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https://wwwapps.ups.com/WebTra...

from a couple of years ago..
'UPS Deploys 18 New Zero Emission Electric Trucks In Texas '
https://pressroom.ups.com/pres...

In Amsterdam (Netherlands) they have been using electric trucks for at least 5 years.

Sorry, if it didn't happen in the USA and by Elon Musk, it didn't happen. Elon Musk invented the electric car and truck because he's an innovative disrupting genius.

from a couple of years ago..
'UPS Deploys 18 New Zero Emission Electric Trucks In Texas '
https://pressroom.ups.com/pres...

In Amsterdam (Netherlands) they have been using electric trucks for at least 5 years.

For expensive deliveries, I just ask the shipper (e.g. amazon) to ship to my office instead of home and then add a delivery notification so that I know when to head up to reception and thank them for helping out. Total added cost is a few smiles and maybe a cookie every once in a while.

For routine deliveries, FedEX, UPS and USPS all have the ability to leave them with standing instructions, such as "leave on side porch", "leave with neighbor", "I'll pick up from your office", etc., FedEx and UPS will also do scheduled-time deliveries and will even redirect to a different address, although these are extra-cost services.

Um You ship them UPS...

https://www.ups.com/media/news...

Seriously the stringent regulations only apply to passenger air craft. Since most US mail is transported by passenger aircraft, you can't mail batteries. But you can ship them UPS with pre-approval from UPS. For sufficient cash, I'm sure UPS or any other cargo airliner will happily load an entire plane with lithium ion batteries.

DIAD is short for Delivery Information Acquisition Device. The company I worked for (until I retired last November after 31.5 years) was a subsidiary of UPS bought specifically to bring high tech into the company (they were still tracking packages on paper when they bought us) and we developed the first DIAD back in the late 1980s/early 1990s. They subsequently moved that work in house and eventually sold us to another company that was more in line with our original work.

The other big thing we helped develop for UPS (along with a number of other partners) was the original ADS-B system to help them route the planes landing and taking off at the Louisville Worldport where they land about 250 planes a night (about 1 a minute), unload them, sort the several hundred thousand packages coming in, load them up again and send them back out all in an 8 or 9 hour period. (UPS Air Operations Facts)

One other thing is most people call the delivery vehicles "trucks" but within UPS they're called "package cars". You learn that real quick when you work for them.

to get a PO box, and have all packages shipped to you there.

UPS will not deliver to PO boxes and in fact they cannot by law. Neither can FedEx, DHL, etc. Only the United States Postal Service can deliver to PO boxes. Since most of my deliveries do not come via USPS a PO box is rather useless to me. You can get a similar sort of service through places like UPS stores and they will accept packages from other couriers. Not the post office though.

And USPS shipping is usually less expensive than other options.

Not for equivalent service it isn't. USPS is generally more expensive and less convenient if you are paying for a similar level of service. I ship lots of packages and you can save money on postage in some cases through USPS but you generally get what you pay for.

I would be interesting to see if they save any money here as well, considering UPS operates on about a 7-8% profit margin. Considering Amazon is such a large customer I would be willing to bet they make far less profit on Amazon shipments. Not a lot of room for savings unless they believe they have a new better way of doing shipping.

UPS had an operating profit of around 13% last year according to their annual report. That is plenty of margin to make it worthwhile for Amazon to want to vertically integrate their shipping.

Several considerations:
1) Amazon's retail business is a low margin business to begin with and they compete significantly on price - even a few percent can matter a lot. Walmart has margins of around 2-3% for comparison. If Amazon can eliminate the margin leakage to UPS that goes straight to their bottom line.
2) Integrating vertically has the benefit of having better control over the service you provide to customers. It is almost always harder to coordinate with an outside company than to deal with another internal division.
3) Amazon developing their own shipping service allows them to expand their business beyond shipping stuff sold through their own website. They could very conceivably capture business from UPS and FedEx and USPS. This creates a whole new revenue stream for them and diversifies the company somewhat.

UPS has a revenue of about $60 billion per year, while Amazon pays about $5 billion in yearly shipping costs. This puts them in an entirely different order of magnitude as far as scale goes. This makes it even less likely Amazon would save a lot of money.

