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Tales of Tailwind.

An Easy Overnight & Same Day Shipping Reference Chart

3/24/2022

2 Comments

 
The Tailwind Guide to Choosing Shipping Options is a handy chart explaining the speeds and costs of different shipping options, from same day to overnight courier shipping for items ranging from envelopes to pallets of freight.
Our Tailwind Guide to Choosing Shipping Options is a handy chart to help you learn about the cost vs speed of different courier shipping options.
Choosing and understanding your expedited shipping options can sometimes get a little confusing, so allow us to clear things up for you.  Just check out the chart above or download on the bottom of this post.  Hey, you just might learn something new!  We have three general rush shipping options to choose from.  It's best to think of them based on what you need- Same Day Far Away (Expedited Air- about 600 miles), Next Day Anywhere (Air Cargo Network), and Same Day 500 Miles or Less, (Expedited Ground). The best choice for you often comes down to your needs and budget. 

Let's start with the quickest and most premium priced, Expedited Air.  This is the best choice for relatively smaller critical deliveries that need to go generally under 600 to 750 miles away.  Items can include even palletized cargo up to about a van load, depending on aircraft, yet most of the time shipments are smaller items. This is a white glove process that mobilizes dedicated ground transportation and aircraft to get your item door to door the quickest way possible.  And so, even unboxed or uncrated items are safe to ship.  There aren't any schedules to accommodate, lines or queues.  We wrangle the closest free vehicle, pick up your shipment and get it on a smaller dedicated aircraft right away.  It's then flown direct to the closest small airport to your destination.  Upon arrival, ground transportation whisks it away to its final destination.  It's the quickest offering- there's no other way to get it there any faster.  Yet it can be cheaper than you think, provided you have more volume. Although, it can be sensitive to things like weather and shipment size, so choose carefully. Keep in mind, this sort of service can also really begin to make sense as part of an overnight middle mile solution as well.  If you have regular customers and are offering overnight shipping, a plane load, combined with final mile ground transportation can easily service more widespread and rural areas much more quickly than standard overnight air cargo.  This would allow you to get up to a couple pallets worth of items to your customers with ease, in addition to giving you more time margin to collect and sort those orders- something that ground-only transportation can't provide.

Do you have an overnight or two day shipment involving at least one box measuring over 20 inches? Forget about Fedex- give us a call for better pricing and service.  Your second option is best for next day service, and can sometimes even accomplish same day service (yet this takes at least one day lead time).  Utilizing our next day air cargo network, we're able to get your shipment across the country with ease. Often, dedicated or semi-dedicated vehicles are used to pickup your items, which can be boxed, crated or palletized, and flown via one of our air partners to the destination of your choice.  Our ground transport is waiting right on the other end to pickup and deliver your shipment to its endpoint, whether that's a business or commercial address.  For long distance shipments, this is generally the best cost/speed combination.  The only caveats are possible weather delays and if your delivery destination is far outside a metro area, which can add some time and cost. 

Finally, there's our Expedited Ground option.  Whether you have boxes, envelopes, or palletized items, this is the most economically priced, and definitely the fastest under about 110 or so miles.  Based on your needs, items are likely going direct from pickup to delivery.  That means no staging and shuttling between terminals or other costly delays.  We can usually accommodate same day orders, dispatching a driver to pickup your item as soon as your order is paid for and shipping details are put into our system. As always, we can also easily provide daily same day service as part of your middle miles to keep your or your customers inventory flowing reliably. 

Ultimately, the speed of service is dictated by your needs.  But some choices are made for you by circumstance.  Stamford CT to San Francisco CA by the next day? Our overnight air cargo is the way to go.  Likewise, if you have a few boxes that need to get from Edison NJ to Bethlehem PA, it will be there in a few hours with one of our dedicated vans. NYC to Raleigh, NC same day? If there's a cutoff time, it has to be flown direct- door to door in about 4.5 hours.  Just need it there same day? It can go via dedicated ground. A 9AM pickup would have it there by 7PM.

