It is important to understand the history of why honey bee packages can no longer fly via aircraft in 2021.
The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), about 12 years ago, updated their shipping of honey bee packages when a package of bees was damaged. The damaged bee package allowed most of the honey bees to escape and were flying around on the inside of the cargo plane. This damaged bee package event got the attention of the FAA. The FAA then placed a policy that no honey bee packages could only be shipped when there is NOT a containment area within the plane. Containment area must contain a damaged bee package and releasing the honey bees. The FAA wanted to ensure the pilot and co-pilot were safe as well as the ground crew loading and unloading the aircraft.
Immediately, after the FAA policy change, the United States Postal Service (USPS) updated their services regarding honey bee packages and now stated all bee packages must be transported via ground transport. With this policy in place, USPS wanted all packages to go Priority Mail (Ground Only). This worked for many years until COVID-19. The USPS now has given a new directive in 2021, in that the bee packages, must now be sent via Parcel Select. USPS then asks that a “special handling” classification to ensure the packages are flagged within their logistic system. Yes, USPS offers insurance on their shipments.
UPS had a airliner go down in Europe, a couple of years ago, due to a lithium battery caught fire and ultimately crashed the aircraft. UPS then had to go back to the drawing board to mitigate how to contain a lithium battery that could catch fire. UPS came up with a “aircraft can” that is self-contained with no air flow. That way a fire had no air and thus would limit any potential fire. When UPS decided that aircraft can would be their new standard. None of the engineers thought about honey bees and the heat honey bees produce.
UPS also required all bee shippers to design a self-containment cage that would be reviewed and certified by the UPS Package Testing Lab. A very expensive investment for any bee company wanting to ship bees overnight. Please note that UPS does handle all beekeeping supplies!
For bee season 2020, UPS had 60% of the new aircraft cans in place and 40% was the old-style aircraft cans. What happened next was up to 500 bee packages were placed in these new aircraft cans. No one within UPS thought about honey bees needing ventilation, because honey bees create a lot of heat. The new aircraft cans became extremely warm within 1.5 hours and then bees began to die.
For the 2021 bee season UPS has adopted a new bee package policy that restricts bee packages from all aircraft. UPS will only ship bee packages within a 1 day shipping zone.
FedEx has never offered overnight shipping or ground shipping for honey bee packages.
DHL has never offered overnight shipping or ground shipping for honey bee packages.
As the largest shipper of honey bees, we have assisted USPS in understanding the logistics and handling of the honey bee packages. We currently ship bees within 31 states to ensure our bee packages arrive healthy. We have used USPS since our first shipment of bees in 2012 with less than a 2% failure record over this period of time.