To think that only urgent parcel delivers should be made right now?

[Loooobyloo]

I've started delivering parcels for a well known parcel company. There is often six of us helping sort the parcels in a small depot, we then load into our own cars and deliver.

This morning one of the courier stang in sick saying he had symptoms of coronavirus. Most of us have been around this guy, he's handed hundreds of parcels to customers.
It just made me think, shouldn't only urgent deliveries be happening right now? It seems a bit mad to be putting ourselves and all our customers at risk for the sake of a new toy or item of clothing you won't be wearing for a while.

It's hard. We had a parcel yesterday which was a pair of trainers for my toddler in the next size up. He will need those in the coming weeks. I've lost interest in clothes etc but I would like to order a portable hard drive to back up all our baby photos. I feel bad for making a driver come to deliver something so definitely frivolous though!

if off licences are open as esssential shops I think ordering on line keeps people out of shops

I have a permanent online buisness selling antiques and vintage stuff,
if I go to post office with 5 parcels all at once that is better for soical distancing than 5 people heading to the shops, while what I sell is not essential and if I had a physical shop I would not be open I have had a few orders this week especially asking for them to be sent to different addresses to billing address as birthday peresents they won't be able to deliver in person long term getting a gift or card or grandchild's artwork through the post can make a vulnerable person's 12 weeks of shielding more bearable and hence more likely to stick to rules

@RealityCheck24601 - same as you. My daughter turns 4 next week. She knows it's her birthday, and I can't get the bits I'd normally get from the shops, as they're all closed. I've ordered presents/balloons etc online, and will try to make a cake. Trying to keep everything as normal as possible for her at this horrid time.

IDK, what's urgent? I've ordered clothes this week which should have arrived today- simply because I lost a lot of weight over autumn and winter and just don't have anything to wear now warmer weather has com. Clothes seems like a non essential, frivolous order but right now for me it really isn't.

From the side of a business owner. We have closed our physical shop but are still operating online sales. Deliveries are left outside and we put parcels to be shipped outside.

I have been giving all of our couriers a box of disposable gloves every week to use. I leave them outside with the parcels they collect from me.

Many couriers are self employed and wish to carry on working.

All of my staff are at home, on full pay. I am the only person physically at our premises.

Some of our products are essential but most are not.

The majority of our products are manufactured within a 20 mile radius of our premises and are generally small companies.

In continuing to operate, I do not need to take any money from the government's pot. All bills are being paid, we are helping to keep our manufacturers going.

My employees will have a job at the end of all this. They are still I. The same financial position they were in before the shutdown and don't have to worry about coming into work.

Most of this is not essential but I am trying to help in my small way.

I am currently not paying myself, as my DH's salary can support us. He is able to work from home and care for our DD.

I am still in the position to be able to give my employees their annual pay rise next month.

Whether I'll still be standing at the end of all this is another matter though

I largely agree with you OP. I was going to order some decking cleaner & paint, as we now have lots of time to do jobs like this. Then I saw some tweets by employees working in the DIY sector who were upset that they are still expected to work, picking orders for online delivery, etc. It's not just posties, but these people working in distribution centres, etc as well. For me this was a reason not to place an order anyway. The decking can wait a few months.

It just seems a form of cognitive dissonance? MN is up in arms if someone asks if they can take their dog for a 2nd walk today, but has no issue with delivery drivers traveling all over the place to deliver an ASOS parcel, 3/4 of which will probably be returned anyway.

Lots of people have been infected already, and indeed many more will be infected until we reach a point where there is sufficient immunity within the population to slow its spread.

A small proportion will become very ill, most won't. Most of the vulnerable can be identified via risk factors: age, underlying health issues, obesity etc. The majority of healthy people will feel ill for a couple of weeks - perhaps not at all, and then recover.

The point is not to prevent healthy people becoming ill, but to slow the spread. If too many people become ill at once, our, or indeed any, health system, won't be able to cope. Cutting down on deliveries will increase risks that people will go to retail shops (higher risk) or start borrowing from neighbours etc. And make a tough situation even worse.

If you don't like it, don't do the job, and don't order on line.

@Boobahs my partner works for RM too and I agree entirely with what you've said, they are a disgusting company to work for. My partner's office got told at the start of this that they would be given gloves and anti bac gel and the next day ot was literally 'Nah, we arent doing that now'. They had so many off sick that there were spare vans but they were told they still had to share (although I believe this has changed in the past couple of days) and he said their office is so small they literally touch shoulders with each other but they wont stagger start times or anything to help. But then we aren't surprised, this is the company who disciplined someone for using up more than their allotted sick pay when they had cancer!
But I do agree, things need to keep going so there is something for us all to come back to when this is all over

I have not had any deliveries at all this week - letters or parcels. I bought something from QVC last week dispatched on Sunday - it has not arrived.
Your employer should decontaminate parcels and give you gloves, anti- bac. wipes, masks and anti- bac. hand gel.

@uksky So you are doing more for your employees than a multi-million pound company is, you're a star!!

