I am a bit confused with the logic of DHL and how they distribute packages. I realize they can not give every item a direct route from origin to destination, but something seems a bit odd with the following “plan of action”. Also, the path from Columbia to Rolla is estimated, the item is actually still in Columbia, though, going from their past performance it might be faster and more prudent to drive up to Columbia and retrieve it there before it heads off to Rolla via St. Louis.

http://track.dhl-usa.com/TrackByNbr.asp ... 1399373980

Interesting....I guess they somehow figure thats the most efficent way. Dunno.


The strangest thing I had was something shipped via UPS from Oklahoma City. It went from OKC to Louisville, KY, then from Louisville to STL, then STL to Rolla. Of course, on the way from OKC to Louisville, it passed up Rolla on 44

I hope that is the case. I have had Mc Millin’s 253 class. I remember programming that edge analysis program. I guess the edge cost (due to space restrictions) from Memphis, Tennessee to St. Louis, Missouri was greater then that of the way it went.

They might need to do that so they can deliever enough packages at a time. Likely not a whole lot of DHL packages get delivered to rolla, so they have do drive around until they get enough for it to be worth it, or something.

I worked at UPS for quite a while, it's a simple little setup.

The package goes from a small hub like here in Rolla, to the parent hub which is St Louis for us (UPS).

After it gets shipped to the main hub it gets sent to the main hub for the delivery address, then down to the smaller hub then onto the delivery truck to your doorstep.

DHL is really small here in MO, so it wouldn't suprise me if the main hub for our area is down in Texas since a truck can make the trip in under 12 hours and carry packages for two small hubs, which I know DHL gets their packages from a cargo hold container (like the ones that can be hauled in tandum.

The UPS hub in Rolla gets around 5-7 trailers a day and ussually at least one of them comes from Texas on a direct route, on a nearly daily basis. So even though DHL only gets one trailer, it's still possible they have something similar.

The FedEx Ground hub is also in St. Louis as I used to work there

Logistically speaking, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad route to take. Each leg is 1 1/2 to 2 hours down major interstates. If your deliveries are going to be fairly close to interstates, it could make sense to take it to St. Louis first if you don't want to take a trailer truck down 63. (Shipping companies like keeping safety records. Curvy two lane roads are bad things for safety records.)

Also, did it ship air? Then that would make a lot more sense. They can put a hub in Waco and make it make sense. And Columbia's DHL depot is right on the airport.

DHL does anything but make since. Their a German company whose tring to expand through the states and has marketing campains that gear towards anyone who's had a bad experience with UPS or Fedex. They're growing so fast in the states, trying to cover the entire country with their service in a very short amount of time that their bound to have routes that don't make much business sense until they expand their volume into a more structured system.

Only 6 people work at DHL in Rolla, and they cover the same area that takes 50 UPS. Theres bound to be some erratic shipments.

Your post does anything but make "since". I was going to try and correct all the grammatical and spelling errors, but that wolud make my head hurt and take too much time.

LOL