Arghhh Waiting for Deliveries!

skiddlydiddly

What you describe already exists, they're called couriers.Most items delivered aren't done by couriers, they're done by delivery companies which isn't the same thing.A courier does low volumes at higher cost and delivery firms the other way around.

The scale is totally relevant.If you adjust a drivers patch you adjust the time between drops, which then adjusts the price significantly.I'm sure there are people who would like the idea of getting their parcel at 10pm, but would they like to pay £15 for it instead of £5?

janninew

Well it hasn't turned up, not very happy at all! I would glady have paid extra for a better delivery service but the web-site that i ordered from only gives you the one option for delivery,

Azari

skiddlydiddly wrote: »

What you describe already exists, they're called couriers.Most items delivered aren't done by couriers, they're done by delivery companies which isn't the same thing.A courier does low volumes at higher cost and delivery firms the other way around.

I think you are being deliberately obtuse.

We all know there are different types of 'courier' ranging from a single person who moves a single item from A to B to someone like Citylink. Courier is now the accepted term for all even though historically it was more specialised.

The scale is totally relevant.If you adjust a drivers patch you adjust the time between drops, which then adjusts the price significantly.I'm sure there are people who would like the idea of getting their parcel at 10pm, but would they like to pay £15 for it instead of £5?

Wrong!

Yes, there would need to be an adjustment for a possible increase in time between drops and perhaps for antisocial hours but it isn't going to triple the price. That's just being silly to try and make a point.

Even so, I'm sure there would be people who would be prepared to pay £15 in order that they would not have to take a day off just to wait for a package that might not even turn up.

In practice, I suspect that they difference in price would be more like 10% than 200%!

skiddlydiddly

Azari wrote: »

I think you are being deliberately obtuse.

We all know there are different types of 'courier' ranging from a single person who moves a single item from A to B to someone like Citylink. Courier is now the accepted term for all even though historically it was more specialised.



Wrong!

Yes, there would need to be an adjustment for a possible increase in time between drops and perhaps for antisocial hours but it isn't going to triple the price. That's just being silly to try and make a point.

Even so, I'm sure there would be people who would be prepared to pay £15 in order that they would not have to take a day off just to wait for a package that might not even turn up.

In practice, I suspect that they difference in price would be more like 10% than 200%!

I'm not being obtuse, I just think you do not understand the difference between a courier and a delivery company.A courier generally delivers high priority items where time is of the essence for a premium charge.A delivery company does much larger volumes of traffic and with the larger scale comes a cheaper price, at the cost of speed and flexibility.
I used to do this and the difference in price charged is huge but then I could be there almost immediately and your package would get there ASAP, not picked up from you, taken back to a depot,dispatched to a distribution centre, sorted overnight, dispatched again to a regional centre and get there 24-48 hours later.
Some delivery companies can offer next day service,but again for time sensitive items this is not good enough and is sometims offered with either an am/pm serice not time specific.Plenty of online complaints about these not being met too.

If you think that its only going to add on 10% you are living in dreamland.The fact that the self employed driver would be working unsociable hours that do not work well with other jobs(which would enable it to be a 2nd job) and that there's the small matter of them receiving the goods,loading and sorting them, driving to their delivery area and then driving back home afterwards which could easily add 1.5 hours to your suggested 3.5 hour slot making it 5 hours work for them.If they can do more hours(ie normal working hours) delivering then the price comes down as the wasted time is less % of the total.

I agree, some people would pay £15, some would pay more but the amount isn't significant enough for companies to base a business around and thats why you will struggle to find this service.Most people just want the cheapest service and thats why there are so many complaints about delivery companies as the low price makes it very difficult to provide decent service.


Out of interest, how many items do you think a self employed driver could deliver in 3.5 hours and how many miles would you expect them to be covering?

Azari

skiddlydiddly wrote: »

I'm not being obtuse, I just think you do not understand the difference between a courier and a delivery company.A courier generally delivers high priority items where time is of the essence for a premium charge.A delivery company does much larger volumes of traffic and with the larger scale comes a cheaper price, at the cost of speed and flexibility. I used to do this and the difference in price charged is huge but then I could be there almost immediately and your package would get there ASAP, not picked up from you, taken back to a depot,dispatched to a distribution centre, sorted overnight, dispatched again to a regional centre and get there 24-48 hours later.
Some delivery companies can offer next day service,but again for time sensitive items this is not good enough and is sometims offered with either an am/pm serice not time specific.Plenty of online complaints about these not being met too.

This is just pointless waffle - a complete red herring.

Everyone knows that we are discussing utility delivery companies here, not high end couriers.

If you think that its only going to add on 10% you are living in dreamland.The fact that the self employed driver would be working unsociable hours that do not work well with other jobs(which would enable it to be a 2nd job) and that there's the small matter of them receiving the goods,loading and sorting them, driving to their delivery area and then driving back home afterwards which could easily add 1.5 hours to your suggested 3.5 hour slot making it 5 hours work for them.If they can do more hours(ie normal working hours) delivering then the price comes down as the wasted time is less % of the total.

You are just looking at the problem in the most pessimistic way possible.

I'm not going to address your points individually because you have evidently decided, in your own head, that this service is impossible. Anyone who proposes any new service is always beset by naysayers who are so entrenched in looking at things the way they have always been done that all they see is obstacles and never solutions.

I agree, some people would pay £15, some would pay more but the amount isn't significant enough for companies to base a business around and thats why you will struggle to find this service.

That's just your take on the subject. On must forums discussing suppliers of one sort or another by far the greatest number of complaints are about deliveries.

