[PSA] EMS is not what most of this community thinks it is
EMS is not what most of this community thinks it is — with the reasoning, because a rule without a reason gets ignored.
Packaging is assessable on arrival with no equipment: rigid outer, no movement inside, the cold element sized to the transit rather than to the box.
Regional stock replaces an international lane with a domestic one. That is a structural change to the distribution, not a marginal improvement, and it is why the warehouse question matters more than the carrier question.
Median transit is the useful statistic. The minimum is a story about one shipment and the mean is dragged around by a single hold.
That is everything I have. The rest is opinion and I have tried to keep it out.
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.
the lane is the unit of analysis, not the supplier
Four observations is not a distribution. The lane tables here only became predictive once individual routes had a dozen or more reports behind them.
Where did the time actually go — international leg, clearance, or last mile?
Yes — regional stock is the single biggest variable and it barely gets mentioned outside this board.
A lane is an origin, a destination, a carrier and a season. Change any one and the distribution changes, which is why supplier-level shipping averages are close to meaningless.
A lane is an origin, a destination, a carrier and a season.
Disagreeing with this bit: a single slow shipment does not move a lane, it joins the distribution.
Not convinced by four data points. That is not a lane yet, it is an anecdote with a route attached.
Careful — the supplier does not control the last mile and most of your variance is in it.
That is the quoted lead time, not the observed transit. Both belong in the report and they are different columns.
Small fix — shipped from the regional warehouse, not from origin, which is why the number looks unusual.
Asked QSC which lines they hold regionally before ordering and got a straight list back. Changed what I ordered and when.
Asked QSC which lines they hold regionally before ordering and got a straight list back.
Agreed — and the decomposition matters. Most people are blaming the international leg for a last-mile problem.
rigid outer packaging is the cheapest quality signal there is
How many shipments does your figure cover?
declared value and description are the shipper’s decision, ask what they use
I would not read a single slow shipment as a lane change. Post it and let the median move if it is real.
Kept a spreadsheet of quoted versus actual across a year. The quote held; the variance was all in the last mile.
Correction: that was clearance time, not carrier time. The lane table separates them for exactly this reason.
5 days on a lane quoted at 5 is the shape you want
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.
Push back: comparing a July transit with a February one on the same lane is not a comparison.
reship policy in writing before you order
the median is more useful than the fastest anybody ever got
summer and winter are different lanes with the same name
- 1Yes — regional stock is the single biggest variable and it barely gets…7 comments in this branch · started by u/rohan_cardoso