Delivery Company Experiences

[Gloster]

Mod note - split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...o-disappear-soon.162232/page-123#post-6635970

Local BBC news reporting that the Liverpool-based 'Yodel' delivery firm has been sold on today. The alternative would likely to have been administration.

Yodel saved from collapse by fast-growing rival

Yodel has been saved from falling into administration in a last-minute rescue deal by a consortium.

www.bbc.com

Extract...


P.S. Not sure whether the highly regarded 'Yodel' business name will now continue under its new ownership.

Yodel was owned by the Barclay family or just Frederick Barclay alone and readers of Private Eye will have read - repeatedly - about the various problems that extremely rich or utterly boracic family have had over the last few years. So every penny that comes that deal will make some people, particularly lawyers, very happy, or at least slightly happier than they were.

 

[Blindtraveler]

They used to be really awful, the Hermes of their day but have smart myself up and got a lot better in recent times so nice to hear they've been saved but goodness knows what will happen in future

 

[richw]

They used to be really awful, the Hermes of their day but have smart myself up and got a lot better in recent times so nice to hear they've been saved but goodness knows what will happen in future

Yodel are far worse than Hermes/Evri in my area.

The local Evri lady is fantastic and has been doing our area for years. She knows everyone, our safe places, which neighbours are friendly with who, and as a result we get no issues and have a fantastic reliable service.

However we can tell when she’s on her holidays.

On the other hand yodel left a “signature compulsary” high value electrical item on my doorstep in pouring rain. My doorstep is straight on to the road/ pavement

 

[jon0844]

I've not had a Yodel delivery for some time. Perhaps the many sites telling people what companies used Yodel and recommending shopping elsewhere had an impact

 

[Busaholic]

Yodel are far worse than Hermes/Evri in my area.

The local Evri lady is fantastic and has been doing our area for years. She knows everyone, our safe places, which neighbours are friendly with who, and as a result we get no issues and have a fantastic reliable service.

However we can tell when she’s on her holidays.

On the other hand yodel left a “signature compulsary” high value electrical item on my doorstep in pouring rain. My doorstep is straight on to the road/ pavement

Exactly the same in my part of Cornwall. My car had its MOT in October, as a result of which an expensive part was required. My garage found that rather than £200 plus from Renault he could get one for £70 from elsewhere, to be sent by 24 hour Yodel service. Three days later, a Yodel driver attempted a delivery to the long-shut rural garage at 7.40 p.m. After another five days the garage owner had to drive 20 odd miles to Yodel's depot and collect it himself. The work was only completed and car re-tested on the last possible day before another MOT fee would have been payable!

 

[Blindtraveler]

Maybe I've been lucky or have been spoiled since I moved a year ago, but I've had quite a few yodel parcels in that time. I just don't have any time for Hermes, when I first moved here a year ago the driver we had on our round was good but he gone now and the new bloke is awful

 

[SteveM70]

The issue the likes of Evri and Yodel have is that the majority of delivery drivers are self-employed, so they lack direct control over the one face-to-face (if you're lucky) touchpoint with the customer, but its their name that gets dragged through the mud. Not a nice position to be in, but yet they prefer that risk to the costs of actually employing drivers in the traditional way

I had a situation with Yodel a few years ago, where I worked from home because a really, really important parcel was due to be delivered. No vehicle came close to the house, and the doorbell didn't ring, but I got an email saying "we tried to deliver your parcel but you were out". I rang them, and after about 15 minutes actually got to speak to a human, so I explained and asked them to contact the driver and tell him to actually try and make the delivery. The woman on the phone said "I can contact him but I can't tell him to come back, and he won't because he's his own boss"

 

[trebor79]

I've hated Hermes/Evri ever since I lived on a new estate about 15 years ago. One of my neighbours seemed to be some kind of hub for them, so from about 0530 every morning about a dozen cars would arrive and park all over the place, with the drivers hanging around talking/laughing/shouting. The a lorry would turn up and dump a load of parcels on the road, more shouting and commotion as they were divvied up to the various cars and they all set off. Lovely way to wake up 6 days a week, particularly when on the back shift .
Herms parcels don't usually get delivered to our village as they don't seem able to retain a driver and they invariably end up "delivered" somewhere else or sit for weeks with no tracking updates. Before Christmas they hired a hall and had people come collect parcels backlogged for months.
I just don't buy if I know the vendor is using Evri. Unfortunately my favourite apparel selller has gone from Royal Mail to Evri (with the stuff just in a plastic bag instead of a nice box with tissue paper etc), so that's them out of favour now too.