I think your casual dismissal of an idea for a service that gets around a great many of the problems is naive in the extreme.

Out of interest, how many items do you think a self employed driver could deliver in 3.5 hours and how many miles would you expect them to be covering?

Out of interest, how long is a piece of string?

skiddlydiddly

Azari wrote: »

This is just pointless waffle - a complete red herring.

Everyone knows that we are discussing utility delivery companies here, not high end couriers.


You are just looking at the problem in the most pessimistic way possible.

I'm not going to address your points individually because you have evidently decided, in your own head, that this service is impossible. Anyone who proposes any new service is always beset by naysayers who are so entrenched in looking at things the way they have always been done that all they see is obstacles and never solutions.



That's just your take on the subject. On must forums discussing suppliers of one sort or another by far the greatest number of complaints are about deliveries.

I think your casual dismissal of an idea for a service that gets around a great many of the problems is naive in the extreme.



Out of interest, how long is a piece of string?

Its so viable that there are how many companies doing it and making a profit?Delivery companies all struggle to make money as its such a competitive market.If there was money there to be made, someone would be making it already.

If someone wants to offer this service, then great.Expect it to come at a premium though to reflect this-certainly a lot more than 10%.This wouldn't even come close to covering the extra fuel used between drops due to the low volumes.

Still refuse to answer the question on how many deliveries you'd expect the driver to do because I think you have no clue about what's involved.That's not meant to be an insult, but an observation.

Azari

skiddlydiddly wrote: »

Its so viable that there are how many companies doing it and making a profit?

Have you never noticed that not everything is thought up at once?

Delivery companies all struggle to make money as its such a competitive market.If there was money there to be made, someone would be making it already.

That is an utterly fatuous statement because, what it is saying is that no new services are possible because if they were viable someone would already be providing them.

This is plain nonsense!

If someone wants to offer this service, then great.Expect it to come at a premium though to reflect this-certainly a lot more than 10%.This wouldn't even come close to covering the extra fuel used between drops due to the low volumes.

It's perfectly easy to demonstrate the absurdity of that statement simply by noting that the smaller companies manage to keep going even though they do far fewer deliveries than the bigger ones.

Still refuse to answer the question on how many deliveries you'd expect the driver to do because I think you have no clue about what's involved.That's not meant to be an insult, but an observation.

I'm not answering that question because the answer depends on a variety of factors. If you were as knowledgeable about deliveries as you seem to think you are you would know perfectly well that the answer in a high population density area is going to be dramatically different to that in a small village.

So, on the basis of your asking a question that does not really make sense, and your apparent inability to even realise that, I would suggest that if anyone hasn't a clue about what's going on, it is you.

Pupnik

skiddlydiddly wrote: »

There is something similar-Hermes.The self employed workers get no holidays or sick pay, have to run their vehicle and get a whopping 50p per parcel.

Lets say they start delivering at 6pm, what time do you consider too late to deliver?Now how many parcels do you think they can deliver in that time?Now multiply that by 50p and minus all their costs.Still sound like a good idea?

I had a delivery from Hermes just this week and it was delivered during the day (luckily I was at home) so they do not appear to be restriced to only delivering after 6pm. My parcel was from Amazon and I used the free shipping method, but if Amazon only paid them 50p that is very tight as it was a large box with contents worth £250!

I have so many gripes with deliveries though. A few months ago I was waiting on some shelves from Homebase and had been told it would arrive between 7am and 7pm-yikes! I stayed in all day, and very boring it was too. My boyfriend got back at half 5 to find a 'sorry we missed you' note on the doorstep- we telephoned to see what went wrong and it turns out they didn't have our flat number and had turned up and not known which buzzer to ring! What a waste of time, couldn't they have called their head office to find out? Or even just chanced it and run all the buzzers (5 in our building). It got worse though because after another day of waiting I opened up the boxes to find they got our order wrong, and had to wait AGAIN for someone to come and pick them up.

Just last week we had expected a sofa from Next. My boyfriend arranged the delivery day, but when he told me what day it was I reminded him we had to be in London that night- oops! We contacted them to try and rearrange but they told us it was too late and there would be a £30 charge if we wanted to rearrange, so we decided to take a chance. 24 hours before the delivery day we had a confirmation email and text message saying it would be delivered the next afternoon. We arranged for my boyfriend's mother to sit in on the last hour and a half as we had a train to catch. Surprise surprise it didn't turn up and I phoned Next to find out what went wrong. They put me through to DHL who informed me they had been told by Next that we were rearranging delivery, and put us back to Next's customer service. Spoke to them and yes, they had on record that it was being rearranged and we had to pay the £30 fee! Needless to say I was very angry about the rubbish communication within their company! I spoke to a manager and they said they would cancel the £30 fee (gee thanks) but we would have to wait 78 hours before rearranging for delivery. Finally it has been rearranged, my boyfriend is taking the morning off work to sit around and wait for it to turn up. So far that is my time wasted (was due to attend a course I am booked into the afternoon I waited around), my boyfriend's mother who drove over from the next town over, and now my boyfriend using up half a day's holiday pay. Ridiculous! Once the sofa is safely in our flat I will be writing a very stern letter and expect some kind of compensation even if it is just some Next vouchers.

fluffnutter

This is so easy to resolve. You give the couriers a mobile and you offer a service. Pay 50p when you place your order and they'll text you when they're half an hour away. Easy as pie. Plus it makes a bit of extra cash for the company. Some companies even contact you anyway for free. It's hardly like it's difficult to do.

Pupnik

That would be great, if they could give a more likely delivery time instead of a massive window people could time their lunchbreaks around it (if they work fairly close to home).