This is a post that I placed on my personal blog back in June of 2009. I have since moved that blog to this site, and thought it was a great post to review as we close out the 2009 year.

Ok, first let me say this post is a little bit of a rip on UPS, but seriously when you see the details you will fully understand. I recently bought new monitors for my wife and I from NewEgg (they rock). I got a great deal on some 24″ HD Monitors under $225.00 a piece so we pulled the trigger. It is a nice business write off now that I am working from home as a 1099 contractor for a small firm, and writing magazine articles (more about that later).

Anyway, NewEgg has a super fast shipping policy, and many times free 3 days ground shipping (yes I search the site for it all the time). Most of the time the items arrive in less then three days as they have setup shipping centers all over the US (like Amazon did). Many times my items come from PA or NJ and since I am 1-2 states away it is 2 day shipping for FREE (YEAH!). Well, this last order is taking the full three days, but it is not due to NewEgg, instead it is the stupid shipping patterns of UPS that are causing the delay. Look at the details for this shipment:

Tracking number (sorry)
Ship date 05/27/2009 23:01:49
Estimated delivery 05/29/2009
Destination FAIRFAX, VA, US
Service type GROUND
Weight 16.00 LBS
Status In Transit
Date/Time Activity Location Details
05/28/2009 20:47:00 IN TRANSIT TO[I] CHANTILLY, VA, US
05/28/2009 20:46:00 DEPARTURE SCAN[I] RICHMOND, VA, US
05/28/2009 18:08:00 LOCATION SCAN[I] RICHMOND, VA, US
05/28/2009 16:44:00 ARRIVAL SCAN[I] RICHMOND, VA, US
05/28/2009 12:38:00 DEPARTURE SCAN[I] BALTIMORE, MD, US
05/28/2009 10:13:00 ARRIVAL SCAN[I] BALTIMORE, MD, US
05/28/2009 09:38:00 DEPARTURE SCAN[I] LAUREL, MD, US
05/28/2009 03:50:00 ARRIVAL SCAN[I] LAUREL, MD, US
05/27/2009 23:21:00 DEPARTURE SCAN[I] EDISON, NJ, US
05/27/2009 17:49:00 LOCATION SCAN[I] EDISON, NJ, US
05/27/2009 10:12:00 ORIGIN SCAN[I] EDISON, NJ, US
05/27/2009 23:01:49 BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED[M]
Ok, so for all those people that are not here on the right coast here is why this is stupid…. It went from NJ to Central MD, then to North MD, then to Southern VA back to North VA…. The funniest part of all this is that Edison is about a 4 hour drive from my house, Laurel is 1.5 hours, Baltimore is about 2 hours and Richmond is about 3.5 Hours…. So for a 4 hour trip it is taking 3 days and traveling up and down the coast. (see this maphttp://www.packagemapping.com/?action=track&shipper=ups&tracknum=1Z00377R0314349852&uniqueID=&)

My question is this. If the world is talking about too many green house gases, carbon footprints and all that other stupid stuff. UPS claims to be as eco-friendly and give back as possible. Why are they not looking at the process they have here. If the item went from Edison to Laurel to Chantilly it would have been delivered in 2 days. Also, since it would have been continuing in a straight south line from NJ -> MD -> VA there would have been MASS speed and eco-gains. Not to mention less man power needed to unload and load the truck 2X opposed to 5X now. I know that UPS’s arguement will be that it is easier to load and unload in small batches as it moves from location to location, but come on you sent this package on a 2 state tour just to get it 4 hours from your location.

What areas in your life do you just do it that way because that is how you did it in the past. Or how many times have you caught yourself saying there has to be a better way to do this, and you look at the process to realize that you are doing the same steps in circles. We need to break ourselves down and look at what we are doing and try to be more effective in the daily items that we work on and do.

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