8 ms·

E-commerce companies have 2 points of contact with the customer - the website and the courier. It makes no sense whatsoever to me why there's this ongoing race

E-commerce companies have 2 points of contact with the customer - the website and the courier. It makes no sense whatsoever to me why there's this ongoing race to the bottom on the courier side of things while companies spend more and more on the website side. I suppose at that point they already have your money, so what if this delivery experience is awful? Yodel are worse than useless, and I can't see this being much better.

suvelx 11y ago
What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free. Everybody has jobs. Everybody finds it annoying to buy something on line. You never know when it's going to turn up. You have to take a day off, and hope your driver is competent at his job. Why can't you just say "I'll be at home on Thursday after 5pm. Call me on #555-333-9999 if you have any issues". Courier delivers the package after 5pm on Thursday. One delivery. No wasted delivery attempts. If an attempt is failed, charge me for it.
- qnk 11y ago
  "Everybody has jobs" Yes, even the delivery guys who have already been working all day and probably don't want to work past 5pm. There are several alternatives to get custom delivery schedules that work for you, like Amazon locker or Doorman.co.
  - tormeh 11y ago
    How about the local post office or your mail box?
    - magic_beans 11y ago
      I don't know about you, but my local post office opens at 10 and closes at 5pm, which are when I'm at work. And my mailbox is a slot in the door. It's not going to accept my packages for me.
      - tormeh 11y ago
        Oh, yeah. We don't actually have any real post offices where I live; post office functions are handled by select grocery stores and are available as long as the grocery stores are open.
- mikeash 11y ago
  Because one guy is delivering a huge number of packages, and the service wants this to happen in the most efficient i.e. cheapest way possible. They do their best to come up with an optimal route for all the packages for the day. UPS famously goes so far as to avoid left turns whenever possible when planning their routes for the day, because it takes up significantly more time. If you're picking a more specific delivery window then you're throwing off that planning and it likely requires the delivery driver to take a less efficient route than they otherwise would. That costs the company, and therefore it costs you.
- organsnyder 11y ago
  To get efficiency, delivery companies have highly optimized routes to deliver as many packages in as little time and distance traveled. UPS even has algorithms to reduce the number of left turns. It's probably cheaper for delivery companies to make multiple delivery attempts than it is for them to allow recipients to specify their own delivery times. Of course, there shouldn't be any logistical impediments preventing the delivery company from notifying you once a more precise delivery window is known.
  - sethhochberg 11y ago
    I actually just recently learned about UPS's "My Choice" program - it does exactly this, you get more precise delivery windows for packages and a certain number of times per year you can request specific delivery windows.
  - bitdivision 11y ago
    DPD in the UK do this now. The morning of your delivery you get a text message giving you the hour your parcel will be delivered, and a link to rearrange delivery or to track the driver's current location. To my mind, their system far outstrips the other couriers.
    - d_theorist 11y ago
      Yeah. I had a delivery from them the other day. I could see a map showing exactly where the driver was at any time. Granted, it didn't auto-update, but whenever I reloaded the page it gave me an updated location, and told me where I was in the queue.
      - petercooper 11y ago
        If you use Chrome DevTools, you can get a curl query that will keep grabbing the latest JSON from the tracking. We rigged it up with a check every minute and had it send us a Slack notification when the delivery was under a mile away :-)
        11y ago
- lorenzhs 11y ago
  I have everything delivered to my office, as long as I can transport it home on my bike (i.e. no washing machines). Works very well for me, but apparently not every workplace encourages this. Here, the delivery guy brings the packages directly to my office ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    Often there's a complete lack of policy around this, especially in buildings requiring swipecards to get in. I don't mind coming down to the lobby to pick up parcels, but it's unknown whether this is actually allowed by $EMPLOYER
- kraftman 11y ago
  Can't you get it delivered to work?
