- Joined
- Jun 3, 2014
- Messages
- 141
It is a question in my mind, if the USPS just used common sense would they loose as much $$$$$$$$$$$ as they do with all of their updated efficiency?
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Shipping, Usps Style
- Thread starter RJSakowski
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2012
- Messages
- 783
I've wondered myself how their methods are cheaper.
Once, I ordered some stocking stuffers from WOOT or Amazon, don't remember and probably doesn't matter.
Anyway, as I tracked it to see if it would get here on time, I saw it pass within 50 miles of my house no less than 5 times !!!
I understand thesorting center thing, but passing by 5 times ???
Another thing I don't understand is lately things I've ordered with FREE UPS/FedEx shipping are shipped by them to within 50 miles and them they transfer it to the USPS for final delivery.
I understand a few $$$'s to the USPS is may be cheaper than driving a delivery truck to my house on some spreadsheet, but their normal delivery truck routes bring them to within 2 miles of my house almost every day.
I'd think they would transfer it to the USPS right off the bat instead of the last 50 miles.
The genius of the corperate mind, no wonder this coutry is going to hell in a hand basket.
Once, I ordered some stocking stuffers from WOOT or Amazon, don't remember and probably doesn't matter.
Anyway, as I tracked it to see if it would get here on time, I saw it pass within 50 miles of my house no less than 5 times !!!
I understand thesorting center thing, but passing by 5 times ???
Another thing I don't understand is lately things I've ordered with FREE UPS/FedEx shipping are shipped by them to within 50 miles and them they transfer it to the USPS for final delivery.
I understand a few $$$'s to the USPS is may be cheaper than driving a delivery truck to my house on some spreadsheet, but their normal delivery truck routes bring them to within 2 miles of my house almost every day.
I'd think they would transfer it to the USPS right off the bat instead of the last 50 miles.
The genius of the corperate mind, no wonder this coutry is going to hell in a hand basket.
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2015
- Messages
- 9,605
It is really an interesting problem. My wife is British and could not understand why we don't use mass transportation more in the US. The answer is simple: we are too diffuse as a society. Moving a package efficiently from point A to point B is a very similar problem to moving people around. The concerns are convenience, speed of execution, transportation efficiency, and cost.
With air travel we have the hub and spoke system with commuter runs being in small planes and longer "express" runs in the larger planes. We sacrifice convenience and speed of execution for transportation efficiency and cost.. Madison, WI happens to be a terminal stop airport rather than a hub so, to make a flight out to the Bay area with something reasonably approaching my schedule, I may have to fly 300 miles east to Detroit to fly to the west coast.
When we travel by air, we often take a Van Galder bus to fly from O'Hare because they run an almost hourly schedule, it is less expensive, the accommodations are better, and they are many times faster than flying the 90 miles when boarding time, waiting on the runway, and layover time is considered. (Thanks to the homesick UW students for this service!)
We live in a rural setting and during the school season, it was not uncommon to have three school buses pass the house or to pass a half dozen on my way into work. The buses were all fifty to sixty passenger with maybe a half dozen kids on board. Rather than have minivan sized buses pick up the widely dispersed students and deliver them to a central hub where the buses for each school could pick up their passengers and deliver them to their respective destinations, we had this grossly inefficient system in terms of labor, and fuel cost which by the way, my taxes are paying for.
Public transportation is a similar problem. We had five households within a half mile circle where one or more persons were working within a one mile circle, three of us in the same building, in Madison, some twenty-five mile distant. Because we had different and many times unpredictable start/stop schedules, we pretty much all drove separately. That would mean up to eight vehicles all making pretty much the same journey each work day. We sacrificed transportation efficiency and cost for convenience and speed. As for public transportation, that is non-existent out here.
