I just started a temporary work assignment on the other side of the country. Since it’s 4 months long, I wanted to bring more of my belongings than I could fit on the plane, so I packed 2 boxes and FedExed them to the apartment where I’m staying out here. One of them was supposed to require a signature and one not, but I was disappointed to get an email mid-Friday morning saying delivery had been attempted but not completed. I went onto the website and the status said that they had not been delivered because no one was home, and that delivery would be attempted again on Monday. I quickly used their website to request a redirect to the nearest “hold package for pickup” location, thinking I could go and pick them up after work, but as of now, Saturday evening, they are still not ready for pickup, so I guess I’m not getting them until Monday after work.
Because I already knew that the capability existed to use the website, before even the first delivery had been attempted, to request alternate delivery methods (at least I know you can do this with either UPS or FedEx, I’m not sure if it’s both, or which one,) I kicked myself for not doing that. But I guess I’d been assuming in the back of my mind that since I wasn’t home they’d just deliver it to the apartment complex office. I’m also kicking myself for not requesting that after the delivery attempt on Friday, because if I’m not going to get it until Monday, might as well just walk over to the office instead of having to drive to the FedEx store.
But I digress. This got me thinking, why does FedEx even bother to attempt delivery these days? For business deliveries it makes sense, since by definition someone is there during business hours. And it might have made sense for home deliveries in the old days, when a lot more women were housewives. But today, how many residences actually have someone home during the day? For every package on the truck that requires a signature, the driver stops the truck on the street, or backs into the driveway, gets the package out, walks it (or carts it on the hand truck if it’s big enough) to the front door, rings the bell, waits a second–and then probably 90% of the time, takes the package back to the truck and drives off. Isn’t this a colossal waste of time and money? Wouldn’t it make sense for them to change their procedure, so that the default for a package that requires a signature is to contact the recipient before the first delivery attempt to get delivery instructions?
UPS has a service that you can sign up for where they will email you to warn that a package is coming. You can then schedule alternate delivery before the first attempt is made, if you want.
Usually I don’t have to bother since my building has a doorman. But I have found it useful for occasionally redirecting packages to my office.
Either FedEx or UPS (I, too, forget which, maybe collectively we should just call them Fed Up) will deliver a signed package if you tape a note to the door with your signature.
Now, I work from home, so I pretty much am always here during business hours, but if I leave, I leave the little signed note on the door.
There may not be as many women staying home, but there are a lot more people working from home.
Yes, as I mentioned, I knew at least one of the services had this. I thought the other one wouldn’t let you do it until after they’d attempted the first delivery. But what I’m wondering is why they aren’t more forceful about getting people to do this. Unless the majority of people are taking advantage of this, it would seem a waste of time for them to attempt so many deliveries.
So do you think the majority of people are doing this? If not, how can it be worth it for them to continue to attempt all these futile deliveries?
It is pretty obvious that the traditional home delivery Fed Ex/UPS just haven’t stayed current with the times. I get the feeling Amazon may eventually start their own delivery. Online shopping is here to stay and the country needs a better and easier way to get those packages.
The old companies better wake up and change or they’ll be like the Post Office and get left behind.
One suggestion I have is every house needs a lockable delivery box on the driveway or in the carport. Something large and heavy to discourage anyone from carrying it away. maybe 36 inches x 24 inches? That would hold most shipping boxes that Amazon uses. The box would stay unlocked until a delivery. Delivery guy slides in the package and secures the door. It’s safely locked until homeowner retrieves the package and leaves it unlocked for next time.
A lockable delivery box would also keep the packages dry in rainy weather. Mine get left inside the carport. But, rain water drains through part of that area. Leaving the bottoms of my packages wet.
Right, so are they losing money? I mean, how hard would it be for them to make it standard operating procedure to always ask for the recipient’s email address and/or phone number and have an automated system for contacting them pre-delivery and asking them to pick from a list of delivery instructions? Why don’t they do this?
I’ve wondered about that too. I’m in a different country so my experience may be somewhat different.
Are evening and weekend deliveries options? If not, why might that be?
Is it possible for FedEx to leave a package at your local post office?
You’d think there would be local businesses that would offer to receive your package for you and holding it for N days to make it convenient to receive.
