Yeah, there’s an entire industry created around the concept. It’s called “logistics”. It’s not hard to constantly create improved efficiencies for every step of the process. That’s what companies have been doing since the dawn of industry.
Yeah, in their early days they sent everything through Memphis, in fact that was what founder Fred Smith proposed in the famous paper he wrote in college.
But as the company grew they opened additional hubs in cities such as Newark and Oakland so that packages could be kept within a single region of the country.
Memphis is still by far their biggest hub but the company is now very flexible about how it ships packages.
Well, but hang on:
It’s not exactly the Post Office’s fault that your documents absolutely have to go through their official channels rather than just being dropped in somebody’s mailbox. They aren’t the ones standing in the way of your free market solution; it’s the fact that your addressee requires that the Post Office be involved. And it’s not really all that astounding that they don’t have a special customer-friendly policy to address situations where you need them to be involved in the transportation of a thing twenty feet. What are they, busboys?
I’m still trying to figure out how a package going from Los Angeles to South Dakota ended up in Memphis. And it’s through USPS, not FedEx.
Do I get to be the first to point out that the USPS isn’t really run by the US government?
<Chester Cheetah> Yes, we know <Chester Cheetah>
Fed Ex delivered a package for my neighbor across the street to me instead the other day. I suppose that means ALL of Fed Ex and ALL of the private sector sucks!
I don’t think anyone is suggesting that the USPS is inefficient because they made a mistake. They didn’t make a mistake. They executed the transaction exactly the way their systems dictated it should be done. It’s their system that is inefficient, at least in this case.
FedEx has contracts to carry mail for the post office, so it could have been on a FedEx plane even if it was mail.
Is it something to do with your bar admission? I can almost guarantee they will accept hand delivery; it’s allowed for service in the rules of procedure for just about every jurisdiction.
Right, postage rates are deliberately arbitrary. It has nothing to do with your particular piece of mail that day; you’re paying a nominal charge for the whole system. If it were not so, it would be prohibitively expensive, for many purposes, to send mail to remote corners of the country–defeating the purpose.
The jackholes who deliver millions of pieces of mail a day, all week long, excepting Sundays and maybe Saturdays, in spite of people slowing them down by trying to game the system or make an exception for their one rare, special flower of importance.
Imagine how much worse it would be if the PO were run by the government. I shudder.
If I went to my local FedEx store and asked for a package to be sent to the business right next door to the FedEx, what do you think the employees of the store would do?
You’re funny. You’re a funny guy. A for-profit delivery company would let you just drop something off without paying for postage. Out of the goodness of their hearts!
Real funny guy, you are.
“There’s the door, sir.”
Someone once dropped a package off at my business PO Box at a UPS Store. He offered to pay, but they declined.
OK. My experience with for-profit delivery companies has not been nearly so altruistic. But I’m glad this person had a nice experience.
I don’t think that’s abnormal. The PO boxes at UPS stores are a side line of business. They make money off the box regardless of who delivers to it. The difference is that deliveries to mailboxes are constrained by legislation and regulations that postal workers have no authority to modify, while UPS deliveries are constrained by UPS procedures which are inherently more flexible (and won’t land you in jail if you break them.)
It was a legitimate mailbox in which I received all my business mail.
Still, every PO in the country could easily have a policy that they’ll deliver your package to a PO Box within the building for a dollar. It wouldn’t be that difficult. The clerk processes it, stamps it, and drops it in a specified bin.