I love this topic. This is a barometer of how employees are feeling now. 15 Years ago, not one courier would ever tell customers to use a competitor because that courier KNEW he was working for the best overnight company on the planet. Fast forward to now and we see guys are more worried about making their numbers because it could mean being written up or a letter or worse. If the customer gets less than quality service then, so be it. The courier is only making sure the manager stays off his back and If taking the extra time to help means not making the goal for the day then, for many couriers, the customer gets the bare minimum.
I know of one courier who use to PUP many heavy boxes every day at this one stop when one day he came to work with a tweaked back. He told management it was from week after week of those heavy (30-60 lbs) boxes. They told him he didn't lift them the correct way and wrote him up. Courier was so mad. Month or more on, he notices he was picking up less and less of those boxes and Brown was picking up more and more. Then it got to the point where Brown was taking basically all of them. Do you think that courier put in a lead to try to get that volume back? Exactly, he said nothing and was happy to do so.
I try to give good service. I feel bad to leave a customer blowing in the wind so I do my best. But it's really hard to blame other couriers for their feeling and their actions. Things have changed so much. I understand the company only exists to make profit but, wow, such changes. Maybe, back in the 1940's, there were Jews that sold ovens to the Nazis in the name of a profit. Maybe one day the ones that run American businesses across the country will have enough.