DHL said they would deliver my parcel of wine between 11:52 and 12:52
today. It arrived at 11:35. I had just decided not to go upstairs to do
a small job, just in case this happened.
I won't complain that their timing was in fact off by several
minutes.

And as is correct, the driver asked for my year of birth, for an
alcohol delivery. I am well into my 70s, but it was still the correct
thing to do.

--
Davey.

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On Tue, 27 May 2025 18:16:35 +0100
mm0fmf <none@invalid.com> wrote:

On 27/05/2025 17:40, Davey wrote:

not to go upstairs to do
a small job

Is this a euphemism?

No, it is a straight description! Nothing to see here, move on >.....

--
Davey.

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On 27/05/2025 17:40, Davey wrote:

not to go upstairs to do
a small job

Is this a euphemism?

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On Tue, 27 May 2025 17:40:48 +0100, Davey wrote:

DHL said they would deliver my parcel of wine between 11:52 and 12:52
today. It arrived at 11:35. I had just decided not to go upstairs to do
a small job, just in case this happened.
I won't complain that their timing was in fact off by several minutes.

And as is correct, the driver asked for my year of birth, for an alcohol delivery. I am well into my 70s, but it was still the correct thing to
do.

The alternative is delivery systems that won't let the driver sign the
delivery off until the earliest time.

Leading to them parking up until it's time.

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On Tue, 5/27/2025 12:40 PM, Davey wrote:

DHL said they would deliver my parcel of wine between 11:52 and 12:52
today. It arrived at 11:35. I had just decided not to go upstairs to do
a small job, just in case this happened.
I won't complain that their timing was in fact off by several
minutes.

And as is correct, the driver asked for my year of birth, for an
alcohol delivery. I am well into my 70s, but it was still the correct
thing to do.

Every aspect of what a driver does, is controlled by management.

A computer takes traffic estimates into account, when predicting
the arrival, but traffic cannot be accurate without minute by minute corrections.

The shelves in the truck, are loaded in a particular order.
The truck driver is given a route to drive (only a certain direction
of turn is allowed). Some companies, even point a camera at the
drivers eyeballs, and he can be questioned later about "distracted
driving incidents". It's really all rather odious.

The trucks can be tracked by automated GPS tracking, and this
allows management to determine whether the driver is pissing
into a bottle, off the side of the road. Or, whether the
vehicle is stationary for too long. I don't think any time is
allocated for pissing.

Paul

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On 2025-05-27 20:58, Jethro_uk wrote:

On Tue, 27 May 2025 17:40:48 +0100, Davey wrote:

DHL said they would deliver my parcel of wine between 11:52 and 12:52
today. It arrived at 11:35. I had just decided not to go upstairs to do
a small job, just in case this happened.
I won't complain that their timing was in fact off by several minutes.

And as is correct, the driver asked for my year of birth, for an alcohol
delivery. I am well into my 70s, but it was still the correct thing to
do.

The alternative is delivery systems that won't let the driver sign the delivery off until the earliest time.

Leading to them parking up until it's time.

Sometimes they are sympathetic! Since I've started having Ocado deliver
in the 08:00-09:00 slot I've noticed they are less likely to ring the
bell early if they arrive early than when I had it later in the day,
even waiting outside (until I went out to reassure then that I was in
fact up!).

nib

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On 27/05/2025 17:40, Davey wrote:

DHL said they would deliver my parcel of wine between 11:52 and 12:52
today. It arrived at 11:35. I had just decided not to go upstairs to do
a small job, just in case this happened.
I won't complain that their timing was in fact off by several
minutes.

And as is correct, the driver asked for my year of birth, for an
alcohol delivery. I am well into my 70s, but it was still the correct
thing to do.

You had better luck than us.

I had ordered 2 OS maps, which were due to arrive early this afternoon.

Luckily, we were out when the parcel 'arrived'.

I say 'luckily' because as we got back, we noticed a sodden brown paper parcel/envelope lying in a puddle, just inside the garden gate[1].
It had been raining heavily all day.
Had we _not_ been out, we would probably not have found the parcel for
another 24 - 48 hours.

[1] To be fair, the garden gate is less than hip height, so seeing and
hitting the puddle from outside was not a great feat of skill.

When I visited the Ordinance Survey website, they had been keen to offer
me the water-resistant version for a slightly higher price.
I thought this was because they were maps of the Lake District - maybe
they just knew a lot about delivery drivers.

