Help Relieve My Insanity: Sea Mail From Japan

I ordered a bunch of stuff from Japan. The last tracking information I had was "Dispatch from Outward Office of Exchange" on Jan 23. I knew it was going to be 30 to 90 days. I had no problem with that. I thought I could handle it. Oh what a fool I am.

It turns out, I can't handle not knowing where it is. I presume that it's on a boat somewhere by this point, but I won't have any new information until it hits the U.S. mail system, presumably. The amount of time I've spent thinking about this is ridiculous-like decoding tracking numbers and monitoring cargo ships-level ridiculous.

Question: Can anybody give me recent anecdotal data on how long sea mail takes from Japan to Midwest USA?

 

About a month. I haven't ordered anything since I moved away from Chicago (and its huge international hub airport) but that's about how long my stuff from Japan or China would take. Oddly I had more stuff get lost from Japan.

 

I ship big lots of Super Famicoms and other similar items by Sea Mail a few times a year, and I never run into any issues with it. For some reason it seems like everyone here has the worst luck with shipping...

In my experience, the time estimate that they give you is complete and utter bullshit. It often takes a month more or a month less than what Japan Post tells you in their online shipping calculator.

 

Based upon response, I'm choosing to take away that it could be here tomorrow or in about three months.

I have little concern about loss/customs damage and the like. Reputable seller means I expect good packaging. If things get lost/damaged to a consequential degree, I'll file a claim with my credit card company. The sole source of anxiety for me is not knowing where the package is. I would be thrilled with getting a note today from someone saying "half of your stuff just fell off the boat." At least I'd know.

Let us fat-cat Americans be thankful for the bitchin' mail/customs/import system that we have. Rarely taxed, rarely lost, about zero corruption. The worst we have to fear is a little bit of incompetency. 'Murica. Every time I read a thread from someone in Brazil who gets screwed on importing something, I shed a tear.

 

America's postal system is good? Are you kidding me? It's absolutely ridiculous and FILLED to the brim with incompetence to the point where I'm surprised it's able to function even remotely correctly.

In comparison, Japan's postal system is basically flawless. Legitimately the only complaint that I have with Japan Post is that their online price calculator can be innaccurate sometimes. Other than that, it's perfect.

Oh, and don't even get me started on Australia Post... Those motherfuckers shouldn't even get paid for how badly and how often they screw things up.

 

Bitchin indeed. The United States is one of the biggest countries in the world with a large and well-spread out population. Further, USPS has a universal service obligation to serve everyone in the country. Japan, is microscopic compared to the U.S. and has less than half the population. Damn well it's postal service should be better.

USPS isn't perfect. I'm sure would could all come up with a USPS horror story. However, you should thank your ass that you don't live...I dunno...in South America, or Eastern Europe when it comes to mail.

Funnily enough USPS is ranked number one:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/06/news/economy/postal_service/

 

It's normal, don't worry.
Here's what tracking shows for one of my packages.

 

Never gonna happen. If the boat sank, there's no record whatsoever of what was going to whom, and they really don't give a shit. It would cost too much to contact everyone. You're talking about a shipping container full of mail. Think how much mail there is in one container (you're talking 20 or 40 foot containers x 8' x 8'6"). Now think how many containers are on the ship. By the way - containers are designed to sink.

The transit time from Tokyo to Los Angeles is 15 days. From Tokyo to New York is 30 days. Assuming they aren't going at slower speeds, which does sometimes happen (to conserve fuel).

Remember that container? They're not going to send out just your package. So it has to be shipped from the sender to a holding depot, where a container will be filled - that could take a while, depending on how much surface mail the carrier has to send. They'll probably use software that tells them the optimal stacking. Paperwork is filled out, fees are billed/paid and the containers are loaded onto the ship.
The ship will be somewhere between Panamax (fits the Panama Canal) and ULCV... so a capacity of at least 3,000 TEU (3,000 20 ft containers). The biggest is over 19,000 TEU. This is likely to take 12-24 hours.

When it gets to its destination, the ship is unloaded in a set order. The containers are stacked in zones depending on where they're going and inspected by Customs, which could be anything from an x-ray to an open and have a look at everything. There may be Customs fees to pay. Then, they'll go to their final destination by road, rail... or possibly sea, if the final port is too small for the ship.

Of course, the final destination is now your carrier's depot. There may even be a Customs facility there, who will inspect parcels. Then, the carrier can determine where the items are to go and have them shipped accordingly.

To put into perspective how tiny a part of the process your parcel is, let's say it's 2' x 1'6" x 1'. A big parcel, no? Well, let's see it in a 20' container:


It's starting to look a bit smaller. In fact, we could get 315 of those in that container! Maybe yours is at the back, on the bottom.

