Delivery vans

How awful, but I can only sympathise. Yesterday, I was nearly hit by a white van that turned right onto on coming traffic (me) without looking. Fortunately I could see he was speeding up rather than slowing down at the junction.
Fortunately he also missed the two cyclists in the near side lane. In fact I don’t think he even registered their existence.

Dreadful! I read yesterday that Amazon were being sued by a US couple when their child was killed by a huge delivery truck running into the back of their vehicle. The problem is really our 'instant' society wanting deliveries the same day - the drivers are under such pressure to meet their targets that safety often goes out the window.

I hope your daughter manages to get her car mended again and the drivers insurance pays up!

It’s not only vans. One of he smaller “truck type lorries” damaged the wing mirror of my daughters brand new small camper . They were driving opposite directions of a narrowish road and she pulled right on to the side and stopped and he sped past and banged onto her. Too fast to get his number and it’s not his vehicle so he doesn’t care. Her sister was right behind her in her car and he nearly hit her too. If it’s not your vehicle why would you give a toss! It makes me angry for her .

It’s no excuse, I know that, but they are on an incredibly tight schedule. I don’t know which company you’re dealing with, but some of the ones we use, give an hours time slot, and given traffic problems, that’s probably not always easy to achieve.

I think we are all partly to blame, we want everything faster and cheaper, without a thought as to how it’s achieved. It’s absolutely no excuse for the way your daughter was treated Gillyknits, but the pressure they are under is huge, and of course, if you get one inconsiderate driver, it gives the whole company a bad reputation.

A couple of months ago a delivery van reversed into my husband's car. My husband was stationary at the time as the van driver was trying to turn in the road in front of him. He hit the front of our car so hard his back wheels ended up on the bonnet! The entire thing was caught on our dashcam, so my husband contacted the company and sent them a copy of the footage. They were amazing – told my husband to take the car to a repair place of his choice and then (before the work got done) transferred the money into our bank account. When the repair shop started the work, they found more damage than expected, but a call to the company and they instantly paid the extra costs. They said the driver would be made to repay them out of his wages – it will take the poor bloke years to pay it back but maybe it will be a good lesson.

oh no! I am sick of "blame the consumer" we didn`t ask for plastic,,, and usually the "quick delivery" is offered by the seller, rather than asked for in the first place.

come on! I am on a revolution to stop blaming/charging the consumer for everything!

My car was damaged (sill had to be replaced, £1000) because of 2 illegally parked delivery van/lorry on opposite sides of the small one-way street I was turning into, (one overhanging my corner) scraping their tail gate which I couldn't see as it was 6 inches off the ground. Fortunately my no-claims is insured. I recommend the no-claims insurance as an accident involving an illegally parked car is perceived by insurance companies as the same as an accident involving a legally parked car. Apparently I should've been watching the static tailgate instead of looking for on-coming traffic!

The insurance companies always pay up. These delivery companies must have absolutely enormous insurance payments because of their incompetent drivers. The trouble is, that if they hit an older car then it’s just written off. It could have had five more years of driving left in it.

Polnan

We have a business that sends out a lot of parcels, the customer usually wants it yesterday, and within minutes of the hour time slot for delivery passing, they are on the phone demanding to know when they will get their delivery.

I know that the drivers don’t always behave responsibly, sometimes they’re well out of order, but most of them are decent blokes, working under very stressful conditions.

This is a direct consequence of shopping online; so many commercial vehicles are unsuited to domestic deliveries because they are too big, and so many residential roads have insufficient parking for the residents. These large vans are equally unsuited to country roads and lanes and narrow city streets, but are under immense pressure from the consumer to deliver goods within unrealistic time limits.
Shop in the supermarkets rather than have groceries delivered and visit the High Street and arrange to collect goods from pick up points rather than home delivery.

Around here the delivery vans don't even bother to park, they just stop in the middle of the road, completely blocking any other traffic that comes along.

I agree, to an extent, that online shopping has a lot to answer for, but the shops here are limited, and I won't spend my time off travelling by bus to outlets and malls (or whatever they're called!)

Does she have legal cover included in her policy? Could she try claiming for uninsured losses?

