Amazon, DPD, EVRi Van Drivers
Discussion
Why are most of the Amazon/DPD/EVRi vans so battered?
Why do most of the drivers come across so moody?
They park anywhere with little regard for being or causing an obstruction. Some are driving around with the side door/rear doors open; they get out leaving the van running/music loud etc. There's a part of me that wants to admire how they are getting through the day of 100/200/whatever the number of parcels is, but looking at the state of most of the vans: dirty, and looking like they've just been through a war zone I can't help but think the drivers are not very good at driving.
Is this a symptom of too much work/long hours/not enough pay? I've heard some are on quite good money. Or is more a case of there is so much demand for delivered parcels, the courier/delivery companies will hire anyone?
One tried to turn their van around on our street and made an absolute mess of it; the road is only about 80m long and you can go around the block whichever way you exit the street. Any map will show that.
Why do most of the drivers come across so moody?
They park anywhere with little regard for being or causing an obstruction. Some are driving around with the side door/rear doors open; they get out leaving the van running/music loud etc. There's a part of me that wants to admire how they are getting through the day of 100/200/whatever the number of parcels is, but looking at the state of most of the vans: dirty, and looking like they've just been through a war zone I can't help but think the drivers are not very good at driving.
Is this a symptom of too much work/long hours/not enough pay? I've heard some are on quite good money. Or is more a case of there is so much demand for delivered parcels, the courier/delivery companies will hire anyone?
One tried to turn their van around on our street and made an absolute mess of it; the road is only about 80m long and you can go around the block whichever way you exit the street. Any map will show that.
The job centre and anywhere else they can find mugs to do it, that is one tough job.
Quite likely self insured I guess.
The term driver should be used very loosely, van drivers were professional drivers once, along time ago.
If you were paid peanuts, given a hundred plus drops a day, and everytime you do not get an answer, know that number is increasing, would you be happy and smiling ?
There was a time when self employed owner drivers could earn a decent living, big business has taken over, like everything else, capped earnings for profits, bought up small courier firms and dictate everything. Owner drivers might as well stay at home. though out of cities, some sameday guys are still soldiering on.
So they use bigger contract firms playing the numbers game, or run their own fleets, the result for drivers is working long hours to earn a living, often too long and accidents occur.
Just hope it is trees, walls and lamposts and not your parked cars, I doubt they will stop, they don,t have time.
Quite likely self insured I guess.
The term driver should be used very loosely, van drivers were professional drivers once, along time ago.
If you were paid peanuts, given a hundred plus drops a day, and everytime you do not get an answer, know that number is increasing, would you be happy and smiling ?
There was a time when self employed owner drivers could earn a decent living, big business has taken over, like everything else, capped earnings for profits, bought up small courier firms and dictate everything. Owner drivers might as well stay at home. though out of cities, some sameday guys are still soldiering on.
So they use bigger contract firms playing the numbers game, or run their own fleets, the result for drivers is working long hours to earn a living, often too long and accidents occur.
Just hope it is trees, walls and lamposts and not your parked cars, I doubt they will stop, they don,t have time.
Every Amazon van I’ve seen has been battered and not just the odd dented panel but actual gouges and bent back metal. Royal Mail vans look fresh off the production line by comparison.
Don’t see anything near similar from the other couriers. DpD, Evri, etc all seem half way decent. I think it was Wilts Police who were targeting them for unroadiness a while back and getting them off the road. Pictures they put up were shocking.
Don’t see anything near similar from the other couriers. DpD, Evri, etc all seem half way decent. I think it was Wilts Police who were targeting them for unroadiness a while back and getting them off the road. Pictures they put up were shocking.
Glassman said:
Why are most of the Amazon/DPD/EVRi vans so battered?
Acorn1 said:
I noticed that recently too.
At a guess, they could be keeping their vans longer and/or spending less on repairs than before. Parcel volumes have been normalising following the COVID-boost, company fortunes currently seem a bit mixed with some higher profile job losses and unemployment edging up and there seems to be a lot of cost-cutting going on.They’re moody ‘cos the job sucks.
