But we do have something better.  One of the things I like about living in the Philippines is the way we can send packages … or even money … anywhere in the country, very fast and at very low cost.  One of my favorites is LBC, one of the "old line" companies in this business, founded long (15 years or more) before FedEx was even submitted as a subject for a term paper (Frederick Smith, the college student who conceived FedEx, by the way, got a passing grade on the paper but a note from the professor that even though the idea was well explained the concept was fatally flawed and could never make money … so much for college business classes).  Anyway, back to LBC:

Luzon Brokerage Corporation was founded in the 1950’s as a brokerage and air cargo agent. Eventually, the company operated as an air cargo forwarding service provider and was the first to introduce the 24-hour air cargo delivery service. LBC soon became a respected leader offering fast and reliable Express Courier and Money Remittance service throughout the Philippines. Today, LBC offers the widest coverage and network with over 600 strategically located branches nationwide…. see LBC’s modern website for more info and package tracking.

There are LBC outlets most everywhere (see the locator feature on their site if you need one) including most SM malls.  that’s where I usually ship.

yesterday I wanted to ship a book to my friend Bob down in Davao City.  I arrived at the LBC store in SM Marilao a few minutes before 4 PM.  There were quite a few people in the office but the clerk was doing a good job, finding out what everyone needed and getting them the forms they needed so they could fill up everything in advance and minimize the wait. 

When I showed him the book I wanted to send he handed me a reinforced plastic envelope and a "Sharpie" pen and said, "Just write your shipper info and the Recipient’s’ info, sir, and we’ll get it shipped".

I handed him the envelope after I had written out the information and I was pleasantly surprised see they have their computers set up like UP used to serve me in the US … all he had to type was the first few letters of my name and Bob’s name and presto, the shipping and delivery information was all entered … because I have sent stuff to Bob before, so why not save that information for speed and accuracy, diba?

I then handed him 120 pesos ($2.88 USD at yesterday’s street rate) and he handed my back a receipt complete with tracking number.  Just like downtown.  According to the receipt my package was accepted at 3:59:50 PM, yesterday … and half an hour ago I got an email from Bob at about 11 Am telling me he was already settling down in a chair to read the book.

Now when you can send a package from one end of the country to the other in about 19 hours with no more work than that for less than $2.90 I’d say I’m pretty well pleased with these LBC guys.

LBC also has a nationwide money delivery network … but I haven’t used them, we always use another service which I’ll talk about in another post.

(Oh, by the way, we do have a UPS partner  in the Philippines … the UPS partner in the Philippines is Delbros International Express Ltd … very familiar to folks who have dealt with the US Embassy for fiancee’ visas)

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