# Shipping, Usps  Style



## RJSakowski (Jul 29, 2015)

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.

Patiently waiting,

Bob


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## Doubleeboy (Jul 29, 2015)

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


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## RJSakowski (Jul 29, 2015)

Doubleeboy said:


> 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


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## jpfabricator (Jul 29, 2015)

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


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## RJSakowski (Jul 29, 2015)

jpfabricator said:


> 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.


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## mcostello (Jul 29, 2015)

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.


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## chips&more (Jul 29, 2015)

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


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## kvt (Jul 29, 2015)

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.


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## furpo (Jul 29, 2015)

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!


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## kvt (Jul 30, 2015)

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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## Ed of all trades (Jul 30, 2015)

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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## JPigg55 (Jul 30, 2015)

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.


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## RJSakowski (Jul 30, 2015)

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


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## tincture500 (Aug 2, 2015)

This is why amazon is looking at drone delivery. You still have to have inventory close
Tom


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## CluelessNewB (Aug 2, 2015)

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!


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