You had one Job Jonathan from DPD!
- Thread starter Allnamestaken
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Soldato
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We're having a lot more issues in recent months too - collections not happening at all, drivers turning up as late as 7PM to collect (from a business address!)
Associate
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- 31 Oct 2004
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I can imagine there would be complaints from certain people if the driver showed up early when somebody was not in and they were expecting it at X time and would have been in at X time for the delivery as DPD provide 1 hour delivery windows.
Exactly. If they text me saying it was coming between 1pm and 2pm, so I head off down the shops and then they try and deliver at 12 while I'm still out... yes, I'd be quite annoyed! How can no-one else see that as a bad thing? I would say that's probably worse than being late.
Hopefully not jinxing myself but so far this year I've had excellent service from pretty much every courier including DPD... I'm almost in shock that I've not had one late, failed, lost, mixed up or other delivery problem in the last 2-3 months or so.
Associate
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I believe with the introduction of amazon logistics, dpd lost probably the biggest contract they had.
Amazon come through DPD a lot and at Christmas DPD are hit hard... mostly Small packages from Amazon come through us... At one point last year Amazon did stop using us but all of a sudden have started again, Same with Ted Baker they stopped but have now started using DPD again.. Our depot manager said it was the fact we cost £1 more than our competitors that we lost work but we must be doing something right for them to come back
Associate
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I've always assumed the early delivery thing was so that the driver doesn't rush/speed more than anything else.
All drivers set a stop time limit... Most of our drivers go out on 1 min 30 sec a drop... they also have a 30 minute window they must not be early or late for.. If they get near the end of the 30 minute window you can guarantee the manager's are on the phone to them 
Yeah I do miss the delivery slot that Amazon don't do - I'd happily pay an extra £1 (I get free delivery on Prime) to use DPD over Amazon logistics even though Amazon's own couriers have been pretty good of late but I do like having a delivery window.
Associate
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I think that was when amazon logistics first appeared they stopped using dpd, but the service was so terrible (from what i read when amazon logistics was first introduced) they must have had to get dpd back. Iirc before amazon logistics, their sole courier was dpd.
It's kind of ridiculous tho, isn't it? Having to deliver 80-100 drops a day; having 1.5 minute maximum stop time; not being allowed to drop early...All drivers set a stop time limit... Most of our drivers go out on 1 min 30 sec a drop... they also have a 30 minute window they must not be early or late for.. If they get near the end of the 30 minute window you can guarantee the manager's are on the phone to them
It's these things that are causing the drivers to "fake" deliveries.
And in the real world, a single set of roadworks; a single RTA that stops traffic... bam and your whole day's deliveries are now gone up in smoke. Probably can't deliver anything now because your precious 1-hour time-slots are invalidated??!
I think this kind of precision will only actually really 100% work (ie, be viable) when you've got machines delivering stuff, through the air, by drone... and you can guarantee nothing will go wrong.
Frankly the drivers are being treated like machines atm, and it's nonsense.
I think the whole "1 hour timeslot" thing is causing more trouble than it's worth. It's purely a convenience thing and I'm sure people would rather have their parcels *actually delivered* than have a timeslot that the driver can't keep to, so he basically "fakes" the delivery instead.
Not DPD, but Royal Mail do this to me all the ***** time. No parcel in the van, just drop a pre-filled "You weren't in" card through the letterbox and run... and of course don't knock or ring the bell.
In both cases something isn't right with your system if your drivers are having to fake deliveries. Fix the system! Don't offer things you can only achieve if the stars all align correctly!
I have had this happen twice with DPD too. My house is difficult to find, but to be fair we have lived here for 12 years and have deliveries all the time, including DPD but still we get the "5 mins away", followed 2 minutes later by "he is now in Alaska, left a card"....which of course they don't. I also have CCTV footage of some delivery driver drop kicking a box to my front door, a real drop, kick with sound effects and a quick scan around by driver to double check no one was looking...which is unlikely...well unless you have CCTV!!
Needless to day I escalated the issue....via Twitter then via various conversations but it's just an example of a driver making up time at your expense. Annoying but facts of life and little they do about it frankly. I did cancel one order once after getting through to the driver via his HQ who decided he knew how to find my house better than I did. English was his 5th language I believe and after 2 VERY clear conversations he was further away than when we started and his line "yes but my Sat Nav" meant I lost my **** and killed the call and cancelled the order.
Needless to day I escalated the issue....via Twitter then via various conversations but it's just an example of a driver making up time at your expense. Annoying but facts of life and little they do about it frankly. I did cancel one order once after getting through to the driver via his HQ who decided he knew how to find my house better than I did. English was his 5th language I believe and after 2 VERY clear conversations he was further away than when we started and his line "yes but my Sat Nav" meant I lost my **** and killed the call and cancelled the order.
Definitly this, but at the same time, it still amazes me the best some companies can do it give you a day it will be delivered. Even if they had three overlapping time slots, 9-1, 11-4 and 1-6 would be something.