Rant on shipping

[ljjhouser]

Moral of the story > Buy cheap suitcases and clothes when you travel...or stay home. lol

I have an online store. I ship a few thousand pkgs each year. I can tell you stuff just disappears. There are black holes out there where pkgs land and sit for days before moving again or they just suddenly show delivered after being MIA for 2 weeks. USPS is the worst but UPS and Fedup are getting worse. Saw a news story today about Fedex ground contracting all of their ground deliveries out. These 6k independent contractors wear Fedex uniforms and drive Fedex trucks. Anyway Fedex is accused of withholding supplemental fuel payments to these contractors that are losing big $ daily. It's a mess. I print and ship the same day and have UPS scan in the pkgs so the customer can see the pkg in the system. Worst was I had a UPS overnight take 7 days to deliver.

You are right. Their is no reason or way to figure how the UPSP ships. Or when. Then UPS (in order to cut costs- which I understand) began using what they call SurePost. They ship and UPSP delivers. The minute USPS gets it, the delivery times and locations become invalid. I try very hard to avoid USPS delivery.
My worst experience with this - I orderd a box of printed circuit boards - from Canada - guarenteed overnight. Canada Post shipped. Turned over to USPS. Lost immediately somewhere in Chicago. USPS looked for for 2 weeks. Never saw the package. Ordered again - USPS refunded the $28 shipping. Shipper and I ate the cost of product. We agreed to split cost and he reshiped, charging me half. The USPS told me they knew where it was. It was in Chicago. They just couldn't find it.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

Worst shipping experiences I have had were a Rock Bucket I ordered which came from Missouri by truck freight, about 150 to 200-miles at a time. The trucking companies would move it from one depot to the next one, sort of headed west and north. took two months to get here. Oh well it was free shipping.

The ones which get my goat are the sellers on eBay, who say their product is in the US, and then I get the product seven weeks later, and it shipped by China Post, from China.

 

[tallyho8]

Looks like it spent 6 weeks in US Customs.

The strange part is there were 2 suitcases, shipped together, at the same time. They took 3 days to get to Harahan LA which is right across the river from where I live. One was delivered the next day. The other one was shipped back to Memphis TN. where it stayed for 6 1/2 weeks before being shipped back to Harahan. Both suitcases had the same customs papers on them from Canada.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Everybody get ready to pucker. UPS is negotiating with the Teamsters for a new contract, and they may go on strike. We may also be looking at a rail strike at the same time. Those two on strike would shut down the entire US economy. It would load inflation onto a skyrocket. Stock up.

I think the prez can mandate arbitration, but there's usually a big work slowdown when that happens. I haven't seen it happen for decades.

 

[ultrarunner]

Last time UPS went on Strike the Post Office showed a profit and FedEx was busier than ever but now we have multiple Amazon and other trucks in and out all day…

Typically at least three UPS and two FedEx per day here.

If the just in time medical deliveries delayed patient care is impacted.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

When I worked for UPS in the late seventies, the fist national contract was up for a vote. I was a manager and we had enough money in the bank, to pay all of the management salaries, and minimal upkeep on the trucks and equipment for 9-months longer than the union‘s strike fund would last. Luckily the Teamsters accepted the contract offer with just a few simple modifications.

UPS, move around 6 to 7% of the economy, eitehr as parts or finished product, and is now heavily involved warehousing things for just in time delivery.

If they go out, things will get really interesting.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Last time UPS went on Strike the Post Office showed a profit and FedEx was busier than ever but now we have multiple Amazon and other trucks in and out all day…

Typically at least three UPS and two FedEx per day here.

If the just in time medical deliveries delayed patient care is impacted.

I think the last time UPS went on strike was in the '90s. It was a different civilization back then.

 

[ultrarunner]

I think nearly 2 weeks back in 1997?

The new clinic had only been open a short time and I was shuffling packages to the nearby post office and FedEx became my new best friend...

 

[JethroB]

Everybody get ready to pucker. UPS is negotiating with the Teamsters for a new contract, and they may go on strike. We may also be looking at a rail strike at the same time. Those two on strike would shut down the entire US economy. It would load inflation onto a skyrocket. Stock up.

I think the prez can mandate arbitration, but there's usually a big work slowdown when that happens. I haven't seen it happen for decades.

A good time now to short Amazon’s stock?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Amazon does most of their own deliveries now.