New UPS Practice (U.S. Deliveries)

It seems that actually delivering packages is way too much trouble for UPS these days. So they've decided to cut back on deliveries in some circumstances. If a package requires someone to accept it, e.g. a signature is required or a COD charge applies, they will make one attempt to deliver and if no one is available, they divert the package to an "Access Point" for the consignee to pick up on their own time and at their own expense. They leave a little post it note to tell you they didn't deliver your package.

This applies even if the failure of the one delivery attempt is a UPS error. (I learned about all this when a delivery person wrongly thought my package was due a COD payment and I was not available to deal with the delivery. Might not have made much difference if I had been there, since I knew there was no COD payment due, while the driver somehow thought there was. Of course the attempted delivery was on a Friday and the package didn't get forwarded to the designated "Access Point" until Monday. Between drive time and standing in line at the "Access Point" I invested just over an hour of lost productivity.)

Through the years I've generally had good experiences with UPS. Better than with FedEx (which may be a local variable). This new policy, however, is likely to be problematic for home deliveries and small businesses on occasion if vendors require signatures or for those who make COD purchases. It will also be a problem whenever UPS makes an error in delivery. In my experience, UPS customer service was not much help. Rather surly, too (but that may be a local issue).

I would say, whether you're buying or selling, don't go for "signature required" or COD deliveries or any other features that require personal interaction unless you have someone sure to be available to receive a delivery. Otherwise, unhappiness will ensue and undoubtedly you will be blamed.

My vendor is probably more upset about this than I am. They have more to lose than I do. They are pursuing the issue with UPS.

I hope this is not a trend setting development that we can expect FedEx, DHL and USPS to follow. And I am looking forward to the new Amazon delivery service. More competition can't hurt.

My only thought on this is I had a Dewalt DW735 planer delivered for Christmas. The company chose to deliver signature not required. I am retired and I was setting by a Window over looking my front porch where the planer supposedly was delivered by the FedEx guy at 2 in the afternoon. Luckily I paid using PayPal and they made it right. The second time my planer was sent using signature required and I received the planer with no problems. I really don't want all these issues again that I went through to get a planer. It was stressful as I did not know if I was going to end up with a planer, maybe just out all the money with no planer. It took weeks to resolve the problem. If I ever order again a new tool I am going to require a signature. I like old iron and I think it works better to go pick it up.

I hate UPS.

1 package was signature required. they tried to deliver it when we were not home. I called and they said they would not try to schedule a delivery when we would be home or reattempt after 1 try. they could leave it at their facility that is about 30 miles away on the opposite side of Denver (even though there is a customer facility just about 5 miles from my house) or for 5 dollars they would deliver it to the ups store that is literally a 5 min. walk from the house. so I pay the 5 dollars and get on with my life. I go to pick up the package and the UPS store clerk tries to charge me another 10 dollars to pick it up there. I grabbed the box and walked out. I have avoided using UPS as much as possible since.

This is controlled by company policies as well as the individual drivers. Our current UPS driver is a very friendly person and considerate. Before him one of the drivers tossed a package into the bushes at the foot of our driveway. It was just luck that I spotted it while walking by. We have a long driveway in a rural area.

With FedEx Ground the drivers are not employees of FedEx. Currently our driver lives two doors down so they know where we are. In California the FedEx driver delivered an expensive purchase to some unknown place. There was always a problem with them finding our home address. When I was doing field service work I would have packages sent to the closest FedEx office to the work site. This worked quite well as long as the shipping party got things right.

jtk

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Originally Posted by Jim Koepke

This is controlled by company policies as well as the individual drivers. Our current UPS driver is a very friendly person and considerate. Before him one of the drivers tossed a package into the bushes at the foot of our driveway. It was just luck that I spotted it while walking by. We have a long driveway in a rural area.

