Ok…so I mailed two packages last week…on USPS Priority Mail and the other UPS. Both said the packages would arrive either Saturday or Monday (today).
Anyone want to take bets on which gets there more quickly.
I should add, it cost me a fortune to mail these. The USPS box was large but it was over $50. The UPS box was like a large fixed rate box…and it was $25.
I haven’t used UPS in years, but maybe I should. Let us know who wins.
I sent my daughter two packages USPS 2-day priority mail from MD to CA. I knew it would take longer than 2 days but was pretty annoyed when I followed the tracking. It left my post office an hour after I dropped it off, but was not tracked again until 2.5 days later (Sat) when it was logged into another local USPS distribution facility less than 30 miles away. The next update was the following Tuesday, almost a week later, when it showed up at another USPS facility in an obscure facility 30 miles from my home in the opposite direction. They literally had to drive right by the post office I mailed from to get to that facility. So it basically traveled around MD for a week. They finally arrived in CA Thursday and delivered to her apartment on Saturday…10 days after I spent a fortune to send priority mail. Annoyed as I was, it was a huge relief just to know it actually arrived. One box was all of the ornaments we have given her since she was born, so irreplaceable.
I normally prefer UPS but it is cheaper and (normally) faster for me to send via Priority Mail if sending things to the West Coast. Were both of your packages going to the same address? As I waited for my daughter’s packages to arrive, I wondered if UPS ground would actually have been any faster.
It took USPS 5 days to get me a package once it was already in my town. The tracking said it was moved to a different facility 4 times. It finally arrived Saturday and the tracking didn’t update that it was delivered until this morning.
I vote for UPS getting there first.
I’m going to guess that they arrive on the same day. 
One was sent across the country (the USPS Priority mail one) and the other just 350 miles away or so (UPS).
So far, neither has been received. BUT an Amazon package ordered Friday was delivered today…ordered in CT, delivered to AZ (Amazon Prime). That is amazing.
I’m going with UPS. I’ve had much better luck with them. I’ve been watching numerous USPS packages just sitting.
Note that UPS sometimes arranges with USPS to have USPS do the “last mile” after UPS delivers the package to a USPS location.
I posted into our township Facebook page last week asking which to use to ship my box of gifts to North Carolina (from PA). Most responses said don’t count on USPS. I sent a 10 lb box on Friday ($18) and was told the expected delivery date was Tuesday 12/15 (tomorrow.) Got a message from my DIL that it arrived today!! (one day early.) So my vote is for UPS!
That is called UPS SurePost. Whenever I see that is a package’s method of delivery, I cringe! UPS will typically get it to my local post office rather quickly, but then it sits and sits and sits at my Post office with no tracking update. Last year, my husband had a package sit there for a full week and there was nothing we could do about it. I would have happily picked it up at the post office myself if that had been an option!
@thumper with the additional info you gave, I’m going with UPS arriving first. Keep us posted!
Ok…the UPS package was delivered on Friday…but it was only going from CT to MD. The USPS package was going from CT to AZ.
I just hope it gets there this week!
I think it depends a lot on where you are but where I live UPS is ridiculously expensive and absolutely sucks.
I had an Amazon order that left an Amazon facility in New Jersey and disappeared for a week en route to the local USPS facility. Amazon deemed it lost and gave me a refund (replacement no longer available). Then it showed up at the USPS distribution center in NJ, made its way to San Diego, and apparently is now out for delivery. Our mail person hasn’t come yet so I am hoping to see my now free eero mesh on the doorstep soon.
The proverbial SMH tale. Sent a book a mile across town, via usps. (From a main facility south of Boston.) Tracked it to DE, NJ, someplace in NH, before getting back to my zip code. It got there within the window (an Amazon sale.) But crazy.
It rather like the chat on another thread about the Rubiks cube: an unfathomable number of moves along the way.
I don’t have a story quite that strange, but here in Northern CA I’ve seen packages take the long road out of town. It’s almost a vicarious vacation watching the packages move around. Once we mailed a package via USPS to someone in Las Vegas. The package first went down to a Los Angeles sorting center (perhaps not the most direct route, but not unreasonable routing). Apparently it found LA not to its liking and appeared leery of crossing the Mojave desert so it returned to the SF sorting facility. One thousand road miles later it rested for 3 days within 50 miles from where it started, and then made its way to Las Vegas. I was half-expecting it to go back to LA again…
Here I can actually see a little map when I’m getting a UPS delivery and see where the truck is going. It’s no small wonder it takes forever. God knows what GPS they are using but it definitely isn’t the most efficient one for our area!
So…one more package out…hoping the kid gets it this week, even though I paid for priority mail…
Probably a route plan that tries to hit all nearby delivery addresses in a route that minimizes left turns (higher delay and higher risk of a crash).
@ucbalumnus NOPE. This is a rural area. Believe me when I say…they take a crazy route to deliver in my area…crazy. One time, they were two houses away from mine. Instead of coming here, they went down the road, around a big lake, and took a very back road to get here. It was ridiculous.
I would’ve bet a lot on UPS. I refuse to mail USPS unless absolutely necessary. The last 3 things someone has mailed me were lost, including a Priority Mail sent Nov. 23 from an adjacent state. Their tracking is so laggard and/or wrong it’s basically useless. That case showed a city it didn’t even go to, and then showed no tracking for weeks. Arrived today.
I keep being in awe of the tracking/delivery speed both of UPS and Amazon Prime. I saw some initial glitches early Covid, but not much now, even with the Christmas rush. I’m in rural, nowhere America.
We recently sent out 40 priority packages for D1’s baby shower. They all arrived on time and one went as far as HI. Their large flat rate box is $21.10. I have faith in USPS.