This has nothing to do with climate or the usual WUWT fare, though it does shine a light on government inefficiency, so I thought I’d share this for entertainment purposes.
Last Monday, about 1PM on March 10th, I ordered an item on Ebay; an AC to DC power supply brick for a laptop. It was nothing special, weighed under 2 pounds, but I needed it quickly, and so I took advantage of Ebay’s feature where it will list items that are closest to you to choose where to order from.
Being in Chico, CA I chose a vendor in Haward, CA just 178 miles away according to Google Maps with a drive time of just under three hours. See map at right.
Normally by Fed Ex Ground or UPS I get parts from the Bay Area the very next day. Imagine my surprise when tracking the package on USPS.gov. Here is the chronology:
============================================================
- Acceptance Mar-10-14, 17:52 PM, NEWARK, CA 94560
- Dispatched to Sort Facility Mar-10-14, 17:55 PM, NEWARK, CA 94560
- Depart USPS Sort Facility Mar-10-14, 00:00 AM, OAKLAND, CA 94615
- Processed at USPS Origin Sort Facility Mar-10-14, 20:06 PM, OAKLAND, CA 94615
- Depart USPS Sort Facility Mar-12-14, 00:00 AM, WEST SACRAMENTO, CA 95799
- Processed through USPS Sort Facility Mar-12-14, 14:31 PM, WEST SACRAMENTO, CA 95799
- Processed through USPS Sort Facility Mar-13-14, 18:43 PM, WEST SACRAMENTO, CA 95799
- Arrival at Post Office Mar-14-14, 04:34 AM, CHICO, CA 95926
- Sorting Complete Mar-14-14, 09:39 AM, CHICO, CA 95926
- Out for Delivery Mar-14-14, 09:49 AM, CHICO, CA 95926
- Delivered Mar-14-14, 12:43 PM, CHICO, CA 95973
============================================================
Almost any mode of transportation would have been faster than the United States Postal Service.
Driving: 2 hours, 52 minutes
Train: 3 hours, 7 minutes (Amtrak train plus bus from Oakland to Chico)
Pony Express: 2.37 days or 56.88 hours (Assuming they covered at an average speed of 12 1⁄2 miles per hour (20.1 km/h), including all stops, per this book. with a typical rider doing 75 miles in one day)
Riding a bicycle: 17.8 hours (assuming I could average 10 miles per hour)
USPS: 3 days, 18 hours, 51 minutes, or 90 hours 51 minutes. That gives an average speed for 178 miles of: 1.9592 mph. Even walking would have been faster.
Based on my experience with years of ordering parts from the Bay Area, both FedEx and UPS standard ground service would have had the package in my hands on Tuesday by Noon, a duration of ~18 hours.
No wonder the U.S. Postal Service is going broke with that sort of inefficiency and performance.
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I live in Seattle. I recently bought online a Harley in Texas. The shipper routed it through Pennsylvania. It’s been nearly a month and it’s still in Pennsylvania. Beat that for anti-performance.
Jon Reinertsen says:
March 15, 2014 at 5:01 pm
“I was rather amazed a while ago to discover the bright yellow trucks with DHL on them I have been seeing all over the place were actually the German post office parcel delivery.”
They’ve been privatized a while ago, and competing companies deliver mail as well in Germany. They’re actually a publically traded company now.
Alan Robertson says:
March 15, 2014 at 3:22 pm
I made the mistake of walking around to the sided of their building to an open overhead door and a bunch of drivers after no one came to the customer counter up front, for many long minutes.
==========================================
I did it a couple of times at the UPS depot in my county. No one up front, so I went around back. No one hassled me, though. They were pretty helpful, in fact.
The thing that got me was that I was there to pick up Dell computers that the driver couldn’t leave at my house – signature required. Fine. They found my packages and gave them to me. While I stood there waiting, I saw men unloading trucks. Throwing packages out of one truck into the back of another. 20 feet in the air. BAM!
Some boxes were labeled “Dell.”
My computers and peripherals were fine. But I have always wondered if they sailed across the depot. I thought about references to making sausage.
@ur momisugly nicholas tesdorf @ur momisugly Jon Reinertsen:
Australia Post here in Townsville NQ still deliver parcels by contractor if they don’t manage to lose them along the way. I have two registered parcels lost in the past year. Contractor lady does her best and is looking for another job. I have had parcels arrive from Miami (15126km) faster than from Brisbane (1356km) and at about a quarter of the price. AP performance seems to vary. Here it is dismal. On the other hand, Startrack Express, wholly owned by AP, frequently get large items up here from Sydney (2068km) to their depot 6km away in 2 days. “Large” as in a 13hp engine etc.
y’all have never dealt with military mail….this is good stuff by comparison
Anthony you didn’t say what USPS service the vendor selected and paid for. Did the vendor promise USPS express or overnight? Yours looks like “Flat-Rate Priority”. It was mailed after 5PM Monday and was “expected” to be delivered Thursday (your tracking). It arrived Friday just after noon. Half a day late? One day late? Not that bad. I use USPS very frequently and more usually they are exactly on time, or a day early.
