Taxidermy Freight Charges
Reclassification of Taxidermy Impacts Motor Freight Charges

Last year as the fall season began and taxidermists around the country began taking in and sending out work, a problem arose. Some of our members out in the west contacted headquarters and officers about a very upsetting situation that affected their business. Jim Marisico, Wyoming, Ralph Swant and Richard Gench, from Montana, all told the same story. For years they had built their business with clients whom traveled into their area to hunt and leave their trophies with them to mount and send back home to them in Wherever, USA or abroad. It happened without warning. When they shipped these trophies to their clients an occasional call of complaint would come back about the cost of freight. Now having done business with the same folks before and shipping similar mounts, it was real obvious that prices had gone to outrageous amounts. Ralph Swant told me he shipped a moose head mount to his client in Nevada and the freight bill was more than the mount. He was understandably upset. "If all of my customers have to pay shipping bills that are more than the mount, I'll be out of a lot of work in a hurry," were his words to me. Jim and Richard had similar stories.

After some investigation it became understood what had happened. The National Motor Freight Classification or NMFC had been changed from the year before. What was listed in the Taxidermy section Item 14400 LTL 100-200 was now class 300. This change was made in the year previous September 1998 without anyone at the NTA knowing about it. The change in classification was done by the National Motor Freight Traffic Association after some years of research and recommendation in the handling of Taxidermy freight. I Called and spoke to Mr. Mathew Welsh at the NMFTA Classification Committee and then more to Mr. Joel Ringer, senior classification specialist, about our concern for taxidermists and our need for freight rates that would keep us both in business. Here is what I learned about it all.

When the NMFTA was given authority of NMFC, it inherited classification for taxidermy as freight from the 1930s when most of taxidermy was heavy plaster, mache bones and skins so most mounts weighed a lot. Most freight in those days was also handled by rail. Now as trucks move more freight than railroads do, everything is regulated by weight and space, which is where the value of freight is. I also was sent a booklet that explains it like this: For purposes of establishing classes, all products must be evaluated according to the following four composite transportation characteristics: Density- as measured by ship weight per cubic foot; Stowability- which includes excesses weight or size; Ease of handling; Liability- value per pound and its susceptibility to damage, theft, perishability, etc.

With the value of taxidermy work going up and the density weight going down from the days of past, it became an issue to reclassify taxidermy item to class 300. This was done through the NMFTA at meeting that are held when managing changes in freight are demanded by the trucking companies across the USA.

After much negotiation, it became clear that reclassifying back to 200 would never happen. So I made some phone calls to many of the big freight companies across the US to try to find one willing to establish a fair tariff on taxidermy at class 300. As each company was called I made it clear that we could not stand to pay 100-200% increases in price.

One of my calls ended up at Mr. Gary Hesser's office at Yellow Freight in California. He is the Corporation Accounts Manager and after some discussion he asked me to contact Lowell Unruh with Freights Benefit Company. As an association the NTA can join FBC, which is designed to help the individual members with special services and discounts on items shipped. Most taxidermists work on small local items that are picked up at their businesses. When the need to ship a large or small piece comes about it can be an unfamiliar situation. Now with the NTA's membership into the FBC, all NTA members can receive professional service and discounts on freight that will keep them in the running of business at competitive rates. This should cut the customers shipping costs to 1/2 price. It won't matter if you only send one piece of freight a year or 100; the discount will apply for all members. The FBC program gives us 52% discount on truck freight with Yellow and up to 65% discount with Fed Ex. (There is a $75 enrollment fee for the Fed Ex discount program that can pay for itself in 4-8 shipments.) This is absolutely another great benefit of being a member of the NTA. I hope it helps all of you when you have a need to use truck freight (Yellow) or Fed Ex. enroll in this program. You will receive all the information in this outlook and from FBC for you to look over. Let me give you a couple of examples. When we send a fish mount packaged at 15 pounds Fed Ex overnight it costs $33.15 instead of $52.50, saving 37% and if I send the same package 2nd day it costs me $15.47 instead of $27.00 saving 43%. If you send any packages International Priority it is a 65% savings. Now if I send a sailfish mount in a 7' to 8' crate to a customer in Michigan, and the freight bill comes to $138.00 with class 300 our Yellow Freight bill prepaid costs $66.24 that's a 52% discount that my customer and I appreciate. This is the kind of business that can keep us competitive and attractive to our customers so we can do business again and again. Isn't it great to be a member of this great N.T.A.?

God Bless you all and best regards,
Mike Kirkhart