You're looking at it the wrong way. The question is whether Amazon's freight service can reach minimum efficient scale in order to compete effectively. They don't necessarily have to match UPS in size to achieve comparable cost efficiency. Bear in mind as well that any shipments they do themselves they could in theory provide at or even below cost in order to scale Amazon's freight business AND that is revenue and profit not available to UPS/FedEx. Even if they don't try to make a profit on the freight at first it allows them to offer better pricing to customers (thus increasing retail revenue) and makes it even harder than it already is to compete in online shopping with them. Amazon also has the advantage that they can play UPS and FedEx against each other while they build their freight services.

Frankly it's kind of a no brainer for Amazon to get into the freight business in some form or fashion because vertical integration makes sense for them in a lot of ways. I also expect them to try to get into the office supply business (think Staples) and industrial supply business (think Grainger) in the near future in a big way. I think Amazon would kick the ass of the incumbents in those industries.

Within the US shipping costs do vary by distance the package will travel. For UPS check this link for shipping from one zone to another: https://www.ups.com/content/us...

It's possible that the price of an item on Amazon's web site varies with shipping cost when "free shipping" is part of the deal. For Prime subscribers Amazon knows the Zip code of the recipient of a package and its point of origin as well as its weight. One way Amazon may be evening out shipping charges it pays is by building shipping warehouses all over the country so shipping costs are the lowest it can add to the base cost of an item. But if the closest warehouse doesn't have an item it must make a longer trip to the customer. The other thing Amazon may be doing is figuring price on the greatest shipping distance and keeping the profit when the distance is shorter resulting in lower cost to itself. I don't know the answer to all this and Amazon may be keeping this very secret.

I expect to see pod-planes for general cargo before 2025.

You already have this today. Here's a typical 747 cargo-pod configuration:

https://www.ups.com/aircargo/i...

Here are the pods going in:

http://www.ainonline.com/sites...

[...] it would be better because you could receive UPS and FedEx packages there also (privately deliveries to PO boxes is banned under current law).

Wrong! I get FedEx and UPS deliveries to my PO box all the time. DHL will drop ship to the post office street address and POB number.

https://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/track/sp_definition.html
http://www.fedex.com/us/smart-post/outbound.html
http://www.dhl-usa.com/en/ecommerce/businesscustomers/domestic_products.html#parcel_plus

When was the last time you walked into a post office — the 20th-century?

Apparently it also reduces fuel consumption and saves time

http://compass.ups.com/UPS-dri... .

In the UK, Cumbria County Council has also just done a study looking at the same thing with bin lorries. Obviously the roads are much less congested (rural England as opposed to NYC) but even here they're expecting to make significant efficiency savings by altering the bin collecting routes to, among other things, have fewer right turns (as we drive on the left, this is equivalent to fewer left turns in the US).

Apparently it also reduces fuel consumption and saves time http://compass.ups.com/UPS-dri... .

Yep. I try to avoid running errands until I absolutely have to. When I finally go, I always map out my trip in my mind based on avoiding left turns. Only if things have to be done in a specific order do I prioritize a stop that increases the number of left turns./P.

Apparently it also reduces fuel consumption and saves time

http://compass.ups.com/UPS-dri...

.

UPS != USPS. UPS do have a Canadian presence.

UPS has the option of just holding it for you at the depot, and I would guess the other major delivery services do too. Through UPS its called "My Choice."

http://www.ups.com/mychoice/we...

Some more URLs I have in my collection (haven't checked some of these in awhile, though):

UPS tracking (after trigger enter your tracking number)
US Postal Service Tracking (after trigger enter your tracking number)
YouTube Video Search
E.gg Timer (type the length of the countdown in plain text after your trigger -- eg: "5 minutes" to make the timer run for five minutes, "2 hours 3 minutes" for two hours and three minutes, ect. You can even go do other browsing and background the tab, it will jump to the front when it goes off.
IMDB Search
Rotten Tomatoes
Google Translate (to English) -- just paste the URL of the foreign site after your trigger.
ZXing QR Code decoder -- paste a image URL after the trigger.
DownForEveryoneOrJustMe website check
NewEgg Product Search
FreshPorts Search

For sites without their own searches, you can always set up a Google search restricted to the site with "site%3Adomainofsite.tld+%s" as the string.

Once you have all the major search engines set up there's really no reason to waste toolbar space on Firefox with the actual Search Bar anymore.

"$100 (current book rate), paying a fee to cover the loss beyond the initial $100 should the package become lost, stolen, or damaged. That sounds a lot like the lay definition for insurance to me."

The devil's in the details...
http://www.pressroom.ups.com/F...