Moving packages is perhaps even more challenging. The traffic is sporadic and unpredictable. We live in a "now" world and have difficulty with understanding why I can't have the item that I just bought on my doorstep an hour later. The whole discussion about the use of delivery drones revolves around that desire. The US mail service is actually pretty good value for the service. Think about it: I place a letter in the mailbox out on my driveway and two or three days later, it is hand delivered to its destination and all for less that the price of a soft drink at a fast food restaurant. UPS and the USPS are teaming up to deliver packages at a lower cost, taking advantage of the fact that my rural mail carrier drives past my house six days every week. The concession in this case is speed as the package are routed to a central transfer point, adding an extra day or two to the delivery time.
On a micro level, I worked on a laboratory robot system where the task was to move a number of objects to various work stations on a deck where about twenty five operations of varying time lengths were being executed on each object. The objective was to complete the entire task in the least amount of time. The wait time at each work station had to be precisely controlled and minimized. It would be similar to running taxis in NYC. We gave up on that model because, with eight objects, it simply became a scheduling nightmare.
My original post was not a rag on the postal service. In general, they do a great job. I will get my package today (although it is one day later than the advertised 2nd day delivery). It was to point out the irony in passing within two miles of a transfer point and adding an extra day and five hundred miles to the journey.
Bob
With air travel we have the hub and spoke system with commuter runs being in small planes and longer "express" runs in the larger planes. We sacrifice convenience and speed of execution for transportation efficiency and cost.. Madison, WI happens to be a terminal stop airport rather than a hub so, to make a flight out to the Bay area with something reasonably approaching my schedule, I may have to fly 300 miles east to Detroit to fly to the west coast.
When we travel by air, we often take a Van Galder bus to fly from O'Hare because they run an almost hourly schedule, it is less expensive, the accommodations are better, and they are many times faster than flying the 90 miles when boarding time, waiting on the runway, and layover time is considered. (Thanks to the homesick UW students for this service!)
We live in a rural setting and during the school season, it was not uncommon to have three school buses pass the house or to pass a half dozen on my way into work. The buses were all fifty to sixty passenger with maybe a half dozen kids on board. Rather than have minivan sized buses pick up the widely dispersed students and deliver them to a central hub where the buses for each school could pick up their passengers and deliver them to their respective destinations, we had this grossly inefficient system in terms of labor, and fuel cost which by the way, my taxes are paying for.
Public transportation is a similar problem. We had five households within a half mile circle where one or more persons were working within a one mile circle, three of us in the same building, in Madison, some twenty-five mile distant. Because we had different and many times unpredictable start/stop schedules, we pretty much all drove separately. That would mean up to eight vehicles all making pretty much the same journey each work day. We sacrificed transportation efficiency and cost for convenience and speed. As for public transportation, that is non-existent out here.
Moving packages is perhaps even more challenging. The traffic is sporadic and unpredictable. We live in a "now" world and have difficulty with understanding why I can't have the item that I just bought on my doorstep an hour later. The whole discussion about the use of delivery drones revolves around that desire. The US mail service is actually pretty good value for the service. Think about it: I place a letter in the mailbox out on my driveway and two or three days later, it is hand delivered to its destination and all for less that the price of a soft drink at a fast food restaurant. UPS and the USPS are teaming up to deliver packages at a lower cost, taking advantage of the fact that my rural mail carrier drives past my house six days every week. The concession in this case is speed as the package are routed to a central transfer point, adding an extra day or two to the delivery time.
On a micro level, I worked on a laboratory robot system where the task was to move a number of objects to various work stations on a deck where about twenty five operations of varying time lengths were being executed on each object. The objective was to complete the entire task in the least amount of time. The wait time at each work station had to be precisely controlled and minimized. It would be similar to running taxis in NYC. We gave up on that model because, with eight objects, it simply became a scheduling nightmare.
My original post was not a rag on the postal service. In general, they do a great job. I will get my package today (although it is one day later than the advertised 2nd day delivery). It was to point out the irony in passing within two miles of a transfer point and adding an extra day and five hundred miles to the journey.
Bob
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2015
- Messages
- 50
This is why amazon is looking at drone delivery. You still have to have inventory close
Tom
Tom
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2013
- Messages
- 1,448
Planes fly over my house on the way to Europe but if I want to go I need to get to Boston or NY first, bummer! 