To all courier drivers!
Discussion
Can you please take care with parcels that have FRAGILE all over them! Another one of my well packaged hampers was smashed today on it's way to someone for Valentine's day leaving me well out of pocket and making us both look bad.
You may think we're insured but the brokers make it hard to claim for damage for our goods so we get nothing back. AND we lose customers...
In fact out of the last 10 parcels I have sent, using 3 different well-known couriers I've had 1 box completely disappear, 2 go to the same address (5 days late) as someone changed it by hand and 2 have been smashed. Today alone is going to wipe out the shop takings for the day... Its so bad I'm thinking of not offering online sales.
Just be a bit careful is all I ask.
Ta.
Dickster.
You may think we're insured but the brokers make it hard to claim for damage for our goods so we get nothing back. AND we lose customers...
In fact out of the last 10 parcels I have sent, using 3 different well-known couriers I've had 1 box completely disappear, 2 go to the same address (5 days late) as someone changed it by hand and 2 have been smashed. Today alone is going to wipe out the shop takings for the day... Its so bad I'm thinking of not offering online sales.
Just be a bit careful is all I ask.
Ta.
Dickster.
Dickster said:
Can you please take care with parcels that have FRAGILE all over them! Another one of my well packaged hampers was smashed today on it's way to someone for Valentine's day leaving me well out of pocket and making us both look bad.
You may think we're insured but the brokers make it hard to claim for damage for our goods so we get nothing back. AND we lose customers...
In fact out of the last 10 parcels I have sent, using 3 different well-known couriers I've had 1 box completely disappear, 2 go to the same address (5 days late) as someone changed it by hand and 2 have been smashed. Today alone is going to wipe out the shop takings for the day... Its so bad I'm thinking of not offering online sales.
Just be a bit careful is all I ask.
Ta.
Dickster.
You may think we're insured but the brokers make it hard to claim for damage for our goods so we get nothing back. AND we lose customers...
In fact out of the last 10 parcels I have sent, using 3 different well-known couriers I've had 1 box completely disappear, 2 go to the same address (5 days late) as someone changed it by hand and 2 have been smashed. Today alone is going to wipe out the shop takings for the day... Its so bad I'm thinking of not offering online sales.
Just be a bit careful is all I ask.
Ta.
Dickster.
They will have no idea what you are on about. Being careful is not (I'm afraid) in their vocabulary.
In all fairness it isn't necessarily the couriers you should be worrying about, I did some driving work for parcel force last year and always made sure that I was careful with everything in my van, since at the end of the day, I was the one handing it to the customer.
The guys loading and unloading the lorries in the depot however were often incredibly rough with parcels, and it used to frustrate me having taken great care in bringing the parcels in, and indeed did lead to a good few arguments during the time i was there.
It isn't fun when a customer that you collect from a few times a week asks you why his parcels keep arriving damaged despite being well wrapped!
The guys loading and unloading the lorries in the depot however were often incredibly rough with parcels, and it used to frustrate me having taken great care in bringing the parcels in, and indeed did lead to a good few arguments during the time i was there.
It isn't fun when a customer that you collect from a few times a week asks you why his parcels keep arriving damaged despite being well wrapped!
LordSvetly said:
In all fairness it isn't necessarily the couriers you should be worrying about, I did some driving work for parcel force last year and always made sure that I was careful with everything in my van, since at the end of the day, I was the one handing it to the customer.
The guys loading and unloading the lorries in the depot however were often incredibly rough with parcels, and it used to frustrate me having taken great care in bringing the parcels in, and indeed did lead to a good few arguments during the time i was there.
It isn't fun when a customer that you collect from a few times a week asks you why his parcels keep arriving damaged despite being well wrapped!
Agreed.The guys loading and unloading the lorries in the depot however were often incredibly rough with parcels, and it used to frustrate me having taken great care in bringing the parcels in, and indeed did lead to a good few arguments during the time i was there.
It isn't fun when a customer that you collect from a few times a week asks you why his parcels keep arriving damaged despite being well wrapped!
I worked for another overnight parcel company and the way some of the boxes were 'put down' by the handlers was guaranteed to break.
They also have no problem in stacking heavy boxes on top of a 'fragile' items, but I guess being paid just over minimum wage and starting at 3.30am, they don't care.
