Courier employees??

[Kevin Alexander]

Just wondering if there are any courier drivers here as I find it amazing there was courier would leave a parcel in a garden.

My parcel has went missing after the driver left the item on my doorstep.

Fair enough the company is resenting but what would possess someone to be there negligent

Rant over

 

[ColinJ]

Ha - an Amazon courier yesterday claims to have delivered my parcel to a non-existent neighbour! Well, the neighbour might exist but the address that he is supposed to live at does not so I am having a problem finding which neighbour it is!

Oh, and I was in all day waiting for the parcel, a few feet from the front door. The courier did NOT come to the door ...

I once had a parcel containing a £50 webcam left on my front step. The step was right next to the pavement since the house had no garden or yard.

 

[Garry A]

I'm sitting in waiting for a delivery that may or may not come today or tomorrow. From now I will not be buying from anyone unless they can give me a delivery date and a time window. Hate having my time wasted, I'm doing dishes and washing instead of pedalling.

 

[jonny jeez]

From now I will not be buying from anyone unless they can give me a delivery date and a time window. Hate having my time wasted, .

You could always go to the shop yourself and just buy it.

Do you not think that we are all being far too demanding. We complain about corruption, environmental impact, social values and yet we want everything, yesterday, for half the price, delivered at our convenience with a lovely bag of sweets to boot

How do we expect firms to maintain costs under those sorts of demands...without something having to give?

 

[Globalti]

Anybody who has ever driven a delivery van would be fuming at the OP; I did it once and it was the most stressful, exhausting job I've ever done. And that was before cell phones, satnav or online shopping and I'm sure drivers' lives are timed to the minute nowadays so the pressure to get rid of the package and get moving must be immense. A frustrated drop is a huge pain in the wotsit because it means you've got to try again later or the next day.

It's grossly unsound environmentally as well; British roads are clogged solid with almost empty vans racing around delivering parcels to people who want that stuff in 24 hours for a fraction of the shop price.

 

[Chris S]

Apparently the last leg of the delivery from the depot to the delivery address accounts for about 50% of the total cost. Having to repeat it wipes out any profit so couriers go to extreme lengths to avoid it.

 

[Globalti]

The demand for instant delivery has created a massive free market for couriers; I have no idea of the size of this "industry" but I'm sure it has burgeoned in recent years from the most basic level of the person with a car and some time to spare through the small local firms to the nationals. I do know that a certain amount of rationalisation has taken place at the national level so that many courier cos simply act as agents for TNT, who own the vehicles and do the distribution. Even Manchester's famous Curry Mile is turning slowly into a Kebab Mile as Syrians and Iraqis edge the Asians out; one Syrian guy told me Asians are moving into the courier business because it's growing, unlike Indian food, which is shrinking.

 

[Roadrider48]

I have no complaints about any courier service as such.
But, it has happened to me twice that when the item doesn't turn up and you check the tracking in the evening it says that I was out and they couldn't deliver.
That is a complete lie, because those two times I was at home all day.
And just to rub salt in the wound it says they left a card. But I had no card.
I do use couriers a hell of a lot and those two instances do sort of pale into significance.

 

[Kevin Alexander]

Anybody who has ever driven a delivery van would be fuming at the OP; I did it once and it was the most stressful, exhausting job I've ever done. And that was before cell phones, satnav or online shopping and I'm sure drivers' lives are timed to the minute nowadays so the pressure to get rid of the package and get moving must be immense. A frustrated drop is a huge pain in the wotsit because it means you've got to try again later or the next day.

It's grossly unsound environmentally as well; British roads are clogged solid with almost empty vans racing around delivering parcels to people who want that stuff in 24 hours for a fraction of the shop price.

Don't see why. I'm paying a for a £500 power meter to be delivered in a safe and proper manner. Not to be left unattended in my garden. That is not their policy.

They are paid to deliver. If I am not in leave a card and I will rearrange for a day I am in or I will collect from the depot.

My parcel was delayed so I couldn't take the day off with short notice .

