Multi-drop workload

[Mr Pointy]

I had something delivered by AO today at around 10am: it came on a lorry & the driver said he had 30 drops to do. They send out a tracking link of course & I'm still watching it & it seems they still have 12 more drops to do & it's 19:12 in the evening. The link seems live as the little lorry icon is slowly beetling round & the number of drops is reducing.

Surely these guys aren't still delivering at this time of night - they are only just over halfway through the 30 drops. They must run out of hours at some point.

[Defcon5]

Two shifts of drivers per lorry?

[CanAm]

A friend of mine was made redundant in his 60s and got a job with one of these parcel delivery companies. He was working until after 10.00pm to finish his round.

[Douglas Quaid]

When I was younger I worked for one. 7am-10pm was the normal shift. It was tiring but I could cope back then as I was a youth. Not great though for the married blokes with families.

[fttm]

Yeap cut them some slack eh , poor sods probably have collections on the way back to the depot too . Thankless job which is paid peanuts

[Gary29]

The local facebook Karen's are reporting that Evri (iirc) have been delivering at 1-2am over the last few weeks, leaving parcels on people's doorsteps.

If you think about it, it's probably the best time of day to be out and about making deliveries, no traffic or people to slow you down. Drop and go.

[cobra kid]

Gary29 said:

The local facebook Karen's are reporting that Evri (iirc) have been delivering at 1-2am over the last few weeks, leaving parcels on people's doorsteps.

If you think about it, it's probably the best time of day to be out and about making deliveries, no traffic or people to slow you down. Drop and go.

Easier for the scrotes to wander around and scoop them all up en masse as well.

[Spare tyre]

It’s a pretty stressful job from everything I can see

With the likes of evri can you pick your round size

If I was taking early retirement a small round could be a extra little income that kept me active, but I suspect it’s easier to get a part time job in Tesco

I still send the odd low value eBay sale via evri for the convenience it offers dropping off at the co op, don’t think I’d use it for an important/ valuable item though

[Mr Pointy]

fttm said:

Yeap cut them some slack eh , poor sods probably have collections on the way back to the depot too . Thankless job which is paid peanuts

Indeed - in fact the genius who organised the round (not the driver obv) put me as first drop even though they were paid extra to take away the old item, which wouldn't fit on the van as it was absolutely rammed. Now I've got to argue with them to come & collect it.

[Mr Pointy]

Oh FFS this was a general natter about how hard delivery drivers work, not a discussion about becoming one.

[vikingaero]

You can choose when they deliver on AO and pay more or less.

Next Day 2hour/AM/PM slot
Next Day Anytime all day
2/3/4/5 day deliveries

Obviously more people are going to book when they are in from work.

That said I've paid a premium for AO to deliver a fridge to my Mum the next day and had them cancel on me, stating they were going to deliver in a few days. It took a while to get them to refund the next day fee.

[Doofus]

Mr Pointy said:

I had something delivered by AO today at around 10am: it came on a lorry & the driver said he had 30 drops to do. They send out a tracking link of course & I'm still watching it & it seems they still have 12 more drops to do & it's 19:12 in the evening. The link seems live as the little lorry icon is slowly beetling round & the number of drops is reducing.

Surely these guys aren't still delivering at this time of night - they are only just over halfway through the 30 drops. They must run out of hours at some point.

We had a new fridge from them back in the summer. They turned up at about 10:30 - 11:00 am, and told me I was drop number 12.

[oobie38]

AO is a bit different to the likes of Evri though- you can't just drop a fridge on the doorstep and run. Had an America fridge-freezer delivered a month or so back, and they took the old one away- took a good hour or so, in the end with tight corners and narrowish doors- not a job I'd relish myself, and something that could really easily runaway on the workers time wise. I bet the job allocators don't build much contingency into the delivery teams day.

[Antony Moxey]

oobie38 said:

AO is a bit different to the likes of Evri though- you can't just drop a fridge on the doorstep and run. Had an America fridge-freezer delivered a month or so back, and they took the old one away- took a good hour or so, in the end with tight corners and narrowish doors- not a job I'd relish myself, and something that could really easily runaway on the workers time wise. I bet the job allocators don't build much contingency into the delivery teams day.

And given, I think, you’re limited on the number of hours you’re allowed to drive a lorry in a day this is a good way round - see Mr. Inspector, he had an hour break there, half an hour there, forty minutes there. Notwithstanding the poor sod was lugging a fridge up a flight of steps to a flat.

I guess with AO, and maybe other similar shops like Curry’s or John Lewis, you’re not having a lap top, phone or camera delivered, but bulky items that are either too big or too heavy to collect yourself. It’s not like an Amazon delivery, although they’ll have substantially more than ‘just’ 30 deliveries. Bugger that for game of soldiers, those guys really do do a day’s work.

[smallpaul]

Antony Moxey said:

It’s not like an Amazon delivery, although they’ll have substantially more than ‘just’ 30 deliveries. Bugger that for game of soldiers, those guys really do do a day’s work.

Here's a good one. Peak covid during christmas. Wealthy area. Get out the van with 11 parcels in your hand going to 7 different doorsteps

Then move the van down the road a bit and do the 136th stop which if i remember correctly was about the same.

• edited to remove addresses in photo

Edited by smallpaul on Tuesday 10th December 19:52

[Senex]

Spare tyre said:

.....but I suspect it’s easier to get a part time job in Tesco

I think you'll find this is not the case, especially if you are in your sixties.

The supermarkets seem to have a silent policy of not employing older people. They don't mind letting people who already work for them grow old but they certainly don't want new employees who are already old.

Evri on the other hand don't seem to care, also I was chatting with my local guy who said it only really works if you already have your own van, trying to do it with a car just doesn't work.

[bergclimber34]

60's what about car pats delivery? Some companies prefer older drivers, Partco always used to use women I think. Easy ish, fairly similar places I guess. Multi-drop is sweatshop living peeing in a bottle stuff sadly, but you can do multi drop for people who give a damn, just not parcel.

[Little Pete]

One of my customers worked for a parcel company on multi drop. His round was the nearest large town to the depot and some days he would go out with 80/90 drops in a 7.5 tonne truck. He would also have to do collections to take back to the depot at the end of the day. When he left the company had to put two men on to cover his round.

[irc]

It's a tough gig. I don't envy multidrop deliveries.

Our street and surrounds must be one of the better areas. No parking problems. A lot of retired people at home for any signed for stuff . Low crime so anything left on the doorstep is still there when we get home.

I always had the perception we were low crime. Checked a crime map last night. We are in the lowest 10% band in Scotland (on a par with Orkney) despite only being 7 miles from Glasgow. Maybe the buffer zone of expensive houses for 3 miles between us and outer Glasgow gets targetted first.

[asfault]

Doofus said:

We had a new fridge from them back in the summer. They turned up at about 10:30 - 11:00 am, and told me I was drop number 12.

If they arnt having to fit anything and fiddle about and it's all cities or one town then easy enough to do 12 drops by that time.