Delivery Services

Delivery Services

We have had a lot of packages delivered over the years. I'm sure you have too. With all of these deliveries, I have developed an internal rating of the various delivery services. I thought I would take some time to rank them here.

UPS

In our area, I think UPS is the gold (or brown) standard. A package is almost always delivered when they say it will be. They are incredibly consistent with the delivery times. When I know I'm getting a UPS package, I know almost exactly when it will arrive.  

Our normal UPS guy is really nice too. He's good with the dogs (when they are out) and always brings packages up to the front door.

USPS

USPS is a pretty close second to UPS. Our mailman is very nice (and loves our dogs). I've got a pretty good sense of when a package will be delivered via the postal service. They aren't as punctual as UPS, but they are insanely reliable.

My only issue with our USPS deliveries is that our mailman will sometimes jam a box that barely fits into our mailbox. I'm not sure how he gets some of these packages in there, but yowza, they are hard to get out. When they do that, I have some not-so-nice words to say while I try to get the box out of our mailbox.

I've always been happy with USPS.

Amazon

Amazon is also pretty reliable. I love how I can track packages on a map when they get close. But every once in a while, a package will never show up. I've got zero data on how often this occurs, but every so often, a package just goes missing. I'll put in a complaint with Amazon and they'll send a new item. No biggie.

Sometimes with Amazon, they play hide and seek with the packages. Sometimes they are by the front door, sometimes in the garage (if we leave the door open), sometimes in the mailbox, and sometimes in the middle of our walkway. This is no big deal.

LaserShip

I know almost nothing about LaserShip. I just know that they have some really sketchy-looking vans. They also deliver on the day they say they will. I don't have any complaints about them.

They do always put the packages by the front door.

FedEx

FedEx is our least reliable service. Here's a very common example of a FedEx delivery to our house.

The initial delivery date was Monday (Nov 14, 2022). It was then marked as "early" to be delivered on Sunday (Nov 13, 2022). The package wasn't delivered on either of those days. It finally showed up on Tuesday (today, Nov 15, 2022).

Something like this happens to most of our deliveries from FedEx. They always deliver the packages, eventually.

When I see that a package is being shipped by FedEx, I groan and accept the fact that it'll likely be a day late.

Wrapping Up

We have had good experiences with most of our delivery services. I think we're lucky in that respect. I've heard horror stories from some folks about their delivery services/people. I'm just glad ours are mostly good.