The simple answer is that its impossible to treat every parcel with kid gloves. I know from a company point of view that would be the ideal world but it simply cant be done. The volume of parcels that come and go through the courier system is massive. As someone else said its likely not the drivers fault, they tend to be the one that will have an idea of what is in the package from delivering day after day, i could probably tell you what is in 70% of the parcels on my van either from the shippers name or type of box etc. You soon learn what is fragile and what isn't. Unfortunately the loaders have no idea and don't really care, they have a set amount of time to unload thousands of parcels and then load them on the vehicles. While they don't go throwing them around they may well be handled roughly when trying to move numerous boxes at the same time to get them off the conveyer belt to the correct loading bay. My loader loads 3 vans, if there is suddenly loads for all 3 vans at the same time she has to get them off the belt as fast as possible, once they pass they don't come back till after the shift and that doesn't go down well.
It would also be nice if people only actually used Fragile labels for actual fragile items instead of anything they like, at least then it would mean something. Cant say i've ever seen a fragile book but plenty have fragile labels.
It would also be nice if people only actually used Fragile labels for actual fragile items instead of anything they like, at least then it would mean something. Cant say i've ever seen a fragile book but plenty have fragile labels.
You may think they're well packaged but if 20% are being smashed then the evidence suggests aren't packaged well enough. If your package can't stand being dropped five feet onto concrete and having ten more like it stacked on top it's not packaged well enough for you to use a normal parcel delivery firm.
The secret life of a parcel:
The driver calls to collect the parcel, carries it carefully from your premises and places it carefully in the back of the van.
At his next delivery the parcel is in the way so is lobbed to the front of the load area against the bulkhead.
Every subsequent picked up parcel lands on top of yours.
Back at base your parcel is tossed from the back of the van onto a conveyor belt, where it is scanned for arrival, then again for departure a second later and travels up another belt, where it's lofted into the back of an artic, with a six foot high pile of boxes lobbed on top.
This procedure is repeated at the main hub, where it's sorted into another wagon going to the delivering courier's base.
The wagons rattle and clatter for hundreds of miles over speedbumps, potholes, whatever, with your parcel at the bottom of the pile.
At the destination base the wagon is unloaded onto yet another belt, scanned for arrival, and an army of sorters lift the parcels and lob them into rolling cages, where your parcel inevitably ends up at the bottom of a seven foot deep pile, every other box lobbed on top from six feet away.
There's no time to carry each box and place it carefully. At the base where I worked for two years daily workloads were in the thousands of parcels, sorted and loaded within 40 minutes, or arses got kicked.
The cage is wheeled to the delivery bay where 'your' round is sorted, the cage is emptied, the boxes lobbed, kicked and shuffled about into delivery order, before being scanned out for delivery, then loaded into the van, another pile of boxes with yours at the bottom.
Nobody, and I mean nobody pays attention to 'FRAGILE' stickers, there's no time.
You picked a cheap s
tty organisation to deliver your packages on the cheap. Package them properly and they might survive the journey. A bit of brown paper and a fragile sticker is nowhere near enough.
One, and only one, company carries your parcel on shelves inside their brown vans. They're a bit more expensive, but they make far fewer cock-ups
The driver calls to collect the parcel, carries it carefully from your premises and places it carefully in the back of the van.
At his next delivery the parcel is in the way so is lobbed to the front of the load area against the bulkhead.
Every subsequent picked up parcel lands on top of yours.
Back at base your parcel is tossed from the back of the van onto a conveyor belt, where it is scanned for arrival, then again for departure a second later and travels up another belt, where it's lofted into the back of an artic, with a six foot high pile of boxes lobbed on top.
This procedure is repeated at the main hub, where it's sorted into another wagon going to the delivering courier's base.
The wagons rattle and clatter for hundreds of miles over speedbumps, potholes, whatever, with your parcel at the bottom of the pile.
At the destination base the wagon is unloaded onto yet another belt, scanned for arrival, and an army of sorters lift the parcels and lob them into rolling cages, where your parcel inevitably ends up at the bottom of a seven foot deep pile, every other box lobbed on top from six feet away.
