UPS ground slow this year?

Cellar Rats (ITB)
1

Anyone else noticed that shipments eastward seem to be taking a day or two longer than usual via UPS ground?

2

YES!!! My two cases of McHenry arrived at 5:30pm yesterday afternoon. Usually the driver gets to my house by 4.

[wink.gif]

3

Yes! I had the same thought.

4

Yep! UPS used to take 5 days from CA to FL. My last 2 orders took 7 days [cry.gif]

5

My latest shipment will take 7 days, but only because the winery shipped late on a Monday evening.
The shipment didn’t go out until very early Tuesday morning, and it arrived in NJ on Saturday morning.

6

We have always seen east coast from the bay area be 5 business days. As in, arrives the the same day one week later. Ship on Monday, arrives Monday of the following week, with the exception of S Florida where a few locations are 6 business days.

Still seeing the same, FWIW.

7

Glad to hear it is still the same, but keep holding those FLA orders until after Thanksgiving. Still too many days here in the 80’s.

Thank you.

8

So since this changes the whole “don’t ship over the weekend” with regular ground from CA to back East, what do you think is the best way to offset these new costs?

Should the wineries eat it, pay more to get it there sooner?

Just curious what folks think, as our costs will go up, but don’t want to seem like we’re screwing the customer either.

Should both sides chip in as UPS has now changed the schedule?

Thanks for any input. Oh, and as a winery trying to wait until the weather cools in order to ship, it’s been so frustrating the last couple of seasons, because even out here in CA, you can’t see a weather change coming as it has been all over the map. Absolulety crazy.

9

T-Bone,

This does not really change the parameters for ground shipments to FLA. I always request my ground shipments to go on a Thursday. As Josh said, that results in delivery the following Thursday. In the event of some delay, it should still be here by Friday. This results in the wine spending the weekend earlier in the journey, which is better than at the end of the journey in the heat of FLA.

If shipments do go from 5 to 6 days, the best bet for me is just to have the shipment go Wednesday instead of Thursday. Again, I am not very worried about the temps in the big trucks or trains the boxes travel on. My bigger concern is the temp once the wine gets to FLA.

But to address the substance of your question, I would love to see more wineries offer 3-day air as an option. Too many offer 2 day as the only option other than ground and the upcharge is too much in many cases. I think the 3 day provides a pretty decent savings and I would often be willing to pay more to have 3 day, but not willing to pay for 2 day.

Is there any reason you know of that more places do not offer 3 day?

10

No, but I will definitely inquire. Thanks again for your response. Makes a lot of sense.

11

Yes, but I would characterize it more as sloppy. I’ve had 2 shipments from Max (that normally arrive like clockwork) get split up with part of the shipment delayed until the next Monday.

I’ve also had another shipment from JJB where they broke 4 mags of 05 GPL and then very sloppily repackaged the remaining 2 and sent them on to me. They were still dripping and stained on arrival. (FWIW, JJB is standing behind them.)

No issues with Fedex thus far. I wonder what is going on with UPS? Time to short the stock?

Chris

12

B Stucker is one of the few customers we have that request the Thursday shipment, but I think he is on to something.

I’ve tried to get the best information from UPS I can. I’ve been told that their shipments keep moving every day except holidays. That is, the wine is still moving East, probably by train, on a Sunday. It only stops when it reaches the final hub awaiting delivery.

So, it seems to make sense that if a Monday cross country shipment is not going to be ready for delivery on Friday, it makes more sense to ship on Wednesday or Thursday so that it hits the destination like Florida in the middle of the next week.

13

We’ve been trying to explain this to our customers for years. UPS has always said it is 5 business days to ship from CA to the Mid West (beyond IL) East Coast, etc, so basically anything on the other side of IL, AR, TX, IN & MI is going to take 5 business days from CA for ground and they don’t count the day it is picked up. The best time to ship ground, weather permitting is mid week so it continues to travel. It’s hard for people to understand Saturday & Sunday are not business days. Once in a million years they may deliver early, that is not the rule but an exception. Holidays are a whole different animal, I look forward to the lunacy of holiday shipping time, example: order today at 9 p.m overnight and think it will get to NY by 10 a.m. tomorrow.
rolleyes

14

We use Fed ex. Not only for cost but consistancy for delivery times. It’s important to us seeing we will only ship on days that will ensure the delivery will not be over a weekend. Fed ex has not failed us yet and we can accurately predict the delivery date of almost every shipment. Since taking this approach, we have had no heat or cold damage, blown corks etc. sent back from customers.