There’s another common option now, that I would never do, if you have a smart door lock or garage door. The driver will get a one time code to be able to open the door and drop off the package and the close it. My car is synched with the garage door to close when I leave and open when I arrive. I have the ability to somehow set this up with Amazon and the major delivery services. It’s “myQ” and there are probably others.
Who’s instructing the Amazon lackeys using their own car to block the road? I’m not insinuating that they’re lazy or stupid. I’m flat out calling them lazy &/or stupid…unless they are sociopaths who think they are more important than every other driver out there. Yes, a lot of them are stupid, too because they don’t stop to take into account the 70¢/mile (which probably is underaccounting for costs) that the IRS gives you for using your own vehicle. Kid was doing door dash…until I showed him the light, when we did the math it was close to 50% of his earnings went towards expenses & suddenly it wasn’t such good money. He stopped doing it.
There are not enough replies in this thread to give a meaningful answer as to whether people want the bell rung or not so I created a poll question for it.
You’re absolutely right about gig drivers for DoorDash and the like. Do Amazon drivers use their own vehicles too?
Some do but I think they might only deliver same day orders.
Amazon Flex drivers do
The biggest problem for us is that our driveway can be very treacherous, to the point that we can’t even drive on it. When it is in that condition, I have them deliver my packages to a neighbor’s house.
ISTR a Last Week Tonight piece primarily about long-haul trucking but which also covered Amazon drivers, which indicated that they are also grossly overworked and have very little time to spare per delivery. Which may explain why they just park in the middle of the road.
Around here they have branded Amazon vans they use.
One thing I will give our delivery folks - they come down the driveway to the house. Only once did someone leave a box by the mailbox at the street, and luckily, it didn’t disappear. As long as the deliveries are left on the porch under the roof, I don’t care if they’re at the door or at the garage end, and mostly, that’s what I get.
Do they do that in places where other sorts of deliveries don’t? Every type of pickup/delivery where I live - Amazon, UPS, cab, food delivery is normally going to involve double -parking and that will often block the street. I’m not saying they aren’t overworked - but even if they aren’t overworked, delivery drivers aren’t going to park 200 feet (or more) away to deliver a single package.
Have any of us here had a delivery job recently? If we haven’t and we don’t know how they are trained or how they are monitored or what their management mandates that they do, calling them generally stupid and/or lazy is just flat out privileged, shitty behavior. I did manual labor jobs starting from when I was 15 and through the first years of college. Anyone who hasn’t, is incapable of getting it and should give empathy a try. That’s what really rubs me the wrong way.
I did a little searching and the consensus seems to be that the default of not ringing the doorbell started over Covid. Clearly the delivery services didn’t change it to benefit the public. Why direct anger at the majority of the drivers who are just doing what they are told to do?
When the way you do your job, by stopping in the middle of the road, is antisocial, illegal, & a danger to life & property (yes, we recently had fire apparatus delayed getting to a house fire) then the delivery drivers are the ones acting privileged & shitty.
60% of us (MPSIMP - Polls) want the doorbell rung. COVID is not the same very deadly unknown pandemic that it was in March of 2020. Do you have research that shows the drivers are told not to do it by the delivery services?
Wow. That’s some serious entitlement. Do you have experience doing low paid labor work?
I know that the default delivery option is now to not ring the bell because you have to opt into it now. It’s logical that they are told to follow the instructions.
Look, I’ve given you a solution that I think will work. Give it a try. Opt in to the doorbell ring. Problem solved.
How is expecting someone to not break the law & not be an asshole to do their job being entitled? If everyone other than the driver should be inconvenienced because they can’t pull to the side of the road then they are the ones acting all entitled.
Yes, lots; recent, too.
Moderating:
Tone it down. This is IMHO, not the pit.
Right. If they cant park close, they pretty much have to double park for the few minutes it takes to deleiver a package. Even the USPS does it.
Out of 59 responses.
And on our residential street there really is no issue with brief double parking.