A solution to the scourge of couriers

[JonJ678]

Today I received a card instead of my parcel. Enough of this.

Who else is enraged by the state of parcel delivery in the UK? Who else has been begrudgingly putting up with driving to the post office, or a depot in the middle of nowhere, on the grounds that the parcel at least got partway here?

From this day forth, I shall shop exclusively with companies who will deliver to somewhere near my house, but not actually to my house. A nearby co-op that never shuts sounds ideal. Or some form of locked metal box in a convenient place.

Thus:

I will never again receive a "sorry we're not very good at this" card. Worst case scenario, they'll hand the card into the shop.

I will never again have to deal with "sorry we couldn't find you", or "sorry we didn't bother to put the package on the van".

Problem solved. Embrace the new age!

 

[Diddums]

http://cdn4.thetechjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/amazon-locker.jpg

 

[JonJ678]

That's way less subtle than "some form of locked metal box" !

 

[Flack88]

UPS does this, used it to pick up my last OCUK delivery on my way home from work. Nice and simple and no messing about having to drive to the depot.

 

[TheVoice]

It still amazes me that, with online retail being as huge as it is, the bulk of deliveries are made (or rather, attempted) during the day on weekdays when many/most people are at work. Supermarkets deliver in the evenings, why don't couriers too?

 

[Diddums]

I'd be more than happy to pay a couple of quid more for a delivery to have the option of scheduling when it arrives. An email the day before delivery saying that my item will be with me between 7am and 9pm is ridiculous.

 

[JonJ678]

How about a few quid less for the convenience of the shop delivering lots of things, simultaneously, to the same pickup point?

 

[Fuzz]

Should fit those lockers in all 24 hr supermarkets if you ask me.

Will solve a lot of issues overnight..

 

[Janesy B]

It still amazes me that, with online retail being as huge as it is, the bulk of deliveries are made (or rather, attempted) during the day on weekdays when many/most people are at work. Supermarkets deliver in the evenings, why don't couriers too?

They do, you just have to pay extra.

 

[Silly Goose On The Loose]

Amazon let you schedule deliveries now.

 

[Feef]

One thing I love about Taiwan. The state of online shopping is a bit all over the place, a lot of people can't pay online, and plenty of sites won't let me order and pay as my ID card has a differently formatted number to a citizen. This wouldn't be a difficult thing to fix, and some patient/determined/bored expats are getting through these one by one to actually allow us scruffy foreigners to use online services too, but it's a slow process.

However, I can go to almost any site, order whatever I want, and have it delivered to the 7/11 underneath my flat, then go there and pay COD whenever I choose to pick it up. It's convenient, simple and fast, and they're open 24 hours. Fantastic system.

Admittedly, this is far easier in a country where you can see mutliple 7/11s from any given junction, where you can also send mail/pay bills/call taxis/book train tickets etc, but it's surely a model that could be considered to sort these seemingly endless courier rants.

 

[dowie]

I order small things to work usually, no excuses for the courier then as the building is manned 24/7 and is a big tall office block that they shouldn't struggle to find.

 

[Hades]

I'm so fed up with deliveries never arriving despite receiving a text/email stating it was (presumably to the wrong address) that I have really cut back my online purchasing to stuff I really want or need. No more impulse purchases as it's just too much hassle sorting it out. The best one recently was being notified that my parcel had been delivered and signed for by reception... yet I live in a residential house so there is no reception.

Where possible I will try to get smaller things delivered to work. But I would happily drive to a local pickup point in tge evening if there was a local one open at night.

With Tesco announcing multiple store closures it would make sense to convert the smaller ones to such points.

 

[JonJ678]

A distributed set of dedicated pick up points sounds like a credible replacement for the high street. Until that point, a lot of shops are willing to fill the role in exchange for the increase in foot fall.

You're right about cutting down on impulse purchases too. Easy website, easy purchase, week long fight with couriers. Just isn't very appealing.

 

[mattyfez]

Should fit those lockers in all 24 hr supermarkets if you ask me.

Will solve a lot of issues overnight..

Funnily enough, my old man who live in Spain has a local restaurant who rent out drop boxes that are very similar, it works very well.

You can rent them by the week/month for very little so it's perfect for the occasional delivery.

I imagine a supermarket could do the opposite and charge the courier for a finite amount of permanent boxes. Would save carriers money on redelivery attempts.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

Should fit those lockers in all 24 hr supermarkets if you ask me.

Will solve a lot of issues overnight..

Yeah they've been doing that for a few years now in Germany. They're called packstations.

Argos Click-and-collect is a good call too, where you order something online (not necessarily from Argos) then 1-2 days later they have it ready for you in Argos to pick up.

 

[MadMossy]

As a "delivery" driver myself, the number of times Ive had to leave a card because someone wasn't in at the specified time they were notified of up to 24 hours ago is staggering and it ****** me right off.

Why order something if your not going to be in to receive it.

Oh and if your doorbell doesn't work and you miss the delivery because your house is built like fort knox and you can't hear me knock. GET IT BLOODY FIXED!

And if you live in the middle of no where, or have a property with no actual number and just a name or live on an unnamed road, yet leave no indication of this. IM NOT A ******* MIND READER and won't find you.

Our sat navs are no different than yours, if you can't find your house on yours, we won't find it on ours either!

/rant over

 

[Jaaay]

Collect+ = godsend

 

[Caged]

Just get everything delivered to work.

 

[mattyfez]

Just get everything delivered to work.

This is what I tend to do, much more reliable.
The only thing is it's been banned in my workplace now as reception were getting overwhelmed with personal deliveries