What is the Linehaul Office?

[cosmicray]

The postal service of the sending country pays to the postal service of the receiving country a fee, called "terminal due", for delivery.  There exist also "transit charges" and other charges. This is regulated by the Universal Postal Union.

That is correct, but only when the letter/parcel is entirely handled by the postal services of the various countries involved.

What began this thread, the Linehaul Office, is about doing things at a scale and at a pre-sort, that the sender can handle it to the last possible USPS injection point before final delivery. That is typically a USPS facility called a Network Distribution Center (which for my address, the NDC is in Jacksonville FL). The other part of this story (which also bypasses the UPU narative) is that very high volume shippers can get negotiated rates. Those negotiated contract rates are confidential, only USPS and the shipper know what they are. What is happening here is that the shipper has (almost certainly aggressive) negotiated rates for USPS zones 1 and 2, which should cover all last mile handling of the items (between the NDC and the destination address). In other words, USPS is not hauling on their long haul transportation network, the shipper is. The (typically small) parcels are very likely being pre-sorted in CN, prior to departure, so that when they land in the US, all that has to be done is a bulk cargo movement, from the port of entry to the destination NDC. USPS accepts the bulk shipment, then dumps it into their sorting system, for final delivery.

I can now report that my first AliExpress order has arrived at the Linehaul Office 

[soldar]

The postal service of the sending country pays to the postal service of the receiving country a fee, called "terminal due", for delivery.  There exist also "transit charges" and other charges. This is regulated by the Universal Postal Union.

That is correct, but only when the letter/parcel is entirely handled by the postal services of the various countries involved.

What began this thread, the Linehaul Office, is about doing things at a scale and at a pre-sort, that the sender can handle it to the last possible USPS injection point before final delivery. That is typically a USPS facility called a Network Distribution Center (which for my address, the NDC is in Jacksonville FL). The other part of this story (which also bypasses the UPU narative) is that very high volume shippers can get negotiated rates. Those negotiated contract rates are confidential, only USPS and the shipper know what they are. What is happening here is that the shipper has (almost certainly aggressive) negotiated rates for USPS zones 1 and 2, which should cover all last mile handling of the items (between the NDC and the destination address). In other words, USPS is not hauling on their long haul transportation network, the shipper is. The (typically small) parcels are very likely being pre-sorted in CN, prior to departure, so that when they land in the US, all that has to be done is a bulk cargo movement, from the port of entry to the destination NDC. USPS accepts the bulk shipment, then dumps it into their sorting system, for final delivery.

Fine but the point is that it is just not true that any national post office is working for free for any foreign post office. The USPS can negotiate and accept last mile delivery with big volume shippers and it does not care who they are or where the stuff originates. Presorted mail has been a thing for many decades. Now anyone can approach the USPS and ask how much they would charge to deliver a container full of small mail and packages located in the last mile delivery area. The USPS does not know or care if the stuff originates inside or outside the USA and is just doing the delivery. Probably most of those containers have mixed domestic and imported things.

A single individual shipping a single packet from one country to another is going to pay a much higher rate than an organization which ships packets by the many thousands, presorts them, etc. It is just an economy of scale.

In Spain I receive orders from eBay and each time they seem to come a different way. Sometimes they take longer, sometimes they arrive fast. Shipping consolidators are continuously shopping around. When there is extra space that could go empty they can buy that space for very little. Sometimes they have to wait. Sometimes they pay more. Sometimes they ship via Amsterdam, sometimes via other places. There is no conspiracy. There is no cheating. it is a matter of supply and demand at each given moment.  Just like air fares. Nobody seems to understand why it might cost more to fly from A to B than if you buy a ticket to fly from A to C with a stopover in B. To the layperson it makes no sense but to the airlines it must make sense. Just because you do not understand something does not mean there is anything nefarious going on.

So eBay import a container load of small stuff into the USA or the EU and then they contract with the local post office or somebody else to deliver it. I cannot see anything wrong. They've paid their way.

ETA: Now that I think about it for a moment, it seems the packets that got lost were shipped by orangeconnex.com direct to Madrid and lost on arrival. I have a tracking number from orangeconnex all the way to Madrid but that is the end and they just say they handed it to the Spanish Post Office, Correos, but cannot give me a Spanish tracking number and Correos says without a Spanish tracking number they cannot do anything. I have had several packets lost this way. But I receive those that were reshipped from Netherlands or other places. Hmmm, I am detecting a pattern I had not noticed before.

