Wow, UPS has outdone itself again.

[Foo]

I got email that said UPS pre arrival notice , track shipment on map. It brings up truck on map showing where he is now. They have always had the best tracking, this is a huge leap forward for shooterkind. Beats the hell out of Fedex where your package arrives before they show it has been shipped.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Hahaha. Good show!!!

 

[Michael]

UPS is far better than Fed-Ex, or USPS. Fed-Ex likes to deliver our stuff to the neighbors, only 2 houses on our street. USPS, everyone in town has a PO Box, pop 400-ish, but if the address is not 100% correct, per postal regulations they have to mark it "undeliverable due incomplete address" and return to sender. Never mind the 1 man office knows virtually everyone.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

Organizations like UPS, FedEx and USPS are huge systems. They are like long chains with many links, and everyone knows a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Usually, the weak links are somewhere in the middle of the chain, but sometimes the weak link is the very last link. It is that last link that the customer sees and interacts with.

I’m very fortunate to have an excellent local post office (which really means it is staffed by excellent people). So that last link for me is a strong one.

The guy or gal that drives that delivery truck is the last link. The guy or gal that works the counter at the post office or UPS depot may be that last link. They are the people you interact with, but they are only one link in a long chain.

 

[358156 hp]

I'm still waiting for UPS to equip all drivers with body cams and shock collars. The first for monitoring the drivers, the second to administer a "correction" for making two trips into a building instead of one.

Most Fedex drivers are not Fedex employees. Fedex decided long ago to use independent contractors for all deliveries that are not Fedex "Express". Only the "Express" drivers actually work directly for Fedex. The home deliveries and most business deliveries and pickups are made by the contractors. The job requirements for the contractors seem to revolve around the drivers having a valid license, being insurable, and having a measurable pulse. Most of them only make around $18.00/hr in our area. UPS runs a much, much, tighter ship (NPI).

“We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.”​

― Konstantin Josef Jireček

 

[Jeff H]

...Most Fedex drivers are not Fedex employees....

And FedEx is all too quick to remind you of that when you have a complaint - "well, those driver aren't FedEx employees, so it's not our problem."

SERIOUSLY! They've told me that! I haven't seen a UPS truck since before Christmas. Seems FedEx has contracted with everyone to deliver everything and are way in over their heads. You get what you get when you order something - you can't choose the carrier, so I have resorted to telling people I order from that they are no longer one of my "preferred vendors," at least until they put pressure on FedEx or start using someone else. Why buy something at bloated rates, pay even more bloated shipping - only to have someone destroy it while eventually delivering it to you?

There's a LOT of stuff I can do without. My "mail-order" activity has decreased by about 90% since spring of 2020, even though that has become the way to do everything now. Can't afford the prices, the shipping or to throw away twice what either SHOULD cost only to have it destroyed on the way to you?

 

[358156 hp]

I still try to buy everything locally if possible. It seems to take more and more effort every day.

Something, or someone, is trying very hard to break down our economy. This doesn't appear to be random chance to me.

 

[RicinYakima]

USPS is still the only reliable delivery here in the desert of Eastern WA and OR. Everyone else are contractors who steal as much as than they deliver. FWIW

 

[BudHyett]

With the reports of the thefts within the Los Angeles railyards and the lack of prosecution by the Los Angeles County States Attorney, I've cut down on ordering. There is no need to support a system like this where no one will act.

I ask the order to be shipped via USPS when ordering; if they don't want to do this, I don't order. I get my cancer drugs through UPS with complete tracking to my door due to the expense and the material. That is the only exception.

 

[Foo]

Organizations like UPS, FedEx and USPS are huge systems. They are like long chains with many links, and everyone knows a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Usually, the weak links are somewhere in the middle of the chain, but sometimes the weak link is the very last link. It is that last link that the customer sees and interacts with.

I’m very fortunate to have an excellent local post office (which really means it is staffed by excellent people). So that last link for me is a strong one.

The guy or gal that drives that delivery truck is the last link. The guy or gal that works the counter at the post office or UPS depot may be that last link. They are the people you interact with, but they are only one link in a long chain.

I don't have to know all the links in the chain to recognize great service and continued improvement and innovation well above the others. My FedEx and USPS are decent with delivery, but UPS far exceeds their abilities in the tracking dept.

 

[fiver]

i've had good luck with all three of them.
but i'm on a first name basis with the UPS driver, and i've pulled the Fed-EX guy out of a ditch enough times he makes my place his first stop now.

i got no clue what my mail driver looks like, but i know the gals down to the office well enough they will get my mail without me giving them my box number.

 

[CZ93X62]

Where we live now (Redlands, CA) all of the delivery folk do a really good job--UPS, USPS, and Amazon are our primary service providers. When we lived inn Ridgecrest (2008-2014), USPS was HORRIBLE, UPS did great work. There were things about Ridgecrest that I really enjoyed, but general service quality by vendors was really uneven. We weren't of the correct religion to see the better forms of service, let's just say. Onceabull told me how to navigate those waters as he did in Boise, but Marie would have none of that action, and did she ever pay for those faux pas. Her being of Basque extraction did her no favors, either. Anyone living in The Great Basin area has seen similar courses of conduct, I am sure. Enough said.