With FedEx Ground the drivers are not employees of FedEx. Currently our driver lives two doors down so they know where we are. In California the FedEx driver delivered an expensive purchase to some unknown place. There was always a problem with them finding our home address. When I was doing field service work I would have packages sent to the closest FedEx office to the work site. This worked quite well as long as the shipping party got things right.

jtk

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It is just another sign of a company with more business than they need. I am personally liking how so many of my purchases are being delivered by the local post office. They always take extra care, leave the dogs biscuits with packages and generally just are nice and friendly.

I use USPS when ever possible. Always polite, never had a problem with shipments or picking up at the post office.

My experience with USPS is just the opposite unfortunately. A few months ago they shredded my copy of Fine Woodworking. I requested a replacement copy from Taunton which they processed quickly. A week or so later I came home to find a cardboard wrapped replacement copy of FWW in the drainage ditch near my delivery box which is on a post on the street. I called the local USPS office and reported it. The person on duty advised me that the substitute delivery person (who is not a USPS employee and drives a red CJ-5) had left it on top of the round top mailbox and that it must have fallen off. The regular delivery person who is also not a USPS employee will normally drive into my drive and honk the horn if they have a package for me. However, due to some apparent physical problems she is nearly unable to get out of the vehicle so if I am not at home, delivery normally occurs at a later date.

Service economy? I don't think so. There are some very good people at all the delivery companies (my UPS and FedEx drivers are excellent) but also some who just don't care.

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Originally Posted by Al Weber

My experience with USPS is just the opposite unfortunately. A few months ago they shredded my copy of Fine Woodworking. I requested a replacement copy from Taunton which they processed quickly. A week or so later I came home to find a cardboard wrapped replacement copy of FWW in the drainage ditch near my delivery box which is on a post on the street. I called the local USPS office and reported it. The person on duty advised me that the substitute delivery person (who is not a USPS employee and drives a red CJ-5) had left it on top of the round top mailbox and that it must have fallen off. The regular delivery person who is also not a USPS employee will normally drive into my drive and honk the horn if they have a package for me. However, due to some apparent physical problems she is nearly unable to get out of the vehicle so if I am not at home, delivery normally occurs at a later date.

Service economy? I don't think so. There are some very good people at all the delivery companies (my UPS and FedEx drivers are excellent) but also some who just don't care.

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My former USPS carrier was an independent contractor and would drive down our long driveway to deliver a package. He did not drive a USPS vehicle. He did love to talk to people along his route which made the mail very late at times. Currently our USPS carrier is an employee. When they are driving what they call "tuna can" vehicles they are not supposed to back up since there are no rear or side windows. This doesn't stop most of the UPS drivers. We have a tee at our end of the driveway and most folks can figure how to use one of those to turn a vehicle around. For the USPS carriers we need a loop at the house end of the driveway if the driver wants to be within the letter of their rules.

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the local post office. They always take extra care, leave the dogs biscuits with packages and generally just are nice and friendly.

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It is unlikely there is a recommendation in the letter carrier's book of operating procedures calling for the leaving of dog biscuits. This is how a real person adds their own personal touch to brighten the days of their customers and their customers' best friends. Surely this could also be a reflection on how the local manager treats employees and the position. In some cases if a person mentioned this and it got back to management the person might be told to stop the practice. In other cases the manager might see it as worthy of a compliment.

jtk

My USPS mailman is very nice and delivers lots of Amazon Prime stuff. I make certain to give him the Macau gift every Christmas and also make something for him. Last year, it was a turned screwdriver set in a nice wooden box.

My favorite UPS story involves a purchase of some live quail eggs. This was back before tracking numbers. The UPS guy put the eggs (in a plain cardboard box) on top of a stack of plain cardboard boxes in the carport. So no one would steal it I guess. Suffice to say my eggs were not so fresh when I finally found them.

