Royal Mail delays to Sheffield

I had some stuff held up by DPD recently, they blamed a seasonal increase in deliveries.

 

I don't know how it creeps up on them every year.

But they don't need all that spare infrastructure all year round. They do deliver excess Friday deliveries on a Saturday at no charge though (well they did last year).

But they don't need all that spare infrastructure all year round.

Isn't that the whole point in seasonal work?

Take on more people over the Xmas season to deal with the huge increase in packages being sent on the run-up to Xmas.

To be fair with the recent rise in Black Friday shopping they can count on being extremely busy from late November right through to Xmas now.

Alot of their drivers operate on a gig economy model anyway?

You posted this on a Saturday.

 

Unless the person sent it with the Saturday guarantee which costs quite abit more, "next day" in this instance actually means Monday.

If the item was posted Saturday the next day would be Tuesday. That's what been told when I've posted on a sat and sun

---------- Post added 12-12-2017 at 18:05 ----------

Isn't that the whole point in seasonal work?

 

Take on more people over the Xmas season to deal with the huge increase in packages being sent on the run-up to Xmas.

To be fair with the recent rise in Black Friday shopping they can count on being extremely busy from late November right through to Xmas now.

 

Alot of their drivers operate on a gig economy model anyway?

Black Friday parcels sent this year are down 17% called I to news

Isn't that the whole point in seasonal work?

 

Take on more people over the Xmas season to deal with the huge increase in packages being sent on the run-up to Xmas.

To be fair with the recent rise in Black Friday shopping they can count on being extremely busy from late November right through to Xmas now.

 

Alot of their drivers operate on a gig economy model anyway?

It's not the lack of van drivers, it's the hubs that can't cope. The likes of DPD have huge systems of conveyer belts and they can only take so much, as can the lorries that take them to local depots. Now if you have a full lorry going to Sheffield, are you you g to send another lorry quarter full or bump it to next day? Self employed van drivers are 10 a penny, you can take those on quite easily and they do but its not going to solve capacity issues at the central hubs, and that goes for all courier companies to some extent.

I had an Amazon Prime 'specified day' item shown as 'out for delivery' with DPD on Friday 1st December. Having waited in all day I received a text c.14:45 advising that due to 'local circumstances' they would now be unable to deliver the parcel that day, but would instead deliver on Saturday 2nd December.

Whilst being a little surprised that they proposed to deliver on a Saturday I again waited in all day. No delivery, no update. The item was finally delivered on Monday 4th.

Messrs DPD misguidedly invited me to 'rate their performance' on TrustPilot and I awarded them a somewhat generous '1 Star' (the lowest rating available). I received an email a couple of days later apologising for their incompetence (my word not theirs) which they put down to 'a backlog following Black Friday' and stating that the text advising the item would be delivered on the Saturday was sent in error.

Still, Royal Mail have lost/delayed by over 2 weeks at least three items posted to me this year, so overall I'm unsure as to who is least efficient.

If the item was posted Saturday the next day would be Tuesday. That's what been told when I've posted on a sat and sun

The opening poster started this thread on a Saturday early afternoon, we have to assume he was waiting for a next day delivery that had been posted Friday.

Again, he hasn't actually told us if the sender sent it with the Saturday guarantee. If he didn't, he would have got it on Monday on the normal Next Day service.

Black Friday parcels sent this year are down 17% called I to news

So what?

It's not the lack of van drivers, it's the hubs that can't cope. The likes of DPD have huge systems of conveyer belts and they can only take so much, as can the lorries that take them to local depots. Now if you have a full lorry going to Sheffield, are you you g to send another lorry quarter full or bump it to next day? Self employed van drivers are 10 a penny, you can take those on quite easily and they do but its not going to solve capacity issues at the central hubs, and that goes for all courier companies to some extent.

So the hub is undersized? Is that not a design flaw?

Do they operate it during the day or 24/7??

You can hire in extra drivers and extra lorries when needed.

Had orders off amazon with Royal Mail and its come a few days before the delivery date which is good but then ive had it a day after the date