Thursday, August 8, 2013

On the slowness of Canada Post

Well apparently the 6700 has been sent via USPS.

What this means to a recipient in Canada is that it gets dropped at the border somewhere and then Canada Post pick up the responsibility for the transit across the country to Vancouver.

This could also mean that the package sits in a customs holding area for some arbitrary amount of time before being cleared and released for the remainder of its journey.

Whatever the relative balance between the logistics and bureaucracy I have always perceived shipping in Canada as being really slow.  Before the year 2000, I lived in the UK and some deliveries there seemed almost miraculous.  Several times I ordered items from companies on the East coast of the US, and they would be on my doorstep in England by morning of the second day.  I have never once had that experience while living in Canada or anything like it, even if you allow for the size of the country.  For instance, I have purchased stuff from California and Washington state and it has taken a week or more to arrive, despite sometimes using expedited services.  Somehow, getting stuff out of the US, across the Atlantic, into a cargo facility and then out for delivery can be super-slick, compared to shipping within the same continent or even just 'up the coast'!

Anyway, Flex Radio provide the 'label number', from which it is possible to get a form of tracking information from USPS and Canada Post.  USPS show that the package was collected on Aug 1, and then veritably 'raced' to Chicago.  That's where it has been since Aug 4 and I'm writing this on Aug 8.  Of course, it's probably not actually there any more, but that is the last scan.  I suspect it has been dropped at the border and is now in some long queue for customs processing, but who knows!

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