Fastway/Parcel Connect

Bicyclette · 11-10-2020 11:38am

My son was expecting a delivery from them last Christmas. He got a message to say that the parcel had been delivered and signed for at about 6pm in the evening. Nobody in the house had signed, the doorbell hadn't rung.

So we went outside, checked everything. The bins, the nextdoor neighbours, even a house in an adjacent estate with the same number as ours. Not a dickybird. At this point we were getting quite worried (he had ordered something fairly unique for his girlfriend. Not high value but difficult to get). We then checked the signature on line and it was just a squiggle.

The parcel was delivered next day.

Clearly the driver had a deadline to meet, didn't meet it so he just forged a delivery. My heart sinks anytime I see something being delivered by this company.

Del2005 · 11-10-2020 2:39pm

GarIT wrote: »

Often fastway don't use employees while other companies do. Your fastway deliveries are made by the lowest bidder with a van.

Very few courier companies have employees in their vans, the vast majority are "independent" contractors who have to have a

year old sign written van, they get feck all for a delivery so we get the same from them.

Grab All Association · 13-10-2020 4:50am

Rural Thurles

An Post, not without its issues in the sorting office, but 9.9/10 delivers.
DHL: always on time. I think An Post now does deliveries on behalf on DHL.
DPD mostly reliable, but gone downhill in recent years.
Nightline now owned by UPS and delayed delivery of items this week.
UPS: often order stuff from Hollister, used to pay for next day delivery until UPS (pre-covid) would delay my parcels intentionally. Hollister would refund the €10 shipping costs, so I stopped paying for next day delivery.
GLS: The worst by a mile.

My experiences from Fastway were good to be fair. The driver would deliver to the shop 5 minutes away from my house and text me to let me know. Haven’t had anything delivered by them in years though so it could be a different driver.

Shelflife · 13-10-2020 1:43pm

I dont understand how people allow the likes of Fastways to get away with delivering their parcels to the local shop, they have paid for the service of it being delivered to their door, if An Post tried that there would be war about it.

As a local shop they drop stuff into us saying that Mary asked us to leave it here, then Mary arrives and tells us that she just got a text saying it was left here.

Sharp practice !

Del2005 · 13-10-2020 4:31pm

Shelflife wrote: »

I dont understand how people allow the likes of Fastways to get away with delivering their parcels to the local shop, they have paid for the service of it being delivered to their door, if An Post tried that there would be war about it.

As a local shop they drop stuff into us saying that Mary asked us to leave it here, then Mary arrives and tells us that she just got a text saying it was left here.

Sharp practice !

People aren't paying enough to get the package delivered to their door. If you pay €10 for delivery the driver might only get €1/€2 for it and many people don't pay for shipping at all. It's not worth their while to drive 10 minutes to a persons home for a few Euro and then drive to the next drop off. If the drops are 20 minutes apart the driver might be getting <€10 an hour before they have to pay for diesel/tax/insurance/maintenance, how do they make a wage from that?

hurikane · 13-10-2020 4:33pm

Del2005 wrote: »

People aren't paying enough to get the package delivered to their door. If you pay €10 for delivery the driver might only get €1/€2 for it and many people don't pay for shipping at all. It's not worth their while to drive 10 minutes to a persons home for a few Euro and then drive to the next drop off. If the drops are 20 minutes apart the driver might be getting <€10 an hour before they have to pay for diesel/tax/insurance/maintenance, how do they make a wage from that?

The drivers get 100s or drops in an area, rural pays more. It’s pure laziness.

listermint · 13-10-2020 4:39pm

Del2005 wrote: »

People aren't paying enough to get the package delivered to their door. If you pay €10 for delivery the driver might only get €1/€2 for it and many people don't pay for shipping at all. It's not worth their while to drive 10 minutes to a persons home for a few Euro and then drive to the next drop off. If the drops are 20 minutes apart the driver might be getting <€10 an hour before they have to pay for diesel/tax/insurance/maintenance, how do they make a wage from that?

Get a different job then, ffs.

Some days they will make lots, others less. Is the nature of the game.

Robbing the customer of home delivery isnt an answer.

