Category: Races

And they are off…!

The theme this time is “Hard-To-Reach Places”. On 01 April we sent packages to:

• Pitcairn Island, where the mutineers from HMS Bounty fled in 1789
• Khartoum, Sudan, where the White Nile, flowing north from Uganda, meets the Blue Nile, flowing west from Ethiopia
• Almaty, Kazakhstan, ancestral home of the apple
• Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) Australia, which lies 335 km (208 mi) from the nearest large town, Alice Springs
• Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip and one of the oldest cities in the world

Students prepared 4 identical boxes to be sent to each destination.

The start: Tuesday 01 April

Over several weeks preceding the start, we phoned each carrier several times and asked them whether they foresaw any difficulties in shipping to our destinations. We frequently got different answers, depending on with whom we spoke.

We ignored the warnings and shipped all packages because in the past the phone representatives have been a rich source of misinformation. We phoned each company in the morning and asked them to pick up our packages after 2PM. DHL picked up at 1430, FedEx at 1440, and UPS at 1640. We had to take our packages to the USPS.

The race as of 18 April

Some details, such as cost, will not be known for sure until we receive invoices. We will post them as soon as possible.

Results

Carrier	Cost	Delivery	Tracking #	Comments
Uluru, Australia
FedEx	$152.52	08 April	862815443318	FIRST! From FedEx hub: Honolulu; Alexandria, AU, where it disappeared from the tracking system
UPS	Still unknown	08 April	H5209262196	From UPS hub: Honolulu; Sydney, where it disappeared from the tracking system.
DHL	$141.53	09 April	8066254033	From DHL hub: Singapore; Darwin by 07 April. “Delivery arranged; no details expected”
USPS	$29.50	10 April	No tracking	Only slightly later than premium services
Almaty, Kazakhstan
UPS	Still unknown	04 April 1102	H5209262187	FIRST!
FedEx	$235.06	04 April 1212	862815443329	A close 2nd
DHL	$233.32	07 April 1720	8066254044	From DHL hub: New York; Leipzig; Amsterdam; Almaty. Package arrived in Almaty on 04 April 0640 but was delayed for 12 hours and apparently sat over the weekend.
USPS	$26.50		No tracking
Pitcairn Island
USPS	Appx $40	11 Dec	No tracking	FIRST!. See note below
UPS		Package returned 03 April	H5209262150	No service, contrary to what we had been told by phone
DHL		Package returned 03 April	8066308261	No service, contrary to what we had been told by phone
FedEx		Package returned	862815443340	No service, contrary to what we had been told by phone
Khartoum, Sudan
USPS	$30.00	Sometime before 24 April	No tracking	FIRST!
UPS		Package returned 03 April	H5209262178	“Embargoed country”
DHL	$233.14	Package returned 07 April	8066254055	“Unacceptable commodity: Only documents”; “No WPX allowed.” (WPX??)
FedEx		Package returned	862815443330	“Embargoed country”
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories
UPS		Package returned 03 April	H5209262169	“Do not deliver to Gaza Strip; only docs per world com”
FedEx		Contacted customer on 13 April	862815443351	In Israel by 07 April. On 13 April we received a letter from FedEx asking us to phone, when they explained that Israeli customs would not allow the package to be delivered. They asked whether we wanted the package returned.
DHL	$199.52	Package returned 15 April	8066308246	In Israel 03 April; returned with no explanation

The routes

After local pickup, each package was driven to a local freight terminal, sorted, and then flown to one of the major sortation facilities the carriers operate in the mid-western US: UPS uses Louisville, KY; FedEx uses Indianapolis, IN or Memphis, TN; DHL uses Wilmington, OH (northeast of Cincinnati).

We will post maps of the full routes once the packages have been delivered.

Observations

• We phoned each carrier three times in advance of sending the packages. DHL customer service was prompt and consistent. They were even able to answer questions in Spanish, the native language of one of the students. Some of the other carriers gave us different information each time we called.
• None of the carriers offered home delivery in Yulara (town near Uluru); instead they delivered to the local post office, which held the packages for pick-up.
• All of the carriers had told us by phone that they would deliver packages to Pitcairn Island; but most returned our packages undelivered, citing “No Service”. The DHL driver said that there are only three deliveries a year to Pitcairn Island and by boat only. The next time the boat leaves from Nova Scotia will be September 2008. (See note below.)
• Several carriers returned our packages intended for Khartoum, telling us that Sudan was embargoed, but without further
  explanation. The only information we could find on the topic seems ambiguous. We contacted the US Department of State, which told us through the US Embassy in Khartoum that it is okay to ship documents to Sudan; they further observed that they use DHL locally.
• UPS said that they ship to Gaza, Palestine. DHL lists the destination as Gaza City, Israel. USPS would not accept our package, saying that they “could not
  find it” in their IT system. But this travel guide claims that the Palestinian National Authority operates its own post office in Gaza City, prints its own stamps, and is not affiliated with the Israeli Post Office. According to this book the preferred address is Gaza City, Palestinian Territories (PNA).
• Apparently Israeli customs prevented our packages from being delivered. We phoned the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, and an official said that the package could be delivered only if the intended recipient filed a form in advance identifying who was sending the package, when, from where, and what it contained.

