2

Let's say that a package has to travel from point A to point B. These places are not located in the same Country, nor are such Countries adjacent to each other. Example: point A is in Italy, point B is in the United Kingdom.

The package is not delivered directly. From tracking info made available by the Company, you find out the package leaves point A and reaches Rome. Then it reaches Bologna, and later Dusseldorf, Germany. It then reaches Barking, in the United Kingdom. From here, it reaches Tamworth and then gets delivered to point B. These legs are pretty short, if you map them, so my question is:

could the package have traveled by air in any of such legs? or do Cargo companies prefer other means in this situation?

EDIT

I am not referring to the use of wide body aircraft on short-haul. Rather, I want to figure out if contracting out the delivery of goods over short-haul routes is a common practice among Cargo airlines. If this is true, how could a given package remain within the network of the Company?

FaCoffee
  • 1,389
  • 11
  • 23
  • Can you be more specific about what you mean by contracting out the delivery? – fooot Oct 27 '15 at 14:56
  • Yes. It means "hiring" a subsidiary to perform the delivery. – FaCoffee Oct 27 '15 at 14:57
  • 2
    You might want to watch the Top Gear episode where Hammond and May race the Royal Mail (season 13, episode 4). You will note that the Royal Mail extensively uses aircraft between locations on the British Isles, which I guess is a pretty short haul. This would answer your question as yes, they do. – Sanchises Oct 27 '15 at 14:59
  • OK, since names are emerging, let's give things their name. The example I mentioned is the true delivery network of UPS. So, @sanchises, do you think your answer applies to them as well? – FaCoffee Oct 27 '15 at 15:01
  • 1
    @FrancescoCastellani I wouldn't know why not - all the places you mention have an airport. Of course, they might operate their own planes on these routes, so it's impossible to know for sure without inside information - perhaps you can check the track&trace timings and see if they're even possible by road? – Sanchises Oct 27 '15 at 15:16
  • It might make sense but in this case it sounds weird to me that there is a plane leaving London City Airport (the closest to Barking) at 9pm and landing at Birmingham Airport at 12am. Three hours? Naaaah... If I could I would definitely opt for inside information :) – FaCoffee Oct 27 '15 at 15:20
  • 1
    @FrancescoCastellani That's almost certainly a truck. They will normally use trucks for short distances, not airplanes. Much cheaper. – reirab Oct 27 '15 at 15:20
  • 2
    It's important to note that delivery companies like UPS and FedEx usually have their sorting facilities at or very near airports to facilitate air cargo. Even boxes that are shipped by truck will go through the airport sorting facility. – FreeMan Oct 27 '15 at 17:18

2 Answers2

4

It's fairly common for cargo, freight, and mail to be carried by aircraft - particularly for high value or priority cargo.

For example Royal Mail (the primary British mail service) uses short haul flights for distances of less than 100 miles (London Stansted to East Midlands Airport), along with around another 10 flights within the UK, every night.

These flights are used for priority (next day) mail, but will be filled with "cheaper" mail if necessary.

It all depends on the value of the cargo and the speed which it needs to travel, and aircraft only tend to be used where it is profitable to do so (ie where the cargo needs to travel fairly quickly and they can charge a high price to justify that).

Generally trucks will be used for shorter distances (<500 miles) for low value cargo, and for longer distances for heavier cargo or cargo which does not need to travel quickly.

http://www.eastmidlandsairport.com/emacargo.nsf/content/customer_royalmail

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mail#Fleet

Jon Story
  • 10,417
  • 1
  • 48
  • 62
2

In your example it depends on the service. Since UPS is mostly a ground service company it will almost always move by ground transportation. The only time they would move it by air is if the shipment is air service and has a sooner delivery commitment. Moving freight by aircraft is always going to be more expensive than putting it on a truck or a train. If they can make their delivery commitment without flying it they will.

If the shipment is moved through air service then it is more likely to move by aircraft. In this case it depends not only on distance but location within the system. If the origin and destination are both within the same "market", I.e. serviced from the same airport, then there will be no reason for it to go on a plane. Outside the market anything that has an overnight delivery commitment will go on an aircraft to a hub where it will be sorted and flown to the airport that services the destination. In situations where there are numerous large markets in very close proximity, such as the US east coast, they may be able to accomplish this by ground transport.

With regular mail often government postal systems will have a certain amount of space allotted for them on commercial aircraft, both freight and passenger.

TomMcW
  • 28,459
  • 21
  • 106
  • 227
  • Within a Cargo company, who takes all the decisions you mention in paragraph #2? Btw, your standpoint is very interesting - the closest to inside information that I can get! Thanks! – FaCoffee Oct 27 '15 at 18:02
  • 1
    I can't tell you much about how those decisions are made but that would be the job of the logistics department and aircraft dispatch. And I don't envy their jobs! They have to figure out how to move things efficiently and react quickly to all situations, especially weather. – TomMcW Oct 27 '15 at 18:23
  • 1
    Sometimes with UPS even their cheaper delivery options will come by air if the distance is very long. For example, I live in Tennessee, so shipments from California frequently come by air via their air hub in Louisville. Stuff from the East coast will usually just come by truck, though unless you get priority. As a side note, it's interesting to watch flightradar or flightaware in the early morning hours, when Memphis and Louisville become the busiest airports in the Americas and among the busiest airports in the world. - haha – reirab Oct 28 '15 at 03:22