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by CydeWeys 2523 days ago
You're right about next-day air freight (which is a thing that exists now that is insanely expensive), but you're wrong about Amazon using it. Amazon has warehouses all over the country. When you buy something that arrives the next day, it's not going in the air at all; it's coming in a truck from a nearby warehouse to your local package distribution center, and then going out for local deliveries.

True cross-country air freight can easily cost >$100 to ship a small package weighing a single pound. Nothing you buy online is using this service unless you're paying out the wazoo for it.
1 comments
noelherrick 2523 days ago
Where do you get the $100/lb? Just extending it to passenger flights, a cross country trip costs $250 (LA to NYC) and most passengers are > 100 lbs, so it’s $2.50/lb for even the most expensive passenger. Last/first mile from the airport to the pickup and delivery site will add to the package cost, but I’m just wondering where you get the $100 figure.
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nrb 2523 days ago
They didn’t say $100/lb, they said a package as small as a pound would cost $100+, that cost would’t scale linearly with weight but it might with box dimensions, similarly to how a single heavier person doesn’t cost more in passenger airlines but multiple people(seats) do.

Also, for an apples-to-apples comparison, try buying that cross-country plane ticket 2 hours before takeoff.

You don’t even have to take their word for it, you can get an instant quote right now from the freight companies (most places that aren’t amazon-scale probably pay about 30-40% of that retail rate)

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CydeWeys 2522 days ago
I didn't say per pound, I said for a single pound package (in shipping, the first pound is by far the most expensive). I got that figure by getting an actual quote for sending a package over night from NYC to SF. Feel free to play around on the UPS and FedEx websites; you'll see similar figures.

Also, the passenger thing isn't remotely comparable because last-minute plane tickets aren't that cheap, and you're forgetting to account for the 12+ hours of labor involved in sending a mule along with your package. If you already had someone going there and back that day anyway, sure, sending the package along with them would be cheaper than sending it through UPS Next-Day. But if not, just sending the package will be way cheaper.

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