Seeing as we are all just playing here………?
An order sent by pony express, to a location that needed to locate the item (by pony express ?), then carry it back by pony express.
When would the warranty even start ?
“dp says:
March 15, 2014 at 5:25 pm
I live in Seattle. I recently bought online a Harley in Texas. The shipper routed it through Pennsylvania. It’s been nearly a month and it’s still in Pennsylvania. Beat that for anti-performance.”
_______
No Harley ever made it cross country…. 🙂
/jk, sort of..:)
James Loux says:
I have sworn off ever using the USPS for package delivery after a similar and very disappointing experience. The folks at the USPS can demonstrate a low level of concern for getting packages delivered
promptlyat all.There. That’s my correction. I had a fairly valuable item sent to me via USPS. It disappeared en route. When I tried to find out what happened, since a signature chain of custody was required, a supervisor told me off the record that because the Postal Service was unionized, they would have to catch the thief red-handed. Otherwise, they would just say, “That’s not my signature. Prove it is.”
Now I use private carriers. Never had a problem with them.
Mike T
Oz Post is a far cry from USPS, USPS actually do things much better BUT geographically they have a far more complex job. Oz Post, really only have to deal with a few highly concentrated population areas, out of what is really only 5 hubs, whereas the USPS has a vastly greater network, because they have 10 times the population spread far more evenly over the land surface that Australia. Logistically AP’s mail delivery is a doddle.
Canada Post is similar to AP, but their problem is that Canada’s terrain is difficult and they have problems with tricky weather. However they also have a much easier job than Oz Post, since they have a delivery standard of 3 days intercapital, where Oz Post has a 2 Day intercapital delivery standard. Canada’s standards allow them to Hold a Mail Item at both ends for a day, which lets them batch better. In theory Canada could deliver every other day and still meet it’s delivery standards.
International mail gets held up incoming in most nations due to security screening, since the anthrax attacks on the US government a few years ago international mail in many countries is 100 % screened for “substances” and volatiles – these delays are due to customs, not the Postal Service
Bob, when I did get functioning tracking for my orders from the US, most of the time was taken up in the US, not in Oz. Once the goods arrived in Oz it was 2-3 days to my door, and I don’t live in a major (or minor, for that matter) city. In the last place I lived in there was a contractor who delivered to the door, at my present location we get a card, it’s not safe to leave parcels at the door anyway due to thieving by the “locals”.
In reply to Jon Reinertsen:
Australia Post do deliver parcels – I order vast amounts from eBay, Amazon, various places overseas. I get deliveries through Australia Post, DHL, Toll, FexEx, etc etc. I have no complaints about any of them. They all deliver direct to my door. Australia Post tracking service is fantastic: I get an email in the morning telling me that the parcel is on-board with the driver. Australia Post express ensures next day delivery, letters are normally next day (occasionally it can take 2 days to get something to say Sydney – 1500 km away).
All mail services go through sort facilities, and parcels can be a bit slower. (4 days does seem a bit extreme though). A comparison with a direct door-to-door is also a touch unfair.
Finally, all postal services have problems with parcel delivery, especially if there is nobody to receive it. This causes high costs with repeat delivery attempts, and tends to fill your local post office with parcels. Online buying has changed the face of parcel delivery and no courier / postal / delivery service is handling it especially well. Read the business press for the occasional articles.
Wally,
Express post often bypasses sort facilities, that how they manage next day delivery. It’s a higher cost process but then you pay more
Dropped 4 envelopes containing bills and checks into the big mail box out in front of a closed P.O. on a Sunday afternoon. All 4 somehow never made it from the front of the building into their delivery system. Chase waived their $25 late fee. American Express wouldn’t waive their $35 late fee (on a $28 charge), which I paid, then cancelled the card.
Its been almost a year and the original checks are still MIA.
No surprise. It is well known, that global warming is shrinking our brains.
http://discovermagazine.com/2010/sep/25-modern-humans-smart-why-brain-shrinking#.UyUDK9IW2KI
“It’s been nearly a month and it’s still in Pennsylvania. Beat that for anti-performance.”
I bought a pistol on duh net from a dealer in Florida. He shipped it to my local FFL dealer (as legally required) via USPS. Tracking data showed it arrived at the local PO on Friday. They delivered it to the dealer on the following Wednesday. I know 5 days isn’t a month, but the PO is a block from the gun dealer.
Once upon a time there was a rail carrier, I think called REI? RFE? Their reputation wasn’t all that great, but for things heavier than what UPS wanted to carry, that was the way a lot of things went (there were more trains back then too).