 

[jon0844]

Maybe I've been lucky or have been spoiled since I moved a year ago, but I've had quite a few yodel parcels in that time. I just don't have any time for Hermes, when I first moved here a year ago the driver we had on our round was good but he gone now and the new bloke is awful

This is the key problem with Evri. If you have a good, honest, dedicated person on your route then happy days. If not, God help you.

And you have no involvement in the process that decides who will deliver to you - so it's effectively a lottery. My Facebook is full of people almost every day with horrific experiences of Evri parcels being lost or delivered to the wrong house, dumped in a communal hallway etc.

 

[75A]

The main two here are DPD and Amazon, and once or twice a week if we're really lucky the Postman.

 

[Peter Sarf]

The main two here are DPD and Amazon, and once or twice a week if we're really lucky the Postman.

The advantage of the Post Office is the depot, if you elect to collect, is usually quite near. Indeed my DHL and DPD depots are reasonably well located.

The depot for Hermes was Dartford 1/4 of the way round outer London. I discovered this when I was awaiting a passport that could have been collected from the sender at Victoria which was a lot closer to Croydon !. Now Hermes is called Evri I avoid buying if Evri is to be used !.

I really do not understand how Evri survive - probably dirt cheap.

 

[trebor79]

I really do not understand how Evri survive - probably dirt cheap.

Is the correct answer. The pricing is on their website and no doubt businesses sending large volumes get a discount.

Home delivery model is all a bit daft and broken really. Final mile should just be done by RM and that would avoid all of these issues and also help keep the universal service going - I think we're getting towards breaking point for that. It's quite possible letter delivery days will be cut to a few days a week, or perhaps in rural areas go and pick your post up from the local Post Office or village shop - I believe such a model is already used elsewhere int eh world.

Supermarket deliveries are also madness. We had our Tesco delivery yesterday evening, but our neighbours had theirs in the morning. We were in anyway, just happened to have chosen evening delivery. Surely it would not be beyond the wit of man to devise a system to ask if we want to move our slot, and offer a quid or two off if so?
That's before we get to the potential for Supermarkets to share delivery vehicles.
I was at a conference years ago where Waitrose head of fleet was moaning that the delivery vans carry a very small payload and cover a lot of miles to deliver relatively few groceries. Yet they don't do anything to help themselves.

 

[jon0844]

And now the supermarkets are introducing their own rapid delivery services to compete with Getir, Just-Eat, Deliveroo and all the others - meaning staff are rushing around getting in the way of shoppers (who are I suppose competition in the race to get products) to meet their 15-20 minute delivery targets.

I agree that Royal Mail could do a lot more, and it does seem a lot more reliable when I get something from Amazon via Royal Mail. We've also had a few Sunday deliveries of late. RM's future is certainly unclear, and it doesn't help that stamps are going up even more.

Certainly in parts of Europe it has been commonplace for parcels to be delivered to a local shop where you collect. I am not sure I'd like that to become the norm, although with ever unreliable deliveries and goods being dumped next to a main road, or left in the rain rather than a safe place, perhaps it would be preferable.

It might also improve the state of our roads - or verges - which have been destroyed by vans making deliveries. They stop anywhere, drive on the wrong side of the road and have no care at all for other motorists because they've got a gazillion parcels to drop in about 15 minutes.

 

[gswindale]

The advantage of the Post Office is the depot, if you elect to collect, is usually quite near.

But not exactly open at convenient times - I seem to recall that our local one used to open late on a Weds evening, but now my best chance if I need to pick something up is to go on a Saturday morning when they're open for 4 hours!!

Would much rather get a delivery from Evri who give me a 2 hour slot and are pretty good at sticking to it, or DPD who give the best tracking info as far as I can tell.

 

[jon0844]

But not exactly open at convenient times - I seem to recall that our local one used to open late on a Weds evening, but now my best chance if I need to pick something up is to go on a Saturday morning when they're open for 4 hours!!

The sorting offices could easily stay open longer hours, or perhaps open in the morning and then again in the evening (for people collecting after they've finished work). Obviously there's a staffing cost, but it's not like the buildings are closed.

Indeed, in the past (was it during Covid?) ours was open almost all day.

Sadly we're now back to 0800-1000 weekdays 1600-1800 on a Friday, and a bit longer on Saturday (0800-1200) - but closed Sunday.

