02-18-2008, 04:17 AM
http://www.azurestandard.com/
We have a neighborhood group up the Hamakua coast which uses Azure Standard. Everyone gets their orders into Azure Standard by a certain date with a note on which shipping route to use and then lets the coordinator know roughly how much stuff they ordered so the right size van or truck will get to the dock to pick the order up. After the shipment is delivered, the coordinator calculates everyone's shipping portion and we pay them directly for that when the items are picked up from their house. Sometime the order is pretty big when folks order fencing supplies and big bags (50#) of grain and flour. I usually get the smaller 5# bags of beans and peas as well as quarts or gallons of molasses. Small and heavy is the best things to buy when shipping by barge. The molasses is listed under the refrigerated section but it doesn't have to be refrigerated until it is opened.
The way it is set up now, our coordinator pays for all the shipping when picking up the shipment but all the stuff is prepaid so it isn't likely that folks are not going to get their stuff. Any complaints or difficulties are between Azure Standard and the person ordering the items, not with the coordinator. It might work for your neighborhood, too. I'm sure Azure Standard wouldn't mind adding a few more pallets of food to the orders going by barge to our island. Gather a group and arrange a shipping route so the entirety of the orders will get a good shipping rate. Shipping one boxful is expensive, shipping a pallet full is much less expensive by a per item accounting.
We have a neighborhood group up the Hamakua coast which uses Azure Standard. Everyone gets their orders into Azure Standard by a certain date with a note on which shipping route to use and then lets the coordinator know roughly how much stuff they ordered so the right size van or truck will get to the dock to pick the order up. After the shipment is delivered, the coordinator calculates everyone's shipping portion and we pay them directly for that when the items are picked up from their house. Sometime the order is pretty big when folks order fencing supplies and big bags (50#) of grain and flour. I usually get the smaller 5# bags of beans and peas as well as quarts or gallons of molasses. Small and heavy is the best things to buy when shipping by barge. The molasses is listed under the refrigerated section but it doesn't have to be refrigerated until it is opened.
The way it is set up now, our coordinator pays for all the shipping when picking up the shipment but all the stuff is prepaid so it isn't likely that folks are not going to get their stuff. Any complaints or difficulties are between Azure Standard and the person ordering the items, not with the coordinator. It might work for your neighborhood, too. I'm sure Azure Standard wouldn't mind adding a few more pallets of food to the orders going by barge to our island. Gather a group and arrange a shipping route so the entirety of the orders will get a good shipping rate. Shipping one boxful is expensive, shipping a pallet full is much less expensive by a per item accounting.
Kurt Wilson