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free. Because picking a delivery slot imposes a constraint which creates a cost for the delivery provider. > Everybody has jobs. Everybody finds it annoying to buy something on line. You never know when it's going to turn up. You have to take a day off, and hope your driver is competent at his job. Most everybody has jobs, but most people I know don't find it annoying to buy stuff online; many people can have packages delivered to work, and many people have no problems with packages delivered to their home when they aren't there. > Why can't you just say "I'll be at home on Thursday after 5pm. Call me on #555-333-9999 if you have any issues". Courier delivers the package after 5pm on Thursday. Because, as you note, everyone has jobs, and if there was no cost to request delivery times, pretty much everyone would request something like "after 5pm". Which would eliminate the freedom of delivery companies to efficiently use delivery vehicles. Which would drive up their costs. Asking for something which imposes an additional constraint on the service provider which has a cost to fulfill either costs everyone extra to subsidize you, or must cost you extra.
  - dingaling 11y ago
    > Which would eliminate the freedom of delivery companies to efficiently use delivery vehicles. At present ( in the UK ) most courier delivery fleets stand idle in the evening after being out during the day missing deliveries to people who are in work. And having to call again the next day. It perplexes me why they don't shift their delivery period six hours later to start at 15:00 and end at 21:00. That would cover both business and residential hours.
    - DanBC 11y ago
      That would coincide with rush hour? Apart from that it's a good idea.
    - noxToken 11y ago
      I wonder how this would work in more rural places in the US. Before I graduated high school, I lived in rural-ish area where the nearest commercial couriers were 50+ minutes from my house to the north and about 90+ minutes to the south. Wal-Mart was literally my only choice for consumer goods, so I spent a good chunk of change online. I always had the same driver for a certain courier. I asked him how often he had to come down that far, and if it was significantly out of the way compared to the rest of his route. He told me that there were occasionally other stops in my town, but it wasn't the norm. The city and the immediate suburbs were the vast majority of their deliveries. Driving 100 minutes round trip for a couple deliveries probably sucked.
- dspillett 11y ago
  > What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free. As well as the logistical issue others have mentioned: if they did/do offer such an option, you value the option so they'll expect you to pay for it (unless it becomes part of a race to the bottom with other distributors in which case eventually someone will offer that for free). > after 5pm That would definitely be chargeable. If evening deliveries were offered for free the majority of their customers would pick that. > Call me on #555-333-9999 if you have any issues Not going to happen: the delivery people work to pretty tight schedules in order to be as efficient as possible (and therefore cheap in terms of both man time and fuel). Taking time out to try get through to someone won't happen. You could be on another call, your phone might not be contactable for some other reason, and so forth. In circumstances where you are not ready and waiting to collect you are not unlikely to be in a position to not be able to immediately answer the phone.
- Someone1234 11y ago
  I think we would all love to see this. Amazon do have their lockers. The problem with Amazon Lockers is that they're expensive. Even with prime it still costs extra on top (similar to one day shipping) to have it delivered to a locker. I've noticed Amazon require a signature a lot LESS often now which does reduce this problem (since it can be left), and I guess Amazon are picking up the cost of the 1-5% of stolen packages. PS - I've only had a single package in the last two years simply disappear (after it transitioned from a carrier to the USPO, it was a packet of underwear).
  - ghaff 11y ago
    I assume you meant a signature. Or a combination of Amazon and the logistics companies. Mind you it's very safe to drop things at my house. (Rural home with a long driveway.) But I've noticed a trend toward a signature requirement becoming very rare whether it's Amazon or others.
  - sib 11y ago
    Is this geography-specific? "Even with prime it still costs extra on top (similar to one day shipping) to have it delivered to a locker." I've never been charged extra for Locker delivery.
- adventured 11y ago