I don’t think the majority of people are doing this. But I don’t think during the lifetime of Fed Ex the majority of women were sitting home waiting for packages, either.
There are, at least for UPS. They’re called UPS Access points and I was very happy the first time a package got re-reouted to the store two blocks away rather than the UPS location.
Fed Ex (and UPS) can’t leave packages at the post office except those shipped via a particular service, where the shipper delivers the package to the post office which in turn delivers to the address. They also can’t deliver to PO Boxes.
I expect that UPS and Fed Ex will eventually have their own version of Amazon lockers- one time boxes at 24 hour locations like 7-11. No key- you’re emailed a pick up code when the package is delivered.
Actually, they do ship to PO Boxes, if they know the POB # of the street address. It’s a real problem with where I work.
This may be a special case but - I used to get all my stuff shipped to work. Getting it shipped to home is a problem as has been stated no one to sign for it. And they would have to have 4 wheel drive to get to my house in winter (if they could find it).
Anyway, for UPS, if it’s shipped ground, they will take it to the post office instead of where I work. UPS knows the POB for the street address I work at (second largest employer in the County). This causes MAJOR frustrations for the employee that picks up the mail at the PO. We don’t have mail delivery in our county, so it has to be picked up.
I just bit the bullet and got a UPS box at the UPS store. They take regular mail, Fed-X and of course UPS.
That would probably work reasonably well except for the following categories: (A) people who live in the country; (B) people who don’t have email or cell phones; (C) people who are on call; (D) people who have a highly-variable work schedule; (E) people who don’t know their schedule very far in advance.
A little over 15 years ago there was a service called e-box. It looks like they’ve redirected as a business delivery service instead of consumer though.
I remember receiving clothes, food and other products from them, and it was delivered to a grey box they installed on my front porch. I loved it and although it wasn’t Fed-ex/UPS/DHL broad, there wasn’t a shortage of options to purchase from them and prices were competitive.
Apparently too competitive for their costs because it only lasted a year or so and they sent me the “It’s not you it’s us” letter and took the box back.
If the package is sent by Fedex Home Delivery, you can choose when the package is to be delivered, even if it’s in the evening or on Saturday.
With both Fedex and UPS, if you have the tracking number, you can redirect the delivery, say to a UPS Store (formerly Mailboxes, Etc.) or a Fedex Office (formerly Kinko’s) location. (These options might involve an additional charge, though.)
We are home during the day. Buy a lot of stuff from online etailers. Would be quite displeased if they weren’t delivered to our home in a timely fashion.
How would they contact us ahead of time? We don’t give out our phone number to such businesses, let alone the delivery companies. Email? Don’t assume that people check their email every day, let alone often enough to reply between query and when the items get put on the truck. (Based on tracking, most packages seem to arrive at the local office in the middle of the night and are put on a truck by 6am. Or would you prefer a phone call at 5am?)
The only issue is the “fallbacK” action once a delivery fails. The shipping companies have pretty much made it clear that they don’t care. After all, at that point your package is now losing them money and you aren’t their favorite person anymore. It seems that their policies are designed to get the recipient to change their behavior in the future.
I don’t know about you, but when I order something from Amazon or elsewhere, I get an email message when the package is shipped, letting me know the expected delivery date and the carrier and tracking number. Or, if I don’t get such an email, I can go to the website, look up my order and see the tracking number that way. Once I have the UPS or Fedex tracking number, I can go to their website and redirect the shipment if necessary.
But you’d think it would be worth it for them to at least try, given the huge amount of resources they must be wasting attempting all these deliveries where it’s a foregone conclusion that nobody’s home. And people who are on call, have a variable schedule, or don’t know their schedule far in advance are precisely the situations where I think this would help: such people could choose to have their package held for pickup, obviating the need for that first failed home delivery attempt.
Sigh. As I said before, I know this. What I’m asking is why they aren’t actively trying to get more people to do this, given the fact that they must be wasting a ton of time and money attempting deliveries.
Sigh. How, exactly do you expect them to try to get more people to do this? All they can do is offer the option. They can’t control if people don’t take advantage of these services.
But I have found it useful for occasionally redirecting packages to my office.