Thread: USPS to Canada tracking

Everyone seems to like moan about their postal systems.

I ordered 2 brush knots from TGN and was supplied a tracking number. That tracking number on the USPS site showed the package every step of the way from Arizona to LA to the point of clearance by Canada Border Services (Customs) with no long hold up at CBS. That same tracking number on the Canada Post site shows the package sorted in Toronto and in transit to me. This has been my usual experience with trackable mail US to Canada. I have to say these two postal services usually perform well if slowly from my experience.

There is the usual small gripe in that it will take 3 days to get it from Toronto and I am in the same province. It took about that same time to travel from LA through CSB to Canada. Go figure.

Bob

Yes, go figure when it comes to the postal service. A while back I shipped a package to Canada and figured it would go the straightest distance between here (Tennessee) and Canada. Well, it went from here to Nashville, which I figured it would, then to California....really?! From there to Canada. Had the same package on its return trip go from Canada to California, to Kentucky then here in Tennessee.

Before that had a couple go from here to Florida where it stayed for about a wee or more, must have decided to take a vacation while there, then to Canada.

So, what I figured was when they raised the cost of shipping they had to ship a longer distance to make it look like we were getting our money's worth? Go figure!

The delays I experience the most occur at sorting stations on the west coast. Something else I have noticed is the tracking updates sometimes aren't updated promptly. For instance, I received a package today that was was delivered within an hour of USPS tracking saying it was in a city three hours drive from here.

Agreed - USPS to Canada Postal Service is fantastic and vice versa.

Some US sellers don't realize that the "customs" number given is the "tracking number", had that a few times, but USPS comes across fast, don't get robbed by UPS or FedEx, and you can track it every step of the way as you mention - never had a problem, and I always ask shippers in the USA to use USPS.

Originally Posted by DoughBoy68

Yes, go figure when it comes to the postal service. A while back I shipped a package to Canada and figured it would go the straightest distance between here (Tennessee) and Canada. Well, it went from here to Nashville, which I figured it would, then to California....really?! From there to Canada. Had the same package on its return trip go from Canada to California, to Kentucky then here in Tennessee.

Before that had a couple go from here to Florida where it stayed for about a wee or more, must have decided to take a vacation while there, then to Canada.

So, what I figured was when they raised the cost of shipping they had to ship a longer distance to make it look like we were getting our money's worth? Go figure!

I think postal systems use distribution hubs to move things along so that is how you wind up with a long circle route to your door. Bean counters at work there I presume.

Airlines do the same moving passengers. We had to get to Vancouver BC to catch a flight to OZ and what does Air Canada do but fly us 1.5 hours east to Toronto to catch a non stop to Vancouver. We spend 1.5 hours waiting in Toronto before the non stop flight and a little over an hour later I was able to look out my window and see us passing over the Thunder Bay airport which we had left from 4 hours previously. That was instead of taking the grasshopper flight west to Vancouver. In some alternate universe this must make sense.

Bob

I can't complain about either systems... lately I find Canada Post has stepped it up!! Must be from all the money they are saving not paying walking couriers!!! And the last couple packages I got from USPS made it very quickly. No negatives to say..

Originally Posted by Phrank

Some US sellers don't realize that the "customs" number given is the "tracking number"

The customs number is only a proxy for the tracking number and it's not a proper tracking service. In most cases it'll be scanned along the route and work fine for monitoring the package progress, but USPS (and I assume by extension Canada Post) is under no obligation to provide any tracking and resolution of problems should such arise. In other words it's a nice free side benefit when it works, but it's not a substitution for correct tracking and insurance if that's important to the shipping parties.

Otherwise no system is perfect and there are the occasional problems with all carriers.

Originally Posted by gugi

The customs number is only a proxy for the tracking number and it's not a proper tracking service. In most cases it'll be scanned along the route and work fine for monitoring the package progress, but USPS (and I assume by extension Canada Post) is under no obligation to provide any tracking and resolution of problems should such arise. In other words it's a nice free side benefit when it works, but it's not a substitution for correct tracking and insurance if that's important to the shipping parties.

Otherwise no system is perfect and there are the occasional problems with all carriers.

I did not request a tracking number on this shipment from TGN and certainly no insurance so was pleasantly surprised that I did receive a tracking number.

Yea, there are occasional problems with all carriers including non postal courier services. The big problem with non postal courier services to here is the horrendous brokers fees they love to charge. Aside from that no matter what service you use when you encounter a problem all seem to give you a hard time about it. So if you are going to get worked over if there is a problem why pay the horrendous brokers fees in the first place? I think that is the main point for us north of the border.

Bob

Try sending a high value item USPS registered mail. It can take weeks to go cross country and it's not supposed to show any tracking while in transit for security reasons though often times it does.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Try sending a high value item USPS registered mail. It can take weeks to go cross country and it's not supposed to show any tracking while in transit for security reasons though often times it does.

Not to mention customs duties! I sent harrywally a badger knot to put into a brush and he had to pay(I forget the actual price) an absurdly large amount just to claim the package. Which is weird to me because I get packages from foreign countries all the time and don't pay a dime. Learned a valuable lesson on that transaction.