2019 a shipping odyssey

There has been much discussion recently of what’s going on now in the shipping world.

My case of Harrington wines from their recent sale has had an interesting journey so far.

It was picked up by FedEx in San Francisco on Wednesday evening. Many folks here have been posting about shipments just waiting at various hubs for days as, presumably, package volume outweighed truck capacity. Same here. My case made it from San Francisco, CA to Tracy, CA overnight, but then sat there from about 1pm Thursday until 5 am Saturday. Normal enough for this time of year.

Leaving there, it made steady progress, with the only odd thing being that it went the southern route, down toward LA and across the desert, rather than the more direct way through Tahoe/Reno and Salt Lake City. Given the weather, probably a good idea. But steady progress through AZ, NM, TX, and KS - all good.

But then it heads to Willow Springs, IL, where it arrived this morning at 8 am. Which, Google tells me, is suburban Chicago. So a package from San Francisco to St. Louis, going by truck, has gone from Kansas to Chicago. OK.

But tonight’s update is my favorite. The 8am update today was Willow Springs, IL. The next update is 10:17 pm tonight, and it’s in Countryside, IL. Again unfamiliar, again I consult Google maps. Again I’m told we’re in the Chicago burbs. In fact, all we’ve done in those 15 hours is crossed the Des Plaines river. Willow Springs to Countryside, Mr. Google tells me, is 3.6 miles. 8 minutes by car. Presumably it will be in St. Louis early tomorrow morning and then out for delivery later in the day, but the whole routing through Chicago and then having two check-points, right across the river but 14 hours apart - bizarre.

I had a package do the same where it just bummed around various small towns in IL for 3 days. On the 4th day it was in Chicago before appearing in the local distribution hub a few 3 days later. All in all, package arrived 3 days late.

Last year I thought the network did pretty well. This year by all accounts seems awful.

Two cases from a recent shipment coming from London didn’t make it to us. After extensive emailing and work on our part (of any party that could be at fault, it certainly wasn’t us), we discovered they have been sitting for weeks now in Singapore. I’d say that’s a pretty round about way of getting to Philadelphia.

My latest shipment sat on a trailer for 2+ days a mile from the FedEx Office it is supposed to be delivered to. They claim it is being delivered today but I will believe when it is in my hands. The system is just overwhelmed. I’m still not sure why a winery does a November release with delivery in the middle of holiday shipping.

I was able to pick up the order this morning. In cardboard and the bottles were extremely cold. Corks looked OK.

My winebid box is stalled on Nebraska.
3.5 days now.
May be popsicles for all I know …

My Ravenswood shipment is taking 9 days to go coast to coast

15 degrees in Willow Springs, IL. I truly hope the wine is in good shape.

I live in Chicago. I’ve had a package make it to the Chicago suburbs only to get sent to Memphis, then to Louisville, and finally back to the same suburban hub before finally being delivered.

My incoming Fedex shipments (not necessarily wine) have been arriving 3-4 days later than indicated by the initial shipment notification. I think that online shopping increased faster than anticipated, plus competent seasonal labor is harder than usual to find. All the carriers are using rental trucks to expand the fleet.

Well, my wine that yesterday went all the way from Willow Springs, IL (8 am Tuesday) to Countryside, IL (10 pm Tuesday) has, in the ensuing 16 hours, made it all the way to Chicago, IL (2 pm Wed).

I wasn’t so concerned with the extra time waiting in CA for a pickup at the outgoing hub, but these are not the best couple of days for the wine to just be driving aimlessly around Chicago, not that it ever should have gone to Chicago (but at least it didn’t go to Memphis or Singapore).

I solve this issue by not having any wine shipped anywhere around the holidays. Too often run into these issues.

Same. This Harrington close-out was a one-off, though, and I rolled the dice. We’ll see…

I should add, though, that I’ve never had any wine of mine take such a circuitous route. My NorCal shipments just show Salt Lake, Commerce City, CO, Lenexa, KS, and then St. Louis, for example, though most of those have been UPS. This is the first time I’ve had a package from the west coast make it to KS and then head up to Chicago “on its way” to me.

Why on God’s green earth would wineries ship in December (let alone mid December) unless a customer specifically asks to have it shipped, is beyond me.

Buying from the west coast, I always ship priority overnight. Arrives by 1030am to the FedEx in DC (in MD so not many ship to me,) I’m there by 11 to pick it up, and it’s in my cellar by 1130. Honestly given the fact that there’s no tax and the tax rate is about 10%, it’s not a huge deal to spend $56 to ship 6 bottles or $90 for a case. It only gets pricey when you start dealing with magnums- six bottles and two mags are costing me $108 (arriving tomorrow.) K&L must have some deal with FedEx, though, because I was looking into having two bottles shipped from Chicago and they wanted $76 for priority overnight. I’m just having them hold those bottles until the temps are more conducive to ground shipping.

I think someone misread Philadelphia as the Philippines.

Piling on, but after years of basically receiving wine year round without incident, this December has been the first I’ve had boxes just “stuck”—in this case also the Chicago suburbs.
Contacted the shipper and he said FedEx deemed it lost, and he would resend. Wine showed up 5 days later than originally scheduled looking no worse for wear.

The FedEx employees I talked to described the FedEx system as overwhelmed with everyone struggling to try and catch up.