this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2024
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With varying degrees of success, you can create accounts with the delivery companies & specify what you want done with your pkg. Deliver to any address you like, or hold at facility or an access point. This is your best option, to dig a little deeper, take some time & really take control of how you want your deliveries. As best you can. ๐
With most US residential pkgs, it is left because it's easy & economical. A third to half of the time, it's cheap bullshit. Theft or loss is often not a big enough problem to warrant not delivering the first time.
Calling every person that doesnt receive their pkg in person is patently ridiculous. Full-time drivers have anywhere from 130 stops to 300+ stops. Let's say 2/3 don't accept the pkg in person (it's more than 2/3); that is 86-200+ phone calls or 86-200+ stops' worth of pkgs, per driver, to be recycled back through facility.
The first time most residential pkgs are attempted delivery, the shipping company makes like 5-10ยข on that pkg. Say it goes back to facility, to be delivered tomorrow, as you said. That very low value pkg, to be recycled back into the system & taking up space, to be processed & put on a truck for delivery the next day, to be delivered for basically no profit/breakeven. Awesome ๐๐ป๐๐ป๐๐ป๐๐ป๐๐ป. Let's say 2nd attempt is unsuccessful, and we can't just leave the package on the doorstep when the person isn't home because that's such an obviously stupid thing to do. Driver starts swearing, sticks another notice on the door, 5+ people handle the pkg again...you know the deal...and the 3rd day it is delivered at a loss or, if failed, is held at facility for customer pickup. The company has lost money, and on some cheap foreign-made t-shirts from Kohl's, no less.
In short: they're doing the best they can, every single day, by the numbers. ๐ Looking at the big picture, it works pretty well! Except for Amazon, they suck, but everybody keeps giving them money so basically they can fail up forever until that changes.
Hope this sheds some light on how logistics work behind the scenes. Leave some snacks, drinks out for your delivery drivers! The real-life Santas!