🚀 go-pugleaf

On 10/06/2012 12:49 PM, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> Phil Hobbs wrote:
>> The logistics companies give you one
>> tracking number that works anywhere in the world, whereas the post
>> offices all generate confusion and duplicated numbers that make it very
>> hard to establish whether something got delivered, and if not, where it
>> went.
>>
>
> Registered mail uses one tracking number worldwide too. It's R, a letter,
> a fixed length string of numbers and the country code. I can track a
> letter or package sent registered mail from almost any country on
> 17track.net, several other similar sites, and once it is here on the
> Israel postal site.
>
> The problem with the US is that they send regular international mail
> using a tracking number with an L at the begining, and those are
> tracked as far as the first post office the sender drops them off at.
>
> Occasionally they are tracked to a sorting center, but not always, and usually
> not.
>
> Several years ago the USPS restructured their rates for mail outside of the
> US. They dropped surface mail, replacing it with an air mail system that
> takes almost as long. I have had packages take 6 weeks to arrive here airmail
> from the US.
>
> They did a survey of prices of the courier services, and simply charge 1/2
> of what the courier services do. If you want registered mail, they charge
> another $12 or so for it.

Sounds like a bargain to me.  Very few other organizations would leave 
money on the table like that.  I sure wouldn't.  Would you?

>
> Compare that to China which charges a few dollars to send a package, and
> another dollar or so for registered mail. Or the UK (and the rest of the
> EU) that charge about $5 for postage and registered mail.

Plus they save on duty by claiming that everything is a gift.  Such 
generous folks, those Chinese.

>
>> US postal rates are also quite low, which may make it more difficult for
>> them to negotiate a revenue sharing agreement with higher cost
>> organizations.
>
> No, they are rediculously high. Much more than an other postal service
> for international mail, they also have a very high theft rate, and will
> not insure their packages.

Dunno.  I don't ship a lot of stuff overseas, so that's quite possible. 
  However, they're terrific domestically.

>
> As for rates, everyone pays the same rate by international treaty. So the
> eBay vendor in central China that pays a few dollars to send his package
> is paying the Israel post office the same amount to deliver my mail as
> the vendor from the US that pays $16 for the same size package.
>
> The profit/cost above it goes to their national post offices.

What treaties are those, and do they guarantee the same rates for everyone?

>
> It's like cellular roaming rates. I pay .73 NIS ($.20US) per minue to call
> on my cell phone from all over europe back to Israel, or to the US.
>
> Someone with a US company can easily pay $3 for the same call, BUT their
> cellular company paid the local company the same amount as mine did for
> taking the call and forwarding it over international long distance
> lines.

Depends what's important to you, of course.  Mostly when I'm in Europe I 
do my calling over wifi using UMA, so it costs the same as at home.  But 
I only go there every couple of years.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs


-- 
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net