Why do deliveries have to come somewhere between 9 and 5, why can't they set a smaller window?

Question

Like between 9 & 11 or 12 & 2 that way people wouldn't waste days and get annoyed waiting for something that never turns up.

Answer 1

I can only give examples of what has happened with me and my husband...
We both were delivery people in different delivery type jobs...
He works for the post office and I worked for a newspaper...

My job was to deliver ad copies of retail ads to customers during normal business hours...
I had about 40 stops per day...
It takes all day to do all those stops also, as things that hold you up are generally bad traffic and also slow folks who you deliver to that have to sign papers and give you payment and ask you a bunch of questions...

With my husbands job as a mailman, he has probably 500 deliveries each day, some are homes, some are businesses, and some are apartment buildings...

Oddly enough, the ones that take the most time are his apartment buildings, and that is because so many are in one location and not all boxes are officially marked well on the mail boxes, and residents move and leave no forwarding address, and they move to a new apartment in the same building, and new people move in with them so now there are different names in the same mailbox...

It is a nightmare for him and I feel for him because he does this all outdoors in the weather and it is either hot or cold or raining and he can't go off his route for more than a block or it adds time and distance to his route...
He is bound by postal rules to stay in order and stay on his route and make no exceptions...

So all I can say is after dealing with this for 20 years, he is very tired when he gets home and people are so un-appreciative to his efforts and I must say he works hard to improve customer service and make sure everyones mail is delivered in a timely fashion and in the right address...
It is more difficult than it looks...

Answer 2

It is true that they may not know how long all the deliveries will take but there are some companies which do deliver in smaller windows. There is no reason why they can't at least say am or pm though, surely they would have some kind of estimate they could use from previous deliveries. The worst thing is when they say between 9 and 5 but they don't even turn up so you have to wait another day.

Answer 3

They can! they just haven't done it yet because... who chooses the delivery contractor? the shipper. What is their main concern? making sure the online shopper doesn't run away when s/he/it sees the delivery cost. So they perceive cost as everything. Thus the delivery people don't invest in the equipment to do better.

Who's cracked it? online supermarkets. But they compete directly for your custom and you give them tonnes of it - for every Fairy Codswallop quid earned for spell casting, you give 12.5 pence to Tesco. You knew that, right? hence they invest in IT to deliver in short, defined slots. Delivery contractors have no such incentives and are therefore almost universally crap.

Mind you, when you buy something big you get a tracking number and you can watch it hour by hour online. It will travel through the oddest places. Still no guarantees, but an improvement.

If you really want to know when it's going to arrive, just stick a first class stamp on it and shove it in a letter box. It will be there.

Answer 4

Because they have so many deliveries to make and all deliveries dont take the same amount of time... they may have to take time to find a place that is difficult to find, they may have to walk a great deal through a large building to get one package delivered, traffic is never the same either, and if the delivery vehicle breaks down or has problems... so there are several reasons why there is rarely a "set" delivery time

Answer 5

I know someone who has a little theory about that...

(damn! Why do I keep talking about myself like this??)

Back to topic, it's part of a global conspiracy which will stop at nothing.

Lucky us that today we merely have to wait in for a whole day for them, (when they could just phone you when they are 1/2 an hour away. Unless you don't have a mobile. Or ears) rather than what awaits our grandchildren.

"new fridge sir/madam? No problem, we'll deliver it sometime in Rumsfeld" (the months all get renamed a couple of years from now, to reflect the new Aquarius when Bush is miraculously selected for a 3rd term, Rumsfeld is the new name given to August)

"but I'm going on holiday" you try to blurt out but the automated droidophone cuts you off....

Answer 6

that why they give a big window and in response to the building maintance guy i am a porter/doorman/handyman for a condo in new york and believe it or not we have to set the window or make you wait a couple days depending on the severity of what you need done because we have so many people who have so many diffrent problems believe me i have had people say oh i have a huge leak i need you to fix it right away and then we push someone to the side cause they made it seem so big then you get there and the leak that was flooding there apt was nothing more then a drip in the sink

so please before you complin about the maintance guys or doorman or porters in your building please rememebr there are more then just you living there and some buidings might only have to handy men and thats it for the whole building

Answer 7

Because of your proximity to a distribution hub. You might be at the far end of the route, or you might be at the closest point. We are ONE block from the Indianapolis UPS hub, and we get our UPS freight at around 1:30-2:00pm daily other than Next Day Airs. Why? Because they drive to the FURTHEST point of their route most often, and work their way BACK to the hub. In smaller cities they both deliver and pick up at the same time, so they have varying schedules based on drop off and pick up volumes daily as well.

Answer 8

I completely agree! That drives me nuts too (also when the cable guy does that or when your apartment maintenance man does that). I think that it is laziness on the delivery company's part. They don't want to set a schedule because it's too hard.

Answer 9

If you would like a smaller window, and are willing to pay extra, inquire at the delivery co.

Answer 10

drivers have a working day aswell.

but aint it a pain when u have sat in all day and u nip to the shops or pick up the littles one from school and thats when they come.