Laboratory tests with grape containers at Davis emphasized the severe vibration injury possible in shipment of loose-packed fruit. Least shipment injury appeared when tops were stapled onto boxes that had been left a little more than level full, following a few seconds of vibration settling by machine. The laboratory testing equipment developed at Davis closely reproduced the effects of a transcontinental rail trip on fruits and containers. Such tests can be run in less than an hour and at a small fraction of the costs of a test shipment.