The world of expedited courier shipping and delivery can be a bit overwhelming sometimes.  Hopefully this post gives you some solid insight behind the different shipping options you have available.  Any questions, feel free to reach out to us here or simply call 732 979 2293. We look forward to working with you!

Grab the chart for yourself right here:
tailwindcargochart.png
File Size: 208 kb
File Type: png
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The Closest Place You'll Get Warmer

11/20/2019

1 Comment

 
slushy dirty snow
Your current reality
photo of Charleston SC downtown
Ahh, the relatively warmer streets of Charleston
behind the wheel, on the road
Only 11.5 hours to go!
happy travelers waiting in line at the local major airport
The commercial flight shuffle
a fast Mooney airplane
Relatively fast and quite stylish
the interior of a Greyhound bus
This could be your view, for 19 hours
vintage train poster
If only rail travel still had this allure..
riding horseback illustration
Fast as a speeding yacht!
Update: It's that time again!  Travel is on the mind, and the body may go along too, begrudgingly.  Current Thanksgiving related airfare currently clocks in at the $600 range. 

Though the tri-state area seems like it has it all- the top entertainment, food, beaches, mountains (small ones), vibrant cities and bucolic farms, one thing it doesn't have is lots of cheery people from about January through March.  And that probably has something to do with all the cold, dark damp days, slushy black snow and traffic.
​Believe it or not, even the most hardened souls and snow freaks need a break from this eventually.  Sure you can flee to the Caribbean or even just south Florida.  But those places are far away, and mean a lot of airport and rental car hassle or so many hours behind the wheel that your butt brings the seat with it when you finally try to peel yourself out of the car.  What's the closest place you could get reasonably better weather?  I'm talking about someplace drive-able that can fast forward those temperatures to at least April.  Sounds pretty good, right? To find enough of a change you'll need to go to the northernmost southern place with enough warmth to heat them bones, which brings us to the area of Charleston SC.  Yes, it has beautiful southern charm and palm trees, but this picturesque place on a peninsula by the ocean has what you really need, climate relief.  Location is what creates that magic.  The coastal setting makes for more moderate winter temperatures that you just won't find further inland.  Plus, you get fringe benefits like about 40 more minutes of daylight.  At the time of writing, the city is looking at a week averaging almost 62 degrees with temperatures ranging mostly from the 50s-70s.  Compare that to an average of 35 and temps from the teens to barely 50 around these greater New York parts. Of course, if you're near a beach you have it easy compared to your cousin in the Catskills, who'll be enjoying those negative lows this week.
The ride isn't exactly a quick trip, clocking in at 11.5 hours without stops, and around $150 in fuel costs depending on your ride, but it's a doable feat for one driver with plenty of the right kinds of power food/energy drinks and copious rest beforehand.  With another driver sharing the load, you have a perfectly reasonable day of travel with time for an actual meal outside of the confines of the car.  That's a priceless advantage when you're really racking up the miles. Who wouldn't want to grab some real southern BBQ or avoid the typical chains for the local favorite spot?

So what if you just don't want to drive?  Sure there's airline travel clocking in at $150 and slightly under 2.5 hours flight time, but once you add up the hours of waiting before and after your departure/arrival, you're looking at closer to 4.5 total.  Then there's transportation to and from the airport, which could be another $120 plus, and don't forget those taxis or Ubers once you want to get around there.  If you don't mind smaller airplanes, you could hitch a ride and be there in 6 hours in a slower plane.  In faster small airplanes, 4.5 or even 3.5 hours is possible. This makes it the best and most convenient travel option overall, but unless you have a wealthy friend who just can't wait to buy a bunch of fuel and shell out for operating costs all for the sheer joy of your company, you'd be looking at a charter in the realm of at least $4000, which gets practically reasonable if you're bringing friends.  Then you'd also have to add in that ground transportation once again. If you happen to have or share your own jet, you're probably not even reading this, and you might as well go to the Caribbean.  It's worth the extra hour and you can afford the operating costs, landing fees and champagne anyway.

