Good Old UPS

[Dave Fritz]

I took some advice offered here and purchased a pair of snow pants and long underwear to layer as needed. UPS left them here (appropriate based on contents):
513660 They were tied to our fire number at the base of our driveway. The postal service either puts things in our mailbox or brings them to the house and leaves them in the garage. In fact many times we get Amazon deliveries through the post office since we're rural. Seems the post office has to deliver while UPS can pick and choose.

[Steve Demuth]

Had I known all the ways a delivery person could contrive to "deliver" a package a decade ago when this eCommerce thing started to explode, I would have kept a camera log of their creativity. Would have been hilarious, in retrospect. Front step, back step, guest cabin step, woodshed, pickup bed, pickup cab, tied to mailbox, leaned against house behind the arbor vitae, under the asparagus bushes ... OK, that last one probably was a dog's doings.

I can appreciate the challenges of their job, and the time pressures, but lordy, lordy, it makes for a treasure hunt. The only one that really galls me is the Fedex guys who have a special delivery package of $15,000 worth of cancer drugs for which the pharmacy paid for "must be signed for by an adult" service and we still find them sitting on the step. I assume they forged a signature.

[Warren Lake]

I had a great UPS driver for years. Could leave the door unlocked he would put stuff inside and then lock the door. Like with many they have done their time retired and gone.

[Sam Force]

My wife get $13,000 dollars of cancer drugs left of the porch. Some times they call prior to delivery, sometimes not. They too are supposed to get a signature but in over a year we have yet to sigh for a delivery

[Jim Koepke]

There are good delivery people and not so good delivery people.

One UPS person just threw a box in a ditch near the edge of our property. It was fortunate for me it caught my eye while walking up to our mailbox.

Another one parked his truck at the beginning of our long driveway and walked up to the house (close to a quarter mile round trip) because he wasn't sure if he would be able to turn around by the house due to about 5" of snow on the ground.

They try to hire young motivated drivers. Sometimes they get a lemon.

How many old UPS drivers have you seen working a local route? If they are lucky, they become long distance drivers.

jtk

[Steve Demuth]

Jim,

I agree. For the most part, where live at least, they do a difficult, thankless job pretty darned well. Last week, I met a UPS driver at our front door - which means 1/4 mile down a dark, wooded driveway in winter to a completely unlit farmstead (we have no always-on yard light, and weren't expecting anyone) at 7:00PM on a Friday night to receive an ordinary, run of the mill package (a dust collection fitting, I think). Young guy, cheerful, scratched the dogs ears on his way down the steps, and when I apologized for being the cause of his being out there at that time of the night and week, he smiled and said, "Well, you're the last, so, have a good evening." Salt of the earth guy. Our mail delivery lady frequently goes the extra mile to make sure a package that doesn't fit in our mailbox ends up in our mud room, not out in the weather. She's great.

But when things go off script, well, it can be a bit of a challenge, and at least for things where the shipper paid for better service - like the drugs - I am less forgiving, although even then, I mostly blame the mother company, which in FedEx's case is using undercompensated, over scheduled contractors to do the dirty part of the job. There are reasons those ones cut corners sometimes.

[Mark Wedel]

I knew a person that worked for UPS, and he said that they showed up or work in the morning, truck loaded, they would do the route, and their day was done when the truck was empty. So the faster they work (which could mean less time/effort on the delivery), shorter their day was. He said his goal was never to talk to anyone, because that would slow down his day.

I live in the suburbs, so maybe 40' from the street to my front porch. One time, that was apparently too far for the delivery person to walk, so they dumped the package halfway up the walkway - talk about minimal effort.

[Stan Calow]

My understanding was that UPS and FEDEX trucks were constantly tracked by GPS and timed so that drivers had to keep their average time-on-target as short as possible or they'd get in trouble. The USPS doesnt have that constraint. Some of our mail carriers will bring packages to the door and others wont. And the path has to be clear of snow.

[Jim Becker]

In the end, it boils down to the specific driver. Our USPS and UPS drivers consistently put packages on our front porch near the door as noted in our accounts. So do Amazon delivery folks. The FedEX dude likes to leave them in random places and often in full view of the street and even on the side of the garage where we keep our trash cans which is in full view of the street. He left a bicycle box in the middle of our neighbor's driveway instead of moving it a whole five feet to their porch just before the holidays!

[Patty Hann]

One of my mail carriers --I think it is the guy that subs in on Saturdays-- apparently reads only the house number on the mail.
There is a house two streets over with he same number as mine, and not a little of my mail (sometimes important letters) gets delivered to the other address.

Perhaps it's because the street names are so similar, he gets confused. Mine is Emerson, the other is Westwood. As you can see, they are very similar, easy to mistake one for the other :rolleyes:.
Honestly, there are only 3 reasons for this: the carrier is illiterate, incompetent or lazy... or maybe all three.

And the people at that house apparently do not think they should give the incorrectly delivered mail to the [regular] carrier next time he comes around.
I've also lost some expensive orders of tools. I go to he post office and the GPS shows it was misdelivered.
Then you have to file a claim and wait, and wait and wait and wait...

[Dwayne Watt]

UPS service is usually good at my location but yesterday I received an email notice that a package was undeliverable because the business was not open to receive the delivery. OK..... (that's sarscasm). The address is my house within a housing development, not a business address. Weather was not a factor (no snow or ice, just chilly). I saw the UPS truck drive by our house around the time the email indicated non-delivery. Evidently the driver simply decided not to stop.

[Patty Hann]

UPS service is usually good at my location but yesterday I received an email notice that a package was undeliverable because the business was not open to receive the delivery. OK..... (that's sarscasm). The address is my house within a housing development, not a business address. Weather was not a factor (no snow or ice, just chilly). I saw the UPS truck drive by our house around the time the email indicated non-delivery. Evidently the driver simply decided not to stop.
From what I have read elsewhere (e.g., Reddit) the driver deciding not to stop and then reporting the item as "undeliverable" is not uncommon.

[Alan Lightstone]

From what I have read elsewhere (e.g., Reddit) the driver deciding not to stop and then reporting the item as "undeliverable" is not uncommon.
I see that more with FedEx, but yup UPS too.