I wasn't actually whining - more pointing out an interesting bit of the trip. Given past shipments, I expected 3-4 days from Chicago (certainly, from the East Coast - even 5 or more from there) to California, so something apparently was being done differently. The extra time for delivery once it got to the Left Coast I blame on UPS' apparent shift to Postal Service for final delivery of small packages to residential addresses - UPS Ground carries it to a processing center, from which they deliver it to the Post Office. The P.O. of course takes 2 or more days to get it from *their* center to the local P.O. then to you. Interestingly, there doesn't seem to be any difference in shipper cost for that - still the same old UPS Ground. If you're shipping to a business address, it goes UPS all the way and Ground is usually next day delivery within a few hundred miles; in any case it's at least a day faster if done by UPS all the way than it is with the P.O. involved. I guess a benefit might be that the P.O. delivers everywhere, so if you live out in the boonies UPS doesn't have to send a truck on a 200 mile round trip to get to you.

The potential foamer interest would be if UPS and its railroad partners somehow sped up the trains. I don't think that's happened. We don't have a modern Super C and, given the amount of congestion and condition of the tracks, probably never again will.