I was a driver for Riverford and Waitrose while at uni, sometimes I’d have to be out of the door to go to the depot at 2:30am if you actually want to get s
t done.
Then you have hundreds of drops - over 100 sometimes at Riverford, 50 at Waitrose but with loads of st to drop, and then you can easily have 2x or even 3x that at somewhere like Amazon.
Longest shift I ever did at Riverford was 15 hours straight, and that was on my feet all day, absolute nightmare of a day, traffic etc. late drops = pissed customers even if they don't have a time frame, not even time to piss properly if you want to go home as quick as possible, you can forget about a lunch break.
I feel for Amazon and DPD drivers, it’s a tough life. Workplace injuries are common. No reason to want to smile much if you just want to put food on the table.
I dented my van in a couple of times. Put a Waitrose Sprinter in a ditch on a single track lane when a maniac came speeding down without braking. Smashed a Transit custom into a hidden bollard on a narrow hidden entrance into a rural development. Definitely curbed a few LWB transit alloys trying to squeeze them through 6’6” width restrictions. When you’re stressed and trying to get to the next place on time you tend to make many more mistakes.
For reference I’ve only ever curbed a wheel once on my personal car!
Not excusing it but st happens.
I was a driver for Riverford and Waitrose while at uni, sometimes I’d have to be out of the door to go to the depot at 2:30am if you actually want to get s
t done.Then you have hundreds of drops - over 100 sometimes at Riverford, 50 at Waitrose but with loads of s
t to drop, and then you can easily have 2x or even 3x that at somewhere like Amazon.Longest shift I ever did at Riverford was 15 hours straight, and that was on my feet all day, absolute nightmare of a day, traffic etc. late drops = pissed customers even if they don't have a time frame, not even time to piss properly if you want to go home as quick as possible, you can forget about a lunch break.
I feel for Amazon and DPD drivers, it’s a tough life. Workplace injuries are common. No reason to want to smile much if you just want to put food on the table.
I dented my van in a couple of times. Put a Waitrose Sprinter in a ditch on a single track lane when a maniac came speeding down without braking. Smashed a Transit custom into a hidden bollard on a narrow hidden entrance into a rural development. Definitely curbed a few LWB transit alloys trying to squeeze them through 6’6” width restrictions. When you’re stressed and trying to get to the next place on time you tend to make many more mistakes.
For reference I’ve only ever curbed a wheel once on my personal car!
Not excusing it but s
t happens.Edited by V 02 on Wednesday 7th August 00:20
On the flipside the guy who seems to do the most DPD deliveries in our village is great. Smart unbattered leccy van. Always smiling, always polite, sometimes has time for a chat because he's early and the system won't let him deliver the parcel early. I'll always opt for DPD delivery when buying something online if I am given the option.
I did multi drop in the mid 90s, owner driver, mainly for Parceline, Interlink and DHL. Used to make a fortune and did 70 to 100 drops per day.
Then I bought a tractor and trailer HGV and made even more money doing much less drops, then bought another five trucks over 2 years. When Geopost bought Parceline and Interlink they got rid of all the subbies and it was the start of downhill spiral.
Luckily I had paid off all the trucks and sold the business as a going concern.
Would not like to do it now.
Then I bought a tractor and trailer HGV and made even more money doing much less drops, then bought another five trucks over 2 years. When Geopost bought Parceline and Interlink they got rid of all the subbies and it was the start of downhill spiral.
Luckily I had paid off all the trucks and sold the business as a going concern.
Would not like to do it now.
nismocat said:
I did multi drop in the mid 90s, owner driver, mainly for Parceline, Interlink and DHL. Used to make a fortune and did 70 to 100 drops per day.
Then I bought a tractor and trailer HGV and made even more money doing much less drops, then bought another five trucks over 2 years. When Geopost bought Parceline and Interlink they got rid of all the subbies and it was the start of downhill spiral.