  You will be able to do this once Amazon Flex is built out (or Uber Delivery et al). Delivery drivers will make more money for delivering after normal ~9-5pm type hours.
- brador 11y ago
  Because an average courier drops 180 parcels a day. Now add customer preferences and you have a mess that can't be satisfied because everyone wants their parcel 5-7pm.
  - rexf 11y ago
    > everyone wants their parcel 5-7pm If everyone wants later delivery, maybe that is something to look into (to meet/satisfy customer demand). Instead of the alternative of packages not getting delivered in the daytime and trying again the next day.
  - robotresearcher 11y ago
    Now add the elastic capacity of a large number of casual part-timer workers who finished school/starbucks/whatever at 4pm and are happy to make a little cash working 5-7pm.
- patrickyan 11y ago
  You can use a service like Doorman in SF or Parcel in NYC. UPS also has MyChoice.
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    Hahahaha. I tried to use MyChoice while on holiday in Canada. I was in an AirBNB, so wasn't listed on the building directory. This resulted in [1], repeating until I sat at home and waited for the UPS guy to arrive. [1]: https://i.imgur.com/r6yB77e.png https://i.imgur.com/r6yB77e.png
- xixixao 11y ago
  Yes yes yes. I don't want this for stuff I can transport myself, hack I can just go to a normal shop for that stuff, but when I need a piece of furniture or an appliance, I don't want to have to take a holiday to get it delivered. (and Yodel indeed sucks)
- deet 11y ago
  This is for Amazon Prime Now deliveries, which let you choose a delivery slot. You choose a two-hour delivery slot between 6am and midnight for free, or you can choose a 1 hour delivery slot, including within one hour from now, for a fee (at least those are the ranges in NYC).
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  In Poland, one company set up automated package drop points ("paczkomat", portmanteau of "paczka" - package, and "automat" - automaton, machine) in pretty much every big and small city. Couriers deliver packages to them both in the morning and in the evening, and you can pick them up 24/7 with no human interaction required (you get a one-time password via e-mail and text). This is godsend for people who work standard hours. I buy on-line quite often, and whenever (90% of cases) there's an option, I pick up a paczkomat on my route home (big cities have a lot of them; mine has something around 50). If a particular shop doesn't offer this type of delivery, I order it to work. Sadly, post office is no longer an option for me - they work standard hours, and only during Monday - Friday, which makes it hard to pick up anything there. In other words, I have to come late every time something big from Aliexpress comes. EDIT: > What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free. s/free/a fee/, and I think it could work. For large enough values of "a fee".
  - cag_ii 11y ago
    Interestingly, Amazon also runs the "Amazon Locker"[0] service in the US, which sounds much like the "paczkomat" you describe. 0. http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_366591722_2?encoding=UTF8&node=6442600011
    - TeMPOraL 11y ago
      Yup, that's it! See: http://dailyweb.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Paczkomat-InPost.jpg http://dailyweb.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Paczkomat-InPo...
    - Robadob 11y ago
      Yeah, we have quite a few of those in small shops around the UK (in my city atleast). Slightly offtopic rant Amazon offered my universities students union the chance to install some inside the union (e.g. to help students who are at lectures during the day/don't trust flatmates etc), however the union council (who are elected to serve the students interest) voted with a majority against the idea because of how little corporate tax Amazon pays. Ironically, the students union website is hosted on AWS, but they're able to overlook that.
- Nilef 11y ago
  This is the world we envisage with gophr.it - Unfortunately, we're only inside London at the minute.
- cbhl 11y ago
  If you live in SF, Seattle, or New York you can probably find a 'package locker' service like Amazon Locker or BufferBox to solve that problem for you. It's a bit pricy though -- you may as well just live in a luxury apartment and have the doorman/reception drop the package off inside your apartment for you.
- grayclhn 11y ago
  I'm kind of amazed at the negative reactions this comment got. I'd bet the reason is, "the companies think it would cost more," but god yes it would be more convenient.
dorfsmay 11y ago
Unless we can rate the delivery person, AND somehow verify that the person ringing at the door is indeed the person making the delivery, say by checking through an apps on your phone that they should be at your door now, and a pic of their face. Worked for Uber...
