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Saturday, April 22, 2006

E-commerce would come to a screeching halt without a centuries-old technology and government monopoly. People are buying all kinds of crap online. Computers, wine, books and jewelry, you name it. All this crap gets shipped to the customer by cutting-edge firms like FedEx and UPS, companies with fancy computers and scanners and jets. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times explained in his influential book "The World Is Flat" that FedEx and UPS are accelerating globalization by extending supply chains deep into the third world. These companies are very proud of themselves and their ability to let you track your packages online. "Order an auto part from the Sahara desert and in 24 to 48 hours it's there," FedEx CEO Frederick Smith told USA Today in June. "We're the clipper ships of the computer age." Funny, then, that if you hand FedEx an expensive item, anything over $500, they will not guarantee its delivery. A fancy computer chip, a rare bottle of wine, a diamond -- FedEx will make no promises. That's how confident they are in their delivery network. Same for UPS. In fact, the only organization willing to guarantee your package will arrive is the U.S. Postal Service, via insured registered mail. I learned this Friday when I had to return an expensive item that had been shipped to me via FedEx. The online retailer strongly recommended sending back only by registered, insured mail, due to the FedEx and UPS caps. To guard the package against tampering, my postal agent carefully placed an ink stamp against each edge of each piece of tape on the box. "Just like in the 1800s," he said, laughing.

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