Luckily I had paid off all the trucks and sold the business as a going concern.
Would not like to do it now.
That ties in exactly with my thoughts, once the shareholder businesses start taking over and dictating, all the money goes there way, a driver or owner driver is just a tool in the machine to be paid as little as possible, not a human being who needs to live. Then I bought a tractor and trailer HGV and made even more money doing much less drops, then bought another five trucks over 2 years. When Geopost bought Parceline and Interlink they got rid of all the subbies and it was the start of downhill spiral.
Luckily I had paid off all the trucks and sold the business as a going concern.
Would not like to do it now.
On the London circuit with small courier firms, you would often get 2, 3 , 4 jobs in one direction, especially items missed off truck deliveries, and be paid seperately for each one.
Greed had not taking hold just yet.
British rail " Red Star" was another good one, the rate was not fantastic, but you would collect all day, drop at one station in the evening while doing other work in between, unless one was urgent to another station or another, they are not far apart and you could get around London in those days.
48k said:
On the flipside the guy who seems to do the most DPD deliveries in our village is great. Smart unbattered leccy van. Always smiling, always polite, sometimes has time for a chat because he's early and the system won't let him deliver the parcel early. I'll always opt for DPD delivery when buying something online if I am given the option.
Village might be the clue as to why lol,. Even in London DPD vans are not that bad, surprised they were included. I opt for them for sending and receiving if I can.
Most of them buy vans cheap, and Aircon is for the bosses, not the tools. I think Leccy ones get it though.
Leccy vans have put another pressure on their day, most do not last the day and they hog public chargers, gives them a break I suppose, but when you are looking at 15/16 hour days, it really is just something else to piss you off.
Supermarket deliveries are a doddle compared to parcels, a lot of time is spent trying to find the bloody things on a van full of hundreds.
Seen a few take to big trolley bags, load up and go on foot.
We should really understand how they have to work, and the conditions they work in, before jumping up and down in frustration.
A500leroy said:
Because you have approx 2 mins per drop no matter how far apart they are, the average courier would max verstappen if they went toe to toe in the same equipment. On top of that you want to crap or pee, you'll be doing that in the van, not very dignified.
That could be good idea for an F1 support race, each of the big courier companies field a team of two of their 48k said:
On the flipside the guy who seems to do the most DPD deliveries in our village is great. Smart unbattered leccy van. Always smiling, always polite, sometimes has time for a chat because he's early and the system won't let him deliver the parcel early. I'll always opt for DPD delivery when buying something online if I am given the option.
Similar here. The DPD drivers we get here are always polite and friendly, well turned out and their vans in superb condition.The other delivery services...not so much.
wolfracesonic said:
A500leroy said:
Because you have approx 2 mins per drop no matter how far apart they are, the average courier would max verstappen if they went toe to toe in the same equipment. On top of that you want to crap or pee, you'll be doing that in the van, not very dignified.
That could be good idea for an F1 support race, each of the big courier companies field a team of two of their Glassman said:
Why are most of the Amazon/DPD/EVRi vans so battered?
They are delivering around urban streets, stopping for short periods outside houses to deliver. Vans get hit, bumped, etc as they're essentially always parking them.Glassman said:
Why do most of the drivers come across so moody?
Because it's not a pleasant job really. High targets for not a lot of money. It can be a thankless task.Glassman said:
W
They park anywhere with little regard for being or causing an obstruction. Some are driving around with the side door/rear doors open; they get out leaving the van running/music loud etc.
See above - high targets for not a lot of money. They don't have time to park neatly. They park anywhere with little regard for being or causing an obstruction. Some are driving around with the side door/rear doors open; they get out leaving the van running/music loud etc.
Glassman said:
I've heard some are on quite good money.
It depends on your definition of 'good money'It can pay a decent wage, but you need to flog your guts out. See 105.4's posts on this forum - he was/is a parcel courier and was regularly doing 100+ hour weeks.
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