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Keep track of the route on Google Maps or some such--it could be good for laughs.

 

I had a delivery from the northern San Fernando Valley to down here in the OC--maybe 60 miles. It went from the origin to LA (good) to Las Vegas (??), back to LA, to Manhattan Beach (??) where it stalled for several days before miraculously appearing on my porch.

 

I've been hearing of more and more "Grand Tour" deliveries by the USPS. One wonders why...

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I've been seeing these grand tour deliveries too. Packages going in the exact opposite direction by hundreds of miles. I've had packages that made it as far as the main post office here in Milwaukee and then, for some reason, get shipped off to some other city in Wisconsin, then back again. Just no rhyme nor reason. and the thing is, once these packages are mailed, the labels have bar coded zipcode info on them which is supposed to be read by their bar code readers and directed to the proper area. Boggles the mind to wonder how they managed to mess up a relatively simple problem in software coding. I know, there is the problem of human interference in the process or damaged labels (none of mine ever were). I guess its just a worker grabbing the box and throwing it into the wrong basket, then off it goes to Timbuktu.

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I know what you're talking about.  How about a letter going from Euless, Texas to Dallas, Texas, then turning around to come back to Haltom City, Texas.  Keep in mind that this is all within the Fort Worth-Dallas Metroplex and the original distance (Euless to Haltom City) is about 12 miles and normally takes one day.  Instead, the same letter travels 50-odd miles and takes about four days.

 

And FedEx?  Unless things have changed lately, everything  goes to their Memphis, Tennesee hub and then reroutes to the actual destination.

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Oops.  Just found out what IIUC means, so ignore my previous comment.  As far as I know, they don't send a package to a hub and then back to the same location.  But unless they've changed, they do send everything else thru their hub and then redirect.  So, a package sent from Mexico could go from Mexico to Memphis and then back to South Texas.  Last I heard, they claim it makes their system more efficient.

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For the past few years, USPS has been hiring "non-career" employees.  Used to be you started as a PTF or part-timer (6-hr day), but eventually would become "regular, with full shifts and a career path.  Many of these newer hires have no career path, hence it's "just a job", an many just don't care.  Not sure that I can blame them...

 

Ed

 

Retired USPS "regular"

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Just ran a track on my package. It left San Juan Pr Thursday at 5:59PM. Has not been scanned anywhere since and the delivery date is unknown. Just says that it is on time. If it was on time I would already have it. The USPS needs to be closed down as far as I am concerned. All they do is raise rates to pay the top people. Just totally ridiculous.

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IF, the USPS did not have to pre fund retirement and healthcare 75 years out, (thank you Congress and I won't say which party did that but I'm sure you can guess), the cost of sending packages and mail would drop so low it would put FedEx and UPS potentially out of business. Certainly in domestic delivery. The USPS has a far greater network that reaches into every neighborhood in the country. I seriously doubt the two major carriers could do that economically without having the USPS to partner with. Both private carriers use the USPS resources to deliver their packages. Why is that? They use USPS planes, USPS facilities, delivery vehicles and letter carriers. If the USPS were to go away, you think you pay too much now? Also, the taxpayer controls via Congress what the USPS charges or can at least step in. Once it's just the private companies, do you really think you will have ANY say in rates other than to complain even more bitterly. I have no issues with our postal service. I think it is great, the best in the world.

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11 minutes ago, jpk said:

IF, the USPS did not have to pre fund retirement and healthcare 75 years out, (thank you Congress and I won't say which party did that but I'm sure you can guess), the cost of sending packages and mail would drop so low it would put FedEx and UPS potentially out of business. Certainly in domestic delivery. The USPS has a far greater network that reaches into every neighborhood in the country. I seriously doubt the two major carriers could do that economically without having the USPS to partner with. Both private carriers use the USPS resources to deliver their packages. Why is that? They use USPS planes, USPS facilities, delivery vehicles and letter carriers. If the USPS were to go away, you think you pay too much now? Also, the taxpayer controls via Congress what the USPS charges or can at least step in. Once it's just the private companies, do you really think you will have ANY say in rates other than to complain even more bitterly. I have no issues with our postal service. I think it is great, the best in the world.

Well put.   Amazing how people get worked up over the this.   Don't like them, ship it UPS.   Just don't complain about the bill since UPS has a bloated personnel policy due to their union.   Even part time (a few hours per week) are entitled to full medical coverage, which in UPS's case is 100% free. Couple that with their pay structure (drivers can pull in over 100k) and it's no wonder why they are so expensive. 

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2 hours ago, 11bee said:

Even part time (a few hours per week) are entitled to full medical coverage, which in UPS's case is 100% free. Couple that with their pay structure (drivers can pull in over 100k) and it's no wonder why they are so expensive.

