AIBU to think school street restrictions and PCNs will cause more chaos?

evri driver here. Just trying to work out what would happen in practice.

If I'm doing 250 parcels in an urban area, then believe me, every second counts. I receive my manifest in the morning with a recommended route. I have the ability to move things around, which I do for anything stupid, but wholesale change really causes problems. You find if you move one bit, then another bit would make sense elsewhere, causing another bit to need doubling back etc etc
And if I did this amount of route tweaking, it'd add half an hour planning unpaid to my day.

The morning restrictions wouldn't affect evri drivers (well rarely) because most of us don't get delivering till about 10ish once we've finished loading. But the afternoon one is slap bang in the middle of proceedings, I'm just not gonna be able to work round that.

So maybe some days I might hit the area by 2 (hypothetically if that's where it fell in the route), but I haven't just got one delivery there, I've got maybe 15? Well I need to be sure I can do the lot, and get out again. So now the time I need to complete is much longer than the time slot.

So I'm gonna park round the corner and walk. Fine if there's space, but if it's getting towards zone time, there probably isn't. And anyway, as I said, could be maybe 15 deliveries, up to 17.5 kg each. I'm gonna need a trolley. Fine, so now I've gone down the road with my trolley and discovered that the first one is a bag of dog food that's been diverted to the back door. What do I do with the other 14 parcels? Leave them on the urban street?

We're talking parcels that I get an average of 50p for. So even before expenses I'm gonna get £7.50. I need to do this lot in half an hour absolute max. Not happening.

In all honesty I'd plan to hit the restriction as often as poss, and then bulk delivery on Saturdays tbh

The only solution I can think of is de-prioritising any faith and sibling criteria on school admissions, as this would prioritise distance and reduce the phenomenon of families moving away from school after the first child has been admitted. Perhaps sibling link could only be considered at appeal?

But that would be considered controversial, to say the least!

I live in one of these zones - this is exactly what they do! These zones are small, it is often just parking round the corner. Our Amazon delivery driver just puts all the deliveries in a large bag and drags it up the street. It’s not that different to deliveries for the addresses on the main road near us. It’s a bus lane, so delivery drivers can’t park on the road. They park on a neighbouring road and walk round.

At which point, they will say sorry there's no guarantee and you may well end up not being able to get what you need.

This approach is just too restrictive, especially when there are many other ways to make roads safer, as have already been discussed on here.

@LittleBearPad - you are lucky then if you have the same drivers and they may well be as open to just 'adapting' as so many suggest if the same restrictions applied in your road.

I so agree. Literally seconds for them to deliver a parcel (hence not able to wait for the door to be opened) and a bathroom break - just forget it!! I was once told they have to deliver 250-300 parcels a day!

Yes I am sure you are correct. Although as a foster carer who has a very busy school run myself as it involves multiple different schools (4 at present) I have in the past asked for deliveries not to be during school run time, and have never once been successful in arranging it!!! LOL

Our Evri and DPD drivers are the same two blokes each time. They will know that certain streets have delivery restrictions.

YANBU - the ease with which some PPs suggest that delivery drivers (one of the lowest paid and unappreciated jobs going) can just walk or "adapt" shows just how removed from reality some people are.

The delivery drivers can walk a short distance or organise their rounds to take into account restrictions. It simply isn’t as hard as you’re making out.

Thank you for your information. Yes, I know you can state a time with certain larger stores (though it often charges for this) but for a general delivery with a smaller company or with a huge one like Amazon I had no idea that I could schedule a time, other than a particular day. Most delivery drivers don't even have the time to knock at the door and wait!! Evri, DPD and Yodel don't seem to have this facility and ask you for a safe place/leave with a neighbour because they cannot state a time. But perhaps I was given wrong information and I will stand corrected.

Some parents will also be collecting children at that time from other schools further away.

Can you explain please?

At which point you tell them about the time restrictions, if you haven’t already

This simplistic attitude really frustrates me. The people who make the roads unsafe in our area are primarily the school parents who park all over the crossings, turn around dangerously and park over pavements.

I don't think it's ok to restrict essential things like deliveries, house repairs are care visits.

I don't own a car myself.

It's two short very windows of time throughout 39 weeks of the year or something.

School dropoffs are much shorter windows of time. Widening the time and area of inconvenience under the pretence of solving a perceived problem (which is greatly amplified by imaginings - an ambulance might not get through, a child might be injured etc) is nutso.

Apart from the usual ignoramuses who think rules don't apply to them it's worked really well where I am. Delivery drivers etc are exempt, though. The key difference is the the roads are far safer for everyone, including children walking home by themselves.

Ludicrous. The vast majority of couriers do not allow you to select a time so unless you only buy things using timed delivery which is expensive and only available for limited purchases, you’re pretty screwed … I’d be up in arms if they tried this. I get why they think it’s a good idea to implement school streets but they can’t limit the people who live on those streets. Some parents will also be collecting children at that time from other schools further away.

Or timed delivery

It's the modern way. Roads maintained at public expense are no longer actually public amenities.

For many furniture delivery companies they will only phone you on the day and say morning or afternoon.

Had a John Lewis delivery this week. I absolutely could schedule it and could also give them relevant information such as need for parking permits. Had it been relevant I could have told them about access restrictions.

Amazon etc can walk a minute or two. Or will learn the restrictions and adapt accordingly

I live about 4 roads away from a “school street “. It absolutely infuriates me because I purposely chose not to live in a road with a school. I live some distance away, in about another (very big) 4 or 5 roads away. And yet now , all that “school street” has done is push all the “school mums” out to existing roads. The people who bought their house in school street, knew full well well that was the deal when they bought it. As far as I was concerned, I was well away from the school….but now!!! With regard to deliveries etc, I’m not sure what you do. I always presumed the “school street “ near me still allowed for residents to receive parcels, deliveries, visitors (with permits?)…..maybe not then. There must be a way round it? Or I guess the deliveries and visitors have to park further away and walk round to you?

Yes! It's so disheartening and concerning when people can't see beyond what is currently the status quo.

Although you can obviously schedule supermarket deliveries at a particular time, I did not realise you can schedule Amazon and other stores for a certain time, or in this case not between certain times. I live in a very rural place and so have numerous deliveries every week but had no idea you could specify a time. Can I ask how you do that please as it would be useful to know.

but if after a while parents respond to the restrictions by adjusting their behaviour and not driving to school - set up walking buses with other parents if they can’t walk every day for example- then the roads around you will be calmer, quieter, school runs create so much traffic, but so many school journeys could be avoided if people adjusted their habits .