There's no time to carry each box and place it carefully. At the base where I worked for two years daily workloads were in the thousands of parcels, sorted and loaded within 40 minutes, or arses got kicked.
The cage is wheeled to the delivery bay where 'your' round is sorted, the cage is emptied, the boxes lobbed, kicked and shuffled about into delivery order, before being scanned out for delivery, then loaded into the van, another pile of boxes with yours at the bottom.
Nobody, and I mean nobody pays attention to 'FRAGILE' stickers, there's no time.
You picked a cheap s
tty organisation to deliver your packages on the cheap. Package them properly and they might survive the journey. A bit of brown paper and a fragile sticker is nowhere near enough.One, and only one, company carries your parcel on shelves inside their brown vans. They're a bit more expensive, but they make far fewer cock-ups
They'll learn soon enough when people stop bothering and the only packages are for businesses (eg documents) or stuff that isn't breakable thus rendering many delivery staff unemployed.
I only use parcel delivery services if I absolutely have to now. I'd rather pay a bit extra and buy it in-store as I can examine the product before purchasing it.
Whether it's the fault of the staff who can't be arsed because they're not paid enough to care or the managers who force the staff to work quickly is irrelevant to the customer.
I only use parcel delivery services if I absolutely have to now. I'd rather pay a bit extra and buy it in-store as I can examine the product before purchasing it.
Whether it's the fault of the staff who can't be arsed because they're not paid enough to care or the managers who force the staff to work quickly is irrelevant to the customer.
Many years ago I did temp work unloading lorries at a sorting depot and as said you have an HGV "stacked" floor to ceiling front to back with 1000's of parcels.
You have to feed a conveyor belt as quick as you can to get it unloaded on time!!
It was an ongoing joke of why people would send fraggles in the post!!
You have to feed a conveyor belt as quick as you can to get it unloaded on time!!
It was an ongoing joke of why people would send fraggles in the post!!
Dickster said:
Can you please take care with parcels that have FRAGILE all over them! Another one of my well packaged hampers was smashed today on it's way to someone for Valentine's day leaving me well out of pocket and making us both look bad.
You may think we're insured but the brokers make it hard to claim for damage for our goods so we get nothing back. AND we lose customers...
In fact out of the last 10 parcels I have sent, using 3 different well-known couriers I've had 1 box completely disappear, 2 go to the same address (5 days late) as someone changed it by hand and 2 have been smashed. Today alone is going to wipe out the shop takings for the day... Its so bad I'm thinking of not offering online sales.
Just be a bit careful is all I ask.
Ta.
Dickster.
Rule No.1 - NEVER EVER put FRAGILE on any parcel - it just goads them to damage it, honestly. In 21yrs of shipping IT products we have had very few damaged goods, partly down to good packaging & partly down to discreet packaging!You may think we're insured but the brokers make it hard to claim for damage for our goods so we get nothing back. AND we lose customers...
In fact out of the last 10 parcels I have sent, using 3 different well-known couriers I've had 1 box completely disappear, 2 go to the same address (5 days late) as someone changed it by hand and 2 have been smashed. Today alone is going to wipe out the shop takings for the day... Its so bad I'm thinking of not offering online sales.
Just be a bit careful is all I ask.
Ta.
Dickster.
We have found Interlink & TNT are the best, the best are not always the cheapest though.
isnt there a scene from pet detective that summaries's "FRAGILE" nicely . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_wGeErYTl8
LOL!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_wGeErYTl8
LOL!!!
crmcatee said:
Would be interesting in sending a G recorder through the parcel service to see what levels of abuse it was receiving on different routes.
Like these: http://www.isthq.com/Products/EDR3CSeries/tabid/59...
or much cheaper:
http://www.shockwatch.com/impact-tilt/impact-indic...
shimmey69 said:
Many years ago I did temp work unloading lorries at a sorting depot and as said you have an HGV "stacked" floor to ceiling front to back with 1000's of parcels.
You have to feed a conveyor belt as quick as you can to get it unloaded on time!!
It was an ongoing joke of why people would send fraggles in the post!!
Ditto but loading. Fragile seemed to mean you could throw them further up the lorry so was usually a bonus.You have to feed a conveyor belt as quick as you can to get it unloaded on time!!
It was an ongoing joke of why people would send fraggles in the post!!
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