Just because the lay definition of declared value sounds like insurance, it isn't. With insurance, if you are at fault the insured item may still be covered. E.g., if you crash your car it will often be covered even if you are at fault. With declared value, if you improperly pack your item and it is damaged then UPS is not liable.

People watch too many Seinfeld episodes.

First, The UPS "guaranteed on-schedule delivery" already includes the following:

The guarantee does not apply to UPS shipments that are delayed due to causes beyond UPS's control, including, but not limited to, the following:
[SNIPPED some basic things, strikes, acts of god, government, customs, etc.]
disruptions in air or ground transportation networks, such as weather phenomena; and natural disasters.
The guarantee does not apply to UPS 2nd Day Air A.M., UPS 2nd Day Air, UPS 3 Day Select, and UPS Ground shipments that are picked up or scheduled to be delivered between December 12 and December 25.

http://www.ups.com/media/en/terms_service_us.pdf

Can you read that? Christmas is excluded. The whole Christmas season is excluded.

Huh, reads like an advertisement for USPS to me...

First, The UPS "guaranteed on-schedule delivery" already includes the following:

The guarantee does not apply to UPS shipments that are delayed due to causes beyond UPS's control, including, but not limited to, the following:
[SNIPPED some basic things, strikes, acts of god, government, customs, etc.]
disruptions in air or ground transportation networks, such as weather phenomena; and natural disasters.
The guarantee does not apply to UPS 2nd Day Air A.M., UPS 2nd Day Air, UPS 3 Day Select, and UPS Ground shipments that are picked up or scheduled to be delivered between December 12 and December 25.

http://www.ups.com/media/en/terms_service_us.pdf

Can you read that? Christmas is excluded. The whole Christmas season is excluded. ...and they're still offering compensation.

Good guy UPS.

Oh stop whining.

https://wwwapps.ups.com/pickup/schedule
http://sbw.dhl-usa.com/SchedulePickup/SchedulePickupInfo.asp
http://www.fedex.com/us/fcl/pckgenvlp/pickup/

Parcel guys have to solve the "travelling salesman problem" in their head

I don't know about Canada Post or USPS, but UPS has computers to do that routing.

Raising the gas tax wouldn't raise the price of consumer goods? So am I imagining things like the UPS fuel surcharge? Are consumer goods magically teleported to their destination rather than driven there by trucks paying fuel taxes?

*cough* http://www.ups.com/aircargo/using/services/services/domestic/svc-containers.html

You were good up until that and just fine after that. We *do* see container planes. They're used quite often when there is no ocean to cross or speed is more important than costs.

Don't get so hung up on the UPS Service Guarantee (section 47, pdf page 32, paper page 29):

In the event UPS fails to attempt delivery within the time published on the UPS website, or as provided when 1-800-PICK-UPS® is called, UPS, at its option, will either credit or refund the transportation charges for each such package to the payer only, upon request, provided the conditions set forth in the UPS Service Guarantee are met. Transportation charges do not include other fees or charges that may be assessed by UPS including, but not limited to, fuel surcharges. This is the sole remedy available under the UPS Service Guarantee.

UPS shall not be liable for any damages whatsoever for delayed delivery, except as specifically provided for shipments made under the UPS Service Guarantee. Under no circumstances shall UPS be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages including, but not limited to, damages arising from delayed delivery or failure to attempt on-schedule delivery.

UPS may cancel or suspend the UPS Service Guarantee for any service(s), and for any period of time, as determined by UPS in its sole discretion, and without prior notice.[Emphasis added.]

What follows (in Section 47.1) is seven bullets of conditions, followed (in Section 47.2) by eleven bullets of exclusions.

I don't have a problem with UPS -- they've always treated me, and my packages, well -- but I'm not under any illusions that I could actually get a court judgement from them based on their terms of service, should they decide not to refund their shipping charges on a lost parcel, and I decided to sue. Any service guarantee that may be canceled by the service provider, at its sole discretion and without prior notice, isn't very reassuring.

http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shipping/time/service/value_added/hold_pickup.html

Ofc, the easiest thing is to ship to where you work.

loaded assault rifle

You can bring your assault rifle with you. All that they really require is that you put the loaded magazine in a separate container.

I've brought pistols with me plenty of times. Check it at the ticket counter, pick it up at baggage claim. Technically, I'm armed, except for the short duration inside of airports and aircraft.

