UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
1989, I have to respectfully disagree with your portrayal of a flexible driver. Customers, especially the larger ones, appreciate and, yes, expect their delivery time to be approx. the same each and every day. I would say that I deliver most of my commercial stops +/- 30 minutes, usually less than that, with few exceptions from day to day. More and more commercial customers carry little or no inventory and use as their "just-in-time" inventory system and changes in delivery times can disrupt their operations.
Now, I do agree with you that drivers need to be flexible in order to better serve their customers, whether it be earlier delivery times, later pickup times, or whatever their needs may be.
I have also noticed, and I am sure that most of us have, that once you do a "favor" for a customer than it is no longer a favor and it will become something that they will expect. For example, you break off to deliver a pkg to a customer because they asked you for this "favor" the day before. Now they want all of their pkgs to be delivered earlier.
Now, I do agree with you that drivers need to be flexible in order to better serve their customers, whether it be earlier delivery times, later pickup times, or whatever their needs may be.
I have also noticed, and I am sure that most of us have, that once you do a "favor" for a customer than it is no longer a favor and it will become something that they will expect. For example, you break off to deliver a pkg to a customer because they asked you for this "favor" the day before. Now they want all of their pkgs to be delivered earlier.