Rant on shipping

[goeduck]

We get probably 5 or 6 a week, way up due to COVID and buying all but groceries on line. No porch pirates here, driveway is too long and we are too remote.

Today we got a package delivered by a UPS or Fedex driver (I forget which) in a sedan. Later a box from Amazon delivered after dark. I always keep the area between the house and shop clear so that it is easier for the drivers to turn around. I think that improves my deliveries since they know they can get in and out easy, plus I keep my dogs fenced.

These days the delivery truck screens probably show my house as having a truck turn around (my adjacent 2 neighbors do not).

 

[Oaktree]

Exactly, run fewer (expensive and high maintenance) mail sorting machines regionally instead of one in every facility, yep it will slow down local mail by a day, but it saves a chunk of money and makes things much more efficient.

Actually, the USPS has used regional sorting hubs for quite some time now. All mail, even to local addresses goes to a hub about 100 mi away...the only exception is mail dropped into the "local" slot at the actual post office.
Agreed that the USPS is still very inefficient, unfortunately there isn't much that can be done within it's existing charter. Congress would need to act to allow the changes that are necessary to move forward, and that's not likely to happen anytime soon. Witness the ruckus anytime the postmaster general even suggests closing a small branch.

With everyone having items shipped to their homes instead of traveling to stores because of the virus, all the shippers are completely swamped and unable to hire enough trained workers making losses and slow deliveries reach record highs. I just wish I had invested a lot of my savings in UPS or FEDEX stocks back in January. I would sell the stock now at more than twice what I paid for it before the bottom drops out when everyone gets the vaccine.

Remains to be seen what happens once the covid situation is under control. On line shopping is here to stay, brick and mortar stores have been on the decline for years now. While Amazon, Fedex, etc. stocks may not see the same gains moving forward that they've seen this year my guess is that there won't be a collapse in their values either.

Porch Pirates are huge here... a real problem with very low risk.

Not a big problem here. Glad I don't live in the city.

 

[fried1765]

Porch Pirates are huge here... a real problem with very low risk.

They often just follow the UPS, USPS, Amazon, Track, etc...

I have work from home neighbor averaging 5 deliveries weekdays and several on Sunday...

They went away Saturday night returning Sunday and had 4 deliveries I put in their garage

East Oakland or..... East Africa?

 

[goeduck]

Another feature of Amazon that I like is that I can sign on and go to my orders and it lists all of the recent ones along with date of delivery or status of undelivered orders.

 

[JethroB]

Another feature of Amazon that I like is that I can sign on and go to my orders and it lists all of the recent ones along with date of delivery or status of undelivered orders.

Amazon really has the online order & delivery systems others should aspire to. Can create multiple shopping/wish lists also for spouse, groceries, tractor, etc. I get twice a day deliveries via Amazon vans and can follow the van on a map as it makes its way to my house.

 

[California]

Amazon really has the online order & delivery systems others should aspire to.

Yes! Bezos understands how to use latest technology in every part of his operation.

We are getting groceries delivered by Instacart. Their user interface is so slow and clunky that it isn't any different from what we had to deal with 40 years ago with remote Mainframe access - each keystroke takes several seconds to appear on the screen. That's ludicrously bad for 2020. Ebay and other giant databases had that aspect figured out 20 years ago.

 

[ultrarunner]

East Oakland or..... East Africa?

East Oakland but really a problem SF Bay Area... with so many deliveries 7 days a week there is always something left at the door.

 

[Jstpssng]

Another feature of Amazon that I like is that I can sign on and go to my orders and it lists all of the recent ones along with date of delivery or status of undelivered orders.

I can do that with my LLBean account going back ten years, and could do the same with Cabelas until recently. It's handy for things like boots, when I find a pair that I like I can go back to an old order and get the same thing again.

 

[LouNY]

I can do that with my LLBean account going back ten years, and could do the same with Cabelas until recently. It's handy for things like boots, when I find a pair that I like I can go back to an old order and get the same thing again.

Also Rock Auto

 

[Alan W.]

We use to have the same fedex driver in a fedex stepvan but now its always a different one in a small fedex van. One day we even had two different fedex deliveries from two different drivers.
UPS is always the same fella. Told him to have a merry Christmas the other day. He said that I sounded like I wouldnt see him again. When he delivered the next day I simply said see ya tomorrow.
No porch pirates here, Im usually home anyway.
Having a circle drive helps them out also.