Another UPS peculiarity

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by CGD, Sep 15, 2011.

  1. CGD
    CGD Member
    Very interesting route...
    snap04.jpg
     
  2. duann
    duann Member
    Wormhole in space
     
  3. lensman
    lensman Well-Known Member
    Maybe that's how they justify charging so much - they travel in circles!

    Glenn
     
  4. Smolderz
    Smolderz Member
    @duann

    They must have printed a stargate...
     
  5. Youknowwho4eva
    Youknowwho4eva Well-Known Member
    Excuse me, I think I'm in the wrong line. I'm supposed to be leaving prison.
    Are you sure?
    Yea I'm sure that guy already sat on my face
    Stupid your in the wrong line stupid

    Probably a very botched quote but 5 pts for the first to get the reference.

    Another one would be
    When did they change the meaning of from to to
    They sent you a letter about it but it said to Peter so you probably thought it was from you

    As long as they don't charge you 3 import fees.
     
  6. VeryWetPaint
    VeryWetPaint Member
    It's probably not as illogical as it looks. There are a few oddities about shipping that can cause phantom shipping events:

    [list type=square]
    [*]Many parcels are loaded together inside a single ULD container for air transit, and the ULD's manifest lists all the parcels inside it. Each time that ULD departs or arrives at a location it generates a "departure scan" or "arrival scan" for every parcel listed in its manifest.
    [*]Sometimes a parcel is taken out of the ULD but the manifest isn't updated, so the parcel seems to go wherever the ULD goes next. In this instance, your parcel could have been taken out of the ULD at Cologne but the manifest wasn't updated. When the ULD was returned to Eindhoven, it would generate 'phantom' tracking events as though your parcel had traveled but the parcel had stayed in Cologne.
    [*]It's not uncommon for a shipper to leave one or more ULDs on an airplane if there's a handling issue at a particular airport. In this example there might not have been sufficient time to unload all the ULDs at Cologne, so the shipper left it on the flight back to Eindhoven rather than delay the flight and all flights queued behind it.
    [/list]
     
  7. stannum
    stannum Well-Known Member
    Does it apply to trucks too? Because using airplanes for ~200Km... the cargo would probably travel more (including truck to/from airport) and wait a lot to get into airplane than by road only.
     
  8. VeryWetPaint
    VeryWetPaint Member
    No, this shipment didn't go by truck. Notice that both trips from Eindhoven to Cologne (or properly "Köln") took about 2 hours each, much too fast for trucks between those locations.

    Carriers prioritize capacity over speed, so long as shipments can be kept on schedule. To achieve capacity parcels are loaded into ULD containers ("Unit Load Device") as soon as possible, grouping them with other parcels to the same region. Parcels are unloaded and re-sorted into new ULD containers at major hubs.

    I'm guessing CGD lives outside Europe, since UPS shipments routed through Cologne are often headed to destinations outside mainland Europe.