 

Actually, you just gave me a reason to use UPS more. More companies should support and provide for their employees like this.

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1 hour ago, Mstor said:

 

Actually, you just gave me a reason to use UPS more. More companies should support and provide for their employees like this.

I suppose  you can look at it that way.   You can also look at it like that's a huge amount of money to be spent on (mostly) unskilled labor.  But it's also somewhat of a moot point.  Given where things are going with UAV's, robotics, etc, I'd say that within the decade, a good chunk of UPS's workforce will be looking for work elsewhere.   Going to be an epic showdown between management and their union pretty soon...

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Let's not forget that driverless trucks...especially semis...and Artificial Intelligence will decimate the ranks of professional truckers.  If we're not careful, the world of Skynet and Terminator won't be that far away.  They're already talking about when...not if...machines will become self-aware.

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Seems there was a big storm in the Midwest recently. Since much of the USPS’s shipping is on lowest-bidder flights, I suppose the related air travel delays could have affected all air travel.

 

I try to avoid USPS if possible, for these reasons. In this era of low revenue for them, their infrastructure seems to be in downsize mode. It’s sad to watch.

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All it takes is that the bar code not to be read correctly and it could cause it to be mis routed. I know work in the airport industry and the automated tag readers have several readers and they are 99+% accurate but of the bag tag is just off a little the ATR will misread it  and send it to a different place from which it was intended. As I said they are really accurate but if your the one bag out of two hundred its not accurate enough. I am not trying to be an apologist for USPS but since I now see a lot of stuff regarding shipping its pretty amazing we get the vast majority of stuff that were supposed to.

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I had a pair of jeans go from Italy to New york via the mid west, get repackaged then they went back to Italy then Germany and then onto London for delivery.

 

It all depends on the day and when the next flight to the delivery location will be once they can get the package from where ever it starts to where its going.

Puerto Rico seems out of the way to you but there are only a limited number of options.

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On 2/16/2020 at 12:41 PM, 11bee said:

I suppose  you can look at it that way.   You can also look at it like that's a huge amount of money to be spent on (mostly) unskilled labor.  But it's also somewhat of a moot point.  Given where things are going with UAV's, robotics, etc, I'd say that within the decade, a good chunk of UPS's workforce will be looking for work elsewhere.   Going to be an epic showdown between management and their union pretty soon...

My brother in law used to drive for UPS. He never joined the union and made 65k/yr. However since he didn't have the protection of the union, (which he decided he did not want to do and was not required), when it came time to cut personnel, he was let go. 

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17 hours ago, boom175 said:

All it takes is that the bar code not to be read correctly and it could cause it to be mis routed. I know work in the airport industry and the automated tag readers have several readers and they are 99+% accurate but of the bag tag is just off a little the ATR will misread it  and send it to a different place from which it was intended. As I said they are really accurate but if your the one bag out of two hundred its not accurate enough. I am not trying to be an apologist for USPS but since I now see a lot of stuff regarding shipping its pretty amazing we get the vast majority of stuff that were supposed to.

Amen. I love the USPS. My letter carrier I know by name and he knows me. I won't go into when I had a special request from him and he was fantastic. Try that with a UPS person over the phone somewhere in Nashville.

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2 hours ago, jpk said:

Amen. I love the USPS. My letter carrier I know by name and he knows me. I won't go into when I had a special request from him and he was fantastic. Try that with a UPS person over the phone somewhere in Nashville.

True enough when you are on a route that has the same letter carrier for months or years.  I've had that experience and loved it. I had one who was so good you could literally set your watch by him. Had him for several years until he retired and have never had another one that good.  He even delivered mail that belonged to me but had the wrong address.  Man, do I miss him.  But the flip side is when they change your route so that there's a different carrier every day...and I'm not talking vacation replacement.

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On 2/18/2020 at 5:37 AM, jpk said:

Amen. I love the USPS. My letter carrier I know by name and he knows me. I won't go into when I had a special request from him and he was fantastic. Try that with a UPS person over the phone somewhere in Nashville.

That is true in some places. We use to have a wonderful mail lady that was awesome. Always waved at the kids and engaged with the neighborhood. That was years ago. Now the normal routine is everyone checking the neighborhood FB page to see who got who's mail. I'd say that out of the maybe 30 homes on our street, a good 5-10 every day have to exchange mail. And they aren't marked wrong, just the mail person mixing up numbers. Don't know if it's laziness, carelessness or eye sight or what. We've complained MANY times as a neighborhood and nothing seems to change. And it's a pretty common issue across our whole area. We've all joked that it would be easier to just put a big box at the end of the block and we meet every afternoon to sort our own mail. It would be quicker.

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