Hopefully things will work out for you.
My direct experience is that the TSA is one of the best things that ever happened to FedEx and UPS. :)
My customer is learning this first hand. Instead of being able to place circuit boards around my socks and clothing for transport in my hardshell suitcase, the items will be put in bubble wrap and boxes. To maximize useful work hours with the hardware, it will be shipped overnight the day before I have to travel. It worked out to about $120 each way last trip. I'm still out a couple of suitcases.
I use UPS ground for stuff that isn't time critical between my office and the hardware vendor. It's not unreasonable to rearrange my work priorities around that sort of requirement. It gets time critical when I'm building a bunch of custom units that have to go to the field and others are throwing changes my direction up to the last minute. It costs extra to play the game that way.