MikeBrum.com

I know it’s not a race. If it were, USPS would lose EVERY SINGLE TIME. It’s the horribly overweight kid that always finishes last and looks like he’s going to have a heart attack. That all said, let’s look at an interesting scenario.

At 14:15 on 1/7/09, I placed an order for a piece of gear. This was through a company in New York (B&H). They had a free shipping option and I took it. They ended up shipping it UPS Ground. That package is arriving today. I’ll likely get it before 2:00, which will bring the total turn-around to under 48 hours. That’s fucking awesome.

At 22:00 on 1/6/09, I placed an order with Amazon. Again, I took the free shipping, which ended up being USPS. They’re shipping it from Springfield, MA. If you were to drive from Springfield to Boston in your car, it would only take one and a half hours. Despite the fact that you can spit to where the package was shipped to from here, the estimated delivery for it is 1/15/09.

That’s a 9 day turn around for one and a half hours worth of driving. Seriously.

…all while a package ordered late the following day has already arrived from a location that’s over twice as far away.

I’m glad I don’t desperately need either package before the weekend, but it amazes me the disparity between USPS and any other “real” shipping carrier.