[Serious] How expensive is it to ship a top?

[Gangstead]

Given the news about further delays many people are wondering why they can't just get their crappy MIC now to get their Bronco off the holding lot and have Ford ship the replacement later. Or purchase dual tops and get the car with just the soft top and get the MIC top when it's ready. The constant refrain is that it's "too expensive" to ship tops.

Does anyone have any real world data about how expensive it is to ship a top?

• I know that they will ship 4000 pounds of rubber and metal across the country for $1,495. A hundred pounds of plastic should be doable for a couple hundred bucks, right?
• The closest I have to experience is moving cross country I packed a pallet full of boxes at a warehouse parking lot and it was trucked to the warehouse 1200 miles away for $150 (decade ago). That would seem to be a similar freight job to shipping a big bulky top from a factory to a dealership.
• Does Ford not already ship out truck loads of parts and accessories to service departments at every dealer, like daily? Is there a shipping charge when you buy large items from the parts department?
• If they had to ship thousands of hard tops they could probably set up a custom rack or something to fit multiple tops closer together.
• Put a top in the back of every ranger/f150 that's already headed to a dealership anyways.

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[Schnabby]

Quadratetc charges $200 to ship a 3 piece Mopar Jeep 4 door hardtop.

 

[Chrism81]

when they ship stuff like you are talking about you have to consider that they are shipping bulk stuff so that usually ends up being cheaper than shipping a few hard tops at a time to dealers.

 

[BigTex]

Given the news about further delays many people are wondering why they can't just get their crappy MIC now to get their Bronco off the holding lot and have Ford ship the replacement later. Or purchase dual tops and get the car with just the soft top and get the MIC top when it's ready. The constant refrain is that it's "too expensive" to ship tops.

Does anyone have any real world data about how expensive it is to ship a top?

• I know that they will ship 4000 pounds of rubber and metal across the country for $1,495. A hundred pounds of plastic should be doable for a couple hundred bucks, right?
• The closest I have to experience is moving cross country I packed a pallet full of boxes at a warehouse parking lot and it was trucked to the warehouse 1200 miles away for $150 (decade ago). That would seem to be a similar freight job to shipping a big bulky top from a factory to a dealership.
• Does Ford not already ship out truck loads of parts and accessories to service departments at every dealer, like daily? Is there a shipping charge when you buy large items from the parts department?
• If they had to ship thousands of hard tops they could probably set up a custom rack or something to fit multiple tops closer together.
• Put a top in the back of every ranger/f150 that's already headed to a dealership anyways.

It’s not about the weight, it’s about the size. Light weight large items take up a lot of real estate; therefore, price per pound is considerably higher than a small dense product of equal weight.

 

[Tricky Dick]

Quadratetc charges $200 to ship a 3 piece Mopar Jeep 4 door hardtop.

If it costs under $500, I'd cover the shipping myself if my Bronco would ship now.

 

[Ksjrb03]

Its not just the shipping/handling, the dealer will charge more than shipping cost for installation. Its a logistical mess and unnecessary. Making you wait a few months is free and easy. Not sure why this is hard to understand and accept.

 

[GToddC5]

Don't forget about the new rear quarter glass in the new rear cap:

 

[brettf22]

I have no insight in to what it would cost. but obviously Ford's calculations conclude that the cost to ship (plus adding a certain percentage for loss, damage, and reship) approximately 2200+ tops is less than the cost to store the vehicles, plus the time value of money for the unrealized revenue.

Another factor to consider in shipping is that the replacements for Broncos already on the road are not coming with glass. It sounds as if dealers are going to have to remove the glass from the bad top and install in the new top.

But IMO, should they have sucked up the extra costs and gotten the badbatch broncos out now? Absolutely. But that would mean customer satisfaction > profits.

 

[Zeno]

Given the news about further delays many people are wondering why they can't just get their crappy MIC now to get their Bronco off the holding lot and have Ford ship the replacement later. Or purchase dual tops and get the car with just the soft top and get the MIC top when it's ready. The constant refrain is that it's "too expensive" to ship tops.

Does anyone have any real world data about how expensive it is to ship a top?

• I know that they will ship 4000 pounds of rubber and metal across the country for $1,495. A hundred pounds of plastic should be doable for a couple hundred bucks, right?
• The closest I have to experience is moving cross country I packed a pallet full of boxes at a warehouse parking lot and it was trucked to the warehouse 1200 miles away for $150 (decade ago). That would seem to be a similar freight job to shipping a big bulky top from a factory to a dealership.
• Does Ford not already ship out truck loads of parts and accessories to service departments at every dealer, like daily? Is there a shipping charge when you buy large items from the parts department?
• If they had to ship thousands of hard tops they could probably set up a custom rack or something to fit multiple tops closer together.
• Put a top in the back of every ranger/f150 that's already headed to a dealership anyways.

Just my guess. They know about the water intrusion possibility as well as other problems with the MIC tops. Some in the dirt pit are going to have water intrusion, rodent issues, etc. Those units will not pass QC and will be crushed. The "future owners" of these Broncos will have to have another vehicle built if they can't be repaired and pass QC. The rest of the misfit toys will go out once they have a new top, have had a thorough inspection, and passed QC.

Order holders don't own those vehicles, Ford does. Ford is correctly covering their butts from a legal standpoint. To send them out now with the bad tops would be a legal nightmare for Ford. Presently, we don't own the vehicles and have no real damages other than time and disappointment. Once they are out the door and are owned by someone, the owner has endless potential damages, both actual as well as punitive damages because Ford knew about the problem. The class actions would be filed so fast that your head would spin.

In fact, I will make a wager. By the end of today there will already be a class action filed on behalf of the individuals that already received their defective hard tops.

 

[SVTLightning]

The people bitching about “why not just send it to me and I’ll wait for the new one” are the same people who would then turn around and bitch about how poor the top is.

 

[Gangstead]

It’s not about the weight, it’s about the size. Light weight large items take up a lot of real estate; therefore, price per pound is considerably higher than a small dense product of equal weight.

Understood, but when I shipped a pallet full of moving boxes that was a bulky load. It couldn't be stacked and had to be moved around with a pallet jack. I wasn't getting any high volume rate, I was just one person doing a one off move of a single pallet and it was $150. I think a hard top packaged up would be similar in bulk, but even lighter.

 

[Jr87mustang]

The added dealer cost for HT will be pretty steep. I believe the dealer "cost" for the Bestop soft tops is $1600 or so. They are selling them for $2200. Obviously some dealers will be kinder than others but if the MOD top from Ford factory is $3600ish and then mark up from dealers is $500ish and then you have to pay for shipping and tax PLUS it may not be painted like the Jeep tops. It gets steep real fast. Of course if you get a MIC top it will be less but still spendy.

 

[Fordmanbob]

The people bitching about “why not just send it to me and I’ll wait for the new one” are the same people who would then turn around and bitch about how poor the top is.

Agreed

 

[Phil]

It’s not about the weight, it’s about the size. Light weight large items take up a lot of real estate; therefore, price per pound is considerably higher than a small dense product of equal weight.

bingo we have a winner been shipping stuff all over the country for the last year and can bet it will be 300-400 per top if they go with large carrier like OD or Yellow etc but maybe they gonna use their own trucks or get a better deal

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