Indeed some of the gear is really heavy, and their work load is absolutely ridiculous. You’d be better off hod carrying on site, humping six inch concrete blocks around all day long for miles better wages. For all that the delivery drivers should be supplied with all the correct gear. Proper automated sack trolleys and vans with proper automated lifting tail gates. I find UPS quite good in this regard. Most just use a long wheel based transit van that is simply not up to the task for heavy fragile items. It’s all a bit greedy, unfortunately.
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He can’t have a sherry as he’s in his caravan in France, so it would be inappropriate (!) but there will be lots of lovely French wine close to hand I’m sure.
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On my recent delivery, I was drop #119, @approx. 16:45, and I suspect I was by no means the final drop. “They’re working you hard, today”, I said. “All the time”, he said…
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He’s not a very jolly old Hector!!
That’s a blast from the past, I was always rather taken by ZsaZsa’s voice, very refined and feminine - I wonder who it was, apparently there was an urban myth that it was Joanna Lumley.
I may never live this down, but I have the DVD, purchased when the kids were younger.
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Lol! Kids today didn’t get to enjoy the likes of Hatty Town, hectors house or rhubarb n custard!
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Barbapapa?
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I’m perfectly jolly. I just find pointless criticism of overworked and underpaid couriers rather entitled and distasteful.
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For goodness sake HH in the circumstances described even the pope would be critical I’d guess…… why does everything have to be some sort of “ entitlement” with you. Bad service is just that.
Have you considered changing your avatar name to “Citizen Smith”?
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So would you be perfectly happy had the courier treat your kit in this way? Off course not. And how dare you try to label me or my friend entitled- the post is perfectly valid and legitimate, the criticism is justified, are you suggesting that those whose employers treat them badly should be permitted to mistreat their employer’s customers or customers’ goods with utter lack of care? Definitely not a jolly hector more a judgemental woke righteous and pious Pete Perfect (c/o Wacky Racers)
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Well said JonnyS- also best to just ignore some people on this forum, their intent seems to be primarily aimed at annoying others for no good reason
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You wouldn’t want this guy to deliver your goods!
That’s the guy!! That was him!
The criticism of the service is entirely justified. The highlighting of an individual as through they were somehow the issue is not. I think it’s that which some, as I, struggle with.
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You are absolutely correct Eoink, it is unsustainable.
Having been thrown under a bus whilst changing jobs during COVID, I spent a year working as a Delivery Associate for Amazon. Of course no-one at that level, or indeed most levels, actually works for Amazon directly.
DAs work as self-employed sole-traders for third party companies, called Delivery Service Providers, who are in turn engaged by Amazon.
You are expected to get to site approximately 20 minutes before your start time (which you are advised of the night before) to collect van keys and your route
Start times are at 20 minute intervals called waves, usually between 10 and 12am.
You then queue in your van load your parcels, up to 12-off large bags, and typically 30-off oversize packages which too large to go in a bag, IN YOUR OWN TIME.
You need to sort and load them first-in last out, to minimise time spent searching whilst on the road.
If you’re lucky, you get a Prime Van which has shelving, proper lighting, and access to the van from the cab.
This equates to up to 180 stops or nine hours work, determined by Amazon routing algorithms. Most stops have multiple drops. Your time starts when you hit, ‘Start First Delivery’ on the app on your hand held device, which you have to provide.
You set off on your route which may be local to the Distribution Centre or up to half hour away.
I very rarely had a regular route.
You work as fast as you can and get as many deliveries done whilst it’s light, because the job is far more difficult in the dark.
You’d be surprised how many houses don’t have a door number,
or the house name in a weird tiny Cyrillic font, black on a black background.
The most awkward deliveries are
Flats, high-rise are worst. Nobody answers the buzzer and no safe location to leave parcels
Terraced housing with no safe-location, and/or no access for vehicles.
Terraced housing with cars parked on both sides of a narrow street
Large houses with electric gates and/or long drives
Cul de sacs where the turning circle is filled with parked cars
Farms at the end on wet muddy unlit lanes
Anything you cannot deliver, you are obliged to re attempt at the end of your route.
Absolutely no doorstepping allowed
Common Hazards
Dogs (several of my ex colleagues were bitten) and their faeces.
Bad weather. I always put packages in weather bags if it was raining or looked like it was going to rain
Unlit paths with steps
Dwarf walls
Irate customers, who’d had a bad experience with a previous delivery.
All aspects of your performance and driving are monitored. If your metrics are poor, you get the DCM, Don’t Come Monday.
All for £90 per day nett
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Hi Mike- on the one hand I did not highlight an individual, I did describe what the driver did and how his actions were perceived but there was no mention of names or even where this took place. On the other hand how was the issue NOT down to the individual? I have no idea how many drops or how hard the driver’s job is/was but regardless he was pretty negligent and it was the service HE provided that was below par- in my friend’s mind the driver was the sole blame and all fault lies with him- so are we not allowed to make the call that possibly an excellent service was in fact spoilt only by the behaviour of the individual, and if so what is the problem with highlighting the individual? We are all grown ups, if you perform deliberately shoddily why should you not be held to account, for pities sake
In any profession there can be good, bad or indifferent employees.
In my experience as a delivery guy consistent poor performance will lead to dismissal.
I worked with quite a few people who didn’t give toss, they usually didn’t last long.
I also worked with people who worked hard, and tried to provide good service in tough conditions.
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I’ve little to add. My earlier post explained the appalling conditions such people work in. His working conditions make it largely impossible for him to perform his role as both he and we would presumably want.
Expecting better of any given individual in those circumstances is to address the symptoms not the cause.
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The experiences i’ve had with delivery guys has been mostly superb. I live in a first floor flat. I look out for them and greet them at the main door, because i understand the work load stresses they are under. I don’t expect them to carry my goods up a floor to the door, whilst i’m standing there doing nothing, i indeed do that myself. They are always very polite and very quickly off to their next drop off point. No worries. Hope to see them again, and thank you.
Here is an example of me doing just that:
P.S. at least the guy has got his company socks on.
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You’d like to think that the delivery services, based of feedback from the vendors, would be able to see that:
-
someone who does a shoddy job with a 20% customer complaint to the vendor but delivers 100% of their quota is being pushed too hard or has an issue
-
someone who is careful with items they deliver, has a virtually 0% of complaints from vendors/customers but maybe manages 60-70% of their quota that day is a far better representative for their service
Sadly I think neither big business vendors (not small ones) or delivery companies actually give a damn, it’s all about moving boxes/items around as quickly and as cheaply as possible.
I wonder if far fewer people complain about shoddy deliveries than they used to? We’re almost conditioned to expect a few bad experiences every now and then, but the vast majority tend to be ok.
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