Georgia Tech's Supply Chain and Logistics Institute annually conducts a test of service by the three major parcel carriers, DHL, UPS and FedEx. This year they shipped packages from Atlanta to destinations in the South Pacific, a coastal Brazilian island, Africa, Iraq and Southeast Asia.
Specific locations included:
- Apia, the only city on Upulu, one of the islands comprising the country of Samoa, in the western Pacific Ocean. Upulu has no street addresses.
- Florianopolis, an island off the coast of southern Brazil just above Uruguay; considered by the carriers to be a “remote area”
- Harare, capital of Zimbabwe, which is currently experiencing hyperinflation and political unrest.
- Tikrit, birthplace of Saddam Hussein and a center of Sunni insurgency in Iraq
- Yangon, until recently, capital of Myanmar, one of the most isolated countries in the world. The city was formerly known as Rangoon, Burma.
By all accounts DHL won the race by having delivered all the packages tendered from Atlanta to the global destinations. FedEx still hasn't delivered two of their parcels.
OK, as a DHL homer, I am pleased to see the outcome. I was especially pleased to see our customer service team be as helpful as they were. DHL is especially strong in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. So, the results in some ways are not surprising. All three carriers as well as TNT are making major strides in growth internationally. With China comprising 1.4 billion people and India with 1.1 billion more, it is logical that service investments chase the shipping volume.
This particular exercise makes interesting reading from an academic perspective, but I'm not sure how relevant the test is practically. Georgia Tech asked for more suggestions on testing. OK...here are some ideas.
What I'm interested in is a transit test between Atlanta and Statesboro, Georgia, which some carriers consider a black out area despite being only 200 miles from Atlanta. How about from Kingsport, Tennessee to Branson, Missouri? Or rural Montana? These are more practical tests, and frankly probably a more business useful comparison test. Try deliveries to businesses and to residences. We all order off of Amazon and E-bay and Dell.
I'd also like to see some NAFTA tests.
Who is fastest to ship to and from Canada or Mexico? Pick a point in rural Mexico and test how long it takes to get a non-conveyable package to a US interior point. Pick a mid-size city in the US, not just some rural place.
Testing shouldn't only measure speed.
In a supply chain test, being on-time is more important than transit in my view. Heres a personal example. I purchased a new PC for my home a couple of weeks ago. I like computer games, so it was a custom built job from a top quality vendor located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The vendor chose to ship it to me via UPS via their 3 day ground select service. I actually like getting packages from other carriers because it lets me test and experience their service levels.
UPS did a great job...in fact too good. My package arrived in TWO days from Toronto and I had full visibility to the package in transit, customs clearance and delivery. Only one problem... I was expecting the package on day 3 when the pre-advice said it was coming. The package required signature so UPS had to redeliver the package on a day when someone was home. Being early in a commercial environment is as bad or worse, than being late because it can screw up inventory flows and planning. Nevertheless the UPS service was very good. I got the impression the folks in Brown had been doing this for awhile.
Tech should also ship heavyweight air and measure that service.
Ship a 300 lb. piece by all three parcel carriers. Ship it domestic and ship it international. See if all three carriers give you the option of shipping it as a parcel OR as deferred air freight. If the goods don't require time definite delivery, shipping as air freight through the forwarding arm of one of the parcel guys will save you BIG money.
There are lots of ways to compare the big three. However, I think in this case DHL Express won what I hope will be round 1 of a longer fight. These tests make all three carriers better at what they do by providing scrutiny and experience to the shipping public.
Eric
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