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Comment by williamscales | Hacker News Reader

Regarding UPS/FedEx I've found it varies based on where you live. I've had the same experience you describe before with long-time drivers. At my current residence it's the opposite, the drivers seem to switch out all the time. My door is hard to find so I notice when the driver changes.

Surprisingly Amazon has done the best in this situation because they incorporate a distinct step in their delivery protocol: the driver calls me if they can't find my door. I don't understand why FedEx and UPS can't do this.

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As a driver I typically don't have your phone number. The times that it is on the package, I will call you if anything is out of the ordinary. I'll call you and then if that doesn't work I'll leave a voice mail and follow up with a text message in the hopes that you'll get back to me while I'm still in the area/before the re-attempts the next two delivery days. Most times I'll call another driver before I call the customer, because they'll likely have knowledge of the area. In my hub they try to keep the drivers on the same routes or, in the very least, on the same loops (groupings of routes). When you learn an area everything goes much more smoothly. In your case I would consider calling UPS and getting in contact with one of their Operations Management folks. What they can do is add a short note about the location of your door to the scanner, so that a driver who is not familiar with the area is able to find it. If you get ahold of one of the drivers they can also let the Operations workers to add that sort of note.

>I don't understand why FedEx and UPS can't do this.

Amazon can be reasonably certain that the consignee is also the person that ordered the package, and they have that person's phone number. FedEx and UPS do not have this luxury. I've called numbers for alcohol deliveries (Under no circumstances can I release the package to a neighbor or just leave it) and instead of the consignee I was put through to a winery out in California. Thankfully they got in touch with the customer and had them divert the shipment before I had to return to sender the package.

> In your case I would consider calling UPS and getting in contact with one of their Operations Management folks. What they can do is add a short note about the location of your door to the scanner, so that a driver who is not familiar with the area is able to find it. If you get ahold of one of the drivers they can also let the Operations workers to add that sort of note.

I've actually tried this! UPS operations management does apparently have the description of where my door is, because they can read it back to me when I call them, but the drivers don't seem to use it on the ground.

> As a driver I typically don't have your phone number.

This seems crazy to me! UPS and Fedex do have my phone number because I've registered for their delivery management programs. It boggles the mind that this isn't passed on to the driver.

Thanks for the inside baseball, it's fascinating to learn more about this process.

>because they can read it back to me when I call them, but the drivers don't seem to use it on the ground.

I guess the notes they can keep and the notes they put in the scanner are separate. Is the door a really really far walk or something? I can't imagine the drivers are just ignoring the note. I'm guessing that it's just not in the scanner. Really what I'd like to see is the ability for drivers to create/edit notes themselves, instead of having to rely on the operations folks to do it for them. Would be better to have all of the access codes in the scanner instead of a giant text message that we pass around

>Thanks for the inside baseball, it's fascinating to learn more about this process.

You're welcome! I still find it fascinating seeing how it all works. What happens in the hubs is basically a giant bucket sort with lots of conveyor belts and sweat

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