--
Sam Plusnet

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On 27/05/2025 21:56, nib wrote:

On 2025-05-27 20:58, Jethro_uk wrote:

On Tue, 27 May 2025 17:40:48 +0100, Davey wrote:

DHL said they would deliver my parcel of wine between 11:52 and 12:52
today. It arrived at 11:35. I had just decided not to go upstairs to do
a small job, just in case this happened.
I won't complain that their timing was in fact off by several minutes.

And as is correct, the driver asked for my year of birth, for an alcohol >>> delivery. I am well into my 70s, but it was still the correct thing to
do.

The alternative is delivery systems that won't let the driver sign the
delivery off until the earliest time.

Leading to them parking up until it's time.

Sometimes they are sympathetic! Since I've started having Ocado deliver
in the 08:00-09:00 slot I've noticed they are less likely to ring the
bell early if they arrive early than when I had it later in the day,
even waiting outside (until I went out to reassure then that I was in
fact up!).

Our Ocado deliveries are for the 4-5pm slot.
We sometimes get a call asking if we would mind them arriving early -
but, in your case, I can see that ringing someone before 8am might not
go down well.


--
Sam Plusnet

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On 27/05/2025 22:03, Paul wrote:

On Tue, 5/27/2025 12:40 PM, Davey wrote:

DHL said they would deliver my parcel of wine between 11:52 and 12:52
today. It arrived at 11:35. I had just decided not to go upstairs to do
a small job, just in case this happened.
I won't complain that their timing was in fact off by several
minutes.

And as is correct, the driver asked for my year of birth, for an
alcohol delivery. I am well into my 70s, but it was still the correct
thing to do.

Every aspect of what a driver does, is controlled by management.

A computer takes traffic estimates into account, when predicting
the arrival, but traffic cannot be accurate without minute by minute corrections.

The shelves in the truck, are loaded in a particular order.
The truck driver is given a route to drive (only a certain direction
of turn is allowed). Some companies, even point a camera at the
drivers eyeballs, and he can be questioned later about "distracted
driving incidents". It's really all rather odious.

The trucks can be tracked by automated GPS tracking, and this
allows management to determine whether the driver is pissing
into a bottle, off the side of the road. Or, whether the
vehicle is stationary for too long. I don't think any time is
allocated for pissing.

It isn't just traffic levels.
One factor which has a significant effect on deliveries around here is
time of day.
A delivery van can park pretty much anywhere they like during the bulk
of the day - do the delivery and go on to the next.
After (say) 4pm, our road (like many others) is full of nose-to-tail
parked vehicles, leaving a choice of stopping in the road and blocking
all traffic movement[1], or wander up & down the road for half a mile
searching for a spot.

[1] Supermarket deliveries have to spend several minutes gathering all
the bits & pieces of the delivery together, so it isn't a
"I'll only be a minute"
job.


--
Sam Plusnet

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On Tue, 27 May 2025 23:04:13 +0100
Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:

On 27/05/2025 21:56, nib wrote:

On 2025-05-27 20:58, Jethro_uk wrote:

On Tue, 27 May 2025 17:40:48 +0100, Davey wrote:

DHL said they would deliver my parcel of wine between 11:52 and
12:52 today. It arrived at 11:35. I had just decided not to go
upstairs to do a small job, just in case this happened.
I won't complain that their timing was in fact off by several
minutes.

And as is correct, the driver asked for my year of birth, for an
alcohol delivery. I am well into my 70s, but it was still the
correct thing to do.

The alternative is delivery systems that won't let the driver sign
the delivery off until the earliest time.

Leading to them parking up until it's time.

Sometimes they are sympathetic! Since I've started having Ocado
deliver in the 08:00-09:00 slot I've noticed they are less likely
to ring the bell early if they arrive early than when I had it
later in the day, even waiting outside (until I went out to
reassure then that I was in fact up!).

Our Ocado deliveries are for the 4-5pm slot.
We sometimes get a call asking if we would mind them arriving early -
but, in your case, I can see that ringing someone before 8am might
not go down well.

g
You're lucky to have Ocado deliveries. We are in one of their

--
Davey.
'Geographical restriction areas', i.e. they won't deliver to us.'

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On Wed, 28 May 2025 09:04:32 +0100
Mike Halmarack <mikehalmarack@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tue, 27 May 2025 17:40:48 +0100, Davey <davey@example.invalid>
wrote:

DHL said they would deliver my parcel of wine between 11:52 and 12:52 >today. It arrived at 11:35. I had just decided not to go upstairs to
do a small job, just in case this happened.
I won't complain that their timing was in fact off by several
minutes.