That's pretty poor. (I see some others have different hours, but that's even more confusing as it's not as if you can choose the sorting office the item goes to)

Given you can also drop parcels off at a sorting office, and Amazon is one of the companies that let you do this (even printing the label there in case you don't have a printer), I am surprised they aren't open longer as eventually people will skip the sorting office option and use a local shop instead.

 

[DelW]

Certainly in parts of Europe it has been commonplace for parcels to be delivered to a local shop where you collect. I am not sure I'd like that to become the norm, although with ever unreliable deliveries and goods being dumped next to a main road, or left in the rain rather than a safe place, perhaps it would be preferable.

There's an online clothing retailer I use which offers this (IIRC their courier is Evri), and it works well for me. Instead of having to track the delivery and hang around at home until it arrives, I get a text when it's delivered to the shop, and I have a couple of days to collect it. The shop is five minutes walk from my house, or if I'm coming or going by car I drive past it, and it's open every day. I assume the shop also benefits from a fee which helps a little to keep them in business.

I started doing it this way after sitting at home awaiting a delivery due on a Tuesday which finally arrived on the Thursday, with no explanation of why.

 

[Lewisham2221]

I'm another one who must be lucky in having a good local Evri courier, never had a problem with them. Had more problems with Royal Mail, including a dispute over an item that they claimed had been delivered, but we hadn't received. A couple of weeks later we had a knock at the door from an estate agent arranging viewings at an unoccupied house a few doors up - the item had been thrown over into that back garden, where it had been sitting in the rain.

Non-delivery doesn't seem to be an option for Amazon, who have variously left packages in neighbour's gardens, balanced on the front door handle or propped up against the front door - it's a terraced house which opens straight onto the street... I now use an Amazon locker, where possible, if there's a chance I won't be in, so I'd give another vote to couriers who allow some sort of store/locker pick up.

Annoyingly, Royal Mail now automatically attempt a redelivery, on the next working day, before they make a package available for collection from a delivery office. Frustrating when you know you're not going to be home.

 

[Ediswan]

Certainly in parts of Europe it has been commonplace for parcels to be delivered to a local shop where you collect.

DPD advertise this service. There are two locations I could happily use. Some vendors I buy from use DPD. However, I am yet to encounter any which show this option. Once the package is with DPD, the delivery location cannot be changed.

DPD is one of my preferences, but it would be better if I could access this service.

 

[GusB]

I haven't had much experience with Yodel as a customer, but I've had to deal with some of the fallout from its failure to deliver from the point of view of a retailer. If I had a penny for every complaint, I'd be quite wealthy! Having said that, I watched a documentary (Dispatches or Panorama - I can't remember) highlighting the problems that many of these drivers face. They're quite poorly paid and as far as I remember, they don't get paid for more than one attempt.

With Hermes/Evri, I've been quite lucky. It was an older couple who used to deliver parcels here and they knew which neighbours to leave parcels with if I was out, or if I was in and didn't hear the doorbell they'd open the front door, leave the parcel just inside and shout "parcel". It has been a while since I ordered anything online and I don't know if they're still on the go, but I had no complaints about the service they provided.

 

[cactustwirly]

The most reliable courier in my experience is Royal Mail, DHL can be a bit bit and miss.
UPS and FedEx seem good too.

 

[trebor79]

DPD advertise this service. There are two locations I could happily use. Some vendors I buy from use DPD. However, I am yet to encounter any which show this option. Once the package is with DPD, the delivery location cannot be changed.

DPD is one of my preferences, but it would be better if I could access this service.

If you download the DPD app you can change individual deliveries to go to a pick up shop. You can also access a setting which will make all deliveries better redirected there without further intervention. I know this because I got very frustrated with them continually redirecting parcels, and complained. I got a polite email back telling me they were doing as I had asked with that setting - I'd forgotten!

 

[Ediswan]

If you download the DPD app you can change individual deliveries to go to a pick up shop. You can also access a setting which will make all deliveries better redirected there without further intervention. I know this because I got very frustrated with them continually redirecting parcels, and complained. I got a polite email back telling me they were doing as I had asked with that setting - I'd forgotten!

Do you happen to know how DPD associate a package with an app account ? If they do it by postal address, all could be good. If they do it by email address, that could be a problem. I use a different email address for each online account.

