Fed Ex - A Lazy Bunch

[texas42]

My property is in a semi-rural area. My house is about 400 feet from the road.
I have a gate at the road and my driveway is paved with a large turnaround in front of my garage.
I get an email notification from Fed Ex when deliveries are coming, and I open the gate well in advance.
However, A few months ago, FedEx started leaving my deliveries at the road rather than bringing them to the house.
Always before then they brought the deliveries to the house.
Has anyone else had this type of change with FedEx?
UPS brings packages to the house.
thanks

 

[bdhsfz6]

Depends on the driver.

We had the same thing happen last year. It lasted a few months until a new driver got the route. It may have something to do with the FedEx contract delivery system.

 

[CliffordK]

Companies have different policies with gates. I assume your gate is visible from the road. You're saying the gate is open, but perhaps they have run into issues with timers on gates.

I've been having a problem with USPS that they no longer drop off packages. And if I don't see the notice slip in time, they automatically return the item to sender, never actually trying to deliver the package. Once I think that when I went in to get it, they probably had loaded the package back on the truck to drive around the neighborhood, and thus nobody could find it at the post office. Until, of course, they simply returned it to sender.

UPS and Fedex deliver.

I did have troubles once that I tried to reschedule a Fedex delivery once, and they sent me to a verification page with a bunch of personal questions about myself that didn't have an answer. I.E. questions from some electronic data source that didn't actually bother to verify their questions/answers.

 

[Alan W.]

No gate here but Fedex drives up to the house and will leave it on the carport. We are usually his last stop. He was here at 6:30 last night.

 

[5030]

Amazonian is the worst. They even back into my roadside mailbox and smash it and keep going. Drivers are idiots. No issues lately with Fed-Ex or UPS. In fact they both bring dog biscuits for the pup which he always appreciates. Even our RR postman will drive in and deliver packages to the back deck if required.

I think the Amazonian drivers are scared to get out of their always filthy trucks and not to sound racial but most of them are darker then people around here and probably from the city too. Me, I'm not prejudiced at all. I'm an 'equal opportunity' hater.....

 

[RjCorazza]

I would imagine that different FedEx drivers have different opinions on what is an acceptable delivery. I have no real issues with any of the delivery services, including Amazon.
If I were to rank mine, from best to worst:
1) UPS (Very courteous, efficient)
2) Amazon (Always delivers to same location, Very friendly)
3) USPS (Consistent, though not very friendly)
4) FedEx (Consistent, though can't stay on the pavement, drives through the neighborhood way too fast)
5) DHL (Same as above,Uhgg)

 

[Torvy]

Our driver introduced herself early on. Our driveway gets muddy (gravel is a project for this year). She usually brings things to the house, but if muddy or gate is closed will leave by the gate.

I think most delivery options took the quickest option during the holiday season. I understand. Our mail arrived 2 hours later than normal the last 6-8 weeks. Now it is back to normal.

 

[ray66v]

I have a request on file to leave packages in the drop box by the front door, to deter theft, and keep things from blowing away.

USPS- 100% compliance. They put anything that will fit, into the box as requested.
Amazon- 80% compliance. And, even when they don't, they usually at least leave the packages close to the front door.
Fedex regular deliveries- 0% compliance. They don't even go up the steps. If I'm lucky, they put them right on the edge of the front porch, where everyone can plainly see them, and sitting out in the rain. If I'm not lucky, I have to go on a scavenger hunt.
Fedex next day deliveries- 75% compliance. When they don't use the box, the packages are at least up the front door. (These come out of a different facility all together).

 

[Torvy]

Fedex Ground has been run as a separate company since FedEx bought and renamed them. Made Express employees mad because it hurt their reputation. Supposedly, they are shifting them into a unified business. Hope it gets better, not worse. (Sister retired from FedEx, 30+ years)

 

[ponytug]

Fedex Ground has been run as a separate company since FedEx bought and renamed them. Made Express employees mad because it hurt their reputation. Supposedly, they are shifting them into a unified business. Hope it gets better, not worse. (Sister retired from FedEx, 30+ years)

For us, that is the critical difference. For FedEx ground, I try to pick it up at the depot; otherwise we go five rounds of "security" issues, and "failed deliveries", but no door tags.

UPS and FexEx air are great here. USPS is pretty good; we used to have a great driver that brought packages up a long driveway to the door, but he got transferred, and nobody else is willing to come through the gate. The prior mailman would take snow from here to share with the kids down in the flats who might never have seen or touched snow. A good egg.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Oaktree]

I have no real issues with any of the delivery services, including Amazon.
If I were to rank mine, from best to worst:
1) UPS (Very courteous, efficient)
2) Amazon (Always delivers to same location, Very friendly)
3) USPS (Consistent, though not very friendly)
4) FedEx (Consistent, though can't stay on the pavement, drives through the neighborhood way too fast)
5) DHL (Same as above,Uhgg)

Don't really have any issues either. UPS, Fedex and USPS all courteous and efficient. For a while we had 2 USPS carriers that had some sort of route-sharing deal, any mis-deliveries tended to be the same carrier every time. Haven't seen her for a while. We're toward the end of the route for UPS and Fedex, in the winter their deliveries are often after dark. Both park on the road and will leave a package either inside our enclosed porch or on the steps. USPS always on the porch.
Don't think I've ever had anything come by by DHL, Amazon doesn't deliver here.