My mailman (Gary - a fine mailman name IMO) is great too. Always on schedule, friendly, and as I'm usually playing outside with my daughter he always honks and she yells "Hi Gary!" He delivers a lot of Prime packages also, and walks the packages and mail to the front door.
UPS has been slipping for a while. Most boxes seem to be beat up somehow. I dislike the new rule the OP posted about. How do they know when you'll be home when they attempt delivery?

fedex is so incompetent in my area so far this year they have lost 2 table saw blades a leigh jig and a bed frame. the blades and the jig showed up after a few days but the bedframe is gone. only thing worse is amazon delivery i have 2 gates and a road around my house so far one got inside gate backed into tree getting out and one got trapped inside the loop after i left, gate says open 1m must have slipped in came back to the police jumping my fence trying to find way to open it hahah this lady was trapped for like a hour and a half thing is if they had just called me i could have opened the gate from my phone .....

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Originally Posted by Larry Frank

I make certain to give him the Macau gift every Christmas.

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We have a very nice mailman. There is a rule that we cannot give him a gift valued more than $20. At Christmas, we make it a point to break that rule as we are not "rule people".

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Originally Posted by David T gray

fedex is so incompetent in my area so far this year they have lost 2 table saw blades a leigh jig and a bed frame. the blades and the jig showed up after a few days but the bedframe is gone. only thing worse is amazon delivery i have 2 gates and a road around my house so far one got inside gate backed into tree getting out and one got trapped inside the loop after i left, gate says open 1m must have slipped in came back to the police jumping my fence trying to find way to open it hahah this lady was trapped for like a hour and a half thing is if they had just called me i could have opened the gate from my phone .....

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At our old address my standing shipping instructions for on line vendors was to not ship via FedEx.

Did the lady who was trapped have your phone number?

In panic situations people often forget the simple solutions to their predicament.

jtk

I don't think the policy described by the originator of this thread is anything new. I have always had to pick up signature required packages at the terminal. They can't guarantee what time they will deliver and I can't always be certain when I will be home. Those two facts point to multiple failed attempts. I would prefer to pick the item up over the uncertainty of multiple attempts. The confusion over COD delivery is a special case.

Similar issues with UPS, but much better now that they contract with the USPS to make the actual "last mile" deliveries. I find FedEx very convenient. Their tracking info is very up-to-date compared with UPS' once daily updates (improved lately). FedEx allows me to request that they hold a package at their warehouse near my work, even if requested at the last minute, if that works best for me. Almost none of my deliveries come via FedEx any more, though.

You just touched on my biggest complaint. Companies that refuse to ship to a PO Box and then use a service that uses the USPS for that "last mile". I have lived here for 26 years and never had a mail receptical at the house, even though I live in town.

Howard Garner

In my earlier post, I mentioned giving the postman a Macau each year. Obviously, I meant the max cash gift. But, I am certain this error was caused by the new forum update. It could not possibly be an operator error or spell correct error. ;<]

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Originally Posted by Jim Koepke

At our old address my standing shipping instructions for on line vendors was to not ship via FedEx.

Did the lady who was trapped have your phone number?

In panic situations people often forget the simple solutions to their predicament.

jtk

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they work for amazon and they have my phone number i have gotten a call before when they didn't want to leave the package outside the gate so i have to assume it is easily excess able to them.

My friend lives in a third floor apartment. For his route, the USPS will not attempt delivery to a third floor, so, they leave it at the sorting location and leave a failed to deliver notice in his mailbox. He was waiting for the USPS person who personally handed him the "failed to delivery" notice. he must then wait until the next day after it has been transported to the location where he can get it.

I was sent a package marked next day morning delivery. They marked it delivered at the sorting facility before they left. we contacted the post office to ask about the package and to get money back since they failed to make morning delivery and they said "the computer showed it delivered in the morning". I am unsure how to deal with that when they flat out lie about what they do.

My location is often used as a training route so we are often playing musical letters. it is always an adventure.... Whose letters will I need to re-deliver today?

UPS here rarely delivers to my house anymore (Fed EX too) they drop off to the US post office and those guys finish the delivery. My recent UPS package was to arrive last night - end of day. Well it did, but their last stop was the post office so my package actually arrived late morning today via the post office.