A friend of mine wanted to build a Heathkit color television, the holy grail kit of the best electronics kit company. It had to be shipped by REI, and Bill wanted some idea of what the shipping charge would be so he called the Pittsburgh office.
“Can you tell me approximately what the shipping cost is for an 80 pound package from western Michigan?” Bill asked.
“Umm, what city?”
“Benton Harbor.”
“Will it be boxed or on a pallet?” the rep probably didn’t ask, but I know there was some exchange.
That stumped Bill. “I’m not sure. It’s a television kit.”
“Oh, a Heathkit color TV?”
“Yep.”
“That’s $23.” Or something like that. Pretty reasonable for the day. It had never occurred to Bill it was such a common shipment that people wouldn’t need to compute the price.
A while after Bill sent the order (by USPS), he came home to a note that said REI had attempted delivery, but needed to deliver it to a person. The deal was to call the office with a delivery date and after three attempts they’d send it back.
Bill did that early the next day and the rep went to check for box and driver. The driver had left already, and the rep couldn’t find the box to tag it. It shouldn’t be on the truck without that authorization, because that would count as the second attempt. The rep said he’d talk to the driver at the end of the day and suggested Bill call back earlier the next day before the driver left.
Bill figured he ought to stay home just in case and sure enough, the TV arrived around 10. The driver commented his nephew had built a stereo receiver and was quite excited about getting the package. So the driver decided to take a chance that Bill would be at home in hopes of getting the TV and it all worked out.
The apple store geniuses at the guardian came up with this. (No caps, no pack drill).
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/02/amazon-trialling-the-use-of-drones-for-parcel-delivery
Dropped an “Expedited Delivery” (2nd day delivery) small package off at my local USPS office slot on Saturday last week. Got there today (Saturday) – one week later. – to the Houston area
Ordered parts and tools and “exotic” drill bits from our company’s warehouse in Pittsburgh on late Thursday afternoon, about 4:00 pm. They gathered the order, got the billing and processing complete, all of the box crated up to Fedex. We received it in Louisiana Friday morning at the work site in deep Acadia territory before 10:00 AM.
1803. Lewis and Clark have meetings i n Washington DC on the east coast in Virginia to plan their expedition to the west coast.
1804-05-6 Expedition across (by rowing, horseback, boat, and canoe) across American continent.
1806 Lewis and Clark return to Washington to present their report to President Jefferson.
Now, why do paleontologists think it would take thousands of years to settle America, South ASMrica or anywhere else (Africa to Australia for example) by foot?
One of the problems with the USPS is that it is run as a private business but is controlled by the government. The USPS is broke not because of inefficiency but because the government requires them to make a $5 billion payment to cover pensions and medical for retirees. Rate increases must be approved by the government and are based not only on need but on political fallout. Another problem is due to union rules. It is difficult to fire a postal employee for inefficient work habits. So those people get tricked into being promoted to low level management so they can then be fired. In the mean time those inefficient people are supervising operations in their own inefficient ways. My personal experience as a postal worker (5 years worth) was with the fellow who taught me the ropes when I was hired. He overstuffed PO boxes using the logic if they get that much mail they should rent a larger box. He told me you can always stuff another letter in there no matter what happens to it. When he was promoted into management the first thing he did was put up a notice that anyone caught over stuffing PO boxes would be written up. That’s the kind of stuff that makes you just want to shoot people.
I am not a big fan of USPS and I would have been frustrated with this experience, but private corporations are equally inefficient. I have had numerous problems with UPS, where the shipping route is equally ridiculous, or a package gets to the sort facility at 6am Friday morning and doesn’t get delivered till 7pm Monday night because UPS doesn’t work on Saturday. My most recent experience with UPS was a package that required a signature. Fortunately I heard the truck stop in front of the house so I was able to answer the door within seconds of the knock, but the driver was already bent over printing out the “We missed you” door tag.
This is why around here, we fondly refer to the USPS as the Paste Orifice.
I worked for a time for FEDEX at a station just out side the DC beltway. Small packages or envelopes that were being shipped to DC would usually just be sent to their hub in Tennessee to be shipped back to the DC station. Larger/heavier packages would get driven to the station.
“USPS: 3 days, 18 hours, 51 minutes, or 90 hours 51 minutes. That gives an average speed for 178 miles of: 1.9592 mph. Even walking would have been faster.”
I ordered a small item from an Amazon third party seller on March 1st. It was shipped on March 4th, arriving at the USPS facility in Santa Clarita on the 4th at an unspecified time. It arrived at the USPS Federal Way, WA facility on March 5, 2014, 8:19 pm. It left that facility, about 100 miles south of my place, on March 6th at an unspecified time.
I still haven’t received it. So I’ve got you beat, 100 miles in 9 days and counting.
I’ve actually had a Harley like that 🙂