 

[Chewwy]

Mostly, we don’t have a problem with Fedex, UPS, Amozon, or USPS deliveries.

On a few occasions, both UPS and Amazon have left packages near our gate (our gravel driveway is about 800 feet long with a circle at the end). Our gate is never shut or locked.

The few problems have always been near the Christmas holidays and involved deliveries after sunset. I chalked it up to temp drivers unfamiliar with our property. Thankfully, for Amazon deliveries we get an immediate email, although they did NOT take a picture of the gateside delivery.

Someone unfamliar with our property could well be intimidated since it can be very dark and the driveway has several curves and a steep hill on a curve.

 

[etpm]

We live in a semi-rural area, though our place is zoned rural. Most of the time the drivers are great but sometimes we get duds. Amazon seems to get the most duds. More than once I have gotten messages from Amazon that the item was not delivered because the driveway was blocked or some other BS reason. Our driveway is never blocked. We built it that way. A couple times when I had to sign for something I got messages from Amazon that said I was not home. Both times I watched the drivers go down our road past our place. Because the road is a short dead end road it wasn't long before I saw them go past our place again. I called Amazon on both of these occasions because that is just crap.
Our driveway loops past the house, so drivers, or anybody, can drive up, drop off packages, then keep on driving to meet the incoming driveway and back to the road. No backing up or anything special, just keep to the right like normal. I have had more than one driver tell me how much they appreciate this. I also made the driveway wide enough that a delivery truck can get by a parked car.
My wife has a basket on the front porch with goodies and sodas and water. I had a driver tell me that he, and all the other drivers, really appreciate this. We have a big sign at the basket telling the drivers to help themselves. Maybe this basket helps us get good service. That's not why we do it though. We just want to be neighborly.
Eric

 

[Mtsoxfan]

I wouldn't call any of our drivers lazy.
UPS, whatever they use for GPS location services, new/temp drivers always get it wrong. They go to wrong end of street. But they try, notifications etc. Regular UPS guy is great.
Fed Ex, never an issue, although I prefer the friendliness of UPS
USPS, several drivers, one, asked if inclimate weather, where should he leave packages. I leave breezeway open. Other brings packages to door, but makes poor choices on inclimate days.
We live in a very rural area, dirt roads, both UPS and Fedex drive very fast in all conditions.

 

[dstig1]

As previously said, it's all about the people. We've had good luck here with all 3 (UPS, USPS, Fedex plus Amazon too) but there have been times when we have had issues and it was due to personnel changes/temps. So Far.... fingers crossed

 

[5030]

We live in a very rural area, dirt roads, both UPS and Fedex drive very fast in all conditions.

So do we and on a dirt road with potholes too and yes they do drive fast but then they don't own the trucks anyway. Let the shop work on them. The local refuse hauler thinks this road is the Interstate.

I'm always finding car parts like mufflers and shocks in the ditch, even tools that bounce out that shadetree wrenches fail to remove from under the hoods of their beat to death jalopies. Most of the tools I find are cheapo Chinese stuff however.

 

[Mtsoxfan]

yeah, plenty of potholes here. We are on our 5th mud season...
Luckily, only people who live here are going by. An occasional worker truck, but not much traffic here. Some days I see/hear no cars.

 

[TBob42]

I know that UPS and FEDEX track every second a driver spends at a location. It affects how much time it takes to deliver something and if the loaders have buried what he's looking for, then he has to report that. If he doesn't , he'll have somebody up his old address about it. Out here Fedex uses subcontractors and their own drivers. You can tell by the vans. I bought a $12.00 hose from Cummins in Oregon up by Portland. Fedex sent it on a cross country tour to Indiana, Ohio, Arkansas, Texas and Arizona before it showed up in Reno. The vendor had already sent me a replacement. This was in 2022. That part traveled more miles than I did that year. Generally i don't leave town for anything but Doctors and Costco. We have a Napa so I'm good there. Fedex continues to redirect packages to odd destinations or using strange routes. But I keep an Esky on the porch with water in it and chuck in ice daily, except for now. I don't need to add ice. I wouldn't like to do that job, and I don't blame the drivers. You'll get some manager that arbitrarily decides the drive can't use the drive way for some lame reason. That just makes their job tougher. Usually I meet them at the truck.

 

[WM75Guy]

Our driveway is 700' of milled asphalt. House is plainly visible from the road, with plenty of driveway for a truck to turn around. Fedex and UPS started dropping off packages at the street, especially after dark. We rented a PO box at the local Ship Shop for package deliveries. It is on the way home from my wife's clinic, so she stops by and gets them. If the company says they don't ship to a PO box, we just give the street address and use a suite # instead of the box #. So far it has worked out great, haven't had a package lost or delivery refused because of the location.

 

[paulsharvey]

I have the problem of them coming up the 200 ft drive, when there is a perfectly good gate to leave the package at. Then it's a matter of paying attention enough to get the dogs locked up before they freak out the driver. Wish they all would drop at the gate