[Ambassadors] Swag Shipping Changes in EMEA
Hi all my fellow ambassadors from EMEA,
I've got great news! Red Hat facilities department in Brno office
finally finished all steps to have Czech Post as another shipping
option.
Why did I go for the Czech Post? Because Fedex and DHL (the only two
options Red Hat so far allowed) got insanely expensive. Especially
packages going outside the EU were really, really expensive. We can no
longer afford it with our budget.
Czech Post's Express Mail Service is approx. 3-4 times cheaper than
Fedex or DHL and still a reliable service with tracking and reasonable
delivery times (usually 6 days outside the EU).
From now on, I'll be using Czech Post as a default option for
packages
to EU countries unless it's in a hurry and for all packages outside
the
EU unless the country is not supported by Czech Post.
The service may not be as comfortable as Fedex or DHL because those two
have been mostly excellent. Packages will most likely be delivered by
your local postal service whose quality varies country to country. But
it will bring significant savings and I'd rather spend money on swag or
bringing people to events than giving it to logistic companies.
Our shipping budget is really tight and I'd like to optimize the way it
works in EMEA generally. Currently, I sometimes get several requests for
swag from the same ambassador or place in one Fedora release cycle.
There are many ambassadors in EMEA and sending each one of them several
packages a year is not possible budget-wise. Bear in mind that the whole
content of the package is usually much cheaper than its shipping, it's
especially valid for packages going outside the EU.
My plan is to send one package to each location every release cycle with
all they need (media, swag, ambassador's polo shirt,...). It requires
planning from both me (to have enough of everything when it needs to be
sent) from you (to know what you will need for the whole release cycle).
We should also leverage situations when we attend various events and can
bring stuff there or pick it up there.
Jiri