DHL: Ft. Worth -> Ohio -> Tulsa?

[dsjeffries]

I just ordered a new phone from AT&T, who apparently uses DHL now to make their deliveries (when I've ordered from them in the past, they used UPS).  I got my tracking number and just like last time, it was being shipped from Ft. Worth, Texas.

"Great," I thought, "it'll be here sooner than I expected, just like last time."

I checked the tracking the next morning and it had been 'processed' in Ohio.

There's no new tracking information today, either.  Is it standard practice for DHL to send something a 1000 miles away and then back when the original destination is only 300 miles away?

I need my new phone!

[Breadburner]

Ship something in Tulsa by UPS and it goes to Atlanta and then back to here.....Fedex is the same....

[sgrizzle]

They use processing centers. Likely anything from the midwest goes to ohio to be processed and sorted.

[joiei]

quote:Originally posted by Breadburner

Ship something in Tulsa by UPS and it goes to Atlanta and then back to here.....Fedex is the same....

Not so,  I ship stuff to Dallas all the time and it always arrives next day by UPS without paying the next day fares.

[TheArtist]

quote:Originally posted by Breadburner

Ship something in Tulsa by UPS and it goes to Atlanta and then back to here.....Fedex is the same....

It does not go to Atlanta. It goes to the sorting center here in Tulsa and then gets sorted out to the different trucks here in Tulsa for delivery.

As every delivery truck finishes its rounds for the day it drives into the sorting center here. It backs up to a conveyor belt and an unloader,  rapidly unloads it onto that belt. The belt takes it to the sorting isle where there is a line of people who grab each package, look at the address and toss " I mean gently place"  the package onto one of several other conveyor belts wich sends it to a different section of the building. (some of this may be automated here now, it is often automated at the largest centers) Each of these sections has a row of semi trailers backed up to the building. These semis in each section go off to different areas of the country or in the case of Tulsa a trailer gets filled up with Tulsa packages to be sorted early in the morning onto individual delivery trucks along with other trailers that come in from other parts of the country filled with Tulsa area packages.

The boxes are on a conveyor belt going to one of these sections, a timer goes off and a row of large mechanical arms swings out pushing the flow of boxes down a chute into each trailer along the line. Then the arms swing back, then just as the flow fills the entire length of the belt the arms swing out again pushing the next load down the chute into the semi. A loader then pushes the flow of boxes down a length of rollers built into the floor of the semi to the other end, double checks each boxes address to make sure the package is going to the right destination and then builds walls like laying bricks from one end of the semi till he fills the semi. Each package should not be handled for more than 1.3 seconds by the loader.

(UPS is known for being very efficient and timing everything.Drivers don't run. That might cause injuries, which definitely aren't efficient. They do, however, move briskly - about two steps per second. A residential stop should take 30 seconds, steering wheel to steering wheel. While at a stop, drivers are supposed to hang their key ring from a finger so it's handy when they get back behind the wheel, where they simultaneously start the engine with their right hand while fastening the seat belt with their left.) After the semi is loaded it pulls out and heads off to the next hub to be unloaded then sorted to a local city or sorted at the hub city into the small trucks then delivered. If ANY part of this chain backs up or goes wrong it effects everyone up and down the line. The whole system is one fast moving, carefully timed machine.

But as you can see each box is handled several times, each person handles thooooousands of other boxes, usually some young college aged kids. "they are the only ones with enough stamina to work so fast and hard". IN a split second a box can quite easily get put on the wrong chute, into the wrong trailer and whooosh off it goes to who knows where. A loader for instance cant slow down, if his chute and trailer backs up then his buddy next to him starts getting even more packages automatically pushed into his chute. You dont want to be the one causing the guy next to you to have to work even harder or back up himself. I have seen many times when a loader got behind and the boxes keep coming to the point the back end of the trailer starts to pile up with boxes so high it starts to block out the light lol. If you get sick from working so hard and frantically you just stick your head outside, throw up and get back to work before you get behind. It gets really miserable in those trailers during our Oklahoma summers. You work for about 3,5 hours a night, but its a whoooole days worth of work squashed into those few hours.  

I was a supervisor for UPS here back in the day. Started off as a loader.

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by Breadburner

Ship something in Tulsa by UPS and it goes to Atlanta and then back to here.....Fedex is the same....

fedex goes to memphis not atlanta.

BUT, there are HUGE advantages to buying newegg because they have a warehouse next to the fedex hub, so it goes right into the hub and out, usually to Tulsa the next day if by air.

[Wilbur]

Last time I purchased something (don't remember from who) it was shipped DHL.  I was following the track of the package on the internet and one day said it was out for delivery (four days ahead of schedule!).  Then tracking said it was delivered, but it wasn't at my house.  Turns out it was delivered to the US Postal Service, so they could deliver it to my house.  How crazy it that?  Why would DHL deliver to the post office instead of just delivering to the final destination?

[sauerkraut]

Back in my college daze I worked at the UPS Hub in Columbus, Ohio as a Package Auditor, we had scales and a scanner and check for weight and size, they had all sorts of size classifications that now escape my aging brain. Some of the sizes were like "OB1" & OB2" or something like that we had 5 or six classes, and we'd scan the labels.[xx(]

[TUalum0982]

quote:Originally posted by inteller

quote:Originally posted by Breadburner

Ship something in Tulsa by UPS and it goes to Atlanta and then back to here.....Fedex is the same....

fedex goes to memphis not atlanta.

BUT, there are HUGE advantages to buying newegg because they have a warehouse next to the fedex hub, so it goes right into the hub and out, usually to Tulsa the next day if by air.

yeah fedex has a hub im memphis.  Don't know if you guys have seen the air traffic controller radar video of memphis during a storm, all the fedex planes look like ants frantictly flying around aimlessly and at some points through the storm.  Pretty interesting video.

http://www.break.com/index/fedex_planes_dodging_storm.html

Fedex has a flight land at TIA around 530ish or so everyday.  They also fly back out later in the day making several trips to memphis.  

As to why it would go from dallas to OHIO is beyond me.  We use DHL at my company and get 40% off any rates because we do so much business with them.  My experience is that they are always corteous, kind and always on time.

[dsjeffries]

Well, the phone finally arrived... More than a day late, and after having gone back to Dallas before coming to Tulsa.

Ft. Worth->Wilmington, OH->Dallas->Tulsa = 2,254 miles


Ft. Worth -> Tulsa = 303 miles