Deliver To Neighbour - Worth The Aggro

[CABANA83]

Dropped packets today.

As I get to the end of my delivery fella comes to the door, raging. Waving a P739 at me and effing this and that. The docket said a tracked item was left with a neighbour in the next street!!! He was not happy, saying that he paid for a item to be securely delivered and not left with some stranger (although he told me I could have left on his doorstep which I said we weren't allowed to do to which he replied 'yet you'll give it to a f'n stranger').

He wouldn't accept that it wasn't me that posted it and threatened to phone management (I gave him office number to do so). I tried explaining the deal but he wasnt having any of it. I couldn't get away from him, it was just awful.

Ive been on the job a long time and this was the worst Ive experienced, I mean this guy WAS angry. Even my partner stepped in and got an earful.

In pass WTL our manager has said that he doesn't believe most of us are actually trying neighbours and that we just say 'Yes' when questioned on returning to office with tracked items.

I try neighbours in most cases but after today, the hassle and aggro aren't worth it. Ive got the impression from neighbours who regularly take parcels that they are starting to get annoyed. I had one person asking me to stop leaving parcels with them because the guys who the parcels were intended for weren't coming around until after 10pm!

[Stunners]

Im having a similar thing where a few people on my round constantly receive parcels but are never in and the neighbours are getting sick and tired of taking them in for them , its getting to the point where I just know im going to knock on the door and they are going to tell me to do one.

[interesting]

Agree with same people never being in
We suggested sending the regular customours that are never in a letter
Trying to arrange a place of delivery or maybe get it sent to where they work
I deliver lots of packets to schools as people have there stuff sent there as they know that's where they will be

[joeyuk]

I don't do deliver to a neighbor. Not because i'm lazy before anyone jumps in, i would rather get rid of them to neighbors then write a 739 and then have to take it back to the office. Ive have a few issues with giving it to neighbors and i now deem it not worth the hassle.

-As said above a few people always get parcels but are never in. Their neighbors have openly said its an issue as they are never in and sometimes can be left with the parcels for days.
-Twice now had the neighbors claim not to have taken the parcel in. 1st time the managers backed me without issue the 2nd time it starts to look iffy. I'm not putting my job in the hands of some random person.
-A neighbor took the parcel in then buggered of for 4 days with work. Safe to say the person who's parcel it was was fuming and guess who got the end of it!!

I for one have no issue getting a 739 when i'm not in ( i do get stuff doorstepped but its round the back so its safe enough and appreciate that they do it for me). The issue is getting the parcel from the callers office. I work in a different office to the one i live in but have been inside my local. The waiting area can hold maybe 3 people at best so you are forced to wait outside, nice in the summer but a pain in the winter. The area they have for storing the parcels in poor at best, they don't have enough room so stuff is placed in front and on top of other stuff so its easy to mislay things.

[miles_peters]

I wouldn't want anything delivered to a neighbour. if I was a customer who had to keep collecting stuff from neighbours id be embarrassed, I can see this situation causing neighbourhood conflicts

[GoingRoundTheBend]

I no longer try to deliver to neighbour as I was told at the beginning that if I tried deliver to neighbour then I would not be held responsible if it went missing
1st time a parcel went missing that I had left with a neighbour I was blamed for it and had to have a coaching session

739's all the way for me from now on

[fishtank]

It's a sticking plaster solution dreamt up by graduates with only an episode of Postman Pat as relevant experience and endorsed by union officials with even less relevant experience.

This isn't the 1950's, people generally don't like/trust/know their neighbour and certainly can't be arsed having half a dozen couriers knocking on their door every day because they happen to be the only one at home in the whole street...usually because the poor bastard is nightshift.

[eggraidonmojo]

I don't mind delivering to neighbour. It depends on the area I am in though: a quiet close where people are often in and seem to know each other quite well is different than a busy urban area where people generally don't know their neighbours and/or may have a new one every few months.

It is an on-the-cheap solution from RM though. There was a letter in the Courier a while ago suggesting that RM sell secure boxes that people can have outside their homes. This would take care of all large parcels apart from Signed For and Specials. The letter got shot down in flames by the RM guy though - all because Signed For make up about a third of our parcels.


Phase out Signed For for all but the most essential of items; introduce a Tracked service for individual (not just high volume) senders; give frequent parcel orderers the option of buying a box from us! Simples?

[Chelseablue]

Secure boxes are a great idea. A no brainer if you get regular packets . Rm are you listening ?

[jimmynailsalive]

I live in a street where I hardly see my neighbours for months and the odd time we get parcels for each other we catch up so personally it's a no brainer for me that my parcels are left in the street rather than having to troop into the centre of town for them.

When delivering I ask people who they are friendly with and try and work between neighbours and have a few streets where it works really well and never bring anything back from there, probably been on this round for about 3 months now so things starting to come together. We were swamped yesterday and I agreed to take the parcels out after our shift, in all there were 30 drops and 22 were delivered and 8 were left with neighbours.

Would agree it won't work in all rounds and if I was ever pulled up about being slow then I would just start 739 ing most things as it does add a good bit of time some days but so far everyone seems happy and it seems it is what the customers in my round want.

I am in the process of making up a card with the neighbours who refuse to participate so anyone in the walk doesn't waste their time.

Agree with the last comment though, secure boxes are the way to go.

[rubberbond]

Secure boxes are a great idea. A no brainer if you get regular packets . Rm are you listening ?

No they never do.

[bustedflush]

There's a friendly pensioner on one street I do who happily takes the neighbours' parcels in, but even he told me 'No more!' yesterday.

parcels.jpg

[scoobydo79]

LOL My elderly Mum took a parcel from a courier when He knocked on Her door and asked if She would do it.She thought it was for next door so said Yes.It was for a woman who lived the other end of road from My Mum .The woman called round in the evening with a face like thunder!!!Neither had ever met or had a clue who the other was. "Never again said Mum"

[Toby Tyke]

Secure boxes are a great idea. A no brainer if you get regular packets . Rm are you listening ?

Got a couple of secure boxes on my round where you put the parcel in and lock it.
Great if you are there first but if any other delivery service beats you to it you are back to square one.

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

Secure box with a bar code (plus its alpha numeric representation) that can be read by our PDA (when they have battery life), bar code replaces signature if nobody answers delivery address, lock the box and job done.