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[Lizzie Zoom]

When we order online it is interesting to know were our purchase goes before delivery.

Now I have ordered a camera tripod from a UK based company and am tracking it via the UPS website.  Assuming the tripod was made in Chine (well, almost everything of this type is!) just look at how it has traveled so far, with delivery to me due Monday:

Koeln,  Germany   08/12/2017   9:50 A.M.   Departure Scan
08/12/2017   12:35 A.M.   Arrival Scan
Vitoria,  Spain   08/11/2017   10:32 P.M.   Departure Scan
08/11/2017   9:20 P.M.   Arrival Scan
Sevilla,  Spain   08/11/2017   8:04 P.M.   Departure Scan
08/11/2017   7:03 P.M.   Arrival Scan
Malaga,  Spain   08/11/2017   4:40 P.M.   Departure Scan
08/11/2017   3:21 P.M.   Origin Scan
08/11/2017   2:21 P.M.   Pickup Scan
Spain   08/11/2017   6:08 A.M. (ET)   Order Processed: Ready for UPS

Amazing is it not!

[Varche]

Oh dear it is in Spain!! ( Cannot for the life of me see why but no doubt they have their reasons.)

If you have sent it to me , so far so good. The last twenty miles is where it will go belly up. Tracking will show something like

rang customer(they didnt)
Address not correct( yes it is)
Delivered( yes but where - a local petrol station is favourite)

Roll on drone delivery where it drops out of the sky twenty minutes after you ordered it onto your car, swimming pool, pig sty etc

[Lizzie Zoom]

Oh dear it is in Spain!! ( Cannot for the life of me see why but no doubt they have their reasons.)

If you have sent it to me , so far so good. The last twenty miles is where it will go belly up. Tracking will show something like

rang customer(they didnt)
Address not correct( yes it is)
Delivered( yes but where - a local petrol station is favourite)

Roll on drone delivery where it drops out of the sky twenty minutes after you ordered it onto your car, swimming pool, pig sty etc

That will be the day Varche!

[Mister Rog]

If I order something that can be tracked saddo me just can't resist following it till it shows up at the Swansea depot stating "Out for Delivery".

DPD are amazing. I get a text with a one hour delivery slot, and it always turns up about 5 minutes after the first time. Almost set you watch by them. And, if a company used DPD for deliveries, that is an incentive to order as far as I'm concerned. Amazon used to be a nightmare until I started getting stuff delivered to a pick up box if it was small enough.

[Lizzie Zoom]

If I order something that can be tracked saddo me just can't resist following it till it shows up at the Swansea depot stating "Out for Delivery".

DPD are amazing. I get a text with a one hour delivery slot, and it always turns up about 5 minutes after the first time. Almost set you watch by them. And, if a company used DPD for deliveries, that is an incentive to order as far as I'm concerned. Amazon used to be a nightmare until I started getting stuff delivered to a pick up box if it was small enough.

I agree!  A great company for their excellent service

[biggriffin]

If I order something that can be tracked saddo me just can't resist following it till it shows up at the Swansea depot stating "Out for Delivery".

DPD are amazing. I get a text with a one hour delivery slot, and it always turns up about 5 minutes after the first time. Almost set you watch by them. And, if a company used DPD for deliveries, that is an incentive to order as far as I'm concerned. Amazon used to be a nightmare until I started getting stuff delivered to a pick up box if it was small enough.

I agree!  A great company for their excellent service

.

Who pay there drivers per drop,self employed, this encouraging them to speed, to complete 40+ drops and collections within a certain postcode.  Dpd be the next parcel firm under investigation.

[zirk]

I remember tracking one of my parcels which was late, Kent to Essex next day delivery. It went Maidstone to Milton Keynes, to Bristol depo, Swindon, Northampton, back to Swindon then to Erith, wbich is in Kent again, then by local Van over the Bridge to me.  , took 5 days.

This morning Im off to Hemel Hampstead, I know where it is, its about 18 mins round,M25, but SatNav,d it for the Street, all fine, pressed caculate Route, and it came back, cannot calculate route as it involves traveling across 1 Country or more for which you dont have the Maps loaded. 

And I also heard today McDonalds are starting to do Home deliverys for the Food, God help them. 

[Doctor Gollum]

I remember tracking one of my parcels which was late, Kent to Essex next day delivery. It went Maidstone to Milton Keynes, to Bristol depo, Swindon, Northampton, back to Swindon then to Erith, wbich is in Kent again, then by local Van over the Bridge to me.  , took 5 days.

This morning Im off to Hemel Hampstead, I know where it is, its about 18 mins round,M25, but SatNav,d it for the Street, all fine, pressed caculate Route, and it came back, cannot calculate route as it involves traveling across 1 Country or more for which you dont have the Maps loaded. 

And I also heard today McDonalds are starting to do Home deliverys for the Food, God help them. 

Well, it won't be any worse than the shite they serve in store

[ronnyd]

I remember tracking one of my parcels which was late, Kent to Essex next day delivery. It went Maidstone to Milton Keynes, to Bristol depo, Swindon, Northampton, back to Swindon then to Erith, wbich is in Kent again, then by local Van over the Bridge to me.  , took 5 days.

This morning Im off to Hemel Hampstead, I know where it is, its about 18 mins round,M25, but SatNav,d it for the Street, all fine, pressed caculate Route, and it came back, cannot calculate route as it involves traveling across 1 Country or more for which you dont have the Maps loaded. 

And I also heard today McDonalds are starting to do Home deliverys for the Food, God help them. 

Well, it won't be any worse than the shite they serve in store

[Varche]

Lizzie, any update on the tracking.  I am wondering if it is still in Spain 

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

I bought 4x5 litres of oil from Eurocraprats a couple of years ago. I'm in North Essex, approx. 60 miles from their depot in Wembley.
When I tracked the package it went from Wembley to Heathrow. Flew from Heathrow to East midlands, then to a depot in the midlands.
Then onto a van which took it to another depot in Ipswich. Then onto another van which delivered it to me.
I believe the oil cost about £35, god knows how they made any money out of it. 

[Varche]

That is madness. How could they have made any money.

[Doctor Gollum]

Volume. In a word. By default, the hub and spoke system looks, on the face of it, to be complete madness...

Actually it is the work of genius as it enables all items being delivered to any given single locale to first be gathered at a single central point...

The system does have one slight flaw... the various hubs and depots need to ideally be located no more than 4.5 hours apart for drivers hours reasons... that's why anything going to an island or north of Edinburgh/Glasgow cannot be guaranteed to arrive any sooner than 48hrs...

If you need it there sooner, either as a customer or supplier, then you're looking at a dedicated vehicle and suddenly your £5 shipping becomes hundreds.

But if you can get a thousand items all paying £5 to use your system, then you have £5,000... multiply that by four trailers from 40 'spokes' then you have £800,000 a day, six days a week, 52 weeks a year and you have yourself a £249.6 million turnover...

40 depots might have a combined fleet of 1,200 delivery trucks and 160 artic units and 400 trailers... and perhaps 20,000 employees...

The numbers are fictional, as some will pay less and some will pay considerably more to ship any given item of any given size or weight, but it gives you an idea of scale.

Don't forget, this is purely an illustration of one company and is purely the shipping costs not the value of what's actually being shipped.

[Varche]

Tuesday. I am presuming it is still floating about Spain.

Any more updates?

[Lizzie Zoom]

Tuesday. I am presuming it is still floating about Spain.

Any more updates?

Delivered yesterday thanks Varche from Germany to me via the UK UPS system