[5U4GB]

I have had no problems with AliExpress and have received every item ordered.  However, the cheapest shipping is slow in both countries, particularly in the US.   SpeedPak has been quite fast on the China side, but once it gets to the US (Pitney Bowels), it takes forever.  UPS is only slightly better.  With either carrier, the package waits for days either at the point of entry (Chicago or New Jersey) or in a suburb of Columbus.  Regular mail between Columbus and Cleveland is fairly quick.

That seems to be common here too, there's regular updates as it travels across China, is exported there, arrives at the linehaul office here, and then sits... and sits... and sits... no updates, nothing, and then eventually it's "Transferred to local depot" and then out for delivery.  Often the time it sits in the local linehaul office is longer than the entire time from some factory in China to here.

In general, the local courier services are pretty terrible, I've had stuff delivered from the US faster than from the next big city a few hundred km away.

[5U4GB]

I was almost arrested in Toronto (I was detained in a holding area at the airport, but not in jail per se) for trying to enter illegally with a group of 3 others who had passports  Fortunately, I was leading that team.  We were there to visit a vendor in Etobicoke for a $5 million purchase (1990's dollars).   The Customs officials wanted me to have a work permit, as it was not just a visit.  I volunteered to get on the next flight back to the US.  After quite a delay, they let me visit. The vendor didn't get the sale.

Something similar happened to a friend of mine, he was invited in by a government department to advise them on some complex technical issue.  After the cr*p Canadian customs put him through he was sorely tempted to advise them to pursue a path that would cost them ten times what it should have.  In any case he swore he'd never have anything to do with providing any services to Canada again.

That's just one of the many horror stories I've heard about Canadian customs.  Are they really that bad, or do you just not hear the stories from other countries?

[soldar]

That seems to be common here too, there's regular updates as it travels across China, is exported there, arrives at the linehaul office here, and then sits... and sits... and sits... no updates, nothing, and then eventually it's "Transferred to local depot" and then out for delivery.  Often the time it sits in the local linehaul office is longer than the entire time from some factory in China to here.

In general, the local courier services are pretty terrible, I've had stuff delivered from the US faster than from the next big city a few hundred km away.

I have to wonder if the tardiness in the last mile delivery in cheap items from China has to do with the cheap prices paid in the agreements. In other words, it could be that the last shipping company gets paid a very low price and, in exchange, the agreement is "you pay me low price and I'll get to it whenever I get to it". That way they can do their more urgent (and better paid) deliveries with priority and then get around to the cheap stuff whenever they can.

[cosmicray]

First Aliexpress order arrived today (test leads with very sharp points). Nine days from order date to delivery.

[cosmicray]

Something else I discovered about Aliexpress this morning ... items listed for sales are either shipped by Aliexpress or the seller is a Global shipper. This is not obvious on the item listing, but shows up when the item is added to the shopping cart (Global Shipping items sort to the top, fulfillment by Aliexpress below that). The test leads I received at 9 days were shipped to me from Miami. So I'm suspicious that there may be an Aliexpress fulfillment warehouse there.

Most of the sellers offering ICs, seem to be Global shippers, which makes sense if they have to go cut your IC order off a reel, then pack it for shipment. Test leads are more of a single unit item.

[pcprogrammer]

The linehaul office, that is the place where your packages from aliexpress get lost when they don't have fast delivery like the 10 day delivery service. Sometimes you have to buy for more then 10 euro to get this. Your orders will then, if possible, be combined into a single package and indeed mostly arrive within the given time frame.

I have two outstanding orders which despite of being ordered together with other things did not classify and might never arrive. One of them is waiting to pas customs for 6 days already, and the other was due for today, but doubt if it is in the mail box. Ordered it on December 30th 2023, so two months have gone by. Have to wait yet another month before I can ask for a refund.

Nothing big though. Just some ic's and diodes.

For a next order I will look for sellers that offer the 10 day delivery. Might be a bit more expensive. Or use the "choice" option and then get free delivery upgrade by spending 10 euro or more.

[soldar]

Well, whadayaknow, today I received an item I had ordered back in September and was refunded three months ago. I had already ordered again, received and used so I no longer need it. It is just some capacitors and very low value.  I feel bad for the seller but it is probably not worth the trouble for me to offer partial payment. I am going to think about it.

[5U4GB]

I've had that as well, offered to pay the seller and they declined saying that since I didn't get it in time there was no obligation to pay.  So it doesn't hurt to offer.