carsonreinke 11y ago
A lot goes into the infrastructure of the carriers, I think most companies cannot afford this.
TeMPOraL 11y ago
I don't think anybody really associates couriers with sellers - they're part of the infrastructure. It doesn't really count as "contact with the customer" (unless you see it as a business opportunity - making the experience special - which for some reason no one takes). E-commerce businesses do however have strong incentives to ditch the completely unreliable delivery companies, because they cause a lot of mess on the business end (besides angry customers, you waste a lot of time finding the package and scolding the delivery people). As a result, most delivery options suck equally.
speby 11y ago
This is a massive lack of imagination. I highly doubt the only motivation from Amazon's perspective is strictly about cost-cutting. On its surface, yes, it would be easy to assume this could result in some odd or lesser version of having a major courier deliver your package. On the other hand, by having Amazon control the to-the-door experience, that gives them incredible granular controls over how things are done, when, by whom, and how they do it, including how they are supposed to treat you at the door (if you're there), what to say, etc. etc. As well as any additional things that could come in the future. For example, what about a 5-minute tutorial for a new product you just ordered? These are just the tip of the iceberg that Amazon could do with this.
- gherkin0 11y ago
  > This is a massive lack of imagination. I highly doubt the only motivation from Amazon's perspective is strictly about cost-cutting. > For example, what about a 5-minute tutorial for a new product you just ordered? I highly doubt people who are essentially doing low-wage contract piecework will have the motivation or ability to give me an effective 5 minute tutorial on the random gizmo I just researched and ordered. When would they learn that stuff, on the drive to my house? Also, wasn't there a big story a few years ago about how Amazons treats many of their low-skill workers as easily replaceable automatons (many of which are now being replaced by literal automatons)? I can't see this as being much different.
  - speby 11y ago
    While I certainly can't prove your comments any other way, my point isn't to declare that I somehow know what Amazon is going to do with this, rather that there are a lot of interesting possibilities when you control the whole process, including the final delivery step of getting a product to the actual customer. There are things you just can't do when you are contracting that through a normal courier (UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc etc.).
    - Kalium 11y ago
      There is a lot of potential value in white-glove services, yes. It's also something most people aren't all that interested in paying a reasonable amount for. Think for a minute about the cost of sending someone trained out for a five-minute introductory session when a given gizmo is delivered. Think about the training required. Think about all the additional delivery complications this introduces. And so on. There's value here, but it's not easy to realize. Places like Best Buy offer it through Geek Squad, but only in conjunction with a B&M service.
gherkin0 11y ago
Plus, the established couriers have several useful services that Amazon can't practically replicate. For instance, with UPS/FedEx/USPS I can easily divert all my packages to a nearby pickup point regularly or on short notice, even in a flyover suburb. Amazon will never be able to replicate that[1]. If they ever offer Amazon Flex in my area, I hope there will be a way to opt out. [1] I'm aware of Amazon Locker, but I don't live in Seattle, the Bay Area, or Manhattan; and dealing with yet another pickup point for a specific merchant just seems like an annoying hassle.
- Domenic_S 11y ago
  On the page it says: > What kind of things will I deliver? You’ll deliver ultra-fast Amazon Prime Now packages. If you're ordering something for ultra-fast same-day delivery, surely you know precisely where you want it delivered to at the time of ordering?
sdm 11y ago
But really, how often does the customer actually see the courier? If I have stuff delivered to the office, the receptionist signs for it and drops it off to me. If I have stuff delivered at home, my building's concierge signs for it and I pick it up when I get home. I can't remember the last time I gave any thought to the courier. I see this becoming more like China -- which has a truly impressive courier system. There there is no branding or uniforms for the most part. Just guys on scooters who ring up and drop off your package. It works great.

