It’s so frustrating when a parcel takes 6 days, 12 days or even 17 to get from Michigan to Indiana when I can drive there in a matter of HOURS! But why is this happening? Today I’m going to tell you:

NOTE: this issue isn’t “only USPS” or “only UPS”, this is happening with all carriers, so changing carries is NOT going to solve your problems and here’s why:

Covid-19 AKA “CoronaVirus” AKA “China Virus”... if you haven’t heard of this world wide pandemic by now, you literally must be living under a rock that is under more rocks that are located on Mars.

In the USA, “Lockdown” started in March 2020. Here in Michigan our state officially started lockdown on St Patricks Day. I very clearly remember it because my BFF is a bartender and he was terrified of working on St. Pattys, but the morning of the event, Detroit shut down so he was “safe” but totally bummed out on losing out on the money he would have made on this mega “bar day”.

Then, almost all states inside the USA started “locking down”. What “Lockdown” means varies greatly state-by-state because every state elects a governor who decides what is best for their state. Here in Michigan we have one of the most severe lockdowns. Our rules included:

• Do not leave home
• If you MUST get groceries, certain stores are open, such as Walmart. Other stores were forced to close.
• All “non essential businesses” must close, no exceptions
• If you ever leave home you must wear a mask and remain 6-feet-apart from everyone, including your own spouse!
• “Essential Businesses” must limit their staff to only a fraction of the employees that are required to smoothly operate
• Businesses can not “force” anyone to work. All employees must be offered the option to stay home. Any employees who choose to “volunteer” to work at “essential businesses” must still follow all of the rules.
• Companies must re-layout their businesses to prevent employees from coming in contact with other staff
• And a ton of other rules. Our staff even has to carry Authorization to Travel certified letters with them that prove they are an employee of an “essential business” (BigBrandWholesale.com falls under the “distribution center” guidelines and therefore is allowed to remain open)

AND, all of these rules apply to the mail carriers, amazon warehouse staff, delivery drivers, etc. Can you see how these rules make it difficult for a business to operate at a normal pace?

ON TOP OF THAT, because everyone is at home, due to lockdown, online orders have been insane. I can honestly tell you that our company is struggling to keep up. Our warehouse staff is coming in super early to try to get everything shipped out before noon. Our video / photo / listing staff has not had a single day off since March (it is almost August). The mail carriers are getting so many parcels that it is equal to Christmas season loads, BUT they can only have 20% of the needed employees working, so they are falling behind more and more every day because they MUST follow the governors orders. Stuff got so crazy this past Friday that UPS had to turn away our fellow wholesaler friend from New Jersey because they literally couldn’t take any more parcels. OMG, right??!!?!

AND ON TOP OF THAT....  According to the Wall Street Journal, "About 2,830 of the Postal Service’s 630,000 employees have tested positive for Covid-19, a spokeswoman said, “with some deaths.”"  - So, we can absolutely say that this pandemic has greatly impacted the carriers. 

WHAT WE HAVE NOTICED:

In states with strict COVID-19 Lockdown Orders, parcels are literally sitting with the carrier for 7+ days because there just isn't enough man-power to move them. In states with few COVID-19 regulations, parcels are moving at a near-regular pace.

WHOSE FAULT IS THIS? WHO DO I YELL AT?

Well, you could yell at the carrier volunteers who are doing their best to move packages while their coworkers choose to sit home and collect unemployment.

Or, you could yell at the company you purchased the merchandise through, who is also choosing to work during the pandemic and has no control over the carrier.

I guess the choice is yours. Whoever you feel is more “to blame” for the slow transit during the pandemic.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION

There’s a few ways you can handle this:

EASIEST SOLUTION: Simply wait for it to arrive. Yep, it sucks. It might take 17 days to move a short distance. If possible, plan ahead and order now so you have it in a couple weeks. While you wait, enjoy summer as much as possible.

MOST EXTREME SOLUTION: You could not order anything else at all online until the pandemic is 100% over and lockdown is 100% lifted in every state. True, this means you won’t have anything to list, sell or use, but you also won’t have to deal with waiting 2-3 weeks for delivery.

KIND-OF-EXTREME SOLUTION: Only order from places you can drive-to and pickup from. This would indeed ensure that you do not have to wait for delivery.

Unfortunately, those really are the only options until Covid ends or until governors change rules for businesses operating in their state.