Humphrey

Early last December Jan purchased three items from Aliexpress.   Two were less than $20 whilst the third was moderately expensive.  The two cheap items arrived within a fortnight being delivered by the Australian courier company, Fast Horse.  They are very reliable and take a photo of the item at the postal address when the item is delivered.  They also send a text message immediately it’s delivered.

The Aliexpress seller of the third item has made a poor selection when choosing their Australian delivery provided.   Aramex is notorious for being very slow.  Our order was sent by air from China to Melbourne and collected by Aramex on 6 January for the final domestic leg of the journey. 

The Aramex estimated delivery date was 15 January.   Nine days to cross Australia.  The journey can be done in 5 hours by air; 21 hours by train and 48 hours by road.

My assumption is Aramex uses Humphrey; the blind, geriatric, three legged camel for delivery across the continent.  By today Humphrey had only covered half the distance and appeared to have stopped for several days.  He was likely exhausted.

Apparently I was wrong.  When I checked the Aramex website for the reason the delivery had been delayed I read it was caused by a rising volume leading to Christmas.  

As they received the package on 6 January I can only assume it’s the lead up to Christmas 2025!

My guess is Aramex business model is to be the cheapest courier.   They probably retain packages until they have a full shipping container before despatching it.  Melbourne to Perth is probably by rail.   The high number of complaints on various internet forums indicate significant delays with deliveries along with losses, damage and poor customer service responses to queries.  There is a price for going cheap!

I could be wrong and Humphrey might be slowly plodding west! .