Has Apple built a secret hyperloop across Central Asia?
Not your father’s Silk Road (Samarkand, 2007)
I’ve read recently about the revival of the Silk Road as a rail freight route (e.g. see this fascinating DHL slide deck). It’s quicker than shipping, but cheaper than air. It seems to be a compromise well suited to high-value electronics, which have a relatively short shelf life and which tie up a lot of working capital while in transit.
I had read that HP does this for laptops. At first, when I saw the UPS tracking for my new MBP, I assumed Apple was now doing the same. How else to explain a stop off in Almaty of all places? But it’s too quick - this will be about 5 days end-to-end.
Moreover, my quick calculations suggest that my laptop travelled from Incheon to Almaty at an average speed of around 600km/h and from Almaty to Warsaw at over 700km/h.
The Register reported on this back in 2011, but it didn’t seem to find an answer. Does UPS fly small planes that need to refuel? Is this typical for air freight? Is this just some bizarre bug? What on earth - literally - is going on here?
| Location | Date | Local Time | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Castle Donnington, United Kingdom | 11/02/2013 | 4:17 A.M. | Arrival Scan |
| Koeln, Germany | 11/02/2013 | 3:59 A.M. | Departure Scan |
| Koeln, Germany | 11/01/2013 | 1:58 A.M. | Import Scan |
| Koeln, Germany | 10/31/2013 | 10:59 P.M. | Arrival Scan |
| Warsaw, Poland | 10/31/2013 | 9:14 P.M. | Departure Scan |
| 10/31/2013 | 7:07 P.M. | Arrival Scan | |
| Almaty, Kazakhstan | 10/31/2013 | 6:21 P.M. | Departure Scan |
| 10/31/2013 | 4:42 P.M. | Arrival Scan | |
| Incheon, Korea, Republic of | 10/31/2013 | 12:48 P.M. | Departure Scan |
| 10/31/2013 | 7:29 A.M. | Arrival Scan | |
| Shanghai, China | 10/31/2013 | 4:52 A.M. | Departure Scan |
| Shanghai, China | 10/30/2013 | 10:14 P.M. | Export Scan |
| 10/30/2013 | 4:15 P.M. | Arrival Scan | |
| 10/30/2013 | 4:00 P.M. | Departure Scan | |
| 10/30/2013 | 3:13 P.M. | Origin Scan | |
| China | 10/30/2013 | 12:32 A.M. | Order Processed: Ready for UPS |
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Comments (5)
My Apple Watch is taking the exact same route! Just left Kazakhstan!
yeah, that’s how it is…. even in 2016 with the new Apple Watch series 2
Remember that the times shown are Local Time. Local to the place the package currently IS. It can look weird because of it.
ThinkPad here, taking exact same route!
ThinkPad here, taking exact same route!