To ask you...no, to BEG you...

[Yesitsbess]

Put your house numbers on your house people!

I lost my hospitality job during the lockdown and, as many people have had to, took up a delivery job to make ends meet. I have learned that delivery drivers are grumpy for a reason! Those reasons are numerous.

If you want to help us out for reasons that include: our safety, our being able to park safely, our being able to make the insane time targets we are set by our companies, our not wasting fuel looking for you (both environmentally and efficiency-wise) and you just getting your food/parcels/taxis on-time then please have a look at the following:

1. God tier - people with GIANT NUMBERS IN LIGHTS on their houses AND BINS ( we love you, especially if we deliver after dark) even if we're not delivering to your house, we use you as navigation because Googlemaps is shite.

1. Mid-tier - people who live somewhere hard-to-find but include directions on their order. Your street has 'odds and evens'. You have your number on your door in a colour that is discernible in the dark.

1. Poo-tier - people who live on a New build estate where the developer assigned house numbers by THROWING A CALCULATOR AT A CEILING FAN, and yet they think Google maps will see us right. It will not and we hate you.

1. Hell Tier - people who live on a main road, with long drives spanning off said main road, with NO indication of what house number/name they are at he end of their drive...

1. Seventh circle of Hell tier - you live very rurally and don't provide directions. Or in a very difficult to access place, or you have insane building works on the path, your dog is horrible (please stop your dogs humping and/or biting us - we're on minimum wage, we don't care if he "never does this usually!")

Anyway, if you've read this and think "We're golden!" on this issue, drive around your neighbouring roads at night and try to pick a random number to find - it's a fun game and might help you see what we see?

PUT NUMBERS ON YOUR HOUSES PEOPLE!

I painted my door black and the house number white after I (finally) realised that you could barely see the door number from the street. I usually turn on my outside light if expecting a delivery when it's dark.

@ConfusedCarrie that made me laugh A LOT.

@Bluebirdhumming and we salute you for it!

My sons turn on the special light by the verge against the house name sign when it's dark if a delivery is due.

@Xenia I demand the HIGHEST OF FIVES for your sons

Use what3words
It's amazing. I put mine as my special.instructions on everything. Lots of delivery drivers use it.

@Trumanshow this is explained a few pages back. But I have written to our CEO about adopting it!

OP, loving your What3Words campaign. A very worthwhile effort.

@backinthebox I hope so. The logic seems very clear to me, get people to use it when they order food and then the (hopefully) one time they need it they will know their 3 words.

I do swear that if anyone else mentions it now without RTFT I may spontaneously combust

We are no 3 on your list. Believe me it also annoys the residents

@Beverley71 we feel your pain too. We also live in houses and get deliveries.

I get deliveries mixed up all of the time. I live in 33 green lawn but there is a house around the corner called 33 the green, that end up with most of my post (not real address)!!! Now I write detailed directions to my house and colour of car on drive so that they can find me! Apparently older sat navs send the drivers to the wrong house.

I had someone knock on my door this evening, looking for an elderly lady. I live at 4 Church Lane, (not really) and down the street is a block of flats. This elderly lady lives in flat 4, ancient people Court, church Lane, different postcode. Most of the time ancient people court is an afterthought. I had 2 sainsbury's delivery drivers try to deliver her food. Fortunately, someone I knew also lived in the flats and I asked them to have a quiet word with her, because I may not be in the next time it happens.

I have a number on my house and on the gate. There are four houses, all detached on the private drive. Both numbers are fully visible & lit up yet I still get delivery drivers knocking on the door and walking away leaving a parcel for number 19, we’re number 21 and they have to pass no 19 to get to us! When I shout them back I get “I thought this was 19” . er no that’s why it says 21 on the gate you had to open to get to he door you just knocked on that also says 21. So numbers on the house doesn’t always guarantee delivery to the right house. Also I had one driver say he couldn’t pick the parcel back up due to Covid restrictions, he stood on the drive and saw at no point did I actually touch the parcel! Sorry, I agree with you but just doesn’t help in my case and this has been going on for months with the same delivery people.

Oh dear, we’re hell tier:( But there is no number because the street is newer than the house and the numbers kind of go round it so I’d have to be 189 and a half or something. The name is on the gate but no one ever sees it. I’m not sure where else to put it!

The estate I live on is divided in to four sections each having a name which all the roads have, think Wood & then road, crescent drive, place, walk. But they don't only have houses at each side of the road, each one has legs off it, still the same road name but maybe 15 houses on a path leading from the road & probably five or six on each road, that's before the ones that are named as say Wood Road but to access them you have to drive up Tree Crescent, no wonder the postman looks like he is having a breakdown every time we get a new one or the regular one is on holiday.

What 3 Words is the way to go - it’s fabulous for getting an exact location. I used to be a Police officer and trying to find a flat in some estates to answer a 999 call used to be so stressful when the flat numbers seemed to follow no sensible pattern.

[quote Yesitsbess]@Beverley71 we feel your pain too. We also live in houses and get deliveries. [/quote]
I’m not sure you get my point. I’ve lived on our new build estate for over two years, some residents longer. None of us can understand the numbering system. We do, however, all have clear numbers and street names on our houses as we didn’t even get street signs until 18 months after completion of the estate

My man used to go to customers homes and it was hell, especially rural areas. Customer would leave phone numbers but with no signal, it was as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Give directions or put your number up. YOU ARE SPOT ON OP

@3CCC

Would it help if I put the "what3words" name somewhere? Not sure if that a thing delivery drivers use or not???

YES 👍 this would help 100 per cent

I once had to - very patiently and at great length - explain to a group of people why they did not want to have a building with 7 flats in it and number one of them flat 8.

I live in a Victorian on an old road where number 4 ISNT next to number 5 and has about 5 other houses in between. whenever I can, I clearly state this and give them a few obvious 'identifiable' points about my house - some delivery drivers still seem unable to find us.. and I often end up stood out on the road in my dressing gown in an evening to wave at someone half way down the road! Will soon be moving to a house which just has a name (no number) so a little apprehensive of what that will mean for deliveries!

Feel your pain, hubby used to deliver parcels. Another thing hated was letter boxes at the bottom or vertical

I don't know, I'm just a driver but it seems like a good idea to me.

I'm just a LOWLY driver. Or HUMBLE. A HUMBLE driver. (If you want to go all Dickensian you could be AN HUMBLE driver.)

You may have issei's a trick there, Bess.

*Missed a trick , not issel's

What is the matter with autocarrot?

@Yesitsbess - thanks for the points. Since moving here I have had to meet several of my deliveries with a torch in the dark.
Daytime its easier to describe.