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Where's my Parcel - also called "Over committed & Under Resourced"
You've placed the order with the Online Retailer, including paying for the shipping costs - you made sure to give your work address as the delivery address because there's no point in the courier delivering the parcel to your house when you are at work - after all, just like most of us courier drivers don't generally work after hours, they too have families to get home too.
The wait seems interminable - with eager anticipation you count the days waiting for your parcel to arrive, and as time goes by you start to wonder, was it 10 to 14 days, or 10 to 14 working days? The difference is basically an entire week before you could get your goods!
Then, the office receptionist gives you a slip, from the local post office. There's a package for you to collect at the counter. It cannot possibly be your parcel that you are expecting, after all you paid for it to be shipped door to door, right into your hands!
Intrigued you go to the post office, hand in the slip & discover it IS the parcel you were waiting for! But how could this be? You paid for it to be delivered right to you, not to the post office who then send a slip informing you to collect it at the post office counter.
This makes no sense?
But it does make sense, perfect sense!
1 driver, 50 to 60 individual deliveries within a day, sometimes more. Not really possible, in fairness to the driver. So, what does he do? It's late, after 17h00, and the driver still has 25 odd parcels to deliver. Except, just like you, everyone has given their daytime work address for delivery. Now the driver is stuck. The offices are closed, he cannot deliver, yet he cannot return back to his place of work with undelivered parcels!
Easy, pop it in the local post office. What we've found is that the drop the parcels into the post box! The postal service then sends you a slip telling you to collect. Except this adds two to 3 days on to the delivery time! Despite the fact that it's not what you paid for.
In essence, what has happened, is that the courier company has given the driver an impossible number of deliveries to do for the day, just like they did the day before, and just like they will do tomorrow. As such the driver has no choice but to leave the parcels at the post office, as there is no possible way he can return again tomorrow. The courier company has over committed themselves and the driver! You, the end user bear the consequences of a delayed delivery time.
The aforementioned is precisely the reason why we at i'Zulu Couriers will never over commit our drivers. Nor will we be guilty of non delivery of parcels or documents entrusted to us. Where we do run out of time, which can happen due to unforeseen circumstances such as traffic snarl-ups, we phone the client and either arrange to deliver after hours, or to deliver the next morning.
That is the guarantee of "The Personal Touch" that we pride ourselves on!