To Customers / recipients of packages: where is your house number ???

HomeDelivery

Well-Known Member
Is it really that hard to put a road marker with your house # on it? or at least a number on your mailbox?

i have to knock on your door, wait for you to answer, and confirm the address (1-5 minutes sometimes)

instead of running to the door, driver release, slapping one of those driver release post-its, and running back to my delivery van (in under a minute)

those minutes add up & not getting paid by the hour isn't helping

sometimes I'll get lucky and see the USPS guy put an envelope in the unlabeled mailbox so I can open it and verify your home #

some towns made this MANDATORY so EMS and the police can find your location when you call them ASAP...
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Peak Season is coming & some of these temp drivers may code it a 03 (can not find your location) or a 02 (incorrect recipient address) and bring it to QA cage to have it sit there 1-3 days to confirm where you live...

but, if i'm an hourly temp driver, i'll try to do what it takes to deliver your parcel the first attempt, since getting paid for my time on the road is favorable. That includes dialing up the phone number on the package (yes, please leave a valid phone # as well!)

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also, if it's a business, please put the name of your business as the "name" or at least use the 2nd line of the online address forms for this:

ex: FedEx Office
123 Main St. Ste 2
c/o Freddie Smith
City, State, zip

or

Freddie Smith
123 Main St. Ste 2
FedEx Office
City, State, zip


it'll make it much easier for the temps or swing drivers to differentiate them from the residential addresses (and may deviate from the turn-by-turns to try to get your parcel before closing time) because it will show up on the printed delivery manifest after we pre-load/ sequenced/ sort our delivery vans for the day

now, with the customers doing just that, I thank them for doing so since we Home Delivery drivers don't go to that many businesses anyways (maybe like ~10% or less of the packages in our delivery vans)

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same goes with gps misplots: use the 2nd line of the online address forms to say where your house really is located...

for example, i had a ## East Atlantic Ave and it was not by the railroad tracks, but behind a theme park instead (same street, but gps and fedex map software thought it was elsewhere)

## East Atlantic Ave.
behind X theme Park
City, State, zip

the customer in this case left the correct cellphone # to contact her because she already knew that her address is always wrong on Google, yahoo, mapquest etc... and it only added 15 minutes to my day to deliver this box to the correct house.

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just some pointers to have your package delivered on the first try!
 

Cactus

Just telling it like it is
In some counties the numbering of your home is mandatory which it should be. What if someone had a heart attack and the paramedics couldn't find you in time because 3 houses in a row were not numbered?

All rural properties should be numbered and with metal signs by the edge of the road with numbers that are readable at night as well. In a scenario like this the numbering would be done by the county and not left up to discretion of the lazy homeowner.
 

HomeDelivery

Well-Known Member
i had just that scenario on a rural route at the shore on monday... agh... all 3 houses on a dirt/ gravel road were not numbered, so I guessed on one, wasted my time knocking on the door to find out it was the last un-numbered house at the end of the dirt road

(don't know if it was worth the $1.5o that I got for that stop, but I saved the headache for the next cover driver & for the QA representative to waste their time calling the customer the next day)
 

Mr. 7

The monkey on the left.
If you're house is not clearly marked I have no problem putting a DEX scan on it saying "cannot I.D. #xx Main St."
I don't care if the pkg. gets sent back to the sender or, what happens to it. And, I'm surely not wasting my cell phone minutes calling your dumb :censored2:.
 

HomeDelivery

Well-Known Member
i just want to keep my "purple promise" and hopefully they can read this thread & understand that if you want your packages delivered ASAP, to make these suggestions when ordering stuff online... it will be easier for all of us

sure, 7 is earning more than HD for the same type of job, but you guys have to bust out to make those AIR pickups/deliveries while we just mainly try to empty out our delivery vans & try to "clean plate"
 

Mr. 7

The monkey on the left.
At Express, a mis-delivery is a big deal.
The last time I had one, my mgr. told me that if you had 3 in a 12 month period, you're fired.
So, I don't take any chances. If you can't mark your house, I'm not gonna guess.
 

