Can we talk about USPS for a moment?

Mind you, this is no complain about the methode of shipping. I never expected Port to send my stuff by UPS or DHL or FedEx or whatever.

It's a topic born out of the curiosity of a non US person.

So! Is USPS any good?
I know about the good ol' times you can see in the cowboy movies where every member of the us postal service was a hero, one and all!
Nowadays all i hear from my US based friends are....complaints. Now that i finally got a shipping notice with a tracker i am tracking my package every day and i am like....what the....that's how you do logisitcs over there!?

Let me give you a short example taken from my tracker:

December 12, 2018 16:08
CHICAGO IL INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION CENTER PROCESSED THROUGH REGIONAL FACILITY

December 12, 2018 IN TRANSIT TO NEXT FACILITY

December 11, 2018 17:09
CHICAGO IL INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION CENTER DEPARTED USPS REGIONAL FACILITY

December 11, 2018 05:09
CHICAGO IL INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION CENTER ARRIVED AT REGIONAL FACILITY

December 9, 2018 04:54
CHICAGO IL INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION CENTER ARRIVED AT USPS REGIONAL FACILITY

December 8, 2018 05:39
AUSTIN TX DISTRIBUTION CENTER DEPARTED USPS REGIONAL FACILITY

December 8, 2018 02:46
AUSTIN TX DISTRIBUTION CENTER ARRIVED AT USPS REGIONAL FACILITY

December 8, 2018 01:31
AUSTIN,TX,78757 ACCEPTED AT USPS ORIGIN FACILITY

December 6, 2018 20:43
AUSTIN,TX,78757 SHIPPING LABEL CREATED, USPS AWAITING ITEM

I mean, is that normal?
That's not how we do it over here. Granted, germany is a smaller country if it comes to size and population. But even if i send stuff across the whole EU it isn't looking like that ^^
That seems so....chaotic?

 

thats normal. I did send some packages into US and yeah it always looks like that.

 

That's a hell of a expensive logistic chain imo ^^ but hey, i guess it's ok then. Thanks!

 

I think DPD is also doing it like that in germany, but 100% sure. It is the same also with DHL (saw it once live) but they don't drop those informations on the customer.

 

Just a way to create useless jobs to keep the money moving around.

 

I know first hand that DHL and Hermes have much shorter chains with DHL having the most opzimized.
About DPD and GLS i don't know.

 

Greetings all. So when you ship a package by UPS, USPS, DHL, etc it gets a bar code on the package. After that anytime someone handles it it is scanned. Depending on where it is coming from and where it is going to determines how many scans that package gets. For instance when I am home in my small town of Athens, GA (79 miles or 127 km away from Atlanta, GA) it will most likely have these scans:

1. Label Created (you notify them you have a package to pick up)
2. Package picked up
3. Package arrive at sorting location
4. not sure if they scan it again when they put it on the truck for delivery to transport vehicle.
5. Package in transit to next location

And that is just to get it picked up, sorted, and out of the first building and on its way to the second. In my case the next town is in another town but if you were in Atlanta, a much bigger city, there may be 3 places it goes thru before getting on a truck, plane or, or train and then it is scanned getting on the vehicle and off. You may think this is for the benefit of the customer but actually it is so they can track it and explain where it went missing and hopefully not have t pay for it.

Cynical? Yes but I have dealt with missing shipments and lost items. I do hope you have enjoyed the explanation though.

 

Also note something my hubs told me after visiting a client who ran a huge shipping and receiving operation. Some shipping companies are using high tech scanning in which items are loaded on a truck and driven under a scanner that scans all items in the truck at once. So in my mind, this can create situations in which a truck is scanned, parked and rescanned for whatever reason. Or it can be hand scanned and then rescanned on the truck.

To the OP, yes, that is very normal tracking for the U.S. especially the USPS (post office).

 

And that's what i find puzzeling to be honest.
Non the less thanks for the explanation ^^

 

Not all regional centers handle preparation for international shipments. So additional handling is needed.

 

Yeah but i would imagine (and it is of course possible that i am totaly off track here) that pretty much every US state has at least one international airport. I never expected the pack to go to chicago. Austin does have an international airport...or not ^^?

 

I feel your pain man it's taken about a week to go from OH to Chicago. No idea when it's going to cross borders.
Knowing my luck my shipment will get lost because it is small. I ordered my boy his very own easyroller dice for tabletop games.
They are shiny and his favorite colors so I hope it's not lost.

 

The USPS has five international shipping centers: Chicago, New York, Miami, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Having just five was meant to keep cost competitive.

 

Makes sense.

 

Having worked for USPS for a little over a year as a letter carrier I can tell you that it is run LIKE a government institution; so much waste and redundancy.

 

A lot of the scans are likely for verification. With each person who handles it scanning the package, it's easier if it doesn't end up on the next truck/plane to figure out where it went lost. If the sorter scanned it before sending it to a truck, and the person loading the truck didn't scan it, the tracking software knows it went missing and flag it, and the shift manager will know roughly where/when it went missing. It is a little weird that USPS makes all that info visible, UPS usually just shows customers arrivals and departures from each facility.

 

You can almost fit the entire area of germany inside the state of Texas. the US is large.

 

They have a bit more distance to cover.



Also, didn't your post office used to run your telephones? I seem to remember them being referred to as the "Bundespest".

 

Lol yeah. But thanks God that was a long time ago by now. And no worries, I am aware of the difference in size ;-)

 

I can see Russia from my house.