I was tracking the intake shipment from Summit this morning. Expected delivery today. Awesome. But, it shipped from NE Ohio with the destination of NW Indianapolis. So, what does UPS do? Ships it to Chicago first. Ohio, across Indiana to Illinois, then back to Indiana.
How could that possibly be efficient?
It is more efficient to ship items to and from large centralized sorting centers than it is to have a greater number of smaller sorting locations spread all over the country. When you think of it in terms of equipment, property taxes, employees it makes sense that if they already have the planes and trucks in motion to use them the way they do.
Yep, those trucks are already running those routes. their incremental cost to handle and move your box is smaller than round-off error.
But they have to bring it to indy, resort it again, then assign it to a delivery truck. Why not bring it to the Indy sort first?
Because there isn't a regular route from NE Ohio to Indy. Hold on, I'll draw up a graph (i.e. Graph Theory) to show it.
In reply to mtn :
but I know there is from Columbus, which would be closer I would think.
Something like how you guys fly?
That's what it looks like to me
Suprf1y said:Something like how you guys fly?
That's what it looks like to me
That's what I was thinking. Always threw me off flying Sacramento to Pittsburgh, and having a layover at JFK, Dulles, or San Francisco.
Which route would you take? I know that you can plug these into Google Maps and say "hey, that ain't right", but think of it in terms of cost, or hours, or whatever. THey probably only run the Toledo to Indianapolis twice a day. They probably run Toledo to Chicago 10 times.
RevRico said:Suprf1y said:Something like how you guys fly?
That's what it looks like to me
That's what I was thinking. Always threw me off flying Sacramento to Pittsburgh, and having a layover at JFK, Dulles, or San Francisco.
That is exactly it. Think of it like all roads lead to Rome. Not all roads lead to Columbus. Not all roads lead out of Toledo. But Chicago? JFK? Atlanta? Yup. May as well be Rome
bobzilla said:In reply to mtn :
but I know there is from Columbus, which would be closer I would think.
Not a major hub. May be a major node, but not a hub.
I saw a TV report on FedEx when it first started. The reporter sent an overnight package across town. FedEx flew it to a hub in the mid west to sort then flew it back. That was the way they kept track of everything.
The Ohio Turnpike and Indiana Turnpike allow triple 28's or double 48's.
They can not continue to run the triple setup on regular roads so there are large parking areas off the Turnpike where they drop the 3rd trailer and continue on with two 28's.
In Toledo, Ohio the UPS hub is built in such a proximity to the Turnpike booth that UPS has its own driveway after the toll but before the main road so that it can pull all 3 trailers right into their lot.
It was expected that this summer they would be running autonomous trucks on these Turnpike Routes but I have not yet seen them.
FedEx simplifies the complexity of shipping by giving every shipment one common address: every package is either shipping TO a hub or FROM a hub. This reduces the number of possible combinations by a few billion. The speed at which they can load/unload containers of packages and sort them in a large facility with automated sorting equipment is astonishing. Cheaper to fly it half way across the country and process it automatically than to ship it locally and sort it by hand.
(cant seem to embed video anymore. "Failed to fetch content for the given URL.")
Freight rail is done largely the same way. I've read stories of CSX shipping stuff on some crazy convoluted routes, which is cheaper because of the hubs. Unfortunately, sometimes the added transit times can cause problems. Last I heard they were limiting some of the practice.
This is why those pick up lockers make sense. Ups man stuffs it there, you pickup on your way to work/grocery store/etc
I gave up trying to understand shipping routes years ago, but it's like flying. It's all about the hubs.
The UPS driver that delivers locally says the desk jockeys are laying out the packing system. You would think they would load the truck so things at the back are off loaded first, working your way forward. Now they pack it all in and hand the driver a delivery list. I was at the shop when he stopped in with a delivery, "Sucks, I've been by here 4 times already but have to go by the list". How can that be cost effective?
914Driver said:How can that be cost effective?
Gotta clear the early am then early morning then priority packages before you deliver the cheap stuff.. They make plenty of money on those early am deliveries..
The routing software is so sophisticated it even tries to eliminate left turns and do routes with mostly rights where feasible to save money. Lots of articles and videos on it.. It makes sense when you look at it from a systemic efficiency standpoint. system efficiency is better than point effciency..
typing wuth one hand due to broken collsrbone excuse poor everything.
John Welsh said:The Ohio Turnpike and Indiana Turnpike allow triple 28's or double 48's.
They can not continue to run the triple setup on regular roads so there are large parking areas off the Turnpike where they drop the 3rd trailer and continue on with two 28's.
In Toledo, Ohio the UPS hub is built in such a proximity to the Turnpike booth that UPS has its own driveway after the toll but before the main road so that it can pull all 3 trailers right into their lot.
It was expected that this summer they would be running autonomous trucks on these Turnpike Routes but I have not yet seen them.
Question.
I watch Australian trucking shows, which have "triple" as your pics and they call them road trains.
I see ups triple all over the place. Any reason every truck cab isn't pulling triple in US?
mr2s2000elise said:Question.
I watch Australian trucking shows, which have "triple" as your pics and they call them road trains.
I see ups triple all over the place. Any reason every truck cab isn't pulling triple in US?
Infrastructure. Tons of smaller bridges in America cannot take that load- mine less than 2 miles from my home has had the allowed weight limits steadily removed by blanking plates and now only allows trucks sub-20 tons with a single box.
Other reasons are safety (real and perceived), jacknifing/difficulty in seeing and the like.
bobzilla said:In reply to mtn :
but I know there is from Columbus, which would be closer I would think.
Summit loads the trucks for UPS. UPS drops off an empty trailer and picks one up pre-loaded a few times a day. That is part of how they are able to offer free shipping, they do some of UPS's work for them so they were able to negotiate a better price.
Part of that better price is that ALL items on the truck are going to one place. After that it's UPS's problem, but they are intensely good at their end of the logistics puzzle.
If you put tracking on an item going through the USPS system you'll see the same patterns. Everything goes to a hub to be sorted and then sent to destination. If I send a parcel to someone across town (Dexter, Mi.) it will go through Detroit.
It all part of the hub and spoke configuration for terminals which is used to consolidate routes and maximize revenue.
The local terminals (spoke) send packages to regional hub, the regional hub sorts and consolidates before sending to destination hub, destination hub sorts and sends to local delivery terminal.
The hub and spoke arrangement allows them to consolidate packages for destinations, reduce the number of trucks traveling between terminals, and lets them fill trailers to maximize revenue, even if it means some packages travel more miles.
Yup. All about hubs.
I learned early on that when I flew home from L.A. to Pittsburgh, the secret was to actually buy a ticket to Franklin PA with a connection in Pittsburgh... then just decline the connecting flight when I got to Pittsburgh. It was cheaper because they only have two commuter flights per day to Franklin, but dozens from LAX. The resulting algorithm made Franklin flights cheaper.
But if they even offered a direct flight to Franklin Regional, it would have probably been a $2000 flight because of specialized equipment and such a rare destination. Instead they use the cheap hubs to get you close.
When I flew to Costa Rica on United from Dulles, it was half the cost if I connected in Chicago versus connecting in Mexico City because O'hare is a bigger United hub. It added a few hours to the trip, but I'm cheap.
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