Buying bike parts from overseas, shipping time estimates and methods ?

Tubbsy

Packin' a small bird
Staff member
I had a reasonably high-value delivery the other day by a guy in a sedan who was probably also an Über driver.

Don't envy logistics people at the moment, but I've been pretty lucky.
 

dancaseyimages

Mountain bike pornographer
We have these guys in Canberra/Sydney

A lot of them are Uber/Uber parcel guys who have taken up the parcel delivery path due to the downturn in their revenue.

They are doing some Aus post and Amazon parcel deliveries from the Sydney Depot.
 

leitch

Feelin' a bit rrranty
That makes sense - I was confused when an amazon delivery turned up with an average joe in his unmarked sedan. He had a car full of parcels, a few a4 sheets of paper stapled together and a can do attitude.
A few sheets of paper and a can do attitude is about as much as Amazon was paying the poor bugger, too...

 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
A few sheets of paper and a can do attitude is about as much as Amazon was paying the poor bugger, too...

$108 for a 4 hour 'block' of work, delivering 40 packages :oops:

Amazon’s flat rate does not include expenses like fuel, insurance, car maintenance and parking costs. Drivers must also pay their own superannuation and workers compensation insurance.

His total income last financial year was just above $23,000. He spent almost $4,000 on petrol and about $1,500 on car maintenance.
 

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
$108 for a 4 hour 'block' of work, delivering 40 packages :oops:
It is a tough gig, no doubt about it. All delivery companies seem intent of making the people that do the work miserable.
The free delivery from AliExpress for cheap items from China is also a head scratcher.
 

Isaakk

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Never in 20 years of buying stuff have I had a delivery problem .
Aust Post has now lost 2 in a row , so slow I wont buy anything more until its sorted.
It would be easier speaking to the dead than communicating with Aust Post who now use the Telstra model which is ,no one can complain so we dont have any problems.
Sad but true. The last 4 weeks have been particularly bad - have 5x orders sent via AusPost that at this point have been in transit for over 2 weeks. I also just this week had a parcel rock up that was originally sent in March & had been presumed missing. Looked fine too, guess it just sat in some crack off the side of a conveyor or something until someone found it.
 

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
It is a tough gig, no doubt about it. All delivery companies seem intent of making the people that do the work miserable.
The free delivery from AliExpress for cheap items from China is also a head scratcher.
Especially on items that are $1-$2. Cant even send a letter to you next door neighbour for that price.
 

Alexxx

Likes Dirt
Even local items are getting caught up, this needs to get 36km from one side of Sydney to another. I wish I could have picked it up but outside of my LGA / 5km radius.

380528
 

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
I’ve got one that’s been sitting at Frankfurt since 7/8.
The order from bikeinn shipped with Aus post got to Sydney in 6 days, hasn’t moved once it arrived though.
I’ve found all shipping hit and miss at the moment. Even interstate packages are taking 2 weeks min these days
Sydney seems to be the current blackhole at the moment. Had a package come from NZ via FedEx, who own TNT, so that's who I was expecting to deliver it. Landed in Sydney, took a week to leave Matraville, and rocked up with an Auspost label on it. It's mate from the same place is following the exact same path.
 

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
Especially on items that are $1-$2. Cant even send a letter to you next door neighbour for that price.
Absolutely, the price where it doesn't make economic sense to deliver an item is set very low. It has to be clawed back somehow, I guess.
 

Isaakk

Likes Bikes and Dirt
The free delivery from AliExpress for cheap items from China is also a head scratcher.
Free shipping I can understand.. kind of (given the scale and cheap labour).. what I don't understand is how anything even arrives at the destination at all, based on what i've seen of the sorting warehouses

380530
 
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Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
Free shipping I can understand.. kind of (given the scale and cheap labour).. what I don't understand is how anything even arrives at the destination at all, based on what i've seen of the sorting warehouses
Wow, As much as bargains from China are sooo tempting, this stuff has to end one day. It is miracle anything must make it out of that place.
The world is hooked on high volumes of cheap and cheerful/nasty vs. longer term quality. The bike industry by making things harder to upgrade due to incompatibilities with the last great idea sure doesn't help either.
 

HamboCairns

Thanks for all the bananas
Wow, As much as bargains from China are sooo tempting, this stuff has to end one day. It is miracle anything must make it out of that place.
The world is hooked on high volumes of cheap and cheerful/nasty vs. longer term quality. The bike industry by making things harder to upgrade due to incompatibilities with the last great idea sure doesn't help either.
We're hooked on cheap e-commerce dopamine hits. I'm no saint of course but we must try to curb this behaviour.

Of course all of us will look like hypocrites raising the ladder while preaching sustainability.
 

dirtdad

Wants to be special but is too shy

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
Check out the Universal Postage Union and cheap post from China.

There's plenty of other articles, but lots of paywalls. This gives some highlights/reasons.
That is a good article. I wasn't aware but had a feeling there must be something large happening behind the scenes.

China has been given the golden key of cheap postage since 1960.

You might not always agree with the Orange one but I have to give him credit for calling enough on things like this. Times have moved on but the older agreements still hold. Geee..
 

K.C.

Likes Dirt
$108 for a 4 hour 'block' of work, delivering 40 packages :oops:
our local says he do 200~300 packages a day, would be really really unlucky to have all 40 packages to 40 different addresses in 40 different streets.
he now also work saturday and sunday too, rates is double, easily 4 figures on weekends, as good as uber pre-covid on the weekend but can't complain.
EDIT: i see around 10+ small packages here and there in his van. This van had an accident over the weekend, whole front left suspensions bits+ steering rack has to be replaced + panel and bumper. We just received the steering rack today, these packages will sit here for another week minimum :D
 
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ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
our local says he do 200~300 packages a day, would be really really unlucky to have all 40 packages to 40 different addresses in 40 different streets.
he now also work saturday and sunday too, rates is double, easily 4 figures on weekends, as good as uber pre-covid on the weekend but can't complain.
EDIT: i see around 10+ small packages here and there in his van. This van had an accident over the weekend, whole front left suspensions bits+ steering rack has to be replaced + panel and bumper. We just received the steering rack today, these packages will sit here for another week minimum :D
I know people work at different speeds but he must be doing some hours to deliver that many.

Old mate reckons he is 5-6 minutes a package.

Thats nearly 4 hours for 40, 200-300 would take him 20-30 hours.

Alex prefers suburban routes to the inner city, where traffic and parking problems can easily eat into the time allocated to deliver the packages.
“If you have to deliver to 40 apartments on your route, it doesn’t take two or three minutes to deliver one parcel, it takes five or six,” he says.
 

ausdb

Being who he is
That is a good article. I wasn't aware but had a feeling there must be something large happening behind the scenes.

China has been given the golden key of cheap postage since 1960.

You might not always agree with the Orange one but I have to give him credit for calling enough on things like this. Times have moved on but the older agreements still hold. Geee..
Strong agree, if Australia decided to take a similar stance it would get rid of the majority of chunts on ebay that claim to be in Australia and posting from Aus. But when you buy from them it takes ages for delivery and when it finally arrives its from some random address in Chullora.
 

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
Strong agree, if Australia decided to take a similar stance it would get rid of the majority of chunts on ebay that claim to be in Australia and posting from Aus. But when you buy from them it takes ages for delivery and when it finally arrives its from some random address in Chullora.
Yep, I've seen that a few times.
The Ebay bait n' switch.

Normally too late to bother to cancel the order and we blame the postal service instead.
 
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