U S Postal folly

[fecmech]

There are screw ups in any business the size of the PO but they are set up similar to the airlines with hub and spoke type transportation. An example would be a Delta flight from Buffalo NY to Las Vegas goes Buffalo to Atlanta Ga. and then to Vegas. Delta's hub is ATL. The package business is run the same way. The first few years at Fedex everything went to Memphis TN. If you shipped something from Buffalo to Rochester NY (60 miles apart) it went to Memphis and back overnight. How they ship has more to do with how the system is set up rather than line of sight.

[dakotashooter2]

I often wonder how a "part" that I ordered out of China can be in my hands in 2-3 days but something I ordered from a place 200 miles down the road takes a week.

[Surculus]

If I mail a letter across the street, it goes 45 miles to Charlotte to be sorted first....

Don't blame the USPS for this mode of operation: the guy who founded FedEx nearly got flunked out of B-school when he made a case for the original biz plan of overnight delivery via flying everything to a hub [in Tennessee originally, iirc], sorting it there, & then flying it out for delivery wherever it was going.

His profs laughed at him. Who's laughing now?

Anyway, sometimes the economies of scale dictate that it's more efficient to do it this way. Wouldn't have applied years ago when vehicles were less efficient, roads weren't as good, transit times were longer, etc.

[Finster101]

I sent a package from MN to a friend in TX(some of my homemade chili powder blend). It went to NY, CA, AK. HI, back to MN then finally to TX.

Would that be called a well seasoned traveler?

[GLL]

Update:
My two 2-day Priority Mail boxes were mailed from Oregon on June 13th and made it to my city in California on the 16th. USPS then lost track of them for 18 days and had no idea where they went after they attempted to deliver them to the wrong address (even wrong street).. They finally arrived this morning. After four trips to the Post Office and filling out forms (twice) the only explanation they could give was "they are very heavy"... 32pounds !

Jerry

[MaryB]

Made me wonder of Homeland Security was suspecting it was a weapon... stuff is very very very hot

Would that be called a well seasoned traveler?

[Randy in Arizona]

Lovely Tucson, been here longer than the US has been a country.
Population of the metro area over a million.
Sort the mail here? Bleep NO!
Ship it to Phoenix, sort it, ship it back.
At least the local postal lady didn't bat an eye when I went in to ship an M16A1 to it's new owner!

75

[Mumblypeg]

Would that be called a well seasoned traveler?

THAT is a GOOD one.....( a lot better than what I had...)