UPS Holding Shipments-FAQ Freight

Modified on Thu, 24 Jul at 10:26 AM

UPS Holding Shipments

Last Updated: 7.24.25

A customer is wondering about their shipments, and why it has the timeframe it does. When told the shipment information, the customer insists that it is not correct and wants to understand why the packages 'sat' at a location (Louisville, KY) for 4 days.

Example:

Customer Ticket 232757:

Could you please call your UPS representative and find out why they are holding shipments in Louisville KY and Ontario for 3-4 days instead of just sending them on to Denver? The one below 651842 is in Ontario since 6/23, the others I will list have been in Louisville KY since 6/22, finally cleared customs today, now they say they are in warehouse. It used to be 3-4 hour stop at most in KY or CA, but now they are taking much longer. If you could find out what is delaying the shipments, I would appreciate it. I can continue to track them each day and get the general updates, but I would appreciate understanding from the Rep what is taking place.

629248A Wutzke shipped 6/18 a week ago

651145 Gamboa shipped 6/18 a week ago

652098 Radtke shipped 6/20

PD Response:
Thank you for your email. We are averaging about 7-10 (average might change) business days for shipping at this time. I can tell you that when it says 'ON THE WAY' and a destination, it is not there, yet. Depending on the number of shipments coming into each location, it takes a while to sort them and make sure they are going to the correct place. Also, the planes need to be loaded in a specific way, so they need to make sure that the packages will fit the flight. Once a flight fills up, the remaining packages will have to wait for the next flight. I will go ahead and email our UPS reps, but it may be 24 - 48 hours before I get an answer. I will update you as soon as I have more information.

(UPS replied)

Our UPS rep got back to me. They looked at the records for these orders, and they did not see any significant delays or anything out of the ordinary in the tracking details. They are continuing to monitor your shipments, and they will follow up with me as needed.

(customer response that they are unhappy with the timeframe and wants route information on custom delays, plane shortages, etc.)

Although the total transit times were within the average, he did notice your packages taking longer to get through Ontario, CA, and Louisville, KY. There is an explanation for this. We ship our orders using UPS International Expedited service. This is the fastest we can ship, and this program works best for us. When packages arrive at the major hubs like Ontario and Louisville, they may get held up if there is a large number of Next Day Air, Express, or Express Saver shipments. These are Domestic shipments, and they get priority over the Expedited shipments. This is the way UPS works, and we are not able to switch to any of the other shipping plans because they are for Domestic shipments only.

I know this is not exactly what you wanted to hear, but it is an explanation of why your shipments may sit a little longer at the hubs. This is one of the main reasons we encourage customers to wait until they have all the packages from an order before scheduling the installation. Please let us know if you need anything else.