Has anyone put a largish postbox near the front door to take parcels (eg a packet of books that won't go thru letterbox), and if so what models are working out well? Getting fed up with trips to the post office, which is well over a mile away and hard to park by.
Did a local drop off point system ever get going?
thx
E.
Look at clothing recycling points - at least those around here - which have a flap/slot/thingy to prevent removal of stuff once it has been deposited. Might supply an idea or two.
and i bet even if it was painted bright yellow, with 'parcels in her please mr postman' written in the largest and clearest font possible, the postie would still throw the parcel over the fence.... into nextdoors garden not ours, said parcel contained a printer, or it did untill nextdoors big dog discovered it, then ate half and burried the rest under the rose bushes.
Walk? 1 mile < 20 mins, and the excercise will do you good.
I have exactly that problem, never in when parcels arrive. Better now that I can buy from a local Screwfix depot, but still a problem with other suppliers. Our local Parcel Force depot is about 6 miles away.
A self locking parcel box is a brilliant idea. I know that, during harvest time, farmers always want combine harvester parts delivered immediately. The local agricultural dealer will have a lockable wire cage in the yard, and the parts supplier will deliver at whatever time in the evening/night & leave the parcels in the cage - I guess they have a key/combination, or it is left unlocked & they snap the padlock.
DHL have a partial solution to the problem. They have parcels delivered to a local self employed guy who delivers them evenings & weekends - the problem is you have to get the supplier to use their service.
Their must be a national chain who are open 24/7 that could accept parcels anytime & allow collection. Tesco or similar maybe? Petrol stations? McDonalds?
That reminds me of the DHL drop off and collection points in germany, usually at train stations, but also found at tram stops and other easily findable and reachable places, a set of different sized lockers, in the middle is a computer terminal, you insert your dhl card or enter the parcel number, it tells you which locker your parcel is in and opens it for you,
same in reverse if your sending a parcel, after you've paid it tells you which locker to put it in and pops it open.
i tried to sign up for one of the cards to use the system when i was touring germany last year, but couldent without a german postal addy, the system would have been ideal for me to get things sent out to me, easier than the poste resante service, which is notroiousely bad in germany for some reason, switzerland it the usual model of efficiancy, 2 days from sending in england the package was waiting for me, and i was let know via a text message from the sorting office, with a number to ring if i didnt know what it was.
We (one of my companies) have designed such a box which weighs and gives the courier a receipt
our current problem is to actually find someone willing to take the design and manufacture it
... it is in hand
Arghhh - "railway stations"...
:-)
Bahnhof
Colin Bignell
Funnily enough, not currently 24/7, but I always had Post Offices up as a candidate for this sort of service. Initially it looks like helping the competition but better to get a sliver of that cake than lose it entirely (which they seem intent on doing).
And at one time everyone had as local PO... :-(
(Must admit I fervently hope anything I buy is delivered by DHL or City Link as we have depots for both nearby which we can collect from if delivery fails. Some other companies are as far away as Luton or Watford
- towards an hour's drive.)
Does that drive you mad as well? I thought I was the only one who suffered from apoplexy at the sound of that phrase.
Even 'Station' would be clear, a bus stops at a terminal or depot surely?
You've never heard of a "bus station"?
Surprising, as there's one in Chatham, and one in Maidstone.
But Post Offices *do* offer this service. You can set this up at your local Royal Mail delivery office - you specify which PO the packet or parcel is to be delivered to if there's no-one in. The card the postman puts through the door confirms it.
I think there is also an one-off option to have an undelivered packet or parcel redelivered to a PO rather than to you. I'm pretty sure this option is offered on the card the postman puts through the door. You just call them and specify which PO.
Indeed - they do have that option for stuff they fail to deliver. Not much help for HDNL, UPS, TNT, etc. And that is what I was really thinking about - hence the 'helping the competiton' comment. (I realise that Mr Medway had mentioned PF, but thought that it really applied to all delivery services.)
Never used the PO service as almost everything that would be a problem is delivered by someone other than them!
Is that the same as a "road station"?
Understood.
Oh, we would if we could, believe me, but sub postmasters are strictly forbidden anything that may be classed as helping their customers ...
More seriously, yes, as a sub postmaster in a rural area, it would be extremely handy for me to be a depot for other carriers, but the PO have forbidden any such activity - which helps explain why we are disliked by couriers. They think we are just being unhelpful.
Good to hear your view. Having once lived in a tiny town miles from anywhere, it is simple sense to do that. And if the PO doesn't, someone else might - but always unofficial and as a favour - which isn't good if anything goes wrong. But I do understand that you are not allowed to... :-(
Bus terminal or bus depot.
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