Despair at Poor Deliveries
Complaints rocket against courier firms
DELIVERY drivers who dump parcels in wheelie bins or chuck them over garden fences have sparked a record number of customer complaints.
Watchdogs say overworked and underpaid couriers – often self-employed or stuck on zero hours contracts – are abandoning items at addresses in order to meet “ludicrous” targets.
But angry customers say they have had enough of finding their orders lobbed over gates or left under doormats. Parcels have even been deposited in dustbins – which have then been emptied.
Consumer website Resolver has handled nearly 10,000 complaints about dodgy deliveries in the past year – 177 per cent up on the previous 12 months.
Furious Peter White, 76, complained after he asked parcel giant DPD to leave a £1,500 Omega watch with a neighbour – only to find it tossed over a 6ft gate.
The retired photographer, of Hornchurch, Essex, said: “It landed on concrete. The watch didn’t break but it started running slow after a few days.”
He added: “I then got a note saying the watch had been signed for by White – so someone falsified my signature.”
DPD said it had launched a full investigation into Mr White’s complaint.
The firm delivers 1.6 million parcels a week, employs more than 11,000 people at its 100 UK depots – and made £100million-plus in 2017.
It was criticised this year for fining a self-employed driver £150 after he missed work for a hospital appointment. The man, a diabetic, later died.
The firm now offers drivers sick pay, paid holidays and has abolished its £ 150 fines. fines But Resolver founder James es Walker Walk said: “It’s clear this is a problem prob across the whole industry y that needs to be dealt with.” “We “W have seen massive increases in complaints about deliveries. The really common one is that when n it’s raining a lot of couriers leave e things th in wheelie bins. In fairness s they often leave a note, but t that’s th no good if it’s bin day. Indeed, some so parcels have been binned.” In another Resolver case, a courier firm’s driver left a parcel on top of a car port. It took two weeks before the woman wo spotted it. Mr Walker said: “She had to hit it with a broom while dangling out of a window to retrieve the thing.” He added: “What drives a lot of this are the ludicrous targets that are put on to delivery drivers.
“The whole business works on the same model, which is to get parcels out as quickly as possible.
“Nevertheless, it’s the delivery firm’s responsibility to get those items to us and the same goes for the retailer.”