On 5/4/2010 4:13 PM, HeyBub wrote:
Morris Dovey wrote:

Fair enough, but I remember Railway Express moving packages around the
country without cumbersome delays - and that was before there were
computers to help optimize loading manifests and help train masters
make up trains.

Heh!

Check your history. The Railway Express Agency started out as the Pony
Express. The REA was in business for over a hundred years - and never made a
profit.

I'm willing to concede the profitability point (even without checking it
out) - but my packages always arrived and AFAIK the packages my mom sent
always reached their destination intact and on time.

Shipments from the left coast took just under a week - and my most
recent order, a set of T-handle metric ball drivers from an outfit in
NJ, was projected to spend a full week traveling UPS ground.

From my perspective, it would appear that UPS has leveraged information
technology to produce a profit doing the same job at approximately the
same performance level delivered by REA in the 1940's...

....except, of course, for coast-to-coast overnight and second-day air.

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/