How does Apple choose its shipping partners?

So my six year old MacBook Air died and I ordered another one.

I understand the issue of ordering a not-off-the-shelf machine and that it takes a while to build, but the frustrating part of this whole process is the amount of time the finished product, packed and dressed with its shipping and Customs labels, sits on a pallet somewhere (several times). Take a look that the UPS screenshot below (NB: China, in its entirety is one timezone, 12 hours later than Eastern Daylight Time; The Republic of Korea is 13 hours later than EDT):

It's born on 6/6 and leaves the Economic Protected Zone for ZhengZhou about a day later where it arrives 6/7 at 10:30 AM where it sits for three days and 6.5 hours! It arrives 2.75 hours later in Korea where it stays for a day and four hours.

Look, as it stands now, Apple promised the device by the 17th of June. Originally, UPS said the 12th of June once they had possession of it on 6/6 and then all the sitting time on the ground moved it day by day closer to Apple's outside date.

Just, why all the wait time. In the US, UPS moves stuff around overnight or in two nights. we are looking at a delivery process starting on 6/6 ranging through to a guess of 6/16.

Just wondering if there are logistics people to be found who could speed this process up a little (or a lot).

Btw, I know this is a Community Forum and Apple logistics people probably don't see this, but just wondering if someone has a suggestion. UPS was very good with one answer. These products don't ship out of Apple one by one, they come out in large batches with many pages of documents referring to then entire group of products. Time sometimes gets added if there are problems with a single device or two being cleared through Customs that effects the others in the shipment.

Thanks,

Matt