If you are active on Twitter or Facebook you can’t have missed the Fedex guy who drops a PC monitor over a fence. In case you have, here it is again.
In the UK a parcel delivery driver gets £6.10 an hour approx $10. The driver has to deliver between 80-100 packages in their 8 hour working day. If they fail to deliver, get stuck in traffic or can’t locate the address then they will run late and run into unpaid overtime. The driver may be new to the route and new to the area and that can cause delays.
Would you work unpaid?
In most cases you wouldn’t work unpaid but you would expect your delivery driver or courier to do so just so you can get your parcel. When you ordered your goods did you look at how they were going to be delivered? Or did you find the cheapest possible supplier with the cheapest possible delivery service?
If you opted for cheap, it’s no surprise that you are outraged that the driver dropped the monitor over the fence – you want great service but you are not prepared to pay for it -you bought on price and price alone.
But before you start thinking it’s just Fedex, think again – it’s every parcel delivery company out there. Go and check You Tube, you’ll find hundreds of videos (and they are several years old in a lot of cases). Nothing has changed since people got outraged about the first guy throwing parcels across the warehouse. The parcel companies pay minimum wage, they work their staff hard, they have to make a profit for their shareholders and that’s you and me. We make them work that way so our pension pots are bigger.
You can stop them, you can start by remembering your courier service is run by human beings. If something is valuable it could cause someone to be tempted by it. If your goods are fragile, package for the fact they will be thrown around. You can remember that these drivers are worked real hard so you can have “free delivery” for your goods.
Want to do something about it?
- Get the right courier services for your goods.
- Stop expecting your parcel couriers to be saints, it won’t ever happen
- Remember you get what you pay for so if you have the option of cheap delivery over bespoke delivery, weigh up the options wisely.
Remember – you do have a choice and if you choose the option that gets your goods broken; it’s your fault. Pressure the retailers to use reputable local couriers who will deliver respectfully and pay their staff decently and treat them like human beings. You never know when you may have to drive a mile in the delivery truck or van.
Sarah
Happily trading in our tenth year without breaking or losing a single package.
As you say Sarah, FedEx and DHL drivers are paid on deliveries. They in theory don’t get paid minimum wage, but a per-delivery amount. FedEx/DHL only then top that up to minimum wage should they not make minimum target – which if they fail 3x, means that the…y don’t get employed again.
I always say: if you know a sales persons bonus scheme, then you can easily get a bargain. In this case, he didn’t even have enough time to ring the door bell….
NB: the FedEx and DHL networks locally to my home in South Wales use the same white van man. The first time he claimed to have called at my door, I complained as he didn’t, and he has never done it again. The only problem now is that if he know’s that he’s delivering to us, we end up with mail for the whole street! Didn’t know I was the local white van man…
Our local DHL depots staff and drivers are on minimum wage but they have to do a huge amount of physical work for very little. Customers want cheap delivery but at what price?
Amazon deliver to us via Yodel normally every day of the year, except Christmas. At Christmas they can never find our house and they say it’s our fault…
I met with the FD of a prestigious City of London based courier and taxi business in 2005, who’s main cost reduction initiative that year was buying 200 StaNav’s that were in Polish. He thought it would reduce his operational cost by 20%. We met 6months later, in actual fact his costs had gone up due to client claims of late and damaged deliveries, and hence re-sends.
But, what happened out of this era was that locally based people now accept these US-derived on target based wage scheme contracts as given. The result is that the quality of the delivery chain must go down: we know our roads are getting busier, hence how can you increase productivity without something – many things – decreasing?
I’d prefere to pay once and get my package delivered once in working condition; than be wrapped in extra large packaging to ensure that the low-paid worker who delivers it can goal-kick it through my letter box on his third attempt…
If he can Ian, you won’t have him delivering for long, one of the Premier League teams will snap him up
I sell a few things on eBay, just to make an extra few quid (whih is never worth it after you take the fees etc away) .
I have used a few different companies over the years. Last year I sold my PS3, a complete bargain to the buyer. I priced up the shipping on MyHermes, the buyer paid and all was well, or so I thought.
I always package my goods well, loads of bubble wrap, solid boxes and decent tape (none of that pound shop stuff).
Parcel was delivered then I get a message on ebay saying that the product is faulty. After a few messages back and forth I have the buyer ship it back to me so I can test and see with my own eyes that its broken or that he’s tried to scam me.
Upon recieving the package back (which he sent by royal mail), there was a huge dent in the side of the box and one of the corners pushed in (looking like it had indeed been dropped from a height or used for a bit of footy practice).
Tested the console, no scamming had been attempted but I can hear rattling inside. Took it apart and there are broken pieces of plastic from fittings inside which have somehow inturn screwed the whole system and created quite a costly doorstop.
I went through weeks of emails back and forth with myHermes customer service and eventually got my money back.
I wont send anything with them anymore as their drivers just seem like they dont care and like you explained are on minimum wage and just want to get home on time.
I paid for my laptop to be sent by royal mail yesterday it cost me £20 in total to have it ensured for the correct amount. Same item on myHermes is £8. With their insurance it only covered up to the cost of £200 but in the exceptions they dont cover laptops etc.
I do beleive you pay for what you get in life.
You buy cheap, you get cheap goods and the same with service.
Paul
Hi Sarah,
I take your point…but if one of your employees delivered a package like that would you just say “Oh well” and blame the customer for wanting the cheapest service? I really hope not.
A couple of observations:
– The customer in these kinds of scenarios often has no control over who delivers the package. That’s a choice made by the vendor. OK, the customer may decide to shop elsewhere, but there is rarely any information about which courier service the vendor uses on their website. Indeed, they may use a number of different couriers and it’s pot luck which one delivers a package.
– A driver who delivers lots of packages like that will ultimately cause either the courier company or the vendor a lot of money in replacing broken goods. They won’t last long in the job then, minimum wage or not. It is reasonable for a vendor and customer to expect a courier company to take care of their goods.
Colman
It is reasonable to expect the vendor and customer to take care of their goods, the reality is they don’t. The customer can get refunds and often chase the retailer but the reality is retailers really don’t care, they think charging realistic prices will scare people off. Often they are locked in with company HQ agreements and cannot use local courier services.
Someone getting laid off for not delivering correctly just means more work for the rest of the team, and often results in staff leaving and finding new jobs rather than being overworked. The average delivery driver lasts 5 months before leaving (note to self find that article and write about it).
We don’t deliver multiple parcels, we deliver bespoke, tailored delivery and we charge a heck of a lot more than £6.99. We have tried to deliver parcels in the past but it’s not financially viable and not an experience that I would be wanting to write about!
Our drivers would never deliver in that way so – they are paid / trained better. Like I say, you get what you pay for and that works with staff as well as the products you buy.
As a customer you can arrange collection at the warehouse/ depot or shop again most people don’t as it’s the more expensive option. You do have a choice Colman, but most people refuse to pay what they think is “expensive” and would not dream of driving 8 hours for very little.
Thanks for stopping by and adding to the discussion – it’s appreciated