This dead on accurate. I've been a FedEx Ground contractor for 9 years and a shipping/receiving clerk for 4 years before that. Tubes are the most difficult package to work with because they don't sit still. Over the years I've become pretty good a packaging items to withstand the stresses of shipping. As a general rule you should be perfectly comfortable dropping your item from 4 feet onto a concrete floor. If the item inside can move at all, it will just beat it's self to death inside the package. The rule is a minimum of 2" of dense packing material all around the item. I've never seen a properly packaged item get damaged.
A shipper I pickup from every day makes custom security camera systems in custom plastic enclosures. They are around $12,000 each. I worked with him to come up with a safe way to transport them. They are packed in cardboard boxes with high density foam inserts perfectly fit to the camera systems. They weigh about 45# ready to ship. We dropped one from the roof of his warehouse on to the concrete and it was completely unharmed. In fact the box was barely dented. I just had some gravel stuck in it.
Andrew
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