If you prefer to rough it, but aren't the camping type, a Greyhound will get you there in a mere 19.5 hours and two transfers for about $139.

Does flying still seem dangerous to you even though the Wright Brothers figured it out over 100 years ago?  It's closer to 20 hours by the romantic clickety clack of the rails.  And, you get to seek solace in the fact that we have the best rail system of any third world country.  But, at least there's no road mileage or grimy rest stops and if NJTransit, Metro North and LIRR are any indication, train sleep is always good sleep. 

I won't cover boating because there are no reasonable options, unless you have about 30 hours and you're willing to buy lots of gas. It's the same for horseback minus the gas, plus the water stops and feed, because they're about the same speed.  But if you have about a week, you can cruise there, and to a bunch of other places too, for about $500. 

At Tailwind, we usually stick to road travel, so I'm a bit biased.  Therefore, I'd recommend driving there, and I know you can do it too.  Otherwise, you'd be missing out on key local flavor (aka BBQ and coffee spots). The Charleston area of South Carolina is the closest place you can reasonably drive to for a bona fide taste of Spring temps. Unfortunately we don't get to pick our destinations, but you do, and Charleston sounds pretty good right about now.

Originally published 1/19.
​
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Eating Right on the Road, or Office, or Anywhere in the World

12/14/2018

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jerky bar while driving
Always eat right when on the road, just not directly on it, if you can help it.
After you've spent enough years on the road, you slowly begin to hone in on the right road diet.  Or if like me, you're stubborn enough, you eventually stop eating things that screw up your day in one way or another.  Also, having plenty of time to listen to the likes of Tim Ferriss and Joe Rogan certainly helps.  All that bleeding edge info about meats, fats and sugars starts to finally penetrate even the thickest of skulls, and the blood sugar energy-crash roller coaster begins to give way to dense slow burn energy.

Here's what works for me: skip the breads and sugary drinks at all costs. Desserts will precipitate an energy rush followed by the desire to hibernate (not a roadworthy aspiration).  Pizza is a tempting but dangerous proposition.  Coffee is both friend and foe.  Redbull is best used in emergency situations, like the second to last leg of that trip back from Indiana, when Pittsburgh flies by but the endless miles of the same farms render the minutes into slow motion sludge. Even if you're not on some form of keto, paleo or The Eskimo Diet, the best energy is delivered the old fashioned way, via MEAT, especially when tasty things like spices and cranberries are incorporated.  

The holidays are over :( so throw out those stale cookies! To seriously level up your snack game whether you're on the road or not, these are what you need.  If you're a total jerky noob, this sample pack will prime your palate before digging in deep.  

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We Save Lives.  Is Yours Next?!

4/5/2017

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Just Another Day At The Office...

Business man wearing a Tailwind life saverJust Saving Another Life, Business As Usual
Sometimes the pleasantly unexpected has a way of catching you off guard in the best of ways, like a bite of pie that zings your tastebuds with about a thousand times more delicious flavor than you expected.  A funny thing happens the first time a customer tells you that you saved their life, or day, or week- you may not really believe it.  Have you ever experienced that?  Part of it has more than a little to do with how normal it feels.  You're just doing your job.  That long distance drive or 600 mile charter flight, or 3 AM dispatch time just seems like another exciting yet relatively normal day in the business.  But to you, the customer, it's much more than that.  It's about knowing you can rely on someone to be the priceless key component in a chain of events.  And this is where I vow to always be the strong link.  Because being that vital link is being your life, day, or week saver, and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

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Transportation Industry Lacking Modern Solutions

2/8/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
If your computer looks like this, you're in the transportation industry.