Shelflife · 13-10-2020 6:51pm

Del2005 wrote: »

People aren't paying enough to get the package delivered to their door. If you pay €10 for delivery the driver might only get €1/€2 for it and many people don't pay for shipping at all. It's not worth their while to drive 10 minutes to a persons home for a few Euro and then drive to the next drop off. If the drops are 20 minutes apart the driver might be getting <€10 an hour before they have to pay for diesel/tax/insurance/maintenance, how do they make a wage from that?

With respect, thats not the concern of the person who has paid for their parcel to be delivered to their door.

If Fastways tender to do a delivery then the onus is on them to deliver to that address, not some filling station or shop a few miles away, if you cant make it pay then increase your prices !

L1011 · 13-10-2020 7:47pm

Grab All Association wrote: »

DHL: always on time. I think An Post now does deliveries on behalf on DHL.

There are "two" DHLs - the international courier service; and the German domestic parcels service like SDS here in the old days. Both are the same company of course

But this means that stuff DHLed from Germany that doesn't specify courier/express etc is actually sent by post.

Jim_Hodge · 13-10-2020 8:08pm

Del2005 wrote: »

People aren't paying enough to get the package delivered to their door. If you pay €10 for delivery the driver might only get €1/€2 for it and many people don't pay for shipping at all. It's not worth their while to drive 10 minutes to a persons home for a few Euro and then drive to the next drop off. If the drops are 20 minutes apart the driver might be getting <€10 an hour before they have to pay for diesel/tax/insurance/maintenance, how do they make a wage from that?

Tough. I buy from the retailer, who contracts the courier, I pay for delivery to my home not a shop miles away that I never use. If the couriers can't make it pay then pass the proper costs on to the seller and let them deal with the realities of the marketplace.

Saudades · 15-10-2020 6:26pm

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020/1015/1171679-fastway-couriers-recruiting-600-seasonal-workers/

ED E · 16-10-2020 4:13pm

This shower are expanding. Stop giving them your custom folks.

stockshares · 16-10-2020 4:17pm

ED E wrote: »

This shower are expanding. Stop giving them your custom folks.

I can't believe that Amazon and Argos use them. I guess profit is everything.

rob316 · 16-10-2020 4:26pm

Cost is everything, no one comes close to the prices fastway are offering. The drivers are getting the shortest straw though, its a ****ing horrible number. Working for DPD or GLS is bad enough but Fastway is a pyramaid scheme

stockshares · 16-10-2020 5:03pm

rob316 wrote: »

Cost is everything, no one comes close to the prices fastway are offering. The drivers are getting the shortest straw though, its a ****ing horrible number. Working for DPD or GLS is bad enough but Fastway is a pyramaid scheme

Do you think Drivers will move to Amazon?

Amazon and Argos save on cost so more profit. They have to know that Fastway have a bad rep and have bad work practices but they choose them regardless.

This doesn't reflect well on them.

E mac · 16-10-2020 6:43pm

I ordered an item from uk, fastway tracking says they have my item since last Monday (12th). Says I'll have it 1-2 days. Nothing since though two updates stating ""We're trying to deliver this parcel but we have encountered an operational delay."" Anyone know what this means?

Odyssey 2005 · 16-10-2020 7:12pm

Del2005 wrote: »

People aren't paying enough to get the package delivered to their door. If you pay €10 for delivery the driver might only get €1/€2 for it and many people don't pay for shipping at all. It's not worth their while to drive 10 minutes to a persons home for a few Euro and then drive to the next drop off. If the drops are 20 minutes apart the driver might be getting <€10 an hour before they have to pay for diesel/tax/insurance/maintenance, how do they make a wage from that?

This is the stupidest post I've read in a long time.

Jim_Hodge · 16-10-2020 9:39pm

E mac wrote: »

I ordered an item from uk, fastway tracking says they have my item since last Monday (12th). Says I'll have it 1-2 days. Nothing since though two updates stating ""We're trying to deliver this parcel but we have encountered an operational delay."" Anyone know what this means?

Any time we got that it was just that it didn't suit them to come all the way out to us until they had a few other deliveries for the area.

E mac · 16-10-2020 10:09pm

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

Any time we got that it was just that it didn't suit them to come all the way out to us until they had a few other deliveries for the area.

I'm out in the countryside so that's completely plausible. 😕

SwissToni · 16-10-2020 10:29pm

Odyssey 2005 wrote: »

This is the stupidest post I've read in a long time.

