FedEx...

[Empire23]

Well, I was in dire need of a new cell phone and I finally ordered one from my service provider, Cingular.

Everything was fine when I ordered it and they shipped it 3-5 day through FedEx. They gave me a tracking number so I could track it as its being shipped.

I ordered it on a thursday, and the tracking says it should be here monday. Its processed from Ft. Worth, TX on thursday. Friday its shipped out and arrives in Los Angeles on that saturday. Saturday night, I decide to check the tracking number and low and behold, it was shipped out of Los Angeles, CA (which Im 50 miles away from) to Indianapolis, Indiana!

So I call FedEx to say that somethings wrong and it should had been shipped to me and not to Indiana which is 2000 miles away from where the phone just was. They tell me that nothing was wrong and it shipped there because they have one of their main processing facilities there and then it would be shipped to me.

Monday comes around, and my phone is delivered.

Why would FedEx waste the time, effort and money to ship my phone from Ft. Worth, Texas, to Los Angeles which is 50 miles from me, then 2000 miles back to Indiana, and then back to Los Angeles again where its finally delivered to me?

I dont get it. They could have got me the phone faster. Spent less time and money processing it and cut out the flight to indiana and back.

Anyone work for FedEx that knows why this goes on?

[Newfie]

Maybe FedEx is taking lessons from Canada Post!!

[CgarDan]

post the tracking # if you don't mind I would love to see that routine

[thepyrofish]

Maybe FedEx is taking lessons from Canada Post!!

Nah...he got the phone didn't he?


STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE!!!

[Newfie]

Nah...he got the phone didn't he?

Gotta admit, ya got me there fish!!

[WhiteWidow]

I bought something off of ebay once and it got shipped by UPS. I followed the tracking and it got all the way to Houston and then dissapeared all of the sudden. Never got the package.

[SmokinDVM]

They just screwed up, and didn't want to look stupid, so they played it off like it was supposed to go there.
They would lose a crapload of money if they did that kind of thing routinely.

[Empire23]

http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?last_a...itial=x&mps=y&

Theres a link to the tracking page for it. Heres the tracking number if the link doesnt work.

738737618328.

I guess they could have messed up and then just shipped it back to me somehow pretty fast. But either way, the phone got here when they said it would be here.

[BigMacFU]

This flow of packages, the way FedEx, the UPS and Post Office sort and ship may seem ineffective, but is the most economic and efficient way it can be done for a population as large and spread out as ours. I cannot explain the complex algorithm because I don't understand it, but I've had it explained to me in comparison to fractals. They may look chaotic and disjointed but are actually the reflection of a brilliantly succinct and logical formula. Yes, anomalies seem to appear, and for all intents and purposes, practically speaking your case is a real anomaly, ultimately these are not anomalies.

Crazy, Yes, but it works.

[Newfie]

This flow of packages, the way FedEx, the UPS and Post Office sort and ship may seem ineffective, but is the most economic and efficient way it can be done for a population as large and spread out as ours. I cannot explain the complex algorithm because I don't understand it, but I've had it explained to me in comparison to fractals. They may look chaotic and disjointed but are actually the reflection of a brilliantly succinct and logical formula. Yes, anomalies seem to appear, and for all intents and purposes, practically speaking your case is a real anomaly, ultimately these are not anomalies.

Crazy, Yes, but it works.

Uhhhhhhh, ............ yeah, .............. OK .................. if you say so.

Lotsa big words there. Some harder than marmalade and molasses too!

[Newfie]

Empire, it may seem inefficient, but obviously it works. It took 4 days, and a bit less than 4 hours to do that travelling (would have been less had you been available at 2:30).

You wanna see a inefficient system?
I sent Sid a package, a small package, via Expedited Post. They say 8 business days, possibly up to 2 weeks, to get from here to Buffalo. A 4 hour drive!!!
I send another Brother a package via Canada Post Air Mail. It had 5 cigars in it, in a golf ball box and that was inside a plastic mailer envelope. It cost $19.03 (not counting the cost of the envelope) and is going to take 4 business days!!!

I got a package today from BKC via USPS Air Mail and it cost $1.95.

Any time you want to trade systems pal, just let us know.

[CgarDan]

The only possible explanation I can find is that they have a central sorting facility in Indianapolis so all packages should go there. So for some reason the plane that went to indy must have had to stop in LA to either pick up more weight or pick up slack for others before going to Indy. And the package is scanned at every stop in case a loss occurs to know who is responsible. So in reality it ight have stoped anywhere before going to Indy and La just happened to be the stop in this particular case.

[Empire23]

Yeah, thats what they said.

The only reason I didnt get the package at 2:30 was that the gate to our community was malfuntioning and was only opening half way and the FedEx truck wouldnt fit through with it just half way open.

Newfie - Yeah that does suck sending a package to a place thats only 4 hours away. Damn the system!

[SuperChuck]

Originally, Fedex (at least the overnight portion) was designed as a single-hub system. Packages were gathered up regionally and put on a plane. All of these planes then flew to Memphis, TN. All the planes get unloaded, sorted, and reloaded with packages to be delivered to their region.

When the founder submitted this business proposal in college, he received a C with his professor telling him it was unrealistic (oops!).

I wouldn't be surprised if this system has been expanded to include other regional hubs, especially out of busy regions like LA.

[WOXOF]

I work for Fedex and yes there is another large sorting facility in Inianapolis. There is also a sorting facility in Ft. Worth.

Looking at the tracking detail, I'm not sure the package ever went to Indy. It shows the pakage departing LAX at 2:03 pm on the 8th and arriving Indy at 2:06 pm the same day. That's only 3 minutes of travel time. It never shows a departure scan from Indy, only LAX. Sometimes scans are missed on packages so there is no way to be certain. My guess is the Indy information is incorrect and the package left LAX for Ontario on a truck and sat over the weekend(at least that would be the logical thing to do).

That's just a W.A.G., without access to the computers at work there's no way to be sure. The 2-3, 3-5 day service sometimes takes some interesting routes before it get's to it's destination. I'll try to take a closer look at work.

[Empire23]

Im not really worried about it, I just thought that it wasnt very efficient if they were actually sending it to all these places.

In the end, the package got to me on the day they said it would. I was just worried that I saw it said it arrived in Indiana the day before it was supposed to be here.