I ordered something April 11th, and the item shipped April 13th by UPS. It arrived at the Roanoke UPS center April 14th, and I thought that it would be delivered on the 15th. It wasn’t delivered on the 15th, and the tracking status was “IN TRANSIT TO FINAL DESTINATION.” I thought Roanoke was the final destination before it was delivered to me.
The mailman delivered the package a few minutes ago. Why did the post office deliver a package that was shipped by UPS? This added a day to the shipping time. Is this a way to save UPS money? If so, it screws the customer (the person receiving the package). Doesn’t this mean that the tracking number is essentially useless?
| Location | Date | Local Time | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| ROANOKE, VA, US | 04/15/2010 | 8:24 A.M. | IN TRANSIT TO FINAL DESTINATION |
| ROANOKE, VA, US | 04/14/2010 | 5:39 P.M. | DESTINATION SCAN |
| 04/14/2010 | 2:05 P.M. | ARRIVAL SCAN | |
| SOUTH CHARLESTON, WV, US | 04/14/2010 | 9:32 A.M. | DEPARTURE SCAN |
| 04/14/2010 | 4:27 A.M. | ARRIVAL SCAN | |
| COLUMBUS, OH, US | 04/14/2010 | 12:49 A.M. | DEPARTURE SCAN |
| COLUMBUS, OH, US | 04/13/2010 | 1:58 P.M. | ORIGIN SCAN |
| US | 04/13/2010 | 4:27 P.M. | BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED |
I can't remember where I read it, but apparently this is a cost-cutting move that both FedEx and UPS do for areas that are distant and or poorly populated. Because the USPS serves every address in the US, they can be outsourced to for cheaper than FedEx or UPS can do the service. When I read about it was in the context of rural areas in Texas far away from a metro area.
I wonder how UPS would answer you if you asked if this was how all your UPS packages would be deliver in future. I wonder if they make an outsourcing decision based on what they have in the queue of packages to be delivered to an area, or if they simply decide you're too far and everything will be delivered that way.
We only live about 5 miles from the UPS center, so I wouldn't think they'd consider us distant, and the UPS driver delivered 2 other packages to us yesterday – the UPS driver delivers to someone in our neighborhood nearly every day.
Well I'm at a loss then. Domestic shipments are not really up so it's not because of an excess of shipments, one might infer.
Interesting though.