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May 08, 2003
Price of Paradise
Living out in the middle of the Pacific has some downsides. One of those is getting things delivered on time. I've already chronicled the trials and tribulations I've had with overnight delivery services. The last installment was with FedEx and the time before that was UPS. Well, it's back to UPS again.
I paid $25 for overnight shipping from Colorado to here. $25. US. Hard currency. The product of the sweat of my brow (do brows sweat? - ed.).
So I start tracking the package. It's picked up on Tuesday, May 6th at about 4:50 p.m.. It then makes its way to the Ontario, California hub by 11:00 p.m. that night. Six hours later, at 5:00 a.m., it is on its way to Honolulu. Due to the wonders of time zones, it arrives in Honolulu 7:45 a.m. (a flight from California takes about 5 hours).
Up to this time, the scheduled delivery date was Wednesday, May 7th. This is as it should be when you pay for overnight delivery service. But. The delivery date has been pushed back to Thursday, May 8th.
What was that about one-day service? But lo, wait! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the package being delivered even as I write this! Oh well, never mind.
In a related vein, why does it cost more to air ship something from California to Hawai'i then it does to fly the same item from California to Florida? Let's take a look: San Francisco to Miami is about 2,600 miles (~4,200km) but San Francisco to Honolulu is only 2,400 (~3,900km)(follow this link here to get the distance between various cities). Now, let's look at the cost of sending a one-pound UPS Pak via next day air: SF to Miami: $29.58 and SF to Honolulu: $31.11 - shorter distance, higher price.
Yes, UPS might be able to use a cheaper, smaller jet between San Francisco and Miami, but the cost per pound per mile would probably still be higher if they did multiple stops along the way and had less capacity to carry cargo. I dunno, maybe jet fuel costs less to burn over land than water?
What, me worry? Aloha!
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Comments
The insurance for flying over sea (no emergency landing strips available, etc) is higher.
Also FAA regulations are stricter (need to cary extra fuel-reserves, more stringent inspection rules etc. )
And there is less competition. You can't ship by fast-train I suppose ^__^
Posted by: sjon at May 9, 2003 01:32 AM