Shipping, Usps Style

RJSakowski

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Ever wonder why shipping costs are so high?

A few days ago, I ordered two Shars AXA tool holders. They shipped out of St. Charles, IL On the 27th. Twenty eight hours later, the package arrived in Minneapolis, MN and was sent on to St. Paul, MN where it arrived five hours later. A brief rest and it was sent on its way, presumably to a local distribution site and on to my mailbox.

Now, the most likely route for a mail truck running from St. Charles would be on I90 which runs right past Madison WI. Madison is 112 mi. from St. Charles. Instead of dropping it off there, the package was carried on to Minneapolis, another 244 miles distant, and shuffled around there for the 200 plus mile journey back to my mailbox.

Now Madison is not a little podunk town. It is after all, the state capitol and the second largest city in the state. It would seem that there should be more than just my little package coming from the Chicago area to Madison.:confused 3:

Patiently waiting,

Bob

USPS Shipping.JPGThe Long Way Around.JPG
 
There was a time when every package sent FED EX went thru TN even if you were shipping it from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Logistic centers and all that.

michael
 
There was a time when every package sent FED EX went thru TN even if you were shipping it from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Logistic centers and all that.

michael
The same with UPS, for air shipments. I used to make a lot of shipments in a former business and used UPS almost exclusively. Ground shipment could beat a 2nd Day Air shipment in many cases. It used to be that a letter sent from central WI, some 120 miles north, would arrive at a Chicago destination the next day. I don't know if that is true nowdays with our "vastly improved " technology.

Bob
 
Its a spoke and hub system. Its more economical to run large quantitys of packages to a sort facility, than stopping every 20 miles and sorting on site.
My company uses this system. From Longview tx to Waco tx goes thrugh ft Worth tx. Some 100 or more miles out of the way.

Sent from somewhere in East Texas Jake Parker
 
Its a spoke and hub system. Its more economical to run large quantitys of packages to a sort facility, than stopping every 20 miles and sorting on site.
My company uses this system. From Longview tx to Waco tx goes thrugh ft Worth tx. Some 100 or more miles out of the way.

Sent from somewhere in East Texas Jake Parker
I understand the concept. It does seem counter intuitive to send a package to a hub in MN when it could send it to a sort facility in the Chicago area. Surely, the USPS processes enough mail in Chicago and surrounding area to have a sort facility. The irony is that the truck passed less than two miles from the Madison P.O. Kind of like those times when, if I only had a parachute, I could have cut 4 hrs off my travel time.
 
If a parachute would save 4 WEEKS I still would not do it. Would need that time to have someones foot removed from MY butt.
 
Yes it’s head scratching, but you need a system of management for the volume of mail the USPS handles. And a central hub for dispatch I guess has been tested and is the way they are going to route the mail. I send out hundreds of items a month using USPS mostly. I was happy with them until this month! About 20% of the packages got delayed over 2 weeks! Some of the noted tracking said it went back to the hub for a second and even third time? They must have a broken hub or two somewhere!...Don
 
UPS, USPS, both have major hubs in SA, I live a mile from the UPS main hub. but Try to get a package delivered no, all my packages must go on the trunks first because it is the last stop on the way home. Most of my stuff is delivered at 7 or 8 PM, but stuff for my office which is on the other side of town from it will show up at about 8 to 9AM. and the truck came from the same place at the same time. USPS I don't think they have a schedule at times. Other than a few of the trunks trying to run me off the road at 5AM on may way across town.
 
I've tracked packages a couple of times come into Minneapolis, MN
then the 100 miles East to Rice Lake, Wi and then the next day back to Minneapolis, MN
then the following day back 100 miles East to Rice Lake, Wi and then maybe deliver it!
Some how that tracking never stays on the web site! When it goes back all the prior stops get
deleted so you can't get a print screen on the whole trip!
 
Yea, they do no want proof your item could have been delivered sooner. They just want to show it was shipped, it arrived and now sent out and delivered.
Yea, one package I had a priority on they sent me an email that it was delayed due to weather, Finally found it. It was in Phoenix are, wait a min, It was shipped from the east coast area to TX, how the ____ did it get delayed in AZ. But when the thing arrived it just had where it was shipped, it Arrived SA TX, then delivered. The middle part was not there any longer. But they do not refund any of the extra money you paid to get it in 2 days, so you could complete a project on time.
 
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