I don't know what deliveries get that treatment because I see UPS and Fed EX trucks up and down our road very day - sometimes they will deliver to my door. Seems to be related to the size of the package though most of those redelivered by the post office won't fit our box and so are driven up the driveway for a to the door delivery by the post office. These guys are on my Christmas list - not so much the UPS and Fed Ex guys/gals.

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Originally Posted by Jim Koepke

With FedEx Ground the drivers are not employees of FedEx. Currently our driver lives two doors down so they know where we are. In California the FedEx driver delivered an expensive purchase to some unknown place. There was always a problem with them finding our home address. When I was doing field service work I would have packages sent to the closest FedEx office to the work site. This worked quite well as long as the shipping party got things right.

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We had that problem with UPS at our last house, the drivers would consistently deliver our packages to the wrong street. Same house number, totally different street name. And it would happen time and time again. We'd get notification that our package was delivered, if it wasn't on the porch, we'd jump in the car, drive to the other address and get it. The people who lived there knew all about it, but we were always worried that someone would see us taking a package off their porch and call the cops. Complaints to UPS didn't help for a long time then it just magically fixed itself and they started getting it right.

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Originally Posted by Sam Murdoch

UPS here rarely delivers to my house anymore (Fed EX too) they drop off to the US post office and those guys finish the delivery. My recent UPS package was to arrive last night - end of day. Well it did, but their last stop was the post office so my package actually arrived late morning today via the post office.

I don't know what deliveries get that treatment because I see UPS and Fed EX trucks up and down our road very day - sometimes they will deliver to my door. Seems to be related to the size of the package though most of those redelivered by the post office won't fit our box and so are driven up the driveway for a to the door delivery by the post office. These guys are on my Christmas list - not so much the UPS and Fed Ex guys/gals.

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Last mile by the USPS for UPS packages is a specific, lower cost service for shippers. UPS's system is also smart enough to know when there's a "regular" UPS package due for an address on the same day and they don't bother to drop the cheaper package at the post office since they have to stop at the address with the big brown truck, anyway. 'Happens all the time here...

For those missing deliveries, there's cost involved with re-delivery, so that may be why they divert to a local pickup location rather than attempt multiple times.

The UPS customer center for me might as well be on the moon. It is 26 miles away. With no traffic it is an hour round trip. During rush hour it would probably take me two hours to make the round trip. At least they are open until 8 pm if I ever have to make the trip.

I receive packages from overseas, and these require signatures. I provide the shippers with my cell phone number, and this gives the UPS, UPS, and DHL drivers the option of calling me so I can be available when the delivery is attempted. It isn't foolproof, but works out often.

I recommend folks that get packages that require signatures join the UPS (and other carriers') notification programs. One of the features is being able to redirect a package to where you actually are going to be when it matters or to an alternative pickup location, such as the local UPS Store. There's no cost for the general level of these programs and the extra tracking and convenience is very nice.

The USPS I don't think allows redirection of signature required packages. It was a pain to pick up some packages from the carrier annex. I personally don't have a good alternative for a delivery address where someone can sign for something.

This whole discussion is distressing. While we have good service currently from all the delivery services. Everyone else's experiences makes me realize the changes in policies are soon to come to our area.

To play the Devil's Advocate. Shipping companies make these decisions based upon quantifiable and quantitative data. Take notice that every time a UPS driver pulls to a stop the engine is turned off. One minute of engine idle for the UPS delivery fleet costs over $500k a year in fuel consumption.

UPS, FEDEX, and USPS are all pretty good here. Our drive is gated and about 1/4 mile from the house. I installed a big lock box outside my gate and they all use it. I get the delivery schedule notifications and if I have a package that requires a signature I tape a note on the box for the carrier and they will call my cell phone and I'm at the gate in a minute. One driver calls when he delivers perishables, just so I'll know. I know most of the drivers and give them bottles of honey from the beehives.

You can contact UPS and FEDEX and they will put any special instructions in your file. I don't know if all drivers will read them, but I know at least some do.

