[Discussion] reship is doing more work than we give it credit for
reship is doing more work than we give it credit for. Not a hot take, just something I have not seen said plainly here.
Total transit decomposes into first mile, international leg, clearance and last mile. Only the first two are meaningfully under the shipper’s control and most reported variance sits in the last two.
Where the time actually goes, which I got wrong for two years.
Total transit is first mile, international leg, customs clearance and last mile. I had been attributing everything to the international leg because that is the part with the exotic-sounding name.
When I finally logged the stages separately, the international leg was the most consistent part of the whole journey. The variance was in clearance and in the domestic delivery at my end — neither of which the supplier controls. That reframed how I read every lane report on this board, and it is why the table separates the stages.
The regional stock question, and why it is the first thing I ask now.
If a supplier holds the line you want in a warehouse in your own region, your order is a domestic shipment. No international leg, no clearance, a shorter cold exposure and a lead time in days rather than weeks. If they do not, it is an international shipment however it is described at checkout.
So the question is not "how fast do you ship" but "which lines do you hold in regional stock, and is the one I want among them". It is one email, the answer is usually a list, and it changes what to order and when — especially in summer.
Research-use-only material is not approved for human use and nothing here should be read as a recommendation to use it.
best — the order this archive was captured in
A quoted lead time is a commitment you can evaluate. Measuring quoted against actual across several orders tells you more about an operation than the raw speed does.
Careful — the supplier does not control the last mile and most of your variance is in it.
Careful — the supplier does not control the last mile and most of your variance is in it.
Adding the field everyone forgets — the month. Without it the report is not comparable to anything.
Push back: comparing a July transit with a February one on the same lane is not a comparison.
I would not read a single slow shipment as a lane change. Post it and let the median move if it is real.
Not convinced by four data points. That is not a lane yet, it is an anecdote with a route attached.
Same lane, four orders, 13 to 13 days, all four within a couple of days of the quote. That consistency is the actual finding.
Small fix — shipped from the regional warehouse, not from origin, which is why the number looks unusual.
Split one order across two months on purpose to compare summer and winter. Four days apart, same carrier, same route.
No tracking numbers. It is the one hard rule here and it exists because they identify both ends.
Ordered from the warehouse in Denmark instead of origin and the whole customs question disappeared. 10 days, door to door.