Conclusions

• We chose difficult destinations for the 2008 race. In fact they were probably too difficult: No organization was able to deliver
  to Pitcairn Island (see correction below), which was too isolated, or to the Gaza Strip, which was in political turmoil. Only the post office was able to deliver to Khartoum.
• The USPS enjoys greater “connectivity” than the express package carriers because it hands off to local postal services. This can also be a disadvantage unless the local postal services are effective.
• The USPS shipments were sent “priority mail”, rather than as expedited mail, which would have been more directly comparable. Yet some USPS shipments arrived nearly as quickly as express deliveries by the commercial carriers and cost one-tenth the price of express carrier service.
• DHL sent us a detailed explanation of why each returned package could not be delivered. This was appreciated but the letter made reference to the package race and so we wonder whether this friendly gesture would be extended to an anonymous customer.
• UPS did much better this year in handling packages they deemed undeliverable. They identified and returned them quickly together with an explanation. But they were the slowest in telling us how much the shipments cost.

Late-Breaking News!

(16 December 2008) Long after we thought the race over, we were surprised and delighted to receive this email from Ms. L. Brown of Pitcairn Island:

“Dear Sir or Madam: We received a parcel on the 11th December, this parcel contained Baby Ruth bars which were handed out to the community. […] the parcel arrived in good condition, all our mail arrives on the supply ship then after the sorting process is finished everyone collects their mail which is normally at the end of the day so you still have a long wait until you can find out what has been delivered. […] our next supply ship is not until March 09. Thank you to everyone involved, Merry Christmas to one and all hope 09 is a good year for all.”

On the basis of this, and its successful delivery to Khartoum, and its amazingly low prices, we have to tip our hats to the postal service.

 

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Michelle Owen and to the students of ISyE 4803 International Supply Chains for help in preparing and sending the packages; and thanks to the recipients for documenting their arrival!

And they are off…!

We sent packages to:

• Apia, the only city on Upulu, one of the islands comprising the country of Samoa, in the western Pacific Ocean. Upulu has no street addresses.
• Florianopolis, an island off the coast of southern Brazil just above Uruguay; considered by the carriers to be a “remote area”
• Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, which is currently experiencing hyperinflation and political unrest
• Tikrit, birthplace of Saddam Hussein and a center of Sunni insurgency in Iraq
• Yangon, untilrecently, capital of Myanmar, one of the most isolated countries in the world. The city was formerly known as Rangoon, Burma.

The contestants

• UPS
• FedEx
• DHL

The start: Friday 13 April

Before starting the race we phoned each carrier and asked them whether they foresaw any difficulties in shipping to our destinations. FedEx and UPS both claimed that they could not ship to Myanmar but could not explain why. DHL said that it could ship in to but not out of Myanmar.

The phone representative at UPS said that there was no country named Samoa. (In 1997 Western Samoa changed its name to Samoa, but it still exists as Western Samoa in the UPS database, as you can see by looking at www.ups.com under “Shipping: Calculate Time and Cost”.)

We ignored the warnings and shipped all packages because in the past the phone representatives have been a rich source of misinformation. We phoned each company at 0830 to ask them to pick up our packages after noon. FedEx picked up at 1230, DHL at 1346, and UPS at 1525.

UPS and FedEx initially accepted but later returned our packages addressed to Myanmar. FedEx provided no reason; UPS provided a reason but it was unintelligible (“Invoice and receiver IRS # required”).  UPS carried our package intended for Tikrit as far as Dubai and then returned it because “this service is
not available”.

