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.
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 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.
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.
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.