Item — HN Reader

While this is perhaps more rant than insight it's quite true that in the UK the courier firms are painful for individuals to use (not so much a problem for businesses I think).

The classic example - I'm single, work during normal business hours and as a freelancer I am reluctant to take high-value time off work to collect low-value items from couriers who do not honour their delivery slots. It's basically impossible for me to receive parcels from most courier firms.

The problem is that the people paying the courier firms are not generally the people feeling this pain.

1 comments

Apologies for that. I wrote most of it yesterday, but then today I've had renewed frustrations with the final major courier I haven't yet used (my safety) and I just got pissed.

You're right that it's broken for individuals in the main. I'm in the office 10 hours a day: if I get items shipped to me there, or picked up from me there, that means schlepping it all the way to the office / from the office. So I was pleased to be able to choose a two hour window at which to be at home. Of course the guy turned up half an hour early. It makes perfect sense.

My friend had the best quote on this: "All courier services make normal people seem like Larry David-level assholes."

I was half inclined to flag it but let's just say I recognized your tone of mind :-)