The race as of 27 April

Results

Destination	Carrier	Cost	Delivery	Route	Comments
Apia	1. DHL	$94.45	18 Apr 1315	(details)	WINNER!
	2. FedEx	$169.10	18 Apr 1420	(details)
	3.  UPS	$188.93	Last seen in Auckland 11 days ago	(details)
Florianopolis	1. FedEx	$119.38	17 Apr 1330	(details)	WINNER!
	2. DHL	$76.96	17 Apr 1808	(details)
	3. UPS	$135.58	Delayed 4 days in Campinas, Brazil: “the address is in a remote area and deliveries are not made daily”	(details)	Delivery attempt 23 Apr 1903, after business hours. Successful delivery 24 Apr 1805.
Harare	1. UPS	$336.60	17 Apr 1635	(details)	WINNER!
	2. DHL	$126.18	20 Apr 0855	(details)	Missed delivery 17 Apr so had to wait until after national day holiday
	3. FedEx	$244.48	Undelivered as of 30 Apr	(details)	In Harare for past 10 days: “held, unable to collect payment”
Tikrit	1. DHL	$125.26	17 Apr 1400	(details)	WINNER!
	2. FedEx	$100.30	17 Apr 1645	(details)
	X. UPS	$67.34	DNF	(details)	Package turned back at Dubai because “service not available”. After sitting in Louisville for 7 days the package was returned. We were billed nonetheless.
Yangon	1. DHL	$94.45	18 Apr 1159	8 cities in 5 countries, 5 days (details)	WINNER!
	X. FedEx		DNF		Returned package with no explanation
	X. UPS		DNF		Returned package because “Invoice and receiver IRS # required”

“DNF” = “Did Not Finish”.

The routes

After local pickup, each package was driven to a local freight terminal, sorted, and then flown to one of the major sortation facilities the carriers operate in the midwestern US: UPS uses Louisville, KY; FedEx uses Indianapolis, IN or Memphis, TN; DHL uses Wilmington, OH (northeast of Cincinnati).

Snapshot

Some packages are still en route but it is already clear that DHL has won. They were first to three destinations and came in a close second in the remaining two.

As of 20 April DHL had delivered all five of its packages. As of 30 April FedEx had delivered three packages, one was being held for some kind of payment, and one had been declined. UPS had delivered two packages, had another still en route, was returning another (“service not available”), and had declined to take one.

Some have observed, fairly, that our chosen destinations are not representative of actual business flows. Therefore we supplemented this year’s race with another, from Atlanta to Singapore. Packages were sent 03 July and all were delivered 06 July. The results reflect those of the larger race: DHL was first, arriving at 1038; FedEx was next, at 1114; and UPS was third, delivering at 1551.

Observations

• DHL, which nearly won last year, was the clear winner this year. In addition, our office staff said their phone staff was particularly helpful.
• The phone representative at UPS claimed that Samoa was not a country and that UPS would not deliver to APO addresses.
• The DHL web site would not allow us to sign up for automatic notifications for two of the shipments. No reason was given, just a message to try again later. This problem persisted through the entire race.
• Prices of the shipments varied considerably; for example, one carrier charged $94.45 to Apia while another charged $169.10. Prices to Harare ranged from $126 to $336.
• Many of the tracking reports were 2–10 days behind clock time and so not of much use except as historical documents. This was true especially as the packages got closer to their destination. Possibly this is due to limitations of subcontractors.
• We have no idea why our FedEx package was held in Harare, as we prepaid everything. When our correspondent tried to pick up the package, it could not be found. He was successful on a second visit, about which he writes: “I finally collected the parcel on 3rd May 2007 at 10 am. I told the staff at FedEx [that all charges were to be directed to the sender] and they said that their computer system was down. They however decided to give me the parcel and said that they would come back to me if there was a need to pay anything. They had been charged US$1 for customs and the rest were their charges.”
• We have no idea why our UPS package to Tikrit was diverted at Dubai and returned: Our correspondents in Iraq claim to receive packages from all three carriers. UPS charged us $67 for the non-delivery.
• DHL was able to tell us the final costs upon delivery. FedEx could tell us some costs but not all. UPS said that we would have to wait for the credit card bill.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Michelle Owen, Pete Viehweg, and Sriram Subramanian for help in sending off the packages; and thanks to the recipients for documenting their arrival!

And they are off…!

We sent packages to:

• Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso in west Africa (formerly Upper Volta)
• Split, home of the Palace of Diocletian and the largest city in the Dalmatian region of Croatia
• Surabaya, capital of East Java, Indonesia
• Punta Arenas, capital of the Patagonian region of Chile and one of the southernmost cities in the world

The contestants

• UPS
• FedEx
• DHL

The start: Friday 14 April

We began by going to the web sites of each carrier to get the essential forms, such as for the commercial invoice required for international shipments. These were easy to find at at the UPS and DHL web sites, harder to find at Fedex. If we had been registered users of any of the services, we could have filled out all the required paperwork on the web; but we are not and so we looked for forms that we could print at our office. The forms were available only in pdf format. They seemed designed for printing and then filling in by hand; to edit them electronically requires Adobe Acrobat, which is proprietary software.

