Greyhound Package Express ends service after more than 100 years

DogBunny

DogBunny

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Well, this is a major drag.
Greyhound will end its package express shipping operations as of September 30, 2022.
I've shipped at least 5 frames with Greyhound Package Express (GPX). It was by far the easiest and cheapest way to ship a frame. (The weight limit was 100 pounds, so it wouldn't work for engines.)
The first few frames I shipped, dating back to several years ago, went smooth as silk.
The last frame I shipped, last summer, was a major sh*t-show. But, it did eventually get to it's destination, although 6 weeks late, and with a complete tracking break-down. I was this close to giving the buyer a complete refund -- I was one day away -- when he called me and said it finally arrived.
Still, a great, easy, and cheap service, which will be missed.
 
A bit OT but talk about Greyhound got me thinking about the time my older brother and I took a trip from Central New York to visit relatives in Minnesota, most of them we had never seen before! As I recall it was 1961 so that would make me all of 11 years old and brother was about two years older. Yep to kids that age riding halfway across the country by themselves!

We had a couple change overs think one was in Ohio and then we had a couple hours layover in Chicago. A little before we were to get the last bus to Minneapolis where aunt and uncle were to meet us I needed a bathroom break. So brother stayed with our suitcases and I went to take care of business. Guess I took a little too long as when I returned to where our suitcases were mine was there but no brother!

What to do???? An 11 year old left all alone in Chicago!!! I checked the arrivals and departures screen and saw that I had indeed missed the boat, I mean bus. So I went to the information booth and showed them my ticket and asked when next bus left of Minneapolis, turns out another was leaving in about 10 minutes. This one was not the express we were to be on but the one that stopped at every little town along the way. So for lack of any other ideas I took that. Had a pleasant time and chatted with some kid heading all alone to Texas don't think he was older than maybe 15!

Finally got to Minneapolis and guess for some reason aunt and uncle were very happy to see me!??? Had a good summer and even learned how to water ski, not great but did finally manage to hang on long enough.

Oh and yes I did manage to stay with brother on the return trip!
 
We are well used to it. Greyhound has been out of business in western Canada for several years now.
 
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And now, yet another affordable freight shipping service is lost to us. Yellow Corporation, which includes YRC, is shutting down.
YRC specialized in LTL (Less Than Load, or less than the whole truck). They were by far the cheapest carrier for LTL if you used their on-line booking software, which was civilian-friendly. The only catches were that you had to palletize your shipment, and it was terminal-to-terminal, meaning you needed terminals near your origin and destination locations. I was fortunate to have a YRC terminal just a few miles from me.
I only used them once, for a big load of XS parts shipped from the Great Lakes area. The bed of my El Camino is way lower than a loading dock, but no problem, the forklift came down a concrete ramp and loaded the pallet right into my ElCo's bed.
 
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