Shipping a weapon is more difficult. The receiver must have a FFL. The exception to this is that you can ship to yourself, even if it's c/o someone else. For example, I had intended to drive to from the lower 48 to Alaska. It would take a mountain of paperwork, and most likely be declined, permission to carry a weapon through Canada. I can stop at a FedEx/UPS store on the American side of the border, with it appropriately boxed, and ship it to myself at my destination in Alaska. It can go to the residence I would end up at. The c/o means that the receiving party can accept the package, but if they open it, they've committed a crime. Alternatively, it can be shipped to hold at the depot in the destination area. I can ship to myself in Alaska, and ask for it to be held at the FedEx depot. They will require my photo ID when I arrive to take possession of it.

You can't ship the others items by any normal freight courier (USPS, FedEx, UPS). That's for the safety of the courier service. The last thing you need is for your canister of VX to leak in transit. I've seen many accounts where someone shipped a substance that they shouldn't have, and it leaked in transit. Couriers, such as UPS do have special conditions for handling hazardous materials. You appeared to be suggesting shipping the items without consideration of their hazardous properties.

Add this all up, and you end up with a device very similar to the one that the UPS guys carry around, minus any imaging capabilities.

I briefly worked at UPS last year, and was amazed by how capable those little devices were, in addition to how insanely rugged they were (you could literally throw one against a brick wall without damaging it -- a few of my colleagues had anger issues, and I got to witness this fairly regularly)

Of course, the UI left much to be desired. Nevertheless, I could easily see how such a device would be very successful in a medical environment, provided it had the infrastructure to support it.

Well, shipping from the United States to Australia is expensive. You can use the UPS shipping calculator, if you're curious: UPS Shipping Calculator.

Ground Fuel Surcharge UPS uses an index-based surcharge that is adjusted monthly. Changes to the surcharge will be effective the first Monday of each month and posted approximately two weeks prior to the effective date. For your billing convenience, we will also post a 90-day surcharge history. The surcharge will be based on the National U.S. Average On Highway Diesel Fuel Prices reported by the U.S. Department of Energy for the month that is two months prior to the adjustment. (UPS research has shown this index is highly correlated with other major fuel price indices worldwide.) For example the surcharge for January 2008 is based on the November 2007 National U.S. Average On Highway Diesel Fuel Price.

lier

Wonder how this works for this department...
http://www.racing.ups.com/

Hey UPS is already on top of that too. Check out their Hydraulic Hybrid Diesel Delivery Truck:

http://www.pressroom.ups.com/pressreleases/current/0,1088,4694,00.html

[J]

That's funny because they actually sponsor a car and advertise during the races a lot.

had three episodes like that in just a few months. Even though it was somebody else's fault in each case, I had to ask myself why I was getting in trouble so much. It isn't enough to be in the right: you want to be safe. And always pushing the limits is not safe.

I'll assume that you've taken a defensive driving course since then...

Safe Driving Tips

My point of contention was your assertion that it was not PayPal's responsibility. PayPal does not accept (or at least didn't last time I checked) as proof of delivery a non-physically signed delivery confirmation. This is a point of much lament for sellers on eBay.

Fair enough. But I don't see anything defining appropriate proof in their terms: "If the claim involves non-delivery of goods, the seller must present appropriate proof of delivery to the buyer's specified address." There's a clause about signatures, but that seems to be specifically when a buyer returns an item to the seller, not the original shipment. And certainly, sellers can spend $1 for Delivery Confirmation Signature Required (DCSR) to avoid this problem.

IMO delivery confirmation with signature and insurance should be a mandatory part of the transaction (once the transaction exceeds a certain $$ amount) as it protects both the buyer and seller.

Well, this more or less happens anyhow, as both buyer and seller of expensive items realize their increased risk, and tend to use FedEx or UPS anyhow, which supply both insurance and signature.

And then there's the risk of receiving (with insurance and signed receipt) a box full of old newspapers (assuming you didn't buy a box full of old newspapers)...

Oh, man, how pissed off would you be if you got that?! LOL. I think PayPal/ebay would look into a claim like that though.

The beer industry does not seem to be suffering from the fact that it's illegal to supply liquor to minors; the porn industry does not seem to have been stifled by the fact that Walmart does not stock hardcore videos.

Actually, both of those industries have suffered terribly from crappy local and federal laws designed to "protect minors". Ask yourself why you can't purchase wine over the internet from small vineyards in California or France. Ask youself where all the local breweries have gone. The control of alcohol has severely limited the quality and choice you have when you want any. I'm no friend of the porn industry, but they too suffer from an amazing and contradictory raft of both specific and vague legislation. You can read about their complaints in xbiz.

