The Old Dog Challenges: The Modern US Postal Service Vs. The Pony Express!
Have you noticed lately that mailing a package just doesn't seem to be very fast anymore? This got me to thinking whether a package is delivered more quickly in modern times or during the period of the Pony Express.
I recently sent two silver coins to @papa-pepper by registered mail from Switzerland to his home in Arkansas U.S.A.. I thought that it would be fun to compare how long the package took to get to him once it landed at JFK airport with what the Pony Express could have done!
Meet The Competion! First up, The Modern USA Postal System
To get an overview of the modern USA Postal system have a look at all of their amazing technology by viewing this impressive and somewhat braggadocios video.
I know, I know it’s long but please just slide through it to see all of the delivery weapons that the US Postal Service has at its disposal! How can they possibly lose!
Now Let’s Have a Look at Their Competition: The Pony Express!
The Pony Express was in operation between 1860 and 1861 and carried mail between St Joseph Missouri and Sacramento California. This trip, which used a series of horseman was a total of 1996 miles and was covered in an average of 10 days!
That's quite the trip in 10 days but surely the modern Postal system can do better..or can it? Image source
Here's a brief history of the Pony Express!
How Long Did My Package Take to get From New York to Arkansas?
Let the competition begin!
Here are the tracking details for my package. You can see that it landed in New York on October 24th 2017 and was finally delivered on November the 8th 2017. That's a total of 15 whopping days! Well, surely then the distance was a lot further than the 1,996 miles that the Pony Express had to travel!
How Far Was The Trip From New York to Its Final Destination in Arkansas?
A quick check on Google Maps revealed the shocking truth!
The small package to @papa-pepper traveled a total distance of just 1,300 miles which is 44% less than that traveled by the Pony Express in 5 less days!
According to my Research The Pony Express Was WAY Faster And it Wins!
In summary!
- The Pony Express traveled 1,966 miles in an average of 10 days!
- My parcel to @papa-pepper traveled about 1,300 miles in 15 days!
What do You Think?
- Are you shocked by the results?
- Have you ever had a similar experience?
- Do you think that we should still use horses to deliver mail?
I hope that you enjoyed this article about "The Modern US Postal Service Vs. The Pony Express!"
Until next time,
@kus-knee (The Old Dog)
What a cool experiment and comparison!
Thanks for this excellent article, your technical skills are building nicely @kus-knee and it shows really well in this article. Have a wonderful day, keep your smile and taking good care, Steem on and thrive on!
Namaste :)
Thanks a lot @eric-boucher! It always brightens my day when you show up!
It is such a pleasure, no problem!
Namaste :)
Pony Express VS Union; No rush
Good thing you didn't mail it around Christmas...
🤔
Papa's a good chap!
Perhaps another comparison round @kus-knee for a Christmas gift of the same for papa and his little peppers 🌶?
🥈
Excellent post! 👍
yea, I was gonna say even tech is no match for the "power" of public unions!
but then again, we do all need our sleep, don't we?! lol
Haha very funny video!
nice compliment@scan0017
Thanks so much. @papa-pepper is a great great giver and great givers receive!
Indeed!
Not that he would...
Beware the gift of fire 🔥 he offered to a fellow steemian in the form of a very hot pepper 🌶.
Poor fella thought he was hard and suffered for it... There's a video out there on the blockchain showing his pain 😩😤
Precious metals...
Hmmm, yeah - now that's a pretty good gift!
It's always surprising how a small letter can do thousand of miles, between tons of others and still arrive to it's destination! I'm just thinking how it was, it was a true adventure in the pony express time!
So true! Maybe you would have liked a job like that!
So as usual you shared a nice post dear @kus-knee I liked the photos
Thank you so much for sharing
Much appreciated!
I think you got me beat! My coffee I ordered from NYC took only 8 days via UPS (which is ridiculous because they said 4). I began to suspect that somebody was walking with it. At least @papa-pepper got his package. I don't trust USPS.
Yes you're right. At least he got it. I was becoming very doubtful!
Next time I'd go with Fed Ex... they're faster and far more reliable!
What The ***
Pffff
Amazing
In 15 days you could have bicycled the distance, that is less than 100 miles a day, very double. I never experienced this. In the Netherlands a normal package is send overnight, before 18hrs collected, is delivered within 24hrs. Ok NL is small, but still, the process is similar. Our fast delivery from our Dutch Amazon (Bol.com) is order before noon and get it delivred before 16hrs. Bol.com use a single logistical centre in NL, so they take maximum 4 hours for order picking and shipping and all other logistics involved. Last summer I had a package send through airmail from Taiwan and one from Hong Kong, both send on Friday their time, and both arrived Monday morning my time at home. Even packages send with super normal mail from the inlands of Laos took not more than 3 weeks to arrive at home, euh, in this case it could also be 6 weeks to be honest, but still we are talking about a country with no real logistics in place ever :)
I guess to be fair I'd have to send 10 packages and test the results for an average. Maybe it was an anomaly but in my experience with sending things to North America they are almost as likely not to arrive at all!
Hmmm interesting! you guys have all these procedures for whatever (goods or people) not to be allowed to enter :) recently when I flew to Florida, I got a 3rd degree interview just before the official boarding gate at Amsterdam airport (standard procedure they told me for flights to the USA) and luckily I passed so I could continue to the real boarding adventure. Interestingly, I didn't had to go through customs at all when I landed in Boston and proceeded to my connecting flight to Florida. Some kind of flaw in the process.
One of the first people to work on the speed of delivery way back in the 1700's was my hero Benjamin Franklin.
I didn't know that! I am also interested in him as I know that he was an innovator with a brilliant mind. I have his autobiography but have still not read it! My bad!
Well to me Franklin was the most interesting figure in history. Not only was he the very essence of a polymath and genius, yet he was also socially popular wherever he went.
Of course in honor of Mr Franklin, I named my son @silver314, Ben!
that's really cool to compare and really shocking indeed
It was fun to do and something that I would never have done were it not for Steemit!
That's quite the eye opener! I have noticed that they are much slower than they used to be even a few years ago but to think the pony express wins hands down... Wow!
I had a feeling that they may have won and after my research it was confirmed. I have even found some couriers almost as bad!