I don't get it...

[mikewalker]

Why would a package have to be routed this way?

View attachment 3493363

In defense of the routing algorithm, the delivery time priority might have won out. If the package just missed the last "cross-town" run of the day, it could have been more expedient to run it up to the hub in the other city and then back down to the other side of your city. ("the roundabout connecting flight saving you from sleeping in the terminal" scenario...)

 

[1bassplayinfool]

Hmmmm???

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

FEDEX, who invented the idea of 1 day shipping, pioneered the idea of simplifying the routing of packages - essentially minimizing the amount of decisions, and therefore the number of people doing the sorting (its now computerized, I'm sure). Their idea was simple. Everything from everywhere in the USA gets put on a plane (0 decisions) and sent to Memphis - all of it is flown in around midnight to 2 AM. Stay in the Days Inn under the runway (about a quarter mile off the end, if there's any justice that place has been bulldozed by now), and you'll get a night of non-sleep you'll never forget.

In Memphis, at the airport FEDEX facility on the grounds, everything is sorted once, and then goes on to whatever plane it needs to get on to be delivered the next morning. The planes then take off (waking the folks in the Days Inn for another couple hours). At the destination airport, it goes sorted into trucks, etc, and gets delivered. The whole point of this scheme is that it's fast, and you touch the package very few times. Judged in that way, it's efficient.

What happened to your packages is an improvement (of sorts) in the process, in that it went a shorter distance to a hub, and then shipped to you - computerization is likely what made that feasible to do without adding people and labor costs, and it no doubt saved them some fuel on some form of transportation compared to going halfway across the country. Given another decade of optimization, and raising fuel rices, they'll likely figure out how to shorten the route even more.

It is even more exotic than you might think. I worked on a project in the late 90s for an overnight carrier (now defunct) and managed the route pickup and delivery portion. They have it now so as soon as you request a pickup, the message goes to the pickup station, the hub, and the destination. This helps them with workload planning. They know how many trucks and drivers they will need at each location. Trucks meet the plan at the airport and carry the packages to the station to be sorted. This is done with handheld devices. They scan it and it tells them which truck to put it on. The driver's handheld them tells them where to stop first, how long it will take the driver to get there, and low long he will be at the customer location. It also tells them a lot of other stuff, too, like what documents an international shipment requires.
The interesting part to me was the discussion we had about some of the international location, particularly in Africa, where bribes are a standard way of doing business. We actually had to design the process.

 

[Biffa]

Why isn't Santa Rosita on that map? With the big W

 

[1bassplayinfool]

Why isn't Santa Rosita on that map? With the big W

 

[klejst]

This is called load balancing. If there is a limited space in the trailer going to that area, packages will be prioritized and shipped or held based on these requirements. Or, if the next day's load balance is light, they will hold to make the next day's trailer as full as possible.

And then other times, they just simply mess up. So it is difficult for a lay-person to really understand what is going on. On the surface it seems like they don't follow common logic.

Like I said I was sure there was a method to their madness and need for it however to a consumer...I WANT IT NOW!

 

[fhm555]

Shipping logistics are managed by modern state-of-the-art AI algorithms. Unfortunately, state-of-the-art AI software is coded by modern human beings relying on an ever-increasingly-tangled-web of dodgy downstream code that was hastily slapped together over the last decade to maximize short-term profits...

Back in the stone age of computing we called it GIGO.

 

[S-Bigbottom]

Why isn't Santa Rosita on that map? With the big W

I read this as Why isn't Santa delivering?
He can do the whole world in one night.

Then I finished the line.

 

[Pops OB]

I read this as Why isn't Santa delivering?
He can do the whole world in one night.

Then I finished the line.

Of course I can!