A few somewhat odd things happened in the world of shipping this week here in Shaneville. It’s mind-boggling to think how many goods travel around the world every second with modern shipping companies. Sometimes, it doesn’t seem to make common sense.
- Ordering new winter tires from TireRack this Tuesday, I proceeded to the shipping stage. I was offered three choices of shipping – UPS, FedEx, and FedEx guaranteed 2 day. Guess which had both the lowest cost and earliest delivery date of the three? UPS, buy one or two days!
- Those same winter tires are already here. Working at home I heard some large thumps outside and went to investigate, and those magic UPS elves had already dropped the tires on my doorstep – barely 24 hours after UPS actually got the tires. It’s almost as if I had my own personal UPS delivery truck. (In this case, TireRack appeared to have a local regional supplier – makes sense for the northeast).
- Likewise a small electronics purchase I made on Monday and assembled in (yes, I know!) China, is currently in a FedEx airplane somewhere over the middle of the US. It’s only one more short step before tracking numbers have a little “show live map” feature, kind of like flight trackers. You could watch your package overfly you to the nearest shipper’s airport hub!
The two put together are also quite amusing, given that the tires – quite bulky – arrived far faster, even accounting for proportional distance – than the electronics will. So much for common sense.
Tip: several reliable friends have confirmed that ordering cheap HDMI cables is fine – no need to spend more than a couple of bucks for the vast majority of HDMI applications. I’ll be needing some of those in the after-Christmas shopping season at home, methinks.
