I worked for FedEx ground back when it was RPS. I'll tell you this. Unless DHL doesn't reward people for productivty, I'll bet they throw stuff too. RPS threw stuff, UPS throws stuff, EVERYONE throws stuff.
You don't even want to know what happens back at the hubs. I was loading a full trailer and some idiot decides he has a great idea. He'll send back some smoke detectors back in a box.... about 4 or 5. One of them comes down the ramp, I put it in the wall (you make walls of boxes like a fort, one after the other, like tetris but with a bunch of different shaped boxes). They start going off as I put a wall up. I pulled the box out, opened it up and started pounded on this stuff like the printer in Office Space.
Another time I slipped and I fell into the belly of a trailer... Luckily I had a bunch of boxes break my fall (like I was a stuntman).
You don't even want to see what a conveyor can do if it gets jammed up (a conveyor can move tons of boxes... when it jams up you should see what its like... mayhem on some of the weaker boxes...stuff torn apart like you wouldn't imagine).
Moral of the story? Bad shit happens everywhere. Pack it like your sister's cherry is in there and you'll be fine. Assume at least a three foot drop when you package it.
Juan