There are now seemingly endless tools and SAAS apps that work so well for online businesses, but if you have a transportation service business like us, you might be feeling a bit left out.  When you get into the transportation and logistics realm, the only game in town is clunky and ancient software packages at gratuitous price points. This is referred to as "enterprise software" which is really just a fancy way of saying "we don't care about smaller businesses." I think many of the software companies must have a client base with long-term well aged contracts, but many of them must have missed the boat on the start up and small-business-friendly market, as well as the existence of smart phones and the past 10 years or so of the Internet.  I'm almost certain a large factor in this is the explosive growth of transportation companies in the 70's-90's.  Their software echoes the same vintage. 

For a smaller business, holistic integration with billing and accounting is a dream come true.  Yes, there are some service oriented apps that integrate with modern accounting platforms, such as Xero.  We've even made a clunky service call/contractor integration made for Australian home service companies work.  But as far as any kind of robust comprehensive solution, we're left out in the cold.  The closest thing we found ran off a bug-laden web interface, had no native integration, and required the inputting of your own list of cities and towns, one by one.  If that doesn't seem fun, you're right. 

My forecast is that this dire situation will improve.  Until then I will relegate myself to the tried and true methods of scanner apps, emails, and phone calls. It's a simpler way of life.

Have you felt left out in the cold when it came to software or apps for your industry?  Let's talk about it, I'll try to help!

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Marketing vs SEO

1/12/2017

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The Shady World of Paid SEO
SEO: Spy vs Spy
Marketing, The Big Picture
Marketing, The Big Picture

Marketing, that holistic thing you do for the health of your business. And SEO, the spy vs spy cloak and dagger world of espionage, shady virtual back room deals and unsavory characters power playing for full spectrum dominance in the online battle space. Many make the mistake of prioritizing SEO at all costs.  It gets so much hype because once discovered, it seems like an easy pay to play move for many new business owners. You pay some guy in Belarus to pump your links out into the vast ocean of Internet, or you hire a company in LA to do the same. And you suspect that fancy online marketing firm you hired is outsourcing to the guy you could have Paypal'd in Belarus. Funny how these things work. 

The obvious truth here- it's not one or the other- SEO is part of marketing. But it seems like the golden power play for new business owners and those new to online marketing. It's a compelling easy in, especially to those techheads among us who believe technology can do it all. However, that's missing the big picture. Real SEO is lots of work. Real marketing is even more work. Where to concentrate your efforts just depends what best fits your business.  Where are your customers?  Now go there.  Even in 2017, sometimes even the conventional approach is the best one.  This is true for some in the B2B marketplace, especially in traditional niches like industry and manufacturing. 

In a perfect world with healthy budgets, you do it all and figure out what works and then do more of that. After all, new businesses need results, and pay to play SEO seems like the easy solution to make those sales happen. But, so is Adwords and all the social media platforms with PPC (Pay Per Click advertising), and even billboard ads, if you listen to those people.  The reality will always remain that you can't get many instant results with any kind of SEO, it's a long game.  And so, PPC becomes the most likely return on your investment if you're just starting out.  As your online brand develops and those SEO and social efforts gain momentum, you can reduce your PPC spend.  Hopefully by that time you'll know how much of your sales convert from each of those online efforts.  And you'll have the confidence of knowing how much SEO fits into your marketing picture. 

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Tips For Small Business Saturday in NJ!

11/26/2016

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Small business Saturday might have launched six years ago, but it's gotten the most press here in 2016.  Jersey is now fully on board and you should be too! Did you have a Small Business Saturday Marketing Plan?  There are many great ideas here to help you get started.  If nothing else, you could use these next year or even apply them to your Cyber Monday efforts. If you're a B2B business, it might make more sense to have had a Cyber Monday plan in place. In 2015, Cyber Monday online sales grew to a record $2.98 billion, compared with $2.65 billion in 2014.  It's still not too late to cash in on some sales!  A Facebook or Google Adwords promo or even cold calling could work wonders. If you're new to online advertising, mostly referred to as PPC (Pay Per Click) these days, just ask here in the comments below.  We've been through it and can help guide you- it doesn't have to cost you a lot to see results.