This companies policy is do not leave with a neighbour or unattended and always get a signature. Not my rules. Their employers.

 

[e-rider]

I have no complaints about any courier service as such.
But, it has happened to me twice that when the item doesn't turn up and you check the tracking in the evening it says that I was out and they couldn't deliver.
That is a complete lie, because those two times I was at home all day.
And just to rub salt in the wound it says they left a card. But I had no card.
I do use couriers a hell of a lot and those two instances do sort of pale into significance.

I don't use couriers much but had exactly the same thing - they pretend they called and left card when in fact they didn't. Also had empty boxes delivered when I wasn't home and couriers claim stuff was stolen after delivery (being left in the garden)!
I now factor in all this nonsense when deciding whether to buy online or just visit a shop locally

 

[MarkF]

Globalti is right, when I ran a business I used to use couriers every day, even big company drivers with "good" conditions, a secure job and a regular salary were some of the most stressed out people I've ever met. For the current day "associates" using their own vehicles and struggling to earn the minimum wage, you can multiply that stress many times. Their payers will no doubt have terms and conditions by which their drivers must abide by, in reality they'll put them under such intense pressure that they can't comply, it's a terrible industry, dangerous too, as cyclists we can't now recognise courier vehicles and go into high alert mode.

 

[mjr]

[...] Their payers will no doubt have terms and conditions by which their drivers must abide by, in reality they'll put them under such intense pressure that they can't comply, it's a terrible industry, dangerous too, as cyclists we can't now recognise courier vehicles and go into high alert mode.

The industry is pretty rotten. I wish more retailers offered a choice of which couriers were used. I've had several near-misses with Yodel vans driving along cycle tracks so I'd pay extra to avoid them, among others. DPD seem to be well-behaved and UKMail have got better.

We haven't been able to recognise courier vehicles for years now. Plenty of couriers use hired vans whose markings are often pretty subtle (Northgate) and the hire firms act as liability shields for some of the worst-behaved courier drivers (after all, if you've got to put some of your drivers into hire vans, why would you pick the best drivers?).

 

[MarkF]

The industry is pretty rotten. I wish more retailers offered a choice of which couriers were used. I've had several near-misses with Yodel vans driving along cycle tracks so I'd pay extra to avoid them, among others. DPD seem to be well-behaved and UKMail have got better.

We haven't been able to recognise courier vehicles for years now. Plenty of couriers use hired vans whose markings are often pretty subtle (Northgate) and the hire firms act as liability shields for some of the worst-behaved courier drivers (after all, if you've got to put some of your drivers into hire vans, why would you pick the best drivers?).

Agree, but now more courier drivers are in regular hatchbacks than vans, I go into high alert around any commercial vehicle tbh.

 

[Globalti]

I would just add that as a 20 year-old driving somebody else's beaten-up van I didn't give a toss about much; I fancied myself as a bit of a whizz kid driver and took some pretty stupid risks. This gives me an insight into today's van drivers.

 

[ColinJ]

You could always go to the shop yourself and just buy it.

Do you not think that we are all being far too demanding. We complain about corruption, environmental impact, social values and yet we want everything, yesterday, for half the price, delivered at our convenience with a lovely bag of sweets to boot

How do we expect firms to maintain costs under those sorts of demands...without something having to give?

By being efficient and making proper use of modern logistical technology?

I actually think that there would be a much smaller environmental impact from one van delivering 50 parcels than 50 people driving into city centres to go shopping! And if the vans are clogging up the streets then think what the individual cars would be doing. You can bet that most of the people not buying online are not going to the shops on foot, by bike or even by bus or train.

I saw a supermarket delivery van doing its rounds when I was out on my bike last night. When the driver opened the back I could see that it contained at least 100 plastic crates of shopping. That's an awful lot of car journeys saved.

The last few deliveries from different companies gave me detailed tracking and each time I got a text message on the morning of the delivery giving an hour's window for the delivery. Each was made 20-30 minutes into that hour.

I think the best solution is what a lot of companies are doing now which is to offer to deliver parcels to local shops or post offices.