@frazzledmum123 You only have to read replies to RM and CWU posts to see that these empty promises and pledges to the public are a load of crap. If they can't keep their staff as safe as possible (I understand that nowhere can guarantee absolute immunity but they're not even trying), then they shouldn't be at work. Yet they've all been told to "like it or lump it" and won't be paid if they stay off. But yes, this is the same company who phoned my partner the day after his mother died of cancer to ask if he would be back in

You should all be given plenty of hand sanitiser, antibacterial wipes for your car and disposable gloves strong enough to withstand lifting and sorting.

I think most people do only have essential deliveries - supplies they've ordered from various places. I do, had a few today and none are frivolous. Hermes are still working and other couriers as well as Royal Mail.

Maybe your colleague hasn't got the virus, he may be unwell from something else and be back with you in a day or two, you never know.

You're doing a great job btw, much appreciated.

I’ve been kicking all packages into the garage where I leave them for 3 days - then i open them in garage, chuck away packaging and wash my hands..

Might be overzealous but I don’t want to risk it. However, my huge Tesco delivery came earlier and it would’ve taken hours to wipe down every single thing. It’s so hard to know whether your being sensible or careless...

And if you mean essential, what is essential?

Exactly. We've ordered a new office chair for the computer desk. Because DH is going to be working at home for the foreseeable and can't sit on the floor.

Why are delivery drivers handing stuff to householders? Mine rings the doorbell and shoots down the drive and waits to make sure I’m opening the door. He’s in the van and driving off before I’ve picked it up!

Deciding whether or not certain deliveries are allowed is tinkering around the edges.

If the lockdown regime is too oppressive, people are more likely to rebel.

Many people on MN are baying for restrictions, simply because they enjoy doing so. Things are bad enough already. Indeed, why is the frothing MN mob desperate for more restrictions?!?!?!?!

All those who are volunteering to help the NHS; should we suddenly stop them doing so, because they might put themselves and others at risk?

It's a balancing act between safety, and keeping some parts of the (already decimated) economy going. Nobody wants to be paying vastly inflated taxes in the not-too-distant future. (And don't bother with the "if you're dead, you can't pay taxes".)

By the same reasoning, perhaps we should all never drive cars again, because we might crash them.

I think means of distracting young children and adults at home might be very much essential as people need to stay at home a lot more than normal.

Chocolate and other treat food is pretty essential for morale as well!

i am really glad of deliveries at the moment, though obviously only ordering things that are really necessary as self-isolating. Today DP announced he thinks he has covid-19 and we need to sleep separately, as I am more at risk. So I have been trying to find a single duvet online and have ordered one for tomorrow. Will have to camp out tonight somehow on sunlounger wrapped in my thermals and a fleecy mattress protector!

Mine rings the doorbell and shoots down the drive and waits to make sure I’m opening the door.

This is why I love MN. I am not sure I know anyone in London with a drive. We are seen as exceptionally lucky to live in a house rather than a flat. CV is hitting the cities hardest. If I were cooped up in a high rise with young kids, new toys and other treats would become essentials.

Wanderings has it right. There is a balance.

Everywhere else seems to have adapted to at least TRY to maintain the safety conditions that have been put into place, yet RM have done nothing to protect their workers whilst in the office.

Is this not something the Unions should be loudly banging a drum about - they have plenty of media contacts and tactics to publicise such a big issue? I confess I hadn't heard a word about this problem till I read it on here today. Sounds like something the DM would be all over.

if people cant get out to the shops, then they need to be able to get deliveries. This is essential. Many of the non-essential shops have already closed even for deliveries. Can we at least retain some sense of normality please, and if I want to order a bloody book or a birthday present for my child, then who do you suggest we have to justify this to?
We are following the guidelines already fgs

@vivalabeaver we don't. I knock put the parcels down and run. When I see the customer has it I sign for them.

Of course I meant essential, not urgent.

There are about 8 of us in a very close space sorting parcels. We are given gloves and can use the warehouse owners sanitizer.

I guess its up to me whether or not I carry on. I appreciate some people don't have that option.

We have deliveries of this ordered before the lock down plus meds.

I use gloves to pickup the parcels, take them into the back garden and spray them with detergent, remove the outer packaging and put it for recycling, then I spray whatever was in the box. I then put them to one side and don't touch them for at least 48hrs (not sure if this is correct but heard the virus won't survive after that), I then throw the gloves in the bin and was hands.

I do this with the post as well.

We have been told to order groceries on line, do you think that should be cancelled also?

Who decides what's urgent or essential and what isn't?

We have a house cat so have to have cat litter. Our local supermaket hasn't had any for 2 weeks now and we needed some otherwise the consequences would have been pretty atrocious. So I ordered in bulk from an online supplier and now have enough for at least the rest of our 3-month social distancing, without depleting the stocks locally when they come in.

I'm high risk and disabled so I've bought a few catering packs of things we use regularly and will carry on doing so as long as I can/need to. As far as I'm concerned I'm being responsible - cutting down my risk of contracting it, therefore not taking up a ventilator that someone else could have and not depleting the amount in supermarkets so there's more for the visiting shoppers to have.

@buzzshitbagbobbly The union just say "direct your anger towards Royal Mail", nobody is actually enforcing any of the claims. Everyone is saying the same thing.

https://www.facebook.com/981299138616232/posts/2895337433879050/?d=n

I (as well as many others) have tried to bring attention to this on social media but like I said nobody wants to know