To think parcel depots should (ideally) be open more flexibly?

[squirrel42]

So it's not world-shattering stuff this, but I do find it a bit of a pain in the neck and wonder what other people think.

I order stuff off the interweb on a semi-regular basis so get quite a few parcels delivered. There is almost never anyone at home during the day as I work Monday - Friday from 8am to 5pm. Since the Post Office are reluctant to leave parcels with neighbours these days (and frankly even if they tried our neighbours would probably be out too!) I quite regularly need to go and collect things from the local depot. The pain in the neck bit comes from the depot only being open 7am - 12pm during the week and 7am - 11am on Saturday mornings. This isn't a dinky rural depot either; it serves the east of Bristol!

I give them credit for being open early so those who can get there first thing before work/school run, etc are able to collect things - I suppose it's in the nature of the Postal Service to be up early anyway! (Debate about late post deliveries aside.) But I would love it if they could maybe open for an hour or two later in the day as well (such as 5pm to 7pm?) even if it was only one or two days a week, as otherwise I'm stuck always collecting things on a Saturday morning when there are a thousand and one other things to be done as well.

Obviously money is a factor and opening extra hours might just not be practical for them, but I know I can't be entirely alone in finding weekday mornings impossible since the queue outside the depot on a Saturday morning is always half way down the road!

know what you mean

i work as well, but luckily have lovely eldery neighbours who are usually in and happily collect parcels for me

for my catologues i tell them to leave either behind the house or in shed

could yours do the same?

our local one shuts 5.30 - i dont get home from work till 7pm

I agree YANBU

However, there is the option to ring them when they open at 7am and have your item delivered to your nearest sub-post office for a mere 50p.

but again my local po open 9-5 and 9-1 on a sat - but least local

Can't you get stuff delivered to your workplace instead?

Thankfully the depot is within cycling distance for me; the nearest post office is about the same distance away although it is at least open in the afternoons. If the parcel was something urgent I might consider paying the fee and having them take it there but for general stuff it's probably not worth it.

Blondeshavemorefun - I've had a courier company leave a parcel next door once, but the Royal Mail don't seem willing to do that. There's something about leaving a parcel with a "designated neighbour" on the "while you were out" card but the website says that's linked to the Safeplace scheme which is something original company that's shipping you the goods would have to pay for.

Able & Cole on the other hand are very flexible about leaving my weekly veg box hidden behind our wheelie bin! (Maybe veg is less of a theft risk than random parcels?)

Namebacon - we get the odd parcel turn up at work (civil service office, they're okay about it so long as it's not too often) but I commute by bike so bulky items wouldn't be too practical!

you can get big boxes that you can attach to your house and they can leave parcels in them

Ooh I have seen those southeastra, like this from the Lakeland site? I think they are a good idea for up to medium sized parcels. Not sure what our landlord would think about bolting one to the front of the house and they're £50, but still a very good idea.

dont get me started on delivery companies. UPS's depot is 35 miles away and only open 5pm - 7pm (co-incidentally bedtime for my two DC). they can only say that they will deliver between 8am and 6pm but with two small children being housebound for a day is tantamount to torture. i dread when i know a parcel is being delivered by them

YANBU. Where I live (sweden) they have a small post office inside the local petrol station where parcels are left and you can collect any time the petrol station is open (ie 8am to 10pm every day). That, in my opinion, is remarkably bloody civilised.

In Japan I think the postal service has a tie-up with 7-11, so your parcels get delivered to your nearest convenience store and you can collect it 24 hours a day. Genius.

The private day nursery that our DGC attend allows parents to have parcels delivered to the nursery address. As there is always someone there 7.30 to 18.30 they are able to take in the parcels - parent collects when they pick up DC. No charge for the service but really helpful for working parents.

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How odd our local depot is open until 7 or 8 pm I forget which.

You are dead right with this. And to add insult to injury, our local depot is on a main road and has no parking. There used to be a little corner of the depot site where you could park on the pavement (but not on the pathway IYSWIM so plenty of room to walk past pushing a tripple buggy if necessary!) but they've put bollards up so you can't do that any more. So with a small child and a large parcel where do they think you'll park??? Gets on my tits.

In Germany, they leave your parcel in an automatic depot, and you get a PIN number that you can take it out with. (dhl, I think)