Stop the delivery fiasco!

Internet shopping has become the norm and competition between private delivery companies is fierce but

delivery drivers are paid a pittance and then only on actual  "delivery"

Typical pay is in the order of 50p per item 'delivered' and NOTHING for any failed attempt

this puts pressure on them to be careless or 'creative' with the delivery.

Not for the first time I've had to canvas similar addresses in the neighbourhood to actually collect a s-called delivered item.

"Failed delivery" is not a response option when the website claims that good were delivered and "handed to customer" despite regular failures.

Common issues are :-

1. goods delivered to wrong address
2. goods thrown over fences and left exposed to theft or weather
3. goods simply not delivered but claimed to have been

Customer 'signature' is a useless form of ID - even genuine recipients can barely manage an unintelligible squiggle with their finger on a tablet.

The solutions:-

PIN CODING

    Give a 1-time PIN code on order confirmation/payment

    Use the PIN as customer confirmation of delivery

 Pay Better
      Pay peanuts - expect some monkeying around

 Customer Feedback

      Rate deliveries

      Give a "Failed Delivery" response option to alleged deliveries

Yes, paying delivery drivers more reasonably will increase delivery costs that are passed on to us the customers. 

But the marginal increase of a few pennies is nothing compared to the inconvenience caused by the existing so-called system and none of us want to be party to the exploitation that puts drivers under so much pressure to unload our precious deliveries at the first visit come what may.

Or even to fake delivery! What's to stop them when a mere tablet squiggle counts as our ID and confirmation of alleged delivery?

Either way  it's us the customers who bear the cost of lost goods, investigations and query handling.

Far better to make the system work first time so we actuallly get the goods we ordered when we expect them and 'failed delivery' becomes the rare exception it should be.