suvelx 11y ago

What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free. Everybody has jobs. Everybody finds it annoying to buy something on line. You never know when it's going to turn up. You have to take a day off, and hope your driver is competent at his job. Why can't you just say "I'll be at home on Thursday after 5pm. Call me on #555-333-9999 if you have any issues". Courier delivers the package after 5pm on Thursday. One delivery. No wasted delivery attempts. If an attempt is failed, charge me for it.

qnk 11y ago
"Everybody has jobs" Yes, even the delivery guys who have already been working all day and probably don't want to work past 5pm. There are several alternatives to get custom delivery schedules that work for you, like Amazon locker or Doorman.co.
- tormeh 11y ago
  How about the local post office or your mail box?
  - magic_beans 11y ago
    I don't know about you, but my local post office opens at 10 and closes at 5pm, which are when I'm at work. And my mailbox is a slot in the door. It's not going to accept my packages for me.
    - tormeh 11y ago
      Oh, yeah. We don't actually have any real post offices where I live; post office functions are handled by select grocery stores and are available as long as the grocery stores are open.
mikeash 11y ago
Because one guy is delivering a huge number of packages, and the service wants this to happen in the most efficient i.e. cheapest way possible. They do their best to come up with an optimal route for all the packages for the day. UPS famously goes so far as to avoid left turns whenever possible when planning their routes for the day, because it takes up significantly more time. If you're picking a more specific delivery window then you're throwing off that planning and it likely requires the delivery driver to take a less efficient route than they otherwise would. That costs the company, and therefore it costs you.
organsnyder 11y ago
To get efficiency, delivery companies have highly optimized routes to deliver as many packages in as little time and distance traveled. UPS even has algorithms to reduce the number of left turns. It's probably cheaper for delivery companies to make multiple delivery attempts than it is for them to allow recipients to specify their own delivery times. Of course, there shouldn't be any logistical impediments preventing the delivery company from notifying you once a more precise delivery window is known.
- sethhochberg 11y ago
  I actually just recently learned about UPS's "My Choice" program - it does exactly this, you get more precise delivery windows for packages and a certain number of times per year you can request specific delivery windows.
- bitdivision 11y ago
  DPD in the UK do this now. The morning of your delivery you get a text message giving you the hour your parcel will be delivered, and a link to rearrange delivery or to track the driver's current location. To my mind, their system far outstrips the other couriers.
  - d_theorist 11y ago
    Yeah. I had a delivery from them the other day. I could see a map showing exactly where the driver was at any time. Granted, it didn't auto-update, but whenever I reloaded the page it gave me an updated location, and told me where I was in the queue.
    - petercooper 11y ago
      If you use Chrome DevTools, you can get a curl query that will keep grabbing the latest JSON from the tracking. We rigged it up with a check every minute and had it send us a Slack notification when the delivery was under a mile away :-)
      - 11y ago
lorenzhs 11y ago
I have everything delivered to my office, as long as I can transport it home on my bike (i.e. no washing machines). Works very well for me, but apparently not every workplace encourages this. Here, the delivery guy brings the packages directly to my office ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  Often there's a complete lack of policy around this, especially in buildings requiring swipecards to get in. I don't mind coming down to the lobby to pick up parcels, but it's unknown whether this is actually allowed by $EMPLOYER
kraftman 11y ago
Can't you get it delivered to work?
dragonwriter 11y ago
> What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free. Because picking a delivery slot imposes a constraint which creates a cost for the delivery provider. > Everybody has jobs. Everybody finds it annoying to buy something on line. You never know when it's going to turn up. You have to take a day off, and hope your driver is competent at his job. Most everybody has jobs, but most people I know don't find it annoying to buy stuff online; many people can have packages delivered to work, and many people have no problems with packages delivered to their home when they aren't there. > Why can't you just say "I'll be at home on Thursday after 5pm. Call me on #555-333-9999 if you have any issues". Courier delivers the package after 5pm on Thursday. Because, as you note, everyone has jobs, and if there was no cost to request delivery times, pretty much everyone would request something like "after 5pm". Which would eliminate the freedom of delivery companies to efficiently use delivery vehicles. Which would drive up their costs. Asking for something which imposes an additional constraint on the service provider which has a cost to fulfill either costs everyone extra to subsidize you, or must cost you extra.
- dingaling 11y ago
  > Which would eliminate the freedom of delivery companies to efficiently use delivery vehicles. At present ( in the UK ) most courier delivery fleets stand idle in the evening after being out during the day missing deliveries to people who are in work. And having to call again the next day. It perplexes me why they don't shift their delivery period six hours later to start at 15:00 and end at 21:00. That would cover both business and residential hours.
  - DanBC 11y ago
    That would coincide with rush hour? Apart from that it's a good idea.
  - noxToken 11y ago
    I wonder how this would work in more rural places in the US. Before I graduated high school, I lived in rural-ish area where the nearest commercial couriers were 50+ minutes from my house to the north and about 90+ minutes to the south. Wal-Mart was literally my only choice for consumer goods, so I spent a good chunk of change online. I always had the same driver for a certain courier. I asked him how often he had to come down that far, and if it was significantly out of the way compared to the rest of his route. He told me that there were occasionally other stops in my town, but it wasn't the norm. The city and the immediate suburbs were the vast majority of their deliveries. Driving 100 minutes round trip for a couple deliveries probably sucked.
