Why ship with ups when USPS seems to be faster

bucksfan1976 · Jun 17, 2013

Ok so I ordered a light fixture for my tank, takes 5 days to get here from Texas

Ordered skimmer shipped from Phoenix and got here in 2 days via USPS

Ordered lighting upgrades for my bmw, one from New York, second from Texas both shipped Thursday got them on Saturday.

I just don't understand how ups charges so much and don't have their crap in order, heck I had a tank shipped from New York to Florida and it took 4 days

Cichphreak · Jun 17, 2013

USPS is not always faster. I once ordered a product that said it was going to be shipped via USPS and it gave me the tracking information. I followed it and saw that it arrived at Troutdale, Oregon which is about 15 miles from me so I expected that it was going to get to me early. The next day it was shipped to a location up near Seattle, Washington and actually ended up being 2 days late. Why it had to go up there when it was so close to me to begin with, I have no idea. With UPS, it is more of a straight line to you than USPS is. If you're lucky and the USPS ships a straight line to you, then you're set! lol. In my location, however, I'm screwed. :)

MischiefDoll · Jun 17, 2013

It all depends on location and convenience, like chichphreak said. :)

bucksfan1976 · Jun 17, 2013

I think I'm lucky with USPS since they have their huge center here in Columbus , what I also hate about ups, if I order something it get to the main hub , lets say gets to hub on the 10th not scheduled to be delivered til the 12th, they will let it sit, you can't go pick it up even though they have a pick up department

Cichphreak · Jun 17, 2013

Maybe you can set it up to where your packages are delivered to the hub for pick up by you? I know when I used to work for UPS sometimes the packages aren't able to go out the very next day. It depends on when the truck gets there. I, personally, worked the late night shift which meant if any trucks arrived after I started working, they didn't go out the very next day. It's actually quite the process they have to go through to get sorted out. It generally takes about 40 minutes for 1 person to unload a normal sized trailer. It then goes on a belt where people have to sort it according to what area of the country the packages are headed. Depending on how close to the location they are, they then have to narrow things down to state, city, area of delivery etc. 40 min to unload the truck is simple. Pick up box and put it on the belt. Loading the truck is another story. They have to scan the packages and set them in place. This takes precision because you don't want to put a tiny box on bottom and have it crushed by a larger box. By the same token, you don't want a light big box on bottom with a small heavy box on top of it because you'll just end up with 1 large box delivered to an address with a small heavy box inside. lol. There's a lot more to the shipping business than we normally understand. BUT, I still don't understand why USPS has to go from 15 miles away to 4 hours away and back again. lol.