Some towns, like Haddonfield, are celebrating through the weekend.  And we're a bit partial to the Somerville area since many of our law clients operate near its downtown.  Festivities there don't start until 5pm, so get out and enjoy. Even if you don't have your own promo going on, it's always great to get out, have some fun and see what other businesses are doing to bump sales.  Ideas, as always, are free!
Small Business Saturday in New Jersey
downtown Haddonfield NJ
Small Business Saturday in Downtown Haddonfield
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Tis the Season- To Help You Move Your Items

11/21/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
We Can Help You Be Santa
Picture
OK, under US law, we can't airdrop, but we're the next fastest thing!
This is the season your cargo needs to move the most.  Throughout and even in the preceding months to the holiday season, shipping volumes skyrocket as everyone scurries to fulfill orders.  If it's retail and end user oriented or B2B, time is of the essence. High value and critical items require care in handling and close attention.  We can help you, whether it's 3-5 day shipping anywhere or same day, within 600 miles and even further overnight. Custom solutions are our specialty.  You might have high value art, special merchandise or components and parts that need to get there securely and as soon as possible.  We know you don't have the time and resources to crate and figure out logistics, but we do. 
Weather delays and holiday season volume can add up to lots of complication and stress.  And on top of all that, people taking extra holiday vacation time or simply physically or mentally checking out ahead of time make things more difficult.  When your employees and even your point people are distracted with all the festivities, things get overlooked.  But don't worry, whether or not that eggnog has worn off, when you need something from here to there, we can do it all for you. 
Your cargo is important to us.  It's critical, valuable, and has to get there securely and on time, every time.  It needs to be treated with care, handled and packed with professional attention.  Maybe it's domestic, or it could have an exotic international destination.  But wherever it's going, it's treated with the same care and attention.    
Have any questions, ask away.  We want to help.  Call 732-979-2293 or email today.
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The Art of Travel

7/21/2016

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PictureCezzane knew how to paint a road

Some think of travel as a means to an end, but to us, it's an art. No, we can't compare our impeccable cargo skills to a Cezzane but it's our art nonetheless. To some people it's traffic, long queues and plenty of aggravation, but we see the beauty in it. We're the type of people that achieve a zen state through forward motion. It's all about the journey- looking out over the horizon and getting there, wherever it happens to be right now. The hum of the road, usually not the road less traveled, but best traveled. Our other satisfaction comes through making things happen, big and small, to get things where they need to go, safely, securely and quickly.
Sure, we can do run of the mill, but we love to rise to a challenge. Larger items, deadlines, airports, country roads and city streets- they're all in our wheelhouse. Maybe you don't get that magnetic draw of the road, or the sky, but we don't ever expect that sort of dedication to the act itself. We are the challenge seekers, the drivers, handlers and pilots who can't resist the call of that special place, the horizon. After your shipment makes it to its destination, our journey continues and we wouldn't have it any other way.

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How can we help you this summer?

6/13/2016

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There Is A Cure For Those Summertime Blues

surfing in a business suitHas your mind gone surfing?
Summer is a time that can be notoriously slow on business.  People are away, the heat slows down our thinking to a pace that the strongest Starbucks espresso can't fix, and mentally we're at the beach.  And so things tend to slip.  Dates, deadlines, and even those self improvement plans get put on hold because lounging by the pool or basking in the sweet air conditioning can be a much more satisfying alternative.  However, there are things you can do to ease the pain, like running a summer special, automating, and staying in touch with your customers, which are a few of the tips suggested by Ali J. Taylor in his 7 Tips to Overcome the Summer Business Slow Down which can help you pick up the slack when you lost your grip.

But sometimes you just need a hand.  That's where we come in.  Left that laptop somewhere?  Need that project or display delivered door to door as fast as possible?  Or maybe it's a pallet of materials or merchandise that need to be there now.  With our same day delivery service, you can trust it will be there as quickly as possible. 

So breathe a sigh of relief.  It will all be okay.  We're here to help.

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    I'm Stephen, owner and head agent of Tailwind Delivery.

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  • Home
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