It Might Ship As Early as Today - HA!

Shipping companies in the LTL (less than a full truck-load) business save HUGE amounts of money by scheduling shipments to minimize travel, and avoid empty or partially-empty trucks. They pass a little bit of that savings on to their customers. (As little as they can get away with, of course!) So, your shipment has to wait for another big hunk of something going approximately the same way. My lathe came on a truck with printing presses and something that was dropped off earlier. They devote a HUGE effort to this scheduling problem, the(ir) savings are huge. Assuming you are shipping these LTL, the machinery dealers are at the mercy of the LTL shippers to tell them WHEN the truck will get there to pick up the shipment. And, they generally won't give you a schedule until AFTER you commit to the shipment.

The shipment of big machines is a totally different business from FedEx, UPS, etc. shipping thousands of small boxes on one truck. If you MUST have it in short order, you can hire the whole truck, but you'll pay a LOT more for that service.

Jon

Oh, I know how it works. Its just irritating as hell when tracking from the actual trucking company shows estimated delivery time three days ago.

So, doesn't that have a lot more to do with the trucking company that you aren't complaining about than the vendor that you are?

Dropping a note to the vendor that you'd at least like accurate tracking information may help in that regard.

I think if I were the vendor and I read this, I would word the email "it's all packed up, the trucking company has been called, and now we wait".

Actually the vendor did call for a pickup a couple days after they said in the case that set me off, but the freight expediter just plane lied about how long it would take. They said 5-7 days. Its been ten and the latest estimate now is 13 days (Monday). The thing is these companies have been trucking across country for decades, and they KNOW how long it takes, but I have NEVER had an estimated delivery date from a trucking company or a freight expediter be accurate from more than one state away. Most arrive a day or two after, but this will be a full week after their latest delivery estimate IF it arrives then.

And even though they called for a freight pickup appointment a few days later than they originally said that is about what they said when they finally did.

I guess my real peeve is that it seems to be the norm in freight to lie about it.

My point is that it NEVER ships today when they say "it might ship as early as today."

Well ... when I buy (components, tools and instruments) from MSC, they ship on the same day (unless I call really late -- e.g. just before the West Coast branches close), and I typically get them the next work day. (Usually shipped from the Harrisburg PA warehouse, and arriving in Northern VA (close to the DC beltway).

Last semi-heavy thing which I ordered from them was the typical $200 Horizontal/Vertical bandsaw, and that took a bit longer, since it came by freight -- but not much longer.

I've had similar problems recently with ordering certain electronics connectors. At least one had to wait until the factory made another run of that particular configuration. :-(

Indeed so.

Enjoy, DoN.

I've been looking for the connector HP used to connect to the 355E/F attenuators. No one shows any stock. The MOQ from the OEM is 1K, at $28 each. It was a seven pin Winchester circular plug, HP: Connector (7-pin, male) 1251-1037

These guys

Placed an order with a print shop Thursday afternoon. for a one-day turnaround job. They say it will be delivered "sometime" today (Tuesday). I suppose that is still one day, for some extremely huge value of "one."

Yeah. LOL. Occasionally I need a print job done fast, and don't mind paying a little extra. Speedy Signs is decent at that, but I wouldn't ever buy bulk items from them.

On a side note, my vendor for a new Tennsmith brake told me it should arrive yesterday in the AM, and the trucking company would call before delivery. I got a call from the trucking company yesterday afternoon saying it would arrive today in the afternoon. I suppose that's not horrible. Its only one day late instead of 8 like the mill I finally received yesterday.