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!

We also usually put "green and white striped garage door o" on any instructions (DS is Celtic supporter)

@SchadenfreudePersonified That sounds like a parking thread waiting to happen!

I also live rurally and no house numbers, the post code covers a huge area, I always include my telephone number and as much land Mark information as possible, it's been easy recently as building site opposite but near completion now.

You will hate me then

House name (250 years old and never had a number)
Hamlet
Nearest Town

Sat Nav doesn’t help much either as it sends you down a track a 100 yds away. We do have the name visible and give directions but most still get lost

@megletsecond I like to feel I am helping drivers across the World with this thread, but do now wish I owned a company that sold light-up door numbers

I live in a well labelled house on an easily identifiable road in a village. Very small 60's estate, basically one road. Sat Nav takes you straight to the door.

Still get deliveries taken to no. *, xxxx road IN THE NEXT VILLAGE, three miles away. We get theirs as well.

Our road numbers are weird though; we have opposite odd and even numbers and they go number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, (turn to a cul de sac), 8, 9. Like they knocked no. 7 down to build the new cul de sac, only they didn't, it was all built at the same time. And the cul de sac starts at no. 2, there's no no. 1.

[quote Yesitsbess]@SchadenfreudePersonified That sounds like a parking thread waiting to happen![/quote]
There have been minor skirmishes, but so far no shots have been fired . . .

I live in a well labelled house on an easily identifiable road in a village. Very small 60's estate, basically one road. Sat Nav takes you straight to the door.

What?!

What is wrong with you?

I used to live in one of those villages where none of the houses had numbers, just names. Our house was named Xxx House (not chosen by us) but there was another house down the road called The Xxxs. So annoying!

For those with hard to find houses, have you heard of What 3 Words?

If not, it’s worth a look.
It’s an app/programme which gives you address 3 random words as a destination

You then put in the notes for your driver ‘what 3 words location is bat, ball, hat’ or whatever, and bingo

It’s a game changer, honestly

Yesitsbess - this is a thread that I started in 2019 on behalf of my OH who was and still is a delivery driver! I wish that every single one of his customers and his colleagues' customers would read these threads! He's still struggling with address numbers/names etc!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3704315-Online-supermarket-shopping-deliveries-a-plea

What3words is not just for the emergency services btw OP - I've used it to set trails for my youth group to follow.

Google Maps directs people through a new build estate (about 4 years old) to get to our house. There is not and has never been a vehicle route. Google are shit at updating this stuff, even when told (repeatedly).

@Reachersloveinterest You live in delivery Hell. It's actually 'The Good Place', my brain deflated like a popped souffle trying to deliver to number 7.

My street has one side odd numbers, one side even numbers. On even number side the first house is number 10. There is no 2,4,6 and 8 . I'm opposite number 10 and I'm number 30. I had a very confused takeaway delivery driver in my garden the other day looking for number 10. I should have asked him if he had pizza and then confirmed yes I'm number 10 .

Currently a passenger in congestion and I'm enjoying judging all the houses on number visibility, never thought of this before so I sympathise OP. Will double check mine when I'm home, do live on a logical street though and no one ever seems to have any issues so hope it's ok!

@GappyValley

For those with hard to find houses, have you heard of What 3 Words?

If not, it’s worth a look.
It’s an app/programme which gives you address 3 random words as a destination

You then put in the notes for your driver ‘what 3 words location is bat, ball, hat’ or whatever, and bingo

It’s a game changer, honestly

I've just tried it.

Put my address in - it appears that nationally there are five streets with my street name. None of them are mine . . .

They are all "dahn sarf" and I am 'oop north".

I had a little faff about with it, in case it just picked up streets around the immediate area of its map illustration, but I couldn't get anything else.

I am gutted.

GUTTED!

I wanted my three words.

I don't have a house number on my home, however, given that there are only 3 houses on my very short road, and both my neighbours have numbers on their doors, its not hard to work out.

@ginjenny Yes! Let's get the word out!

For all of you suggesting what3words, I have the app (and Waze) but it's very much up to people to tell me the words! I think a lot of people are under the impression that it's just for when you're lost in a hedge and such.

Your driver is not likely to be the person who took the order, especially with social distancing. But I'm a fan of ANYTHING that helps us find you faster, so I am looking forward to new orders coming in with special instructions that just say 'monkey monkey dishwasher'

You get a bonus point if you know that reference...

We are rural, we have our house number on the wall by the door and also on a post at the gate so directly on the road. Deliveries are always going lost. One neighbour has had his Amazon address changed to include “detached cottage with thatched roof”, we still get 50% of his deliveries even though we are an end terrace with a regular roof.

I cannot understand why so many people have no number or no name. I get 2 or 3 deliveries most days. (We have names not numbers on this road but at least it is numbered)

My son drives a food delivery van for a living and before that for 3 years was a post man so we certainly know all about finding houses and how hard it can be.

@Parkandride that's exactly what I'm hoping for, if everyone just has a little look and tries to see what we, ambulances etc see - especially in the dark! Loving your work.

@SchadenfreudePersonified your words are monkey monkey dishwasher

@SchadenfreudePersonified

Download the app, go into the map and zoom in til you find your address then drop your pin and get your three words

Then you just need to remember them and put them in notes

Delivery drivers will use the words as their destination when delivering

The entire surface of the earth has been mapped, so it doesn’t matter if you are directing someone to a new building or the middle of a field

My DP is a paramedic and says that he will never live in a house with a name rather than a number for this exact reason. If you have an emergency you want to be found quickly!

You are not being at all unreasonable. See also shops with no number on the board. Also some indication would be helpful if the doorbell doesn't work/can't be heard from outside.