So I ordered an item from an eBay seller. It was offered with free shipping, so I really can't complain, but I gotta share this. The package is relatively small, and lightweight, so the route and time it is expected to take just doesn't make sense. It shouldn't require handling any different than a first class envelope.
Here is the route, thus far:
Monday , 4/15/2019
- 8:31 pm
Shipment information sent to FedEx
Tuesday , 4/16/2019
- 3:40 pmBAY CITY, MI
In FedEx possession
Tendered at FedEx location
- 6:02 pmSAGINAW, MI
Picked up
- 7:05 pmSAGINAW, MI
Arrived at FedEx location
Wednesday , 4/17/2019
- 12:41 amSAGINAW, MI
Left FedEx origin facility
- 7:16 amPERRYSBURG, OH
Arrived at FedEx location
- 8:23 pmFEDEX SMARTPOST NEW BERLIN, WI
Arrived at FedEx location
- 10:15 pmFEDEX SMARTPOST NEW BERLIN, WI
Departed FedEx location
{There was no update on Thursday, must be some weird holiday the FedEx driver's union negotiated.}
Friday , 4/19/2019
- 1:32 amCICERO, IL
In transit
- 1:42 pmBERWYN, IL
In transit
Saturday , 4/20/2019
- 1:47 amCLEAR LAKE, MN
In transit
Bay City to Saginaw is 16 miles. So in two days, the package has traveled 16 miles. Must be some old lady on one of those mobility scooters runs that route.
Saginaw to Perrysburg, Ohio is about 155 miles. Perrysburg to New Berlin is 330 miles. 485 miles in one day. Now 485 miles is nothing. I used to run 700 to 800, no sweat. I even ran more than 1,000 miles in one 24 hour period once.
There was no update Thursday, and Friday, the package pops up in Cicero, 100 miles away. Cicero to Berwyn is less than 3 miles. These two communities are also Chicago suburbs. Not only did the package go backwards 100 miles (it passed through Chicago going to New Berlin two days earlier), bit it only travels 3 miles on Friday. Must be another geezer on a scooter.
Today (Saturday) it scans through Clear103 Lake, Minnesota, 460 miles further along.
Anyone here ever been to Clear Lake, Minnesota? Even Jim, who lives in Nowhere, South Dakota would say that Clear Lake, Minnesota is in the boonies.
The parcel has now logged 1,064 miles in 6 days. The distance from the shipper to me is 2,300 miles. If I left Monday, I could have driven there and back by late Wednesday, early Thursday.
This routing, and all the hops the package is making and the time it is taking just don't make sense.
Wait.
Notice where on one of the stops it says "SMARTPOST"?
Now I get it.
Smartpost, and the UPS version Surepost, are a weird deal that the US Post Office came up with to ensure they get a piece of the action on all this shipping that Brown and FedWrecks are taking from them.
And it is supposed to be cheaper.
I don't see how though. With more agencies handling the packages, there are more hands (read more cost:wages), more infrastructure (read more capital cost), and with all this zig zagging around, more fuel consumed.
Sheesh!
So the package is "estimated" to be delivered next Saturday. OK, I can wait, I mean the world won't stop turning because I won't get my stuff yesterday. Bur holy guacamole, who looks at routing like this and says, "Perfect!"
Who?