dspillett 11y ago
> What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free. As well as the logistical issue others have mentioned: if they did/do offer such an option, you value the option so they'll expect you to pay for it (unless it becomes part of a race to the bottom with other distributors in which case eventually someone will offer that for free). > after 5pm That would definitely be chargeable. If evening deliveries were offered for free the majority of their customers would pick that. > Call me on #555-333-9999 if you have any issues Not going to happen: the delivery people work to pretty tight schedules in order to be as efficient as possible (and therefore cheap in terms of both man time and fuel). Taking time out to try get through to someone won't happen. You could be on another call, your phone might not be contactable for some other reason, and so forth. In circumstances where you are not ready and waiting to collect you are not unlikely to be in a position to not be able to immediately answer the phone.
Someone1234 11y ago
I think we would all love to see this. Amazon do have their lockers. The problem with Amazon Lockers is that they're expensive. Even with prime it still costs extra on top (similar to one day shipping) to have it delivered to a locker. I've noticed Amazon require a signature a lot LESS often now which does reduce this problem (since it can be left), and I guess Amazon are picking up the cost of the 1-5% of stolen packages. PS - I've only had a single package in the last two years simply disappear (after it transitioned from a carrier to the USPO, it was a packet of underwear).
- ghaff 11y ago
  I assume you meant a signature. Or a combination of Amazon and the logistics companies. Mind you it's very safe to drop things at my house. (Rural home with a long driveway.) But I've noticed a trend toward a signature requirement becoming very rare whether it's Amazon or others.
- sib 11y ago
  Is this geography-specific? "Even with prime it still costs extra on top (similar to one day shipping) to have it delivered to a locker." I've never been charged extra for Locker delivery.
adventured 11y ago
You will be able to do this once Amazon Flex is built out (or Uber Delivery et al). Delivery drivers will make more money for delivering after normal ~9-5pm type hours.
brador 11y ago
Because an average courier drops 180 parcels a day. Now add customer preferences and you have a mess that can't be satisfied because everyone wants their parcel 5-7pm.
- rexf 11y ago
  > everyone wants their parcel 5-7pm If everyone wants later delivery, maybe that is something to look into (to meet/satisfy customer demand). Instead of the alternative of packages not getting delivered in the daytime and trying again the next day.
- robotresearcher 11y ago
  Now add the elastic capacity of a large number of casual part-timer workers who finished school/starbucks/whatever at 4pm and are happy to make a little cash working 5-7pm.
patrickyan 11y ago
You can use a service like Doorman in SF or Parcel in NYC. UPS also has MyChoice.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  Hahahaha. I tried to use MyChoice while on holiday in Canada. I was in an AirBNB, so wasn't listed on the building directory. This resulted in [1], repeating until I sat at home and waited for the UPS guy to arrive. [1]: https://i.imgur.com/r6yB77e.png https://i.imgur.com/r6yB77e.png
xixixao 11y ago
Yes yes yes. I don't want this for stuff I can transport myself, hack I can just go to a normal shop for that stuff, but when I need a piece of furniture or an appliance, I don't want to have to take a holiday to get it delivered. (and Yodel indeed sucks)
deet 11y ago
This is for Amazon Prime Now deliveries, which let you choose a delivery slot. You choose a two-hour delivery slot between 6am and midnight for free, or you can choose a 1 hour delivery slot, including within one hour from now, for a fee (at least those are the ranges in NYC).
TeMPOraL 11y ago
In Poland, one company set up automated package drop points ("paczkomat", portmanteau of "paczka" - package, and "automat" - automaton, machine) in pretty much every big and small city. Couriers deliver packages to them both in the morning and in the evening, and you can pick them up 24/7 with no human interaction required (you get a one-time password via e-mail and text). This is godsend for people who work standard hours. I buy on-line quite often, and whenever (90% of cases) there's an option, I pick up a paczkomat on my route home (big cities have a lot of them; mine has something around 50). If a particular shop doesn't offer this type of delivery, I order it to work. Sadly, post office is no longer an option for me - they work standard hours, and only during Monday - Friday, which makes it hard to pick up anything there. In other words, I have to come late every time something big from Aliexpress comes. EDIT: > What I don't understand, is why I can't pick my delivery slot for free. s/free/a fee/, and I think it could work. For large enough values of "a fee".
- cag_ii 11y ago
  Interestingly, Amazon also runs the "Amazon Locker"[0] service in the US, which sounds much like the "paczkomat" you describe. 0. http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_366591722_2?encoding=UTF8&node=6442600011
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Yup, that's it! See: http://dailyweb.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Paczkomat-InPost.jpg http://dailyweb.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Paczkomat-InPo...
  - Robadob 11y ago
    Yeah, we have quite a few of those in small shops around the UK (in my city atleast). Slightly offtopic rant Amazon offered my universities students union the chance to install some inside the union (e.g. to help students who are at lectures during the day/don't trust flatmates etc), however the union council (who are elected to serve the students interest) voted with a majority against the idea because of how little corporate tax Amazon pays. Ironically, the students union website is hosted on AWS, but they're able to overlook that.
Nilef 11y ago
This is the world we envisage with gophr.it - Unfortunately, we're only inside London at the minute.
cbhl 11y ago
If you live in SF, Seattle, or New York you can probably find a 'package locker' service like Amazon Locker or BufferBox to solve that problem for you. It's a bit pricy though -- you may as well just live in a luxury apartment and have the doorman/reception drop the package off inside your apartment for you.
grayclhn 11y ago
I'm kind of amazed at the negative reactions this comment got. I'd bet the reason is, "the companies think it would cost more," but god yes it would be more convenient.

