Living in the middle of Montana, the nearest distribution point for USPS is roughly 220 miles away. In order to get their it first travels 100 miles in the wrong direction To a stock pile point, gets on an airplane and flies 220 miles to the distribution center. Packages that arrived at the distribution center for USPS are transferred to a truck and hauled To that stockpile point. Then small carriers, starting about 5 o'clock in the morning deliver those to the small towns and cities in the area. The Postal Service stopped the local postmasters from sorting mail, everything now has to be sent to a big place to be sorted and returned. Yet we support USPS religiously because if we would lose our post office then you would drive 30 miles to mail a letter or buy a stamp and UPS does not have mail service here as they do in some places. Of course it helps to know the UPS and FedEx drivers personally, they are hard-working people that do their best in our area. There's a lot of headaches with those jobs and I don't pick on them. Most of the time, packages arrive in 5 to 7 days and that isn't too bad. You just have to keep track of what you're doing an order far enough ahead that it's not any inconvenience to wait. Those packages, That are delivered by UPS or FedEx, come by truck 200 miles From an airport where they are first dropped, to a drop point where they are then loaded on pickups and vans and hauled out to the people that ordered them. Sometimes those drivers have to drive anywhere from three blocks to over 50 miles farther to deliver the package that arrived at the distribution center. We thank God There's not a bunch of people driving around following the trucks picking up packages either. Perhaps smaller communities are more understanding, I think most consider ourselves lucky to have a post office from 830 to 3, 5 days a week. Beats the heck out of A 60 mile round-trip To mail a letter.
Squint