BS: Bleeping DPD and the Bleeping APP

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping DPD and the Bleeping APP
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Oct 23 - 11:01 AM

Waiting for packages is as bad as waiting through the several-hour window in which repair people may arrive at your home. I don't have to wait so often for my mail carrier because he's happy to work with customers on his route. Since I have a sturdy locking mailbox if a small delivery needs to be signed for he will go ahead and leave it in the box anyway (he told me he knows a lot of us get our prescriptions by mail and don't want to wait extra time to get them.) It also doesn't hurt that all summer in the extreme heat I kept a cooler on the porch with bottles of water for delivery folks. I easily went through a case of bottles this year, and the mail carrier is my devoted friend because of that water.

The process of waiting for a large and expensive delivery is the one that has me watching the progress of a delivery vehicle (though not all of them will have GPS trackers). If you're in a complex or building I can see why it's more urgent to snag the parcels right as they arrive - too much of that stuff goes walkabout. The UPS driver in particular is accustomed to finding notes from one or the other of us on my end of the block asking them to leave things next door if we're not home.

Subject: BS: Bleeping DPD and the Bleeping APP
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 17 Oct 23 - 10:40 AM

Just wasted a day of my time and will be wasting another day tomorrow waiting for a parcel delivery.

Spent two hour watching the progress on their app so that I could make sure I would be outside my block of flats waiting for the delivery van to arrive. Said app jumped from - you are 12 deliveries away exepect ed time 15 minutes to ' you have missed your delivery'.

I called DPD to inform them this happened and to instruct them to send the driver back to my address (either immediately or after returning to the depot). They refused, so I assume it is because either the driver is too incompetent or lazy to do the job he is paid for, or DPD are two tight fisted to send the driver back out when he got back to the depot just to deliver one parcel. From my understanding, knowing the nature of this aspect of the gig economy, I can't see the driver risking future work with the company to take the trouble to put himself out for an extra 2-3 hours.

I am thinking of charging DPD my full commercial rate for staying at home a further day - £595 is more tha reasonable.

Subject: RE: BS: Bleeping DPD and the Bleeping APP
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 17 Oct 23 - 11:54 AM

As I live in a block of flats, I was watching the delivery app like a hawk all afternoon, so I am really peeved about being let down and make sure I am in the street to flag the driver down.

Many drivers are paid on a per delivery basis so they lack the incentive to respect customers and take an extra 2-3 hours to do a delivery run from the depot and pack just to deliver one package for about £1 or less, but that is an issue between workers and management - who does or doesn't get paid for the overtime is not the customer's problem. Also DPD could quite easily pay for a dispatch driver to make the delivery this evening. I am sure there are minicab drivers who would appreciate £20-£30 easy money.