The other day I ordered something from a vendor on the internet, and got an email with shipping date, tracking number, etc. The package was shipped via DHL.
When I go to DHL’s website to track my package, I see that they picked it up in El Monte, CA; then drove it to Phoenix and gave it to the USPS to be mailed to my home in Salt Lake City. Why did they do this? If the package is shipped via DHL, shouldn’t DHL be responsible for getting it to my door? Why couldn’t the seller just drop it off at the post office in the first place and not pay DHL to drive it to Phoenix?
I have seen Amazon do something like this on one occasion, but that was with the last Harry Potter book, which was released on a Saturday. Amazon shipped the book via UPS to my local post office on Friday, so that the PO could deliver it on Saturday and Amazon could avoid the UPS weekend delivery fees. I have no problem with that.
But how can DHL get away with accepting a package to be delivered and then dropping it off at the post office?
That’s what DHL does. It lets USPS handle the last mile.
There’s a special USPS service where you pay a very, very small rate for “last mile delivery service”.
That’s odd. We get stuff delivered by DHL all the time and it always comes in a DHL van with a DHL driver (or at least a van and man with DHL logos on them).
I have always had this experience with DHL. Anything I order online and that is shipped DHL I end up getting via USPS. I always thought it weird but was too lazy to ask.
They are responsible, I think - they’re just (presumably) paying the USPS something to do the legwork.
“Lazy” and “efficient” are in the eye of the beholder, I guess. It sounds like you’re arguing something like, “It shipped via DHL so I want yellow-clad DHL employees handling the package every step of the way! No delegation!”
DHL’s position, presumably, would be something like “We got paid a stated-up-front price to get the package to your door, and we made it happen. What’s the problem? How we did it is our issue, not yours.”
Now, if DHL’s price was quite a bit higher than the USPS’s, without some correspondingly better convenience, delivery time guarantee, insurance, etc. - then yeah, one would wonder why the sender chose DHL in the first place. Since the prices aren’t exactly a secret, that would be a question for the shipper. Maybe DHL offered a lower price than the post office - I really don’t know.
I really don’t care how DHL gets my package here. I’m trying to picture this from the point of view of the seller/shipper.
“Hmm… I can take this package to the post office and mail it, or I can pay these other guys to drive it to a post office in a different state and have them mail it for me.”
I’m pretty sure that USPS rates are not different for shipping from CA vs. AZ.
Nice business model, that.
Have the USPS run your entire business, then as you have them available, have your own staff do some of that work and pay less for that particular work.
I rather like it. If only I had a website, an agreement with USPS and a yellow van…
Have to change my handle, though. “Deceased Attorney Parcel Service” probably isn’t going to look good on a business card.
If I can add on with my own DHL experience, please?
I ordered some pants from an online shop and received an email stating that they had shipped DHL. It was then that I discovered that the point of origin was Hingham, MA. I live in Dedham, MA.
DHL picked up the pants in Hingham, shipped them to someplace in Ohio, futzed around with them for a few days, then shipped them to Dedham, and eventually delivered.
They may be in different (Priority Mail) postal zones.
I can’t tell for sure because the USPS doesn’t print zone maps because they’d be different for each originating zip code, and I’m not motivated enough to enter a CA zip and an AZ zip and check.
No, No, No, No, let me ask you a question. When you came pulling in here, did you notice a sign out in front of my house that said “Deceased Attorney Parcel Service”?
Yay! Something in GQ I finally know about…
The USPS has a rather formidable advantage in package delivery, in that any valid US address is pretty much considered deliverable by them in some form or fashion. The downside to USPS (for most consumers) is the lack of any true time guarantee. So, if a shipper has a customer for whom ‘some time in the next week or so’ is an acceptable time frame, taking the packages and dropping them off in bulk at the closest destination PO is a valid business model. This is due to the slowest link for the USPS generally being the long haul or 'pick up - to sort" step. Originally this was really just used to distribute magazines, catalogs and similar, but it has been growing as a low cost alternative to mainstream shipping options.
My corporate overlords spin our version thusly :
The USPS sorting system is very odd from the outside looking in, but Phoenix is very likely the bulk sort destination for Salt Lake City in the tracking path you described.
Not won’t - can’t. Private shippers most certainly deliver to PO boxes (well, the equivilant) in countries were it is allowed. The US is not one of those countries.
Odd.
When I ship books, there’s a 99% chance they’ll make two days on Priority Mail and probably a 95% chance that First Class makes it in 3 days.
It’s Media Mail and Parcel Post that are not only slow but also inconsistent.
No that’s not accurate, one of the services they offer uses the USPS. Aside from that, all carriers book space on other carriers. It’s efficient to take advantage of the unused space of another carrier. And while your tracking may have shown USPS they contract out their movent on many carriers in addition to spot-booking for overloads.
When FedEx picks up your package, they take it to their local center, sort & bundle everything up, then take it all to the USPS. USPS gets it from there to the destination locality, where FedEx picks it up and delivers it to you.
I don’t remember the numbers, but an extremely large percentage of FedEx packages are handled via USPS.
I believe UPS does this also, but I know that FedEx does.
UPS also does it, but it seems more frequent with DHL: such that I’d no clue that DHL every did a single final delivery. My bad.
I can say that UPS also does it, because my local post office lady mentioned that a UPS guy had just come in and mailed a few dozen packages.
It sounds like you’re arguing something like, “It shipped via DHL so I want yellow-clad DHL employees handling the package every step of the way! No delegation!”