WARNING - USE UPS FOR SHIPPING RATHER THAN FEDEX

What a troll ... all we have here are anecdotal experiences.

Having said that, here's a tip (whether you're a FedEx or UPS fanboy) ...

Use nylon strapping on your cartons.  It's a $150.00 investment in the tensioning and crimping tools but well worth it.  What does it accomplish in addition to holding the carton together?  It ensures manual handling and your precious cargo doesn't travel on those long, inclined roller/ramps. 

This eliminates both the risk of the package taking a 12 foot fall off the high point of the ramp, as well as there being a 100 pound carton (immediately behind/above yours) slamming into your shipment.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design

But... in the meantime... give us the link to where / how to get "nylon strapping / tensioning system."

Well, prices have gone up since I equipped Galiber’s infrastructure with these tools, but if a few buddies buy and sell a few times/year, you might want to do a group buy.

I picked my tools up at a local shipping supply, so other than the general good quality of Uline’s products (in the links below), I can’t vouch for these from direct experience. They appear to be the same general construction however.

They don’t make it easy for you to figure out, and you might be well served to check out a local shipping supply company to walk you through this.

BTW, I learned about the manual handling requirement from a fellow who was involved in the design of FedEx’s Memphis depot. I’d be very surprised if UPS’s facilities don’t follow the same procedures from this perspective.

You need two tools.

The first one is used to tension the strap, hold it in place and cut the loose end after crimping the two ends together:

http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-540/Poly-Strapping-Tools/Uline-Industrial-Poly-Strapping-Tensioner
and
http://www.uline.com/BL_3502/Polyester-Strapping-Tensioners?keywords=nylon%20strapping

The second is the crimping tool (poly strapping sealer) that you used to "join" the nylon strap with steel cleats:
http://www.uline.com/BL_3456/Poly-Strapping-Sealers?keywords=nylon%20strapping

The consumables consist of a spool of nylon/polyester tape along with the metal cleats to join/crimp the ends together:

Their strapping page is a bit confusing
http://www.uline.com/BL_2801/Uline-Polyester-Strapping?keywords=nylon%20strapping

The S-1243 (1/2" wide x .028" thick seems to be the stuff) I just measured my strapping material (nylon? polyester?) and it’s plenty strong at .017" thick. I’m a bit surprised at the high pricing for the material, as Uline’s tools are quite reasonable in comparison.

These are the cleats (the open variety - match the width of your tape - i.e. 1/2"):
http://www.uline.com/BL_2852/Metal-Poly-Seals

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier Design