UPS Follow My Delivery

[retire-early]

I am expecting a package today.

The email I received from UPS said the package would be delivered between 4:30 pm and 8:30 pm.

They had a link in the email for Follow My Delivery.
I started following at about 9 am this morning.
About 30 minutes ago, I see that the truck was in my subdivision. It was literally 5 minutes from my house. I checked again and the truck is now way out of my subdivision.

Does anyone understand why this is? It makes no sense.
I thought they optimize for delivery.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I see this sort of thing, too. Sometimes it’s on the next street and before you know it, it’s five miles away. I’ve given up on trying to figure it out.

 

[OldShooter]

... I thought they optimize for delivery.

Oh, they do. Even to the point of route design that minimizes left turns (for speed and safety).

But optimize for what? Getting overnights delivered first thing, for sure. Getting business deliveries as early in the workday as possible. Getting business pickups made prior to business shift end in some cases. Lots of stuff to optimize, probably more than we could ever guess.

I think residential deliveries are almost a fill-in activity. Certainly my urban experience with "Follow My Delivery" is that it is almost useless as the area to the west of us has lots of large and small businesses and the truck shuttles around there almost all day before they finally get to us. Probably for someone out in the country it is a useful thing though.

 

[timo2]

That happened to me once. The truck left and the package was never delivered. It came the next day. I suspect, from looking at the shipment history, I think the package never actually made it on the truck that day, and there was a paperwork error.

Another time I got a message that the package was delivered, but the truck never showed in the neighborhood. I called UPS and filed a report, and the package was delivered the next day.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

They probably want to keep FedEx and AMZN guessing as to their optimization techniques.

I noticed yesterday that USPS was supposed to deliver a package from AMZN. The tracking actually showed an estimated delivery time that was about an hour and a half window. It was VERY accurate as to our normal delivery time. Watched the driver pull to the box, put in some envelopes, sit there for a few minutes and then went on his way. No package. BOO!!! Within about 10 minutes, the delivery time updated to about 4 hours later and lo and behold it was delivered then. I assume that since it's a rural carrier (private car) there wasn't enough room in his car to bring the package (it was pretty large and weighed about 40 pounds) on the first trip.

 

[target2019]

I think a sometimes explanation for disconnect between the company data and actual delivery is that drivers have ways of optimizing their paycheck and workday.

 

[Dd852]

You hit a raw nerve. I’ve had two recent battles with ups. One had the tracker saying my address was wrong - though on the screen it was clearly correct in every detail. finally after long calls to customer service they admitted they’d loaded it on the wrong truck. The other we watched from our window as one ups driver handed packages to another driver - and then entered the tracking code that we hadn’t been at home. Infuriating. So I foolishly tried to write a complaint letter each time and simply got thanked for my trust in UPS. To which I replied that they clearly had misunderstood because I had no trust in ups. And that reply was simply ignored.

 

[skipro33]

I saw that happen 5 days in a row for a package to me from Amazon. Every day it left their UPS distribution center 50 miles away from my house. Every day it would come down my street and every day it went all the way back to the barn. It still made the Amazon time window for delivery they promised.

 

[CaptTom]

I saw that happen 5 days in a row for a package to me from Amazon. Every day it left their UPS distribution center 50 miles away from my house. Every day it would come down my street and every day it went all the way back to the barn. It still made the Amazon time window for delivery they promised.

This is my experience with UPS, too. If you pay for five-day delivery, your package gets delivered on the fifth day. Even if it's in your neighborhood, or the nearby warehouse, on the second day.

This is what I love about the USPS. They deliver everything they get, every day. Often BEFORE the Amazon guaranteed delivery date.

 

[audreyh1]

I am expecting a package today.

The email I received from UPS said the package would be delivered between 4:30 pm and 8:30 pm.

They had a link in the email for Follow My Delivery.
I started following at about 9 am this morning.
About 30 minutes ago, I see that the truck was in my subdivision. It was literally 5 minutes from my house. I checked again and the truck is now way out of my subdivision.

Does anyone understand why this is? It makes no sense.
I thought they optimize for delivery.

See this all the time. They have to follow a certain pre-programmed route. The drivers are tracked and get in trouble if they deviate.

 

[CardsFan]

I am expecting a package today.

The email I received from UPS said the package would be delivered between 4:30 pm and 8:30 pm.

They had a link in the email for Follow My Delivery.
I started following at about 9 am this morning.
About 30 minutes ago, I see that the truck was in my subdivision. It was literally 5 minutes from my house. I checked again and the truck is now way out of my subdivision.

Does anyone understand why this is? It makes no sense.
I thought they optimize for delivery.

Was the package delivered by 8:30pm? If so, you have no complaint.

I have followed UPS delivery in the past. They are close, then they are not. Did I pay for early delivery? No. It normally comes in the window provided, sometimes earlier.

 

[sirsavesalot]

I can top that one. I ordered a replacement part for my smoker 2 weeks ago. It shipped with FedEx from Utah to Ohio on 8/31. It stopped at 8 different locations in 7 different states before it found itself on my porch. 9 days to get a box from 1600 miles away. One time it went from Kentucky, to Toledo (NW Ohio), then down to central Ohio. I don't get it.

 

[Walt34]

It stopped at 8 different locations in 7 different states before it found itself on my porch.

Now really. Do you expect them to give up all those opportunities to smash, crush, shred, lose, or otherwise obliterate your package?

 

[gindie]

The USPS is not without issues, as well. I had a mail-order pharmacy package that bounced back-and-forth DAILY between 2 processing stations in Cincinnati for 5 days, before my inquiries were able to "break it loose" and have it delivered 50 miles up the road to me in Dayton!

 

[OldShooter]

I think a sometimes explanation for disconnect between the company data and actual delivery is that drivers have ways of optimizing their paycheck and workday.

I am a believer in Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"

That said, another thing to consider is that is in any carrier's economic interest to deliver packages as fast as possible. First, it's in their interest to make shippers and customers happy. At least as important is that the slower the packages flow, the more physical space they need to handle them. IOW, if their average transit time doubled, so would their need for facilities space. So IMO they want us to get our packages as fast as we want to get them. There will always be some level of mistakes made, though. I have seen mistakes from all the carriers.

 

[Car-Guy]

Timely thread for me.... We ordered two "identical" items from Home Depot a few days ago... Both were shipped VIA UPS the same day and from the same location but in two separate packages. The scheduled delivery was for today between 12:30 and 4.... It's now after 6pm and still no delivery but we did get an an email about 2pm updating us that the delivery time was now "by 9pm" today for one of the packages and Monday 12:30 to 4 for the other package.