Why? Dell2005 just perfectly set out why the service is bad, he was not justifying or excusing it.

Until customers are prepared to pay realistic delivery costs and not buy from the lowest priced website don’t expect a five star delivery service because the website company isn’t paying for one.

Jim_Hodge · 16-10-2020 10:58pm

SwissToni wrote: »

Why? Dell2005 just perfectly set out why the service is bad, he was not justifying or excusing it.

Until customers are prepared to pay realistic delivery costs and not buy from the lowest priced website don’t expect a five star delivery service because the website company isn’t paying for one.

The couriers have tendered the prices and then can't deliver the goods (literally). The couriers ultimately are the cause of the low delivery charge and then bemoan it.

bassy · 16-10-2020 11:00pm

fastway,more like leave it any where gouriers......................

LuasSimon · 16-10-2020 11:07pm

All part of the race to the bottom .... pay as little as possible online .... delivery drivers working for minimum wage .... leads to ****e service ....

Darc19 · 16-10-2020 11:17pm

Del2005 wrote: »

People aren't paying enough to get the package delivered to their door. If you pay €10 for delivery the driver might only get €1/€2 for it and many people don't pay for shipping at all. It's not worth their while to drive 10 minutes to a persons home for a few Euro and then drive to the next drop off. If the drops are 20 minutes apart the driver might be getting <€10 an hour before they have to pay for diesel/tax/insurance/maintenance, how do they make a wage from that?

Delivery within Ireland for anyone doing decent volume is less than €4
Large volumes and it's under 3.50

The drivers make very little on delivery, but many will do 20-25 in an hour. Still very low, but where there is better money is in parcel collection.

You could be collecting 50 parcels from an account and each will be worth xx and that makes up the for the lower delivery fee

Nigzcurran · 16-10-2020 11:25pm

I work for a logistics company that charge a pretty expensive delivery charge so we don’t get any business to homes from people who ordered online and got “free delivery”. We are not allowed to even leave it with your family who live next door without permission so to be honest you pay for what you get

whiterebel · 16-10-2020 11:35pm

I had my own courier van years ago. I was approached by a large courier firm who offered me the rate I was charging to customers less 30%, for them. I was to give them over my business and get it back to work it at 30% less. The "sweetener" was that I would get extra business from them at their rates. I didn't go for it, but plenty did to get the big increases in their work. Back then we did 8am-6pm business hours, home deliveries were very few and far between.

Fastway were looking originally for €16K per owner, offers of great rates and loads of work. Great initially until you were in too deep, then you had to do 80-100 deliveries per day just to keep afloat. Then the race to the bottom where they are near giving away the delivery rates. The main companies will still get a wedge on every delivery as well, and they don't even have to provide CS. if you had decent money you could put 2 drivers on a van, start at 7am, finish at 2 or 3 and then until 9pm. You could do home and business deliveries properly then. Drivers coming up to Christmas are doing 12-14 hour days and you can see that they are dangerously tired. Easy to say change jobs until you need to rely on it to keep your van on the road and a roof over your head.

Redriddick · 18-11-2020 8:04pm

Fastway are brutal, I sent a parcel on the 10th, no tracking info until I contacted them through their rubbish system. Tracking updated and then nothing, contacted again no reply. Today tracking shows as delivered 8 days later, contacted recipient and he did not get it. Contacted them again through their rubbish system, no reply again.
No phone numbers, no direct email absolute joke of a company.
I understand courier are under pressure but a simple reply to say we are swamped and apologies would have done.

Spon Farmer · 06-12-2020 1:19pm

I’ve never had a good experience with Fastway And I know many here are the same.

Is it safe to assume that they even worse at the moment and blaming Covid for longer delays?

whiterebel · 06-12-2020 9:27pm

Last Fastway delivery I had 2 weeks ago was right on time. Driver said he had worked 17 days straight at that stage, and didn't know when he'd get a day off.

Skeffing · 07-12-2020 4:50pm

I am trying to return a large parcel to Amazon in the UK. I was using the One-off send option on Fastway's website. Its looking for the name and surname of the person I am sending it to. Does anyone know if I can use Amazon as the name or do they need an actual contact person there?

Fastway/Parcel Connect

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