JKJ

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Originally Posted by Justin Ludwig

To play the Devil's Advocate. Shipping companies make these decisions based upon quantifiable and quantitative data. Take notice that every time a UPS driver pulls to a stop the engine is turned off. One minute of engine idle for the UPS delivery fleet costs over $500k a year in fuel consumption.

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I can understand why UPS doesn't want to make a second delivery attempt because most of the time the second attempt probably doesn't result in a delivery either. However, from a customer perspective they may not realize they had a signature required package coming and the customer might make arrangements to be home the second time.

However, in today's day and age why can't UPS reach out and make sure someone will be present before even making the first delivery attempt? There is all kinds of technology to reach out to customers.

Do people really still do COD shipments in today's world? I guess real hard cash at delivery is better than a credit card that could be charged back.

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Originally Posted by Brian Elfert

Do people really still do COD shipments in today's world? I guess real hard cash at delivery is better than a credit card that could be charged back.

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UPS stopped taking CASH a long time ago, maybe 10 years or so. So a COD is either a check or you can specify Cashiers Check or Money Order.

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Originally Posted by Brian Elfert

However, in today's day and age why can't UPS reach out and make sure someone will be present before even making the first delivery attempt? There is all kinds of technology to reach out to customers.

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Folks who subscribe to the UPS service I mentioned earlier have this kind of flexibility...they know when a package is scheduled and if there are any special requirements. And right from the notification(s) they can reroute or reschedule accordingly.

In addition to providing the shipper with my cell phone number noted above, I forgot to mention the Door Tag. The Door Tag can be pre-signed and stuck to your door so that "Signature Required" packages can be dropped off if you happen to be away. "Door Tag" is a Fed-X system. Perhaps the others have something similar.

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Originally Posted by Rich Enders

In addition to providing the shipper with my cell phone number noted above, I forgot to mention the Door Tag. The Door Tag can be pre-signed and stuck to your door so that "Signature Required" packages can be dropped off if you happen to be away. "Door Tag" is a Fed-X system. Perhaps the others have something similar.

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Actually, I've seen cases where UPS will refuse to accept a signature on the back of the door tag. They require a signature while they are standing there or not at all.

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Originally Posted by Brian Henderson

Actually, I've seen cases where UPS will refuse to accept a signature on the back of the door tag. They require a signature while they are standing there or not at all.

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This is usually triggered by a vendor/shipper requirement...some firms that sell certain types of products (often high-value, easily fenced electronics) require in-person signature only which overrides signature releases and door tag signatures for security reasons.

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Originally Posted by Jim Becker

This is usually triggered by a vendor/shipper requirement...some firms that sell certain types of products (often high-value, easily fenced electronics) require in-person signature only which overrides signature releases and door tag signatures for security reasons.

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My oldest daughter had some of her artwork in a competition and they mailed it back to her, apparently with the requirement that she sign for it, but she was in high school at the time and never there when UPS showed up. We wound up having to go down to their facility to pick up the package.

I don't normally weigh in on these types of discussions, but as a former logistics manager that worked with most of the known carriers, ups, fedex, dhl, msas, usps, truckers, airlines and steamship companies. people should realize that each of these carriers move millions of packages per day... for every error that may occur, there are likely 100,000 that go perfectly smooth. The drivers that are being complained about are under some pretty strict rules of time management... before I retired 12 years ago (things could have changed since then), My Fedex driver had about 60 to 90 seconds at each stop..to unload his truck for delivery, drop off and get signature, then to pick outgoing and sign for if needed, then load the truck for the outbound... UPS has about the same time frame. On top of that they have very limited time between stops... overall, these guys do a pretty good job.

I live in a very rural area and we have Fedex, UPS and USPS service daily with some very very good drivers. Mail is delivered at about the same time every day, UPS goes by about 5 or 6 pm (he's penalized if he brings packages back to the terminal and in my area his terminal is 35 miles away) and Fedex can arrive any time of the day.

My UPS Driver came by yesterday with a package he had not heard of this new rule