posted on November 18, 2005 10:29:50 PM
Thanks to info from Pat and a half day talking to FedEx, I am wee bit wiser.
Small settlements (that towns for the rest of us) in Utah may not deliver mail to houses. Instead residents go to the local PO for their mail.
The houses do have addresses, but since there is no mail home delivery, the address may or may not be listed when you try to create a label on the USPS site.
FedEx databases rely on USPS mailing address for the most part.
If you want to send a package to one of thes "unlisted" addresses in Utah, it may not show if you ask for address verification on the FedEx shipping page. It took talking to 3 FedEx reps, one of them India(!), before I was told to go ahead and create the label, ship the package and cross my fingers. She assured me that if the package was undeliverable, I should get a call from the local Utah FedEx office before they ship it back.
I learned all of this after talking to customer, verifying the address and they told UPS delivers with no problem. Since I'm set up for FedEx and really did not want to be bothered setting up a UPS account, I checked into why FedEx was not up to par.
When your ship comes in.... make sure you are willing to unload it.
posted on November 18, 2005 10:51:41 PM
FedEx relies on previously entered information on a customer that is already in their database. If there is none, they rely on the delivering driver's knowledge of his delivery area and his ability to locate an address. There are still a few remote locations in the U.S. where there is no service by their home delivery division. I ran into this on a shipment to Montana. When they encouter a situation like this, the package will go to the nearest FedEx Ground location to destination. The station manager will make a mailing label, attach sufficient postage, and mail it to the post office in the customer's town. He'll notify the P.O. the package is on the way and the customer will get it when they go to the P.O. for their mail. It's one of the few instances where a customer can receive a FedEx delivery at a post office. A few years ago, I had an instance where a UPS driver worked out a deal with a school bus driver to deliver packages to a remote location on an Indian reservation. These drivers out in the boondocks learn to improvise.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on November 19, 2005 11:15:37 AM
It's not just Utah, but tiny communities everywhere.
I have relatives in a Missouri hellhole the 20th century left behind. They have street addresses, but everybody has a PO box because there's no door-to-door mail delivery. Mail addressed to the street address will be delivered to the PO box because, in a town of less than 500, everybody knows everybody else and all of their business anyway, so figuring out which PO box a package belongs to isn't a problem.
I don't know what the private delivery services do--this town is off a main route between two cities, so I would imagine trucks go by on a regular basis. Finding the delivery address wouldn't be a problem--just ask at the drug store, or cafe, or PO, and one of the regulars will be able to give the driver directions.
posted on November 19, 2005 12:37:34 PM
Ltray...No, they don't charge extra. It's cheaper for FedEx to slap a fistfull of stamps on a box and mail it than it is for one of their hourly drivers to make a special 8 hour trip to deliver it. If they have express shipments going to that same town that day, they might have their driver deliver it. Otherwise, they'll mail it.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