Now let's look at it on the Conti Madrid, a ship with a capacity of 5,762 TEU:


That tiny green pixel is probably slightly over-emphasized in actual fact!

So, it's not just the shipping times. Imagine how long it takes to load and unload all of those containers. And remember, it could be a bigger ship! Then you have Customs to deal with (again, no quick task), plus going through everything - if a container holds mail, it then needs sorting and sending on to the local depots.

If the whole cargo was lost on Conti Madrid and every container held identical boxes to yours, yours would be one of 1.8 million! That's why you'll never get a letter if it goes missing.

 

Yay, thanks! I'm depressed by how long yours took, but I appreciate having a stick to measure against.

Edit: Retro, I appreciate your analysis. It reads like my internal dialogue on this issue. Indeed, I've been sitting around thinking about how long it might take to fill a container, get it on a ship, get it moving, unloaded, through customs and whatnot.

I am aware that my package is peanuts compared to the scope of a cargo ship and I'm not going to get a notice if something is lost. I was just speaking to my thirst for general information. However, you explanation does bring to light one aspect I hadn't considered---that my package would end up on a boat to the East Coast, rather than the nearest U.S. mainland port, LA. As my package would be low priority, any port would, presumably, be a good port for it to arrive at.

Basically, the way my mind works, if I can't know for sure, I spend an inappropriate time trying to consider all of the possible variables, as if I'm going to attempt to create a mathematical model of when my package might arrive.

 

There are a number of shipping lanes. Where it ends up could depend on a number of factors, including final carrier who'll deliver to your door. I would have said LA or somewhere in Washington, though.

If you had a reasonable tracking with locations, you could guess which ship it's on by looking at what's due to leave that port and track progress! I highly doubt that will be the case, though. You might well find that their Post Office uses several ports and multiple shipping companies, depending on where the package is coming from, where it's going... and even just who's going to be in the harbour! There are currently 9 cargo ships in Tokyo harbour, for example.

 

Oh, I've tried that, a lot. The free information available online makes it easy to tell what boats are going where, but I have no clear information on when exactly my package left. My tracking says, "Dispatch from Outward office of exchange," but who knows what that means (not me or anyone else online, per my Googling). Handed to a freight carrier? Waiting for a container to fill? Put on a boat? Boat left? Who knows.

The package was taken to the international office in Kawasaki...thus I expect it left from there...but does that mean that the ship would be sailing from there directly or Tokyo proper. Then there's the fact that the ship might be stopping somewhere less obvious first. Stop in Sendai on the way there?

Long story short, I've followed a fair amount of ships across the Pacific so far: Lots of direct routes between Japan and LA. I haven't seen any ships with a direct destination of New York leaving from Japan. However, again, it seems unlikely that a direct trip from Tokyo to NYC would happen. Meaning, it might be hard to pick it up on the free information available online.

Did I mention that I've wasted a whole bunch of time thinking about this?

 

It's the point where it's handed from the carrier to the freight forwarder. From there, it has to wait for a ship, wait to be loaded etc. It may not even be in a container by that stage.

Kawasaki is indeed a port. It's possible it'll stop off, but that's included in the time. 15 days to the west coast. Once it's unloaded, the ship has nothing to do with any further delays.

Incidentally, we had a ship arrive ahead of schedule. It was forced to sit offshore for 3 weeks!

 

If I ever have any question in any capacity regarding shipping, I now know who I'm asking

 

I know, right? Very impressive. Do you have a bio somewhere, retro? How do you know so much stuff?

Just wait, Blur2040, it'll get there. I have stuff arrive up to a month late all the time.

My issue with USPS is cost. It's very prohibitive for the general population now. Even 4 years ago my family members would ship each other hand me downs across the country. Now, it costs as much as buying new clothes.

 

That's pretty cool. Where do you find such information?

 

Free sites for this sort of thing include www.fleetmon.com and www.marinetraffic.com. However, most data on these are behind paywalls...making them hard to use for my intended purpose.

That being said, we've all gathered that Retro is deeply involved and/or interested in international logistics, so let us await his word.

 

You can still get info on where a ship is, where it's been and where it's headed from sites without paying. Marinetraffic should show them.

www.vesselfinder.com will give you the last 5 ports of call.

FleetMon will give you further info if you register for free, including basic tracking info. Most AIS trackers should give you at least some basic info. Some will show you where it's been, like www.shipfinder.co - and not just cargo vessels.

You can even track containers if you have their details e.g. via www.searates.com

 

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