Sent a couple of things to North TX (DFW), same address.

First package O/N via FedEx. It went directly to North TX, then to final destination.

Second one via UPS O/N. It went to their main hub in Louisville, KY, before going back to DFW. Dumb.

I know they both have their main hubs. But, it appears that FedEx's has a way of sorting out stuff that don't need to go to their main hub, if the final destination is within walking distance from the shipper's location.

Having working at UPS one Christmas season, it probably got miss-sorted.

The zip codes for sorting at the Chantilly Center were not up to date so I did a computer Zip Code reference sheet using Excel and spent about $50 of my own money for clip boards etc for each sorting position.

If it is miss-sorted, sometimes the truck driver can catch the mistake and send it back. If not, another day is lost as he finds it and brings it back at the end of his shift.

I posted about this several years ago.

I'm in NW MT and ordered something by ground from SLC. Following the tracking, it showed that it left SLC, headed north on I15 until it hit Butte. Then, it went east all the way to Billings before returning to here. I've noticed this several times.

It doesn't make any sense to me, but I suspect that UPS has some reason for doing it that way.

a lot of it has to do with what assets are headed where, and when.
It's often faster or at least less costly to send a package along two legs of a triangle rather than along the shorter one, if there isn't a truck headed that way already, or it isn't full enough to pay it's way.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

I know they both have their main hubs. But, it appears that FedEx's has a way of sorting out stuff that don't need to go to their main hub, if the final destination is within walking distance from the shipper's location.

Sounds like progress on FedEx's part.

I'm not surprised that at the volume they have now, both UPS and FedEx will switch to a hybrid version of the hub and spokes that the airlines uses for location pairs that have the volume.

There are so many packages flowing through especially this time of year nothing would surprise me. On the other hand, as long as they arrive in the time span expected/quoted and are in good shape it shouldn't make much different to the consumer how they are routed. It's all handled automatically with little human intervention.

FedEx was the innovator of the central hub logistics model where in the begging, EVERYTHING was routed through Memphis no matter where it was going. Even shipments like NY to FL went to Memphis. In the beginning it was next day air only... no ground. When they first started their hub system there were many naysayers that said that was just stupid. We all know how that worked out though. Now of course they have multiple regional hubs.