Parcel Minding anyone?

[Clunkshift]

Rural business opportunity

In the course of recent internet purchases, I think I have identified a business opportunity which takes very little effort and would make the planet a greener place.

Internet purchases are convenient and usually cheaper at point of sale but uneconomic at point of delivery because you don’t know when the delivery will be made and taking time off work to wait for deliveries is very inconvenient and expensive.

Having someone to accept delivery for you would be well worth £5 to £10 in saved time alone.

The post office parcels service makes 2 attempts at delivery (at unspecified times) then leaves a note to say that the parcel will have to be collected from their office.
Other courier services make 1 attempt at delivery and leave a note for you to arrange a specific date for delivery (but not even choice of morning or afternoon) or collect the parcel from their depot.
In both cases, vans are trundling round the country with undelivered parcels and then ofeten do the whole trip twice for a successful delivery.

What is needed is someone with a dry, secure garage, that actually stays at home all day and accepts deliveries by proxy for a nominal payment – say £5 for small packages, £10 for larger and £15 per cubic metre for huge packages (prices per day of course).

This person would become the village parcels depot because there is also a small outbound trade of packages in these days of e-bay. It is easy to get a courier to collect a package on the internet but you still have to wait in to give it to them.

All the client would have to do is hand over a copy of the invoice or shipping note and fill in a proxy receipt form so that registered parcels could be signed for.

We have house sitters, dog walkers and pet feeders available, so why not Package Receivers?

I think it is time to get ourselves organised now that the rural post offices have disappeared and this would probably be a neat sideline for a village pub or cafe.

[jazzactivist]

I think that you could be right, clunkshift, but in our previous village, and here, neighbours take in parcels for others as an act of goodwill, which is very nice and neighbourly. I currently have two sunloungers in my hallway delivered for our neigbour (she's very optimistic!). However, I think that your idea could work if the companies paid for the services, rather than expecting neighbours to do so. Could be a goer... Maybe you could start one up and then sell on the franchise?

[dinger]

What a great idea Clunk I take in parcels regular for my neighbour and like you say it can be a real pain if you are waiting on a delivery especially if you have to go to work . I'm sure someone will take up your idea.

[Oola]

I think there's some sort of thing in place for this, it's a special safe box I think (although don't know what happens when your delivery requires a signature):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Parcel-Safe-PS1-Green/dp/B000NUWCC6

[Ivy]

even though I live in a big town neighbours are still accepting parcels for their neighbours, so there shouldn't be a market here for it, but basically a good idea.

[souter girl]

I have just read this thread and I can't tell you how it resonates with me this evening!!
Came home from work yesterday to a card from a parcel delivery company saying they had called, no-one in, etc.etc (although friend next door in and her car in drive) The card said I had to collect from a place about 5 miles away so I thought I would do this after work today as work is a bit nearer. I was told I had to ring first before collection, so using my mobile rather than school landline as it was a 0870 number, I tried to ring at the end of school I was directed round the usual houses (at MY not inconsiderable expense) and kept waiting listening to the most awful music and that patent lie "your call is important to us, all our operators are busy blah blah" - if my call was that important why don't they employ a reasonable number of "operators?" Anyway I finally got through to be told I couldn't collect it until after 5.30 as they had tried to redeliver today (this time neighbour's daughter in and car still on drive, but did they try next door? What do you think?) So I drove into town and killed time, then fought my way through rush hour traffic to collect the parcel, which was books from Amazon for family birthdays at the weekend. I shudder to think how much I spent on my mobile, but I also drove an extra 10 miles almost certainly cancelling out the reduction I got by buying from Amazon - and my blood pressure!!!!! I would happily pay (or when I retire, offer my services) to receive parcels and while we're at it, how about "house-sitting for the gas man for people who otherwise have to take time off work, often without pay? In the "olden" days, before so much mail was privatised my friendly village postman would either leave round the back in a dry place or take parcels back to the village post office which was also their house and I could collect at any reasonable time.Many private delivery companies will not do any more than ring the bell, briefly and put the card through the letter box. I have even heard of people who were in and all they heard was the card dropping on their mat! Why oh why is life being made so much more complicated in the name of "modernisation"? Move over Victor Meldrew I am one grumpy old woman!!!