dorfsmay 11y ago

Unless we can rate the delivery person, AND somehow verify that the person ringing at the door is indeed the person making the delivery, say by checking through an apps on your phone that they should be at your door now, and a pic of their face. Worked for Uber...

carsonreinke 11y ago

A lot goes into the infrastructure of the carriers, I think most companies cannot afford this.

TeMPOraL 11y ago

I don't think anybody really associates couriers with sellers - they're part of the infrastructure. It doesn't really count as "contact with the customer" (unless you see it as a business opportunity - making the experience special - which for some reason no one takes). E-commerce businesses do however have strong incentives to ditch the completely unreliable delivery companies, because they cause a lot of mess on the business end (besides angry customers, you waste a lot of time finding the package and scolding the delivery people). As a result, most delivery options suck equally.

speby 11y ago

This is a massive lack of imagination. I highly doubt the only motivation from Amazon's perspective is strictly about cost-cutting. On its surface, yes, it would be easy to assume this could result in some odd or lesser version of having a major courier deliver your package. On the other hand, by having Amazon control the to-the-door experience, that gives them incredible granular controls over how things are done, when, by whom, and how they do it, including how they are supposed to treat you at the door (if you're there), what to say, etc. etc. As well as any additional things that could come in the future. For example, what about a 5-minute tutorial for a new product you just ordered? These are just the tip of the iceberg that Amazon could do with this.

gherkin0 11y ago
> This is a massive lack of imagination. I highly doubt the only motivation from Amazon's perspective is strictly about cost-cutting. > For example, what about a 5-minute tutorial for a new product you just ordered? I highly doubt people who are essentially doing low-wage contract piecework will have the motivation or ability to give me an effective 5 minute tutorial on the random gizmo I just researched and ordered. When would they learn that stuff, on the drive to my house? Also, wasn't there a big story a few years ago about how Amazons treats many of their low-skill workers as easily replaceable automatons (many of which are now being replaced by literal automatons)? I can't see this as being much different.
- speby 11y ago
  While I certainly can't prove your comments any other way, my point isn't to declare that I somehow know what Amazon is going to do with this, rather that there are a lot of interesting possibilities when you control the whole process, including the final delivery step of getting a product to the actual customer. There are things you just can't do when you are contracting that through a normal courier (UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc etc.).
  - Kalium 11y ago
    There is a lot of potential value in white-glove services, yes. It's also something most people aren't all that interested in paying a reasonable amount for. Think for a minute about the cost of sending someone trained out for a five-minute introductory session when a given gizmo is delivered. Think about the training required. Think about all the additional delivery complications this introduces. And so on. There's value here, but it's not easy to realize. Places like Best Buy offer it through Geek Squad, but only in conjunction with a B&M service.

gherkin0 11y ago

Plus, the established couriers have several useful services that Amazon can't practically replicate. For instance, with UPS/FedEx/USPS I can easily divert all my packages to a nearby pickup point regularly or on short notice, even in a flyover suburb. Amazon will never be able to replicate that[1]. If they ever offer Amazon Flex in my area, I hope there will be a way to opt out. [1] I'm aware of Amazon Locker, but I don't live in Seattle, the Bay Area, or Manhattan; and dealing with yet another pickup point for a specific merchant just seems like an annoying hassle.

Domenic_S 11y ago
On the page it says: > What kind of things will I deliver? You’ll deliver ultra-fast Amazon Prime Now packages. If you're ordering something for ultra-fast same-day delivery, surely you know precisely where you want it delivered to at the time of ordering?

sdm 11y ago

But really, how often does the customer actually see the courier? If I have stuff delivered to the office, the receptionist signs for it and drops it off to me. If I have stuff delivered at home, my building's concierge signs for it and I pick it up when I get home. I can't remember the last time I gave any thought to the courier. I see this becoming more like China -- which has a truly impressive courier system. There there is no branding or uniforms for the most part. Just guys on scooters who ring up and drop off your package. It works great.