Known Shipper

I've been assigned the task of registering our firm as a known shipper with various airlines. This is a mandate from the Transportation Safety Administration. Everyone who uses air cargo on a regular basis must register with each carrier they use. The downside is each airline can charge anywhere from $60 to $90 to register.

In my previous post I alluded to the fact that we may be expanding. Generally speaking, the owner of the the funeral home I work at is planning to buy one of our competitors. The deal is about 99% negotiated; pretty much the only thing left to do is sign the contracts, which could happen at any time. The downside is the funeral home he is buying out is filthy and full of junk. I know we'll be spending the first few weeks cleaning and fixing things up. On top of this, we'll be working out of both funeral homes. The existing staff will stay on, under our supervision as we train them to do things the way the new owner wants them done. In addition, the funeral home being purchased has a crematory attached. One thing for sure that will be happening is that we will all become certified crematory operators, which will help us perform our cremations in a very timely fashion, as opposed to the delays we've been experiencing recently. Not even the owner is sure of how things will work out, who's going to be at which location doing what, etc. Needless to say there is a lot of uncertainty and expectancy in the air.