UPS Logic

I order a package online, ships from Kansas City, MO, I am in Colorado Springs. Look up the tracking number and it is in West Valley, UT. It traveled 1100 miles just to travel 600 miles back to me?

It's all about the hub.

I can't believe their is no hub in Denver.

Maybe the Denver hub was overloaded?

Woody wrote: It's all about the hub.

This.

Woody wrote: It's all about the hub.

That's what she said.
UPS isn't much smarter than the airlines. I flew from Detroit to Lagurdia.....via Minnesota more than once.

I went from Hartford to Florida once, via Minnesota.

I've gone from MN to TX via Atlanta, as well as MN to PA.... via Atlanta.

Ever stop to think that there is an algorithm to figure out these things? That this actually is good logic? Go take an introductory Graph Theory class. I'm not saying that there isn't a faster way, and I'm not saying that there isn't a more efficient way, but there is a good chance that this is the best solution for your package for efficiency and speed; each given a weight based on how much you paid.

The only logic I don't understand is that they drop E36 M3 off at the post office for the post office to deliver - sometimes.

My wife's new Kindle was dropped off at the post office in town via Fed Ex at 5 am today and the post office didn't drop it off when they delivered the mail at 11:30. My wife called the P.O. to see if she could pick up and they said because we get mail delivered, we can't pick it up unless we have P.O. Box.

Hub and spoke makes good logistical sense. Say you have only five points with one as a center to connect them. You need four lines for all to connect. As the number of points increases number of lines remains n-1. If they all have to connect diectly you need 10 lines. As number of points increase you need (n-1)! Lines.

Say you have an equal number of airplanes and cities and each airplane makes two trips per day. With a hub all packages arrive in their destination city the day they leave and you have a spare plane in case one is down for maintenance.. With direct flights you will average 1.5 days with five citiesand longer with more points.

I understand hub and spoke, but it is frustrating when it doubles the distance traveled.

I'm waiting on a package that was done "USPMI" translation... the UPS gets it close then drops it in the USPS for delivery...

got to TX on the 9th... still haven't seen it...

The benefits of living near a hub...

Best one I've had was a next day Saturday delivery from muncie to bluffton indiana, if one were to drive it to deliver, it'd take you 2hrs round trip. Instead of common sense, ups sent it to Louisville, and we didn't see it again for 2 weeks as it made a tour of the southwest. We were pissed, customer was pissed, but they're still better than FedEx......those shiny happy people crush everything.

Jarod wrote: I understand hub and spoke, but it is frustrating when it doubles the distance traveled.

Might double distance traveled but cut time until delivery. Since they can run flights faster.

I can't believe you actually strung together "UPS" and "Logic". That's just funny, I don't care who you are.

Seriously, I've watched them send packages of mine all over the country before ever getting it to me. No logic, nothing to do with organized hubs, and the packages might go back and forth between two points a dozen times before breaking free.

USN takes the prize for slowest package delivery. I had one take about 16 months in transit. But UPS tries hard, and earns a solid second place, regularly taking several months to get a package to me, and regularly stealing the items in the package.

mndsm wrote: I've gone from MN to TX via Atlanta, as well as MN to PA.... via Atlanta.

You know what they say? When you die and go to hell, you have to go through Atlanta to get there.

I once received a package that was sent via Fedex from a client one mile away. It went from Minneapolis to Memphis and back, but it did arrive the next day. They could have walked over and hand delivered the box in the time they spent getting it ready for shipping.

I love flying to Tucson from indy.... via Minneapolis.

and would have cost them a lot less

You can't get there from here!

I've had good luck with UPS within the country, but all the Canadians here know about the UPS customs clearance ripoff scam.

A customer from Italy didn't like my shipping prices, so he asked if I would use his method, UPS. He'd take care of the cost and paperwork, and all I had to do was slap the labels on, make a call, and it would be picked up. Sure, why not? I don't make anything on shipping anyway.

That was at the beginning of March. Two failed pick ups, a trip the UPS store, 40 minutes on the phone with UPS, and a few dozen emails, and I was finally able to ship it a week ago. They kept saying (on this end) that paperwork was missing. On his end, they claimed everything was fine. He got the pkg a few days ago. The correct paperwork arrived in the mail (Canada post) today. Go UPS!!

stuart in mn wrote: I once received a package that was sent via Fedex from a client one mile away. It went from Minneapolis to Memphis and back, but it did arrive the next day. They could have walked over and hand delivered the box in the time they spent getting it ready for shipping.

Can't really blame that one on Fedex. It may be worth the walk over to kick their shipper in the junk for being stupid, though.

FedEx started with a simple shipping system: Memphis was either the destination or origin for all packages. When they picked up, everything went to Memphis. Everything leaving Memphis was consolidated and shipped out. When you look at the scale of the packages they handle in a day, it makes sense. (I'm not sure if it is still this way, modern computerized systems mean that multiple, regional hubs are possible.)