● Less shipping damage when bicycles are disguised at flat-screen TVs.

Here’s an interesting story about a Dutch manufacturer that found an unacceptable number of their bicycles were damaged while being shipped to their customers.

Apparently, they tried all sorts of shipping companies in the hopes of finding a solution, but the problem persisted . Because the shipping boxes for bicycle are about the same size as those for large flat-screen televisions, they came up with an ingenious idea. They decided to print a large picture of a flat-screen TV on their shipping boxes. The end result is that shipping damage to their bikes dropped by a whopping 70 to 80%.

This seems to prove that people at shipping companies don’t put much of an effort into being careful with a box if they think there’s only a bicycle in it. Something to think about the next time you pack your bike for shipping or to be checked-in as luggage when flying on a large airline.

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