The state of both of those industries show that specific laws can suck too. In the case of alcohol, the federal government ruled that brewers must respect each local law. This is not only contradicts former notions of state interference with interstate commerce, it's also unreasonably complex and expensive to comply with. Even if you could comply, good luck finding a shipper. See UPS shipping terms for an example. The porn industry suffers similarly, even online where federal laws are being written specifically to burden the industry.

These laws waste enforcement resources for little public good.

Just think of the color-based opportunities. RIM and UPS could get together on a Dingleberry...

Surely you aren't suggesting that in this post-911 world, your loving president should be spending money on anything other than the security of the homeland? Imagine what those COMMIES in the LIBERAL MEDIA! would do to him if spending on Protecting America's Children, Puppies and Kittens were to fail to keep pace with Moore's Law?

What kind of music? I get half my CDs from the US, and have hardly ever been charged anything extra (perhaps taxes on one occasion). Amazon.ca's/HMV's market place often has me ordering CDs from caiman_usa.

The best thing one could have done for one's customers was avoid couriers like FedEx and UPS like the plague, *especially* for items less than $50. Instead always use the US PS. I've bought thousands of dollars of stuff from the US over the years and I just don't see how it could add up to so much. Maybe your 200% includes the extortionate FedEx shipping costs ;) Or perhaps exchange rates where people seem to like comparing the numeric value of what they paid in USD$ to the CAD$ charges... which a few years ago was a bad comparison when CAD$1 only bought USD$0.63.

I've never seen duties beyond PST & GST, although that's not to say it doesn't happen or that there are different rules in other provinces/territories. My worst experience was when a friend in Denver sent me a picture. UPS screwed up and put the insured value at USD$12,000. Their brokerage fee that they tried to charge me was about CAD$150. Plus GST & PST on CAD$19,000 and I said no way and returned it to the sender for them to send to me again with the correct declared value (USD$250 - less than UPS' orginal bill).

I'm afraid you can't really include brokerage fees in your 200%. That's down to the courier *you've* chosen to send by. For Canada Post (i.e. via USPS), it's a flat $5 or $8 fee, although I've only seen it applied rarely. I've also heard it mentioned that people can do their own brokerage and so avoid paying couriers that big money maker, although who has time to go to the correct Canada Border Services Agency location? When buying stuff from eBayers in the US, always ask them if they will send USPS, if they don't I generally don't bother bidding as I don't want to be ripped off by the couriers.

And BTW, there could be brokerage fees importing in to the US too. UPS has such charges.

If it *REALLY* can't wait until tomorrow, there's always same day delivery service through Sonic Air/UPS.. Nothing beats having your stuff hand carried and in your hands in under a few hours. *Very* premium service.

Would YOU trust an organization whose name is an anagram for "fib"?

Only if you'd also entrust your shipped goods to a company called 'whoops!'

UPS is already in the process of switching their fleet to alternative fuel vehicles. Unfortunately, the efficiency of those available limits their choices. Can't stop to recharge an electric, have to have a vehivle capable of carrying a lot of weight, large enough for hundreds of parcels, etc.

See their pressroom:

http://www.pressroom.ups.com/mediakits/socialrespo nsibility/alternativefuel/0,1381,,00.html

http://sustainability.ups.com/environmental/fuel/g round.html#fleet

At the UPS website and the FedEx website you can estimate rates. To ship a 65 kg package from Reading, UK to my hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, the cheapest shipping option would cost at least $190; essentially you would be paying as much in shipping as you originally paid for the subwoofer--if the opening bid stood. The expedited shipping options would cost on the order of $400.

This all assumes that the package really is no more than 65 kg (~143 lbs). That's not far under the 150 pound weight limit for all of these options. You would then be forced to use another courier that would in all likelihood be more expensive.

Still, ShyGuy's point stands. Probably someone with more money than sense would buy it and pay for shipping it. I think it's pretty cool, but I'm nowhere near a big enough SW fan to pay 100+ UKP to buy it and 200 USD to ship it.

You do realize that was UPS, not USPS that lost the tapes, don't you?

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Actually their blame is very worth mentioning, as they lost the data. They do, tought they are the best. Blame for the loss of the package and the data is on the shoulders of UPS. Blame for the non-encryption is on Citi.

Actually, go to the UPS website Now do a search for UPS Service Gaurantee - they gaurantee delivery.

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Consider using https://www.sonicair.ups.com/ups/ instead of overnight shipping. The extra cost would be minimal with the budget you're talking about.