 

[JamesT]

I’m normally quite down on Royal Mail, but I was impressed with a recent delivery where I got an email the day before it was due to be delivered with options to change. Which was quite handy as I was going to be in the office so selected the following day instead, a Saturday.
Not so impressed with their tracking on signed for mail that shows nothing until they’ve attempted delivery. They must have the data in their system, why make it a premium option? It’s frustrating not being able to plan. I don’t know if it’s policy or just my postie, but I’ve had several items where they can fit through the letterbox so they’ve just done that and essentially faked the signature.

 

[jon0844]

DPD advertise this service. There are two locations I could happily use. Some vendors I buy from use DPD. However, I am yet to encounter any which show this option. Once the package is with DPD, the delivery location cannot be changed.

DPD is one of my preferences, but it would be better if I could access this service.

Plenty of couriers offer a diversion to a shop/locker, but my point was that in some places you only have the option to collect somewhere - not a personal delivery (at least not without a much higher cost).

Perhaps it will become like this. Orders to your local shop/supermarket for a nominal price, or free, and pay extra for a home delivery. Obviously things like Prime or other subs might reduce the delivery fee further, or make it free, but the default will be a locker or shop.

Many apps only show your delivery once it's already too late to divert it without adding a day to the collection date. Once in the system, DPD, DHL or whatever may let me say I'm out, but if I divert then I have to now wait until tomorrow to collect. And, a bit like Trainline always adding a railcard once you did it once, you have to be careful if you divert a parcel once and it now defaults to that for future deliveries!

 

[DarloRich]

All good and bad. The driver is the key to the customer experience.

 

[Acey]

Maybe Iv'e been lucky ,because over the years Iv'e had hundreds of deliveries and never had a problem !

 

[jfollows]

No real problems with any of them, Yodel only currently deliver me wine once every few months and manage to do so as promised without damage.
My only problem in the last year has been with Amazon delivery, but maybe not the delivery driver I see, because somewhere in the chain I've had a can of paint substituted for some high value IT equipment. Fortunately I got a replacement a couple of days later although rather pointlessly I had to send the paint back to Amazon at some inconvenience but no cost.

 

[Silenos]

No real problems with any of them, Yodel only currently deliver me wine once every few months and manage to do so as promised without damage.

Same here, but when I lived in Lewisham they were consistently unreliable, and I avoid any retailers that use them to deliver to my relatives in rural Devon ever since they falsely claimed to have delivered something that never arrived. DPD have always been excellent, through a variety of regular drivers, and our local postie is also brilliant and will go and put stuff in the shed round the back if I’m not in. Evri, on the other hand, leave stuff on the front step without knocking/ringing, regardless of the weather (even though when walking up they can see there is a covered area over the side door which is no further away).

My only problem in the last year has been with Amazon delivery

My problem with Amazon (and some others) is that you can’t see who will be doing the delivery until after you order.

 

[londonbridge]

In one instance I was at work on my AM shift, checked my phone on my break and found an email from Amazon, item out for delivery. Finished my shift at 1.00pm, checked my phone, found email timed at 12:45, item has been delivered. Tracking info said package was handed to resident, but when I got home it was on the doorstep in full view from the street. Still, that’s not as bad as another item, no communication from the courier but, again, I found it on the doorstep at 11:30 pm when I got home from late shift , having been left there at some point after 2:30pm when I left the house.

Finally with Yodel I ordered an item for a friends birthday and had it shipped directly to her. Sent her the tracking info saying when it was due so she knew to look for it. She didn’t message to say she’d got it and when I checked she hadn’t seen it, despite my receiving the item delivered email. Said she’d check again and came back to me about an hour later saying she’d found it in between the garden shed and the back wall where the driver had thrown it over the gate, fortunately it wasn’t broken.

 

[ComUtoR]

All good and bad. The driver is the key to the customer experience.

Yep !

I used to do multi drop back in the day and the differences between all the Drivers certainly had an impact. However, the way the depot and postcodes were split also had a pretty major impact.

The depot for Hermes was Dartford 1/4 of the way round outer London.

I never worked for Hermes but when I worked the BR postcodes this was run from Croydon but then shifted to Greenwich. Getting an 0900 delivered on time was a bit of a challenge and getting customers to come to depot just made them even more miserable.

It was also a nightmare trying to drop across all of BR. A lot of postcode areas are geographically quite extensive. The delivery company I worked for simply split depots with postcode areas. Some Drivers had it harder than others.