October 8, 2024

Delivering parcels is harder than you think.

A knock on the door.

“Funny”, I thought, I’m not expecting anything yet.

It was someone delivering a parcel. I took, it, knowing it couldn’t be for me, wondering if it could be for neighbour.

“It’s not for here”, I said, “It’s for the same number on the road parallel to this.”

“This is where the postcode took me.”

“Maybe, but the address on the parcel isn’t my address.”

I handed the parcel back to them.

“It’s for the same number house on that other road. If you look between those houses behind you, you can see where it is. Just go back to the end of this road, turn right and right again and you’ll be there.”

“This is where the postcode took me.”

“It’s not for me, it’s for that other house.”

I closed the door and thought no more of it.

Until another knock came about an hour later.

‘Not back again, surely’ I thought.

They weren’t.

“Have you got my parcel? It’s been tracked to here and they say it’s been delivered.”

“No, I told him it wasn’t for me, and where to go to deliver it to the right place. I even showed him how he could see the road from here.”

“But it’s been tracked to here, with proof of delivery.”

They showed me the photos of my drive, my open doorway and the parcel in my hand.

I wouldn’t mind, only I’m starting to buy Christmas presents for the kids. This looks like a new delivery company and this is really cheeky.” I could feel they didn’t really believe me, because they knew that whatever was in the parcel was desirable to them.

“No, really, I handed it back, and told them how to get to the right place.”

“But it’s been tracked to here, and they say you have it.”

“I don’t. I showed it was the wrong address, and told them where it was and how to get there to deliver it to the right place.”

“This is really cheeky.”

“It is, I’ll happily tell them what I’ve told you if you need me to.”

They left. Disappointed, and probably still a little suspicious of me.

There is so much wrong with this episode and what it illustrates, I hardly know where to start.

First, nobody checked that whatever software was being used to guide the delivery was actually correct. The address on the parcel is not in my postcode. It’s correct postcode is a final letter out, so it’s possible the delivery person mis-keyed it. But see my third reason.

Second, ‘proof’ of delivery was being collected before delivery actually took place instead of after it was confirmed. Why? Probably to save time per parcel, because delivering parcels is ‘unskilled’ work and therefore very, very low paid, on piece rates.

Third, the delivery person clearly felt it was better to follow the process exactly for the wrong address, rather than deliver the parcel to the right address. Why? To avoid a mismatch of data in case they would be accused of stealing? They were happier for me to be suspected instead. Or was it to save time again, because their workload/pay ratio is such that any deviation means a loss to them?

Fourth, both deliverer and addressee found it really hard to disbelieve the recorded ‘evidence’, rather than my version of events. This is positively dangerous. How do you defend yourself when your ID card is ‘shown’ to be somewhere you know you weren’t?

I’m all for process, as you know. But there are some key things a good process needs:

1) A proper definition of when it starts and ends. In this case, the process should end when the parcel is delivered to the right place. Not when a photo has been taken on a doorstep.

2) Leeway for the human being running the process to do whatever it takes to ensure 1), when things don’t go to plan.

3) Training for the human being running the process in whatever they need to know in order to ensure 1), for example, to get to know their territory, so they aren’t blindly going where their GPS takes them; or a bit of critical thinking so they can work why it might have gone wrong and correct it.

4) Business owners, and managers who actually give a f**k about the ‘service’ they are offering, and the people who have to make it happen.

If you’re a business owner who gives a f**k, and you want to design a decent parcel delivery service, talk to me. It’s not actually that hard. But it clearly is harder than most people think.