4, 2010
posted by Pollomacho at 12:24 PM on February 4, 2010
I like Wonkette's description of this event. But maybe that's just my inner 12-year-old speaking.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:38 PM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:38 PM on February 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
their trucks never turn left
That's not exactly true.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:42 PM on February 4, 2010
That's not exactly true.
Not so long ago, UPS drivers worked off maps, 3-x-5 note cards, and their own memory to figure out the best way to run their routes. That changed in 2005 when UPS began to implement a $600 million route optimization system--think MapQuest on steroids--that each evening maps out the next day's schedule for the majority of its 56,000 drivers. So sophisticated is the software that it designs each route to minimize the number of left turns, thus reducing the time and gas that drivers waste idling at stoplights.So, they minimize the number of left turns, but don't expressly prohibit them.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:42 PM on February 4, 2010
sexyrobot wrote: "here's another one: their trucks never turn left. ever. they use proprietary navigation software that calculates the best right-turning route and they end up saving a ton of gas."
That is not true. They often turn left in my neighborhood. Of course, they often go straight or turn right.
posted by wierdo at 2:49 PM on February 4, 2010
That is not true. They often turn left in my neighborhood. Of course, they often go straight or turn right.
posted by wierdo at 2:49 PM on February 4, 2010
This shipment was kind of a big deal. It is using one of our (disclaimer: I work at FedEx in Indy) new 777F plane and is flying direct from IAD to China. A couple people that I work with are in IAD to actually load the plane since no one at that airport was qualified to load the plane.
Also the GPS navigating thing is not us, because I am pretty sure FedEx doesn't allow them. As someone else pointed out the right turn thing is UPS.
posted by Phantomx at 6:05 PM on February 4, 2010
Also the GPS navigating thing is not us, because I am pretty sure FedEx doesn't allow them. As someone else pointed out the right turn thing is UPS.
posted by Phantomx at 6:05 PM on February 4, 2010
I was at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago shortly after they re-opened last spring and was surprised when they announced during their dolphin show that their seven beluga whales, two Pacific white-sided dolphins, and two California sea lions had been FedExed home from another facility where they had been "on vacation" during the renovations.
posted by heatherann at 6:11 PM on February 4, 2010
posted by heatherann at 6:11 PM on February 4, 2010
I so very, very much want to ship a giant snowball to somebody.
In fact, I'd like to start a business just like that - "snowballs by mail." Got a kid? Stuck in the desert? Want him or her to have a snowball? Small containers, dry ice, shipping, voila!
posted by FormlessOne at 8:30 PM on February 4, 2010
In fact, I'd like to start a business just like that - "snowballs by mail." Got a kid? Stuck in the desert? Want him or her to have a snowball? Small containers, dry ice, shipping, voila!
posted by FormlessOne at 8:30 PM on February 4, 2010
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/I am so sorry about that.
posted by ExitPursuedByBear at 8:08 AM on February 4, 2010 [3 favorites]