Greyhound vs. Apple AirTag

[York-aholic]

I am starting to get the suspicion that Greyhound hands off packages to a shipping company for the longer routes. If this package were on a bus the whole time, I’d get fairly regular updates as the Airtag would get a hit from passangers’ IPhones. Instead I’ve seen things move a time or two a day.

Also, I’ve noticed several stops at different “Estes Express Lines” locations on the map. I looked them up and it is certainly a freight line shipping company. I remember one while the package was in California and it has been at one near Atlanta Georgia since Saturday morning at the edge of the property, showing a ‘last seen’ time of Saturday morning, until now. now it looks to be right up against the edge of the building (truck backed up to the loading dock perhaps?) with a last seen time of 9:05pm.

That hardly seems like bus behavior. I’ll ask the guy at my local Greyhound next time I’m in there. Interesting...

[the elephant]

From all my hours of research, you never see the actual AT location, but the location of the Apple device that it pinged. If you have an iPhone 11 or newer, when you get within a certain range you can actually track it with a built-in direction finder app. I have an Xr so I can only use it with FindMy, so no pinpoint location when I am close. This sort of sucks for me. My wife's 11 can track, though.

So if your tuba rolled past a tricker with his iPhone on, and he was parked up against a wall, it would show where *that phone* was when the connection was made. And once you are out of urban areas iPhones are not so common, I am discovering. Pings may only come three or four times a day in some spots. In town, you get pings every few minutes, but in the hold of a bus or inside an OTR trailer that is on the open road you might not see pings at all for some time.

[York-aholic]

I agree with everything you said @the elephant

This picture from Monday morning seems to suggest that it is inside Estes Express freight location. From Saturday am until Sunday pm, it sat out in their parking lot (top right edge of picture). Perhaps OTR truck/trailer parked there over the weekend, then unloaded late last night for transfer, especially since I saw it just outside the wall (to the right of where the icon is now) last night (truck backed up to loading dock?)

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[humBell]

Use of a shipping company would be consistent with the tracking the provided on mine, which only had an entry of loaded at the initial place, and that even after i got a call it had arrived at the destination, meaning that they weren't even bothering to enter the final arrival in the system...

Er, now i go back and look, it has an entry confirming i picked it up. So that is useful.

[York-aholic]

The tuba/package is definitely back to riding on buses now as it stops at bus depots rather that freight terminals.

In North Carolina now, passing the Tuba Exchange.

[the elephant]

Let us hope that it doesn't *accidentally* end up in the Tuba Museum…

[York-aholic]

Let us hope that it doesn't *accidentally* end up in the Tuba Museum…

1906 York Model 33, yeah I can see that. Flipped to front action with King small pieces, I think it's safe.



But yes, I had the same thought.

[the elephant]

[Mary Ann]

Now being in the process of having bought a tuba and shipping decisions being made.....I "think not" for this one, despite the neat tracking device. Tubas that arrived unscathed were packed in very large boxes with at least a foot of peanuts on all sides, and shipped via FedEx. Past experience does not determine future experience though. I said no Greyhound because I cannot take the stress of not knowing where it is.

[KingTuba1241X]

GPX in Minneapolis smells like pee and there's never anyone around -- employees, passengers, or homeless people.

Last time I went there, I couldn't find anyone to help me, and there is no direct phone number. So I went into the bus area and found the door to the storage room and just went in.

Then the guy working there saw me walk in, remembered me from a little while before, and also gave me the direct phone number to his desk (which I promptly lost).

Never had a bad experience, but never had a good one either. I don't mind breaking even.

The GPX in downtown L.A. if you did that, would have you on the floor in handcuffs. They have (understandably) armed security patrolling around, and it would be obvious you'd be in a private area on the property. Couldn't be because of all the homeless laying around the outside of the building...no...

[bort2.0]

Any updates?

[York-aholic]

It has been sitting at the New York Transport authority bus station the past 5 days waiting to go to east NJ.

If I was relying on the Greyhound tracking info, it’s last scan was leaving Los Angeles.

While not making it go faster, knowing where it is gives a bit of piece of mind.

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[the elephant]

Simply knowing that it is stuck in some terminal somewhere and not sitting in some DB's garage or a pawn shop makes these situations a lot less maddening for me.

[York-aholic]

In a search problem all information is positive information.

[York-aholic]

Tilt!

From New York's western border, it only needed to go across New Jersey to the north west corner. Instead (after 5 days in NY) it is in Connecticut going eastbound along the shore towards Rhode Island.

I'm not great on geography, but me thinks we're going the wrong way!

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[hrender]

The Drunkard's Walk

[York-aholic]

I guess the tuba wanted to see the sights. Having finally left the bus depot in Western New York after several days there (see two pictures previous), it went up and east (it needed to go west to the north western part of Jersey) for a nice trip along the shoreline of Connecticut, then up through Massachusetts to Boston, then a more inland route BACK to the same bus depot in NY.

I suppose it might have just wanted to go out for a drive and to see the sea.

As crazy as this is, being able to keep tabs on it has kept me from pulling my hair out.

What worries me is that this is actually a trade. The recipient will be sending a large package back to me after transferring the airtag, so get to enjoy the trip back. It will be interesting to see if it goes back by the same route...

[JESimmons]

I ordered something from a manufacturer in Seattle to ship to southeast Georgia. The order shipped at the same time in three packages by FedEx. Each package came a different route and arrived on a different day.

[humBell]

A possible explanation of the detour is the metric of efficiency occasionally employed by stations, where they are considered efficient by how long things wait there?

A tale of someone tracking a train shipment on a car waiting to get put on a side line, only to check in and find out it had been sent on further down the wrong track because it had stayed too long at that stop... Well that tale crossed my attention sometime in the past few months, but long enough ago, that is pretty much the extent of the context i recall.

Anyway after my recent 2 month greyhound experience, i just got a tuba delivered in 24 hours and 15 minutes over the same distance, between Washington and Massachusetts. Apparently i live at extremes. No middle ground for me.

[Three Valves]

A possible explanation of the detour is the metric of efficiency occasionally employed by stations, where they are considered efficient by how long things wait there?

Very likely.