[BAracer]

Graham

As per the term and conditions of the event, I am fully aware that the cars may get damaged somehow, so once I wave them off, I'm prepared for any bad news that may follow.

 'S**t Happens', as Forrest Gump noted.

[Graham]

The problem is that if you make the outer casing of wood or plastic, you greatly add weight and therefore cost. 
Our current box with all the cars and internal boxes weights less than 10kg
What I could do with is either make the current foam board boxes better so that I can use masking tape to seal the lid on and perhaps with additional box covers that zip over or alternatively something like plastic trays with clip on lids as each of the internal boxes. But dimensional these plastic boxes would have to be exactly right dimension to fit into our 45x45x50 outer casing.
Perhaps the internal boxes could be tailor made by a 3d printer ??

[KensRedZed]

I once had a pkg arrive, and the outer packing was a mess of tape from trying to repair the shreds of the outer box it was in.

I asked for an explanation as to how Fedex could screw this up so badly? They eventually admitted than it got dropped off to the wrong address, and got opened by the wrong person. They are the ones that re-wrapped it, not Fedex. Wonderful explanation. That made me feel much better.

Did anyone ever explain what happened to the pkg?

[Kevan]

If a stronger box means a bit more shipping cost but drastically reduces the chance of being damaged I think that's a fair price to ask.

Alternatively, individual small cardboard boxes for the cars with enough room for them to be wrapped in bubble wrap.

[Graham]

I once had a pkg arrive, and the outer packing was a mess of tape from trying to repair the shreds of the outer box it was in.

I asked for an explanation as to how Fedex could screw this up so badly? They eventually admitted than it got dropped off to the wrong address, and got opened by the wrong person. They are the ones that re-wrapped it, not Fedex. Wonderful explanation. That made me feel much better.

Did anyone ever explain what happened to the pkg?

At DPD there is no one you can speak with directly at the depot, you need to make an official claim with customer services and then they will generate a report form for the Depot to respond to, which normally takes a few weeks. So all we know at this point is that the cars arrived in a different box with tape over it saying "repacked with care"

[Graham]

If a stronger box means a bit more shipping cost but drastically reduces the chance of being damaged I think that's a fair price to ask.

Alternatively, individual small cardboard boxes for the cars with enough room for them to be wrapped in bubble wrap.

I think the idea of sending each of the internal boxes separately might work, I would need to cost that out. Of course it does increase the mathematical possibility of one or more getting lost in transit, then with the one shipment. But handling may be less of a risk.

[Kevan]

I mean individual boxes inside one big box.

[OXO cube]

looks to me like the courier vehicle has been involved in a road traffic accident 
and is the reason not everything is there
hopefully no one was hurt 
but i do think DPD should at least have let someone know  

as another thought :-
Graham , you have all the host's addresses and contact info 
and i don't think i only speak for myself 
but i would happily transport the cars ( at my own cost ) to any other host locally 
when i say locally i mean 30-40 mile radius 
further distances could be a 'meet in the middle' scenario ( but not the Irish sea )
tbh it would be nice to personally meet some of the other hosts over a cuppa at a café 
that could reduce having to use a courier to only once or twice during the whole event 

Kev

[Graham]

Kev,
I have considered that there may well have been some kind of “ real accident or incident” because I still cannot perceive how “normal handling” even with a bit of rough treatment could have caused the loss of the external box.
However Colin Has told me that as a “shop keeper” he has seen an increase in parcel damage in general over the last few months, which I find quite alarming. The communication problem is nowadays always an issue with whatever service you use. Sadly they don’t like to talk to customers now.

Gerry also raised the idea of personal handover, and yes I would like that to happen for some of the exchanges for rounds and when possible I like to personally bring the cars too. But trying to plan a schedule is often not compatible with regional hosts availability. Of course we can perhaps do this with longer gaps between rounds. Also there are some long distances between some hosts, and personally speaking at my age I don’t want to be driving for 3 hours both ways to meet someone on the road.

[Kevan]

I worked in a Plumbers merchants for 5 years and a white goods shop for 5 years after that up to last October when I retired and agree, there's been a noticeable increase in packaging damage since Covid.