Grrrr! couriers

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Andy Burns escribió:

This may be of interest.

[Andy Burns]

Difficulty being that I'm not the UPS customer and I suppose nobody is going to die if I don't get my plastic boxes. It's "out for delivery" again, so presumably it (or its barcode) has been sighted in a UPS depot somewhere, might have been nice if they'd upgraded it to a pre-9am delivery ...

[Mike Tomlinson]

Yes, of course. The contract's with the sender.

I think the courier companies are struggling. There's lots of competition and with the likes of Deliveroo taking advantage of the gig economy, it's a race to the bottom.

My Yodel delivery "driver" Looks like a tramp. Wild hair, unkempt beard, ragged clothes. I watch him shamble down the street clutching my parcel (no vehicle in evidence), he shoves the packet through the letterbox and wanders off. A few moments later the status shown on the webpage changes to Delivered.

It'll be interesting to se what happens when he has to deliver something that won't fit through the letterbox :)

[pamela]

They've never let me down.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It depends on whether they have to re-deliver - and the same courier has to do it, for no more money.

This is what I'd guess happened with that cheap UPS delivery. The driver parked up and wrote out a load of cards, then delivered just those. Far quicker than waiting for the door to be answered and getting a signature. But in that case you then had to pick up the parcel yourself.

The obvious way round is for part of the driver's pay to be made up of a bonus only paid for a successful delivery.

[michael adams]

One parcel courier in London highlights the pressure of the targets imposed on him. ?We do have to meet targets ? which is to bring as few packages back to the depot as possible,? he says. ?If you bring back 10 parcels, say, they?ll start complaining straight away.?

[...]

He concludes: ?Customers expect perfection but don?t want to pay for it, .?

"Peter Jamieson, a Hermes courier from Edinburgh, spoke out last September after the company abruptly withdrew his work as his wife lay dying from cancer; partly, it seemed, because he was struggling with his rounds while supporting her chemotherapy."

"In March, UK Mail courier Emil Ibrahimov, from east London, was charged nearly ?800 when he was unable to work as a result of being hit by a car while on duty. "

Are you seriously telling anyone that you really believe that when a company offers " you "free delivery" that the cost of that comes out of their profits ? Stories about couriers poor conditions have been widely publicised for years now. There may even have been a TV programme or two about it.

But possibly as with stories about all your clothes having been made by 13 year olds on ?4 a week you'd rather not know. Working class solidatity my arse.

michael adams

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[Dave Plowman (News)]

That might well be the case with some. But not obviously USB that I was complaining about.

The customer in this case being the sender. Who isn't inconvenienced by poor delivery.

Very sad. But that's what happens when you allow the self employed to do jobs where they have a 'master/slave' relationship.

Given the company pays for the delivery, of course it comes out of their profits. Who else pays?

Dunno of any workers who support the self employed doing this sort of job. Self employment is not the correct thing for a job where you are essentially an employee.

It's one of those things that looks attractive - you pay less tax and so on - but don't realise the implications when things go wrong.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Bit of a Freudian slip there. Problem I've found with UPS is they're not very plugged in.

[Andy Burns]

Same guy arrives, around the same time, has my parcel (complete with a big gash in one side where the corner of another box has landed on it but no damage to contents) the electronic pen manages to record about four points joined by straight lines when I sign it, as I hand it back to him he mumbles something that may have included the words "sorry" and "yesterday" and shuffles away ...

[michael adams]

One of the couriers who provided Field's committee with evidence was Mac

Ramsden, who worked for Hermes. He told how he worked seven hours a

day, six days a week for about ?40 a day - the equivalent of ?5.80 an hour

(the UK's current national minimum wage is ?7.50 an hour).

Advertisement However, Ramsden's take-home earnings were lower still, because he also

had to pay for his own petrol, car insurance and mobile-phone expenses.

"And I worked for free a lot of the time," he said, explaining that he would

spend up to two hours a day at the sub-depot, helping sort through the piles of parcels, before starting his round.

None of which information is exactly new.

Unless of course you want to argue that things were exactly the same

20 years ago before the introduction of "free delivery". That most packages

were being delivered by "self employed" drivers using their own vehicles -

although obviously before it was passed by the Labour Govt in 1998 there

was no minimum wage for people to be paid less than.

All competition in the courier industry involves reducing labour costs.

And as there's little further scope for automation over and above

what's already been installed (not that that did the likes of City Link much

good) this means reducing the wages and conditions of the people actually

handling the parcels all the way down the line. Including them having to

provide their own vehicles.

Many of these people have no choice.

They're often dealing with quasi monopolisic commercial enterprises

who will only use couriers using self employed drivers; the latter safe in

the knowledge that there are plenty of aspirants queuing up to take the

place of any who drop out, only to themselves find out the hard way

The only solution would not just be be in legislation but in enforcement

and that's hardly likely to be a priority right now. Or for the next

30 years or so, just so long as people still expect "free delivery"

michael adams

...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Still not sure of the point you're trying to make. If a company, before, charged you for delivery, and now include it in the purchase price, they pay for it. Or comes out of their profits, if you prefer. Of course they hope this increases sales, so overall profits are maintained or improved. Until others do the same.

The pay and conditions of the delivery firm is a separate issue.

People willing to work for a pittance is surely exactly what every true Tory wants? Except themselves, obviously.

[Peter Johnson]

Only DPD took a parcel back because they couldn't find the house, a few years ago. Other drivers using satnav arrive at No 14, the postcode centre, and work it out that No 4, my house, must be somewhere to the left of where they are but not this one. Turned up a couple of days later, after a phone call from a puzzled sender.

[Peter Johnson]

The woman on this round has been with them for 18 months and earns enough to go on two cruises a year, but she did wear her old car out and bought a £500 replacement.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Hermes is my one of choice for sending things, as they have a collection point within walking distance. And excellent tracking.

[michael adams]

How is it a separate issue ? The courier companies/delivery firms have to compete between themselves, for that company's business.

A company which previously charged you for delivery, will choose the courier/delivery which charges them least.

It's also everybody who thinks that "free delivery" is a good idea wants. Even if they don't know it.

There's no such thing as a free lunch, and never has been. Somebody pays and it won't be the shareholders. Its actually the responsibility of the Board and the management appointed by the Board to ensure that shareholder value is maintained at all costs.

michael adams

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[DJC]

The best!

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Odd. Their website never said anything like that here.

[charles]

The driver here is first class. If I'm not in, he knows where to leave parcel.