Tis’ the season for package/parcel deliveries coming to a neighborhood near you. Shipping companies like UPS and Fed Ex are busy with door to door deliveries from morning until night, and drivers are putting in their overtime; but no one had any idea that Amazon was going to be quite this large, and now they have a fleet of their own trucks. This puts many new truck drivers on our roads today, especially during the Christmas Season; so why are there so many bad drivers out there?
If you’ve ever seen the comedy show ‘The King of Queens,’ the male character Doug Heffernan portrayed a UPS delivery man with wanting to be the best driver there was (even taking extra care of his packages), while living the simple life with his wife Carrie. The show had humor and it made the average person think more about the ‘Brown truck’. However, the reality of great delivery drivers today seem far and few, while many are caught on camera throwing packages, or sliding them onto porches. Then there are the problems of broken items, caused either during shipment, or possibly behind the scenes at the warehouse on the ground. I’ve used Fed Ex and the majority of my boxes shipped had multiple broken items, including old china which was packed in paper and layers of bubble wrap. I was in disbelief at the crushed boxes which had gashes in them, though I put FRAGILE in large permanent marker on them. They were the worst, and I vowed to never use them again. I haven’t had any broken items from UPS, and I admit that shipping is pretty easy also.
Problems today are the drivers of every company I’ve seen, including Amazon. With so many people shopping online this Holiday season, there isn’t a day that goes by in which I don’t see delivery trucks in the neighborhood. In fact, I see UPS several times a day, including the large white trucks by Amazon. Occasionally I see Fed Ex, but there are now indiscreet white trucks and even cars delivering packages. Apparently companies like Fed Ex and Amazon hire Independent contractors, which use their own vehicles; this came as a surprise. One person looked as if they rolled out of bed one morning and the vehicle was on its last leg, but what’s worse is how many of these people drive irresponsibly. I’ve seen trucks do a u-banger in the middle of a busy road, or blow through stop signs and lights. These drivers are everywhere today, and they’re putting others in danger. If you watch some of them take a corner fast, you can only imagine the packages tumbling around in the back, hence the broken or damaged parcels. I know that larger courier companies must have cdl drivers, but just because they have a cdl license doesn’t make them a safer driver. Safety is something an individual cares about, and that helps them to be a better driver. Unfortunately, at this time of year…companies are about making quotas, and quotas are given to the drivers; the more they deliver, the more they earn. This gives the driver incentive, but at the same time becoming reckless. Not all drivers of these companies do their jobs recklessly, but there does seem to be more than ever. Courier trucks are identified with numbers, so if you see one driving erratically you should report them, but at the same time if one goes out of their way with nice gestures and great driving, the company should also know that. There are drivers that care, and I realized that when I stumbled upon www.browncafe.com , and these guys take their jobs seriously, while also having a bit of humor. All I know is that it’d be wonderful to know there were more ‘Doug Heffernan’s ’ in the world of Brown Trucks, than not.
Make your week count.
