When you live on top of a mountain.

gman042

Been around the block a few times
This lady that I encountered is nearly not that nice. Had another encounter yesterday. Called(yes, I called) her a good half hour ahead of time. Said she would meet me at a certain location at a certain time. I piddled around to make sure that she would be there and I would not have to wait. Guess what? She was not there. I left and continued on to the next delivery only to pass her about a mile down the road. Instead of turning around to come meet with me she expected me to come back to her. I am sooooo glad I am not covering that route this next week as she says she had a lot of deliveries coming in the next while. I much prefer nice, considerate people instead of self centered old hags. Oops...did I just type that out loud.
 

HomeDelivery

Well-Known Member
It looks like the place that the consignee designated for deliveries is on the street side of the gate. Can the packages be easily seen from the road? If so that would be an unsafe delivery point.

nope, it's an "access road" from the main paved street 1/2 mile in & then BAM! a locked gate... the resident was smart enough to have a "turn around" so i don't have to back all the way out to the paved street

i'm lucky to have all types of routes in my state; sometimes it's all suburbia or city w/ a few rural areas mixed in
 

Brownslave688

You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
It's always better when they appreciate what we go thru to get them the package. Some people are never satisfied!

I love the ones that call in and throw a fit over the phone. We can't come to the center, why couldn't he find my house, I was in the shower if he had just waited ten minutes... Blah blah blah.

Never had one of them yell at me when I actually got to the house.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
It's always better when they appreciate what we go thru to get them the package. Some people are never satisfied!

I love the ones that call in and throw a fit over the phone. We can't come to the center, why couldn't he find my house, I was in the shower if he had just waited ten minutes... Blah blah blah.

Never had one of them yell at me when I actually got to the house.

I really hate the ones who accuse me of leaving a delivery notice without knocking. As if I would really open the gate, grind my way up a 1/2 mile wasboard goat trail of a driveway, and then tiptoe up the steps around the barking dogs in order to stick a note on their door without bothering to knock or ring the bell. Riiiight. I usually dont mind making a 2nd attempt if they ate at least honest about not hearing me or being in the shower etc. but if they are going to flat out LIE about it then I sure as hell wont be willing to make any sort of extra effort on their behalf.
 

Johney

Well-Known Member
I really hate the ones who accuse me of leaving a delivery notice without knocking. As if I would really open the gate, grind my way up a 1/2 mile wasboard goat trail of a driveway, and then tiptoe up the steps around the barking dogs in order to stick a note on their door without bothering to knock or ring the bell. Riiiight. I usually dont mind making a 2nd attempt if they ate at least honest about not hearing me or being in the shower etc. but if they are going to flat out LIE about it then I sure as hell wont be willing to make any sort of extra effort on their behalf.
I too hate those people, how about when you go the first time and there is no car in the driveway/no one answers then you re-attempt later in the day after they complained and there's a car in the driveway.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
I really hate the ones who accuse me of leaving a delivery notice without knocking. As if I would really open the gate, grind my way up a 1/2 mile wasboard goat trail of a driveway, and then tiptoe up the steps around the barking dogs in order to stick a note on their door without bothering to knock or ring the bell. Riiiight. I usually dont mind making a 2nd attempt if they ate at least honest about not hearing me or being in the shower etc. but if they are going to flat out LIE about it then I sure as hell wont be willing to make any sort of extra effort on their behalf.

This is where Telematics is our friend.

I had a customer come to the building to complain that I was speeding through a residential subdivision. My sup pulled up the Telematics and it showed my average speed was 28.6 mph in an area with a 30 mph speed limit. Sup told me not to worry about it.
 

Johney

Well-Known Member
This is where Telematics is our friend.

I had a customer come to the building to complain that I was speeding through a residential subdivision. My sup pulled up the Telematics and it showed my average speed was 28.6 mph in an area with a 30 mph speed limit. Sup told me not to worry about it.
I have also seen this happen in our center.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
I have also seen this happen in our center.

I have also seen where customer complaints regarding speeding have been confirmed by Telematics. We had a complaint about a driver speeding----Telematics showed he was going 56 mph in a 35 mph zone----I don't recall what type of discipline, if any, he received on that one.
 

oldngray

nowhere special
I had a customer calling and complaining about me speeding down a residential street before Telematics. There was no way that old POS 800 could get up to that speed on a short street. It was just her kids were playing in the street and she wanted it to be considered like a playground instead of telling her kids to not play in the street. She also lied and said I was doing 45 in a 15 mph zone when the speed limit there is 25.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
I had a customer calling and complaining about me speeding down a residential street before Telematics. There was no way that old POS 800 could get up to that speed on a short street. It was just her kids were playing in the street and she wanted it to be considered like a playground instead of telling her kids to not play in the street. She also lied and said I was doing 45 in a 15 mph zone when the speed limit there is 25.

This is exactly what happened in my case. Her 3 year old daughter was riding her bike down the middle of the street unsupervised two days in a row. I repeatedly asked my on-car to tell me how fast I was going on that particular part of the subdivision but he was unable to extract that data, only average speed.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
One way I have found to "motivate" customers to fix problems like poor driveways, no turn-around or impossible to find unmarked addresses...is to point out the simple fact that if I am unable to locate their house or make it up their driveway or get turned around on their property, then the ambulance that they might have to call in an emergency will have the same problems. This has been an eye opener for some of my customers and several of them have wound up hanging address signs or making the necessary improvements to their driveways as a result.
 
S

serenity now

Guest
One way I have found to "motivate" customers to fix problems like poor driveways, no turn-around or impossible to find unmarked addresses...is to point out the simple fact that if I am unable to locate their house or make it up their driveway or get turned around on their property, then the ambulance that they might have to call in an emergency will have the same problems. This has been an eye opener for some of my customers and several of them have wound up hanging address signs or making the necessary improvements to their driveways as a result.

the old "worse case scenario scare tactic" / that's a heavy hitter with the over 60 crowd
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
the old "worse case scenario scare tactic" / that's a heavy hitter with the over 60 crowd

I actually had some senior citizens on my route whose driveway was really narrow and unmarked except for some faded numbers on a mailbox. The driveway was circular but it was so narrow and overgrown with brush that anything larer than an economy car could not use it. Impossible for a new driver to find in the dark, and a real ordeal for me to try and get turned around. One evening the husband had what they thought was a heart attack, and when his wife called 911 the ambulance wound up going down the wrong driveway at first due to the confusing/missing house numbers. Once they found the right driveway, they got stuck in the mud trying to turn around and wasted another 5-10 minutes fighting to get out after they already had him loaded into the ambulance. Thankfully, all the man had was a bad case of indigestion and all the fuss turned out to be for nothing...but they wound up hiring a guy with a bulldozer to go in there and clear out all the brush and trees and dump enough fresh gravel to where a semi truck could do a U-turn. They even put up an address sign with big reflective numbers on it to show which driveway was theirs. I wish more people would be proactive and do what they did before it becomes a life-or-death situation.
 
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