And as is correct, the driver asked for my year of birth, for an
alcohol delivery. I am well into my 70s, but it was still the correct
thing to do.

I have this almost infallible method of getting someone to knock on my
door. I just drop my pants and sit on the loo.

That's a similar technique to the one used by Gerald Durrell on one of
his expeditions. He was on a lonely island, waiting for hours for a
boat to come and take him and his crew off and back to the mainland.
There was no communication available. He instructed his porter to
unpack the kettle and portable stove, and to start to brew a batch of
tea, to the porter's amazement, and immediately the boat came into view.

--
Davey.

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On Tue, 27 May 2025 21:56:45 +0100, nib wrote:

On 2025-05-27 20:58, Jethro_uk wrote:

On Tue, 27 May 2025 17:40:48 +0100, Davey wrote:

DHL said they would deliver my parcel of wine between 11:52 and 12:52
today. It arrived at 11:35. I had just decided not to go upstairs to
do a small job, just in case this happened.
I won't complain that their timing was in fact off by several minutes.

And as is correct, the driver asked for my year of birth, for an
alcohol delivery. I am well into my 70s, but it was still the correct
thing to do.

The alternative is delivery systems that won't let the driver sign the
delivery off until the earliest time.

Leading to them parking up until it's time.

Sometimes they are sympathetic! Since I've started having Ocado deliver
in the 08:00-09:00 slot I've noticed they are less likely to ring the
bell early if they arrive early than when I had it later in the day,
even waiting outside (until I went out to reassure then that I was in
fact up!).

The reason I mentioned it was on Saturday, our Sainsbury delivery was
11-12, and the van arrived at 10:20 and parked up till 11:00

If anyone was wondering why Sainsburys are that bit more expensive, I
wouldn't consider it a mystery.

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On 27/05/2025 20:58, Jethro_uk wrote:

On Tue, 27 May 2025 17:40:48 +0100, Davey wrote:

DHL said they would deliver my parcel of wine between 11:52 and 12:52
today. It arrived at 11:35. I had just decided not to go upstairs to do
a small job, just in case this happened.
I won't complain that their timing was in fact off by several minutes.

And as is correct, the driver asked for my year of birth, for an alcohol
delivery. I am well into my 70s, but it was still the correct thing to
do.

The alternative is delivery systems that won't let the driver sign the delivery off until the earliest time.

Leading to them parking up until it's time.

Which is unlikely to happen as most of these drivers seem to be either
self employed and/or on a very tight delivery schedule per delivery.
I've had real time tracking saying that I'm 100+ delivery on the list.
Some delivery drivers are only paid per delivery (not packages per
delivery) and have a limited number of driving hours per day. Around my
way at least one of those driving hours is the time taken to get to/from
the depot to the area where the deliveries are to be made.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

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On 27/05/2025 23:04, Sam Plusnet wrote:

Our Ocado deliveries are for the 4-5pm slot.
We sometimes get a call asking if we would mind them arriving early -
but, in your case, I can see that ringing someone before 8am might not
go down well.

I would assume anyone selecting that time slot is probably an early
riser or is up because they have to get to work.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

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On 28/05/2025 00:34, Davey wrote:

On Tue, 27 May 2025 23:04:13 +0100
Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:

On 27/05/2025 21:56, nib wrote:

On 2025-05-27 20:58, Jethro_uk wrote:

On Tue, 27 May 2025 17:40:48 +0100, Davey wrote:

DHL said they would deliver my parcel of wine between 11:52 and
12:52 today. It arrived at 11:35. I had just decided not to go
upstairs to do a small job, just in case this happened.
I won't complain that their timing was in fact off by several
minutes.

And as is correct, the driver asked for my year of birth, for an
alcohol delivery. I am well into my 70s, but it was still the
correct thing to do.

The alternative is delivery systems that won't let the driver sign
the delivery off until the earliest time.

Leading to them parking up until it's time.

Sometimes they are sympathetic! Since I've started having Ocado
deliver in the 08:00-09:00 slot I've noticed they are less likely
to ring the bell early if they arrive early than when I had it
later in the day, even waiting outside (until I went out to
reassure then that I was in fact up!).

Our Ocado deliveries are for the 4-5pm slot.
We sometimes get a call asking if we would mind them arriving early -
but, in your case, I can see that ringing someone before 8am might
not go down well.

g
You're lucky to have Ocado deliveries. We are in one of their

We are!
For the last two weeks our deliveries have arrived complete, and without
any 'substitutions'!
We would open a bottle of champagne, but like a lot of other things they
are usually out of stock.

--
Sam Plusnet

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