I’ve got a team of delivery guys: a delivery driver, a part-time driver and my partner. We get the parcels delivered once a week in 24 hours, with no breaks, even when I’m out working as an ombudsman for my private company. A week later I’ll get the apology: we’re expecting the parcel and it’s late. No one will ever have to accept my apology; it’s not a problem for them, but for me it’s a mess.
I have raised my expectations. I expect a comfortable trip, a pleasant company and a lovely box at the end of it. I believe that we are one of the better delivery companies. A lot of other customers have also complained. We appear to have given our driver a rosy vision of what we expect. And my partner is frustrated about not being able to work our full shifts. At the end of the day, everything we own goes into our vending machine from Box Ventures, which the partners bring into our building. It seems that once again the company has neglected us.
It’s a very ‘slavish’ relationship. Everyone takes orders from the back room, which I’m happy about; I don’t like going into the back room and away from my work space. The driver now makes hundreds of deliveries a week. One guy has a reputation: he appears to be unpredictable.
This situation has occurred once already, with a similar situation: one of the driver’s partners in a local wine shop was suspended as a result of this.
We still have no right to get things sorted out at Box Ventures. We haven’t even been asked to be more involved in anything, and we understand that it’s a difficult business situation, but still there are a lot of customers. There is no indication of any change.
My own company’s business could be at risk, and it’s a very volatile one. There are two prongs to it: the e-commerce industry and package industry. The city of London is a hub for parcel delivery, and I’ve had one customer who left us. I also have other good customers. But it’s a long, slow grind. And it’s more disheartening that it all has to happen every Monday morning at the office.
Other than some overtime and holidays, the only time I’ve had a break has been to help them when our driver was suspended. I cannot even think of the last time that I’ve left them to themselves. At the end of the day, it’s my partner who suffers. The two hours that we spend working that we have total control over are gone. I know it’s all going to get fixed, but it’s a great shame it has to be. I’m just hoping that it’s one of those situations in a business, but you never really know.
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