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.
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