Results

Destination	Carrier	Cost	Delivery	Route	Comments
Ouagadougou	FedEx	$202.82	19 April 1709h	Atlanta; Memphis; Newark, NJ; Paris; Ouagadougou (details)	WINNER!
	UPS	$202.47	20 April 0919h	Atlanta; Hapeville, GA; Louisville, KY; Philadelphia; Paris; Abidjan; Ouagadougou (details)	This package was delayed in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The tracking message read: “The scheduled flight was cancelled and caused this delay due to circumstances beyond UPS control”. Strangely, this package was reported as having been scanned again at Abidjan on 21 April, a day after delivery! We are not sure what this means.
	DHL	$165.02	28 April 1651h	Atlanta; Wilmington, OH; New York; Cologne; Brussels; Lagos; Ouagadougou (details)	Our package sat in Ouagadougou for one week before delivery. DHL said the address was inadequate.
Punta Arenas	DHL	$124.93	18 April 1626h	Atlanta; Miami; Santiago; Punta Arenas (details)	WINNER!
	FedEx	$170.57	20 April 1141h, as reported to tracking, but recipient says it was actually delivered 19 April at 1730h	Atlanta; Memphis; Miami; Santiago; Punta Arenas (details)
	UPS	$167.67	20 April 1050h but recipient says 1115h	Atlanta; Hapeville, GA; Louisville, KY; Miami; Santiago; Punta Arenas (details)	Tracking message on 18 April: “A processing error has at destination caused this delay [in Santiago]; the package was missorted at the hub. It has been rerouted to the correct destination site.” A message later that day says “The address is in a remote area and deliveries are not made daily.” Our recipient noted that the package was carried from Santiago to Punta Arenas by LANCargo and delivered locally by ChileExpress
Split	UPS	$224.16	19 April 1000h	Atlanta; Hapeville, GA; Louisville, KY; Cologne; Zagreb (details)	WINNER!: ahead of DHL by only 3 minutes! (The recipient was not home to receive the package but we consider the race over when the package reaches its destination, even if the recipient is not there to receive it.) UPS returned the next day to deliver.
	DHL	$157.68	19 April 1003h	Atlanta; Wilmington, OH; New York; Cologne; Brussels; Bergamo; Zagreb; … (details)	No one was home at this, the first delivery attempt.
	FedEx	$222.82	24 April 0905h	Atlanta; Memphis; Panama City, Panama; Alajuela, Costa Rica???; Memphis, Paris; Frankfurt; Split (details)	A keying error by courier: “CR” apparently sent our package to Costa Rica instead of CRoatia
Surabaya	UPS	$111.94	18 April 1205h	Atlanta; Hapeville, GA; Louisville, KY; Anchorage, AK; Incheon, Korea; Singapore; Jakarta; Surabaya (details)	WINNER!
	DHL	$76.15	19 April 0955h	Atlanta; Wilmington, OH; Singapore; Jakarta; Surabaya (details)
	FedEx	$116.01	20 April 0913h	Atlanta; Indianapolis; Chicago; Anchorage; Subic Bay, Philippines; Cengkareng, Jakarta; Surabaya (details)

The routes

Figure 1: UPS routes to our destinations

After local pickup, each package was driven to a local freight terminal, sorted, and then flown to one of the major sortation facilities the carriers operate in the midwestern US: UPS uses Louisville, KY; FedEx uses Indianapolis, IN or Memphis, TN; DHL uses Wilmington, OH (northeast of Cincinnati).

What we learned

• Our choice of destinations was not representative of most international shipping and may not reflect service to be expected to more typical destinations.
• For destinations, like ours, that are outside the larger channels of international commerce, packages are eventually transferred to local carriers who are subcontractred to the multinationals. Then we lost some visibility into the delivery chain. For example, the delivery times reported by DHL and UPS at Punta Arenas were inconsistent with those reported by our recipient.
• A surprising number of processing errors, especially keying errors, delayed packages: See, for example, UPS in Santiago; FedEx
  in Costa Rica; and the puzzling UPS post-delivery scan in Abidjan. We experienced similar problems in 2004.
• DHL was significantly less expensive than the others, yet won one race and missed winning another by only 3 minutes. But they let our package sit for a week in Ouagadougou. They claimed the address was inadequate but never explained how. Eventually they delivered the package.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Paul Goldsman, Sergio Maturana, and Sriram Subramanian for help in sending off the packages; and thanks to the recipients for documenting their arrival! Also thanks to Bob Foley for catching some errors in the original html coding for this web page and to Anton Kleywegt for correcting some of my lapses in the geography of Africa.

(My colleague George Nemhauser has visited two of these cities, Split and Punta Arenas. Has anyone else visited more than two?)