Buying a spare battery and shipping one.

[Mack]

I find this rather bizarre, but seems mail-order retailers cannot ship camera batteries by air.

I ordered a new lens and L-plate mount along with a spare camera battery. Given the orders cost, they ship 2nd day air. However, they boxed the order as two shipments and the tracking numbers show one going FedEx Air as expected, but the battery is going FedEx Ground and expected a few days later.

Odd they could ship the camera with a battery in the same box along with sundry items, but not a lone separately boxed battery?

So if you are looking to buy a spare battery via mail order, might be a wait.

 

[PakkyT]

I guess you can ship standalone batteries by air if they go via "Cargo Only" planes, but I am sure most retailers are not going to bother trying to tag boxes for that and arrange for that to happen and just send them ground.

 

[Mack]

I guess you can ship standalone batteries by air if they go via "Cargo Only" planes, but I am sure most retailers are not going to bother trying to tag boxes for that and arrange for that to happen and just send them ground.

I've read where some people in Hawaii get hit with a high surcharge on ordered Li-Po's.

I see FedEx has some battery rules:
https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/how-to-ship-batteries.html

https://www.fedex.com/content/dam/f...ipping-Lithium-Batteries-via-FedEx-Ground.pdf

I noticed all three (Two were defective and went back same day.) of the E-M1 bodies that were IR converted that I got from Lifepixel had the battery in the body. The returned ones went back via nearby UPS Store as they sent me a returned pre-paid label so I just checked it all in the box and returned the first two bad cameras without thinking about the battery issue. Guess a camera with a battery is okay - but not a lone battery.

 

[Generationfourth]

Yes it is a weird limitation. I ordered two used batteries from mpb for my mkiii. There was a hiccup with billing so it took 10 days to ship out. They are going from NY to CA. And the last 5 days they’ve been sitting in Oklahoma according to tracking. Thanks fedex ground.

OTOH I’ve learned battery life is pretty good on the EM1 iii

 

[oldracer]

It due to FAA regs after some battery fires. (https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/resources/lithium_batteries/media/Battery_incident_chart.pdf) I think the idea is that batteries contained in a camera or other proper container are not as likely to somehow get short circuited like, for example, a loose battery in a pocked of coins.

 

[Phocal]

You should try getting batteries shipped to Alaska.

 

[PakkyT]

You should try getting batteries shipped to Alaska.

Why would we want to do that?

 

[Aristophanes]

They are international airline regulations. They apply to non-dedicated mail and cargo. Lithium fires are the reason. Same rules in Canada.

 

[John King]

Li-Ion batteries contain their own oxidizing agents, so are all but impossible to extinguish if they catch fire.

e.g.

Tesla fires

30,000 gallons to put out one car fire ...

 

[RichardC]

Nothing new. The regulations have been in place for a decade.

Air freight charges are based on volume as well as weight - therefore if companies can avoid wrapping goods in lots of protective packaging and keep their packages small, they will.

The rule re shipping with equipment is there to avoid bags tightly packed with nothing other than Li-ion batteries being put on board an aircraft.

If there were instances of electricals with a single battery causing a danger to air travel, you can guarantee that those would have been banned too.

 

[John King]

Nothing new. The regulations have been in place for a decade.

Air freight charges are based on volume as well as weight - therefore if companies can avoid wrapping goods in lots of protective packaging and keep their packages small, they will.

The rule re shipping with equipment is there to avoid bags tightly packed with nothing other than Li-ion batteries being put on board an aircraft.

If there were instances of electricals with a single battery causing a danger to air travel, you can guarantee that those would have been banned too.

Richard, they banned putting them in the cargo holds many years ago. At least in the passenger compartment, they could get at the burning battery ...

 

[RichardC]

I've just identified a potential problem with electrically powered aeroplanes.

They're going to have to go nuclear.

 

[Mack]

Battery shipped FedEx Ground showed up before FedEx 2nd Day Air. east coast to west coast. Surprised to see their Ground beat Air for delivery speed, but given a weekend and seems their drivers were driving all weekend and Air stopped might be the reason. Ground was scheduled for Wednesday and Air on Monday, but seems Ground delivery truck beat the Air guy here. Both shipped same day from well known eastern dealer.

I've has issues with UPS Air where one pays an extra $50 for 2nd day air, but seems they too do not deliver on Saturday even with 2nd day delivery payment option so it delays two-days for the weekend. Didn't use to be that way, but they got slower. I had a laugh at one warehouse guy I know for ocunty got a UPS delivery and driver came back and took a box away from him else "He'd get in trouble since the shipper didn't pay extra for faster delivery." Warehouse guy said it would take several days to input the purchase order so no big deal to him, but UPS driver was more worried as it showed immediately on the "too early" delivery shipment so he took it and held it on his truck for another day.

Below is the battery box with the labels about "No airplane" for the Li-Po. Big box for little sole battery.

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)