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
My personal favorites are addresses that are out of sequence, "1/2" addresses where there is an apartment somewhere on the property, and rural stops with very long driveways that don't have any numbers out on the street. You might have to drive up several driveways in order to track the right house down. Oh, and apartment complexes that have the apartment number, but no building letter or number.
 

HomeDelivery

Well-Known Member
as i sit here replying to this thread, i'm doing my own Quality Assurance so I don't have to deal with them in the morning; i had 2 code 03s and a code 02...

quick google map and 411.com and I have now placed them on my map for tomorrow's delivery... all for no pay; i'm gonna grab a manager's scanner and PIP 'em with the correct addresses tomorrow

yay purple promise!
 

Cactus

Just telling it like it is
At Express, a mis-delivery is a big deal.
The last time I had one, my mgr. told me that if you had 3 in a 12 month period, you're fired.
So, I don't take any chances. If you can't mark your house, I'm not gonna guess.

Ask your manager where it states in the policy manual about termination for misdeliveries.
 

Mr. 7

The monkey on the left.
Ask your manager where it states in the policy manual about termination for misdeliveries.

Meh,
That's what he said.
In fact, he said that they "just" let somebody go for that reason.

As I'm sure you're well aware, FDX will change policy in an instant to suit their needs. That's why we need a contract not, "here's the latest thing that we're gonna ding you for".
 

HomeDelivery

Well-Known Member
aargh... had another unlabeled home. brand new. no mailbox. no house # anywhere. I walked around the whole property looking for the construction permit with the address on it, but nada.

cellphone had no signal in that rural area, so I coded it a 03 or a 07. Why do they want it so hard to deliver their parcel???
 

CJinx

Well-Known Member
As a QA clerk, I feel your pain.. I've spoken to many customers over the years that don't have street numbers posted, yet feel the need to complain why they didn't get their package on-time. My favorite is when I call someone, leave a detailed message, and they call back 5 minutes later "duh this number was on my caller id?!".
 

HomeDelivery

Well-Known Member
as a HD driver, i won't get paid for this... but as a temp and if you don't have a house number or street marker, you won't receive your package until the 2nd attempt, when QA confirms of your house description & confirm that your home is not numbered
 

CJinx

Well-Known Member
Are you ISP? From what I'm told, 02s and 03s count against your bonus. My experience so far is that this just encourages people to scan their lookups as 01s and 15s. -_- That, and negotiating 4th attempts is the bane of my existance.
 

HomeDelivery

Well-Known Member
CJ, i'm a driver for a contractor... you are correct about their bonus... but if i'm not going to get paid to become a QA agent while on the road, it's not my fault that I can't do the extra time to track down a few code 02s and 03s... at my hub, we're not allowed to use those codes you mentioned since it's an integrity issue :P

now if i'm going to become a paid hourly temp driver, I may call the hub to speak to a QA agent and help me out... getting paid by the hour like a real EXPRESS or UPS driver will surely get these packages out of my delivery van on the 1st attempt. I emphasize on the "may", since some rural areas, my cellphone signal is nill (i have t-mobile prepaid)
 

CJinx

Well-Known Member
Yes, it is an integrity issue. It's a small station, though... It sometimes falls under the radar. Management tends to look the other way if the station is failing service, unless somebody reports it. Funny you mention calling QA though; in my experience it's only the hourly paid drivers of ISPs that regularly call. :)
 

HomeDelivery

Well-Known Member
haha, eggsactly! because the regular drivers of the routes probably already knew of these troublesome misplots, homes with missing #s and so forth...

as a swing / cover driver, though... it's bound to happen & is one of my pet peeves in this industry.:biting:
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
02's (incorrect delivery address) and 04's (business closed for the day) both count against service. It's a complete crock and a huge reason why a great number of isp's feel they've gotten the shaft and why a lot could around here really couldn't care less anymore. The company insists on using metrics specifically to take money away on a monthly basis. There is no other justification. It is theft plain and simple.
 
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