Shipping USPS

Strange shipping protocol…I have supplies on order from HK USPS tracking shows the package did arrive in Chicago five days ago 1/10/14 and now 1/15/14 has shown up in Detroit. I live in a suburb of Chicago whats up with that? Sounds inefficient to me… Last time I checked the shortest distance between point A to point B is a straight line. Hummmm

The shortest distance may be a straight line but packages need to be sorted. And lots of tiny sorting centers would actually bottleneck the logistics. Larger more centralized and specifically zoned centers are more efficient.

When Fedex started it actually could beat every other delivery option currently available and yet it had only one central processing hub in Little Rock Arkansas which was logistically the most central location in the country. So if you say mailed a package from Los Angeles to Seattle it would still go through Little Rock but still make it to Seattle in about 3 days which still beat the then current air mail system and still faster than ground transport.

So the shortest distance may be a straight line but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the quickest, especially when logistics are involved.

But I’ve also had packages misdirected by the USPS, especially true with Chinese origin packages. It’s just something you have to trust will get to you eventually.

If I had to recall I definitely say that UPS has lost more packages for me than USPS and Fedex.

I had 2 packages make strange detours. In the end it just seemed like several errors stacked on each other during the holiday rush. Bummed me out a bit that my BTU Shocker arrived the day after xmas because of the errors, but at least it still made it in the end. :slight_smile:

Mr_Krabs: Thanks for the explanation I see your point.

unknown00101: I did see your thread that’s really strange routing.

I recently had a package from China land in San Fransisco then to a sort facility 20 miles away from me. Then to my PO and out for delivery. Another package still out also landed in SF then on to a sport facility 30 miles away from me now showing departed that facility. Will see where it goes next…

I have read through a lot of threads regarding shipping and have come to the conclusion most packages will arrive eventually.

Shipping is most DEFINITELY the Achilles Heel of online shopping. That’s why I go to such lengths to avoid buying anything online.

Update:

The China package has moved from the sort facility 30 miles away to a sort facility 20 miles away. The HK package from Detroit has landed at the same facility 20 miles away. Tick<tock, tick<>tok, tic toc<_>

Speaking of Tick (Ticked) oh never mind…