My SIL works for Asda and all their delivery vans have cameras strategically placed so their drivers have evidence that they have hit something. There are consequences for them if they are at fault and, as they are on very one sided contracts, they can stop getting shifts very easily. Twice my SIL has had complaints about his driving, including the 'fact' that he just drove off. Video footage showed that on each occasion there was no damage and that he had pulled up a little further along the road, to avoid congestion, and walked back to ensure there was no damage. He also took photographs to ensure that there could be no conflict about the amount or absence of damage. In both cases the people tried to exaggerate what had happened which would have really reflected badly on my SIL if it had been as they had said.
As for the time limits, he spends more time sitting on the side of the road waiting to deliver his groceries as he is not allowed to deliver early. He rarely has to rush anywhere. He'd give it up in a heartbeat if he could. Most of his customers are lovely but he has had some really awful ones who have denied ever receiving their goods which happens frequently on the poorer estates in blocks of flats.

I agree with a lot of comments, but I also feel that we can’t go back, we’ve just got to try and improve things, don’t ask me how, but I think home delivery is here to stay!

Icanhandthemback
I sympathise with your son in law, they can’t even try and get ahead, we have a lot of drivers hanging around because they can’t start scanning.

We live in a lovely rural area and my elderly neighbours were looking after their sons little old dog while they were on holiday. A delivery driver ran over him twice! He did not bother and drove off waving his arms saying ‘no time, no time’. Fortunately he was followed and he was blocked in on our drive and we managed to get his details We reported him to the company he was delivering for - A....n! I believe he was sacked and the company stopped using this courier. This did nothing for the shock of what happened to the little dog to the family. The trouble is that they are paid per drop and are always in a hurry. Disgraceful.

Shropshirelass

That’s awful, I’m glad you managed to stop him.

No excuses at all, but I’m always surprised they aren’t involved in more incidents, it’s unreasonable to expect anyone to be somewhere at a set time with today’s traffic

Eazybee I wish I didn't have to use delivery & shop on-line. But we have no shops within walking distance. To travel into nearest Town on the bus is horrendously expensive (not old enough for a free bus pass) & I cannot carry heavy bags. Taxi not sure about the fare as the last time I had one home from local Railway Station was 3 years ago & that cost me £15 (cheapest I've ever paid).

Have you tried carrying an ironing board home by bus?

A lot of the goods I buy on-line are not available in local stores.

My nearest Click & Collect or Delivery Drop Off & Collection is almost 4 miles away which means a car journey.

Nearest Post Office with a limited service is almost a mile away, need to go further afield if I need a greater range of services.

On-line shopping won't go away, without a car I couldn't reach my nearest large Supermarkets 7 miles away

Understand OP frustration.

Just about 18 months ago, took delivery of 'new to me' car and parked it outside my cottage. It was dark and the car is black. Two hours later there was a Tesco delivery to a house at the end of my no-exit road. My immediate neighbour confirmed that the delivery truck backed up the lane very fast and turned into the farm lane between our dwellings and turned right to exit just where my car was parked. Obviously he did not see my car.

As I am a light sleeper, I know that no other vehicle came into or out of the lane that night.

Imagine my dismay when I found the truck had hit my car white makes and large dents in the rear inside bumper.

Tesco would not take responsibility and would not investigate the condition of their vehicle although they had issued an accident note with the Truck details.

Cost was not enough to warrant an Insurance claim (my excess is £500), so it took me months to pay the ensuing Bill. Guess where I never shop these days. Ghastly company.

A fortnight ago I was getting my parking ticket out of the machine when this chap started reversing very erratically
and went into the side of a brand new Audi car.
I was stopped in my steps , just couldn't believe it .
He saw me watching and shouted "I better leave my details because if I don't you will". I must admit I memorised his registration until I got back to my car and jotted it down.
I just wondered if I hadn't witnessed it would he of just drove off??Hope there were cameras.

There is an assumption by some posters that everyone has a car, or that buying online is because of laziness. Do tell me how I can collect a large parcel from a collection point on foot? Or carry home four or five bags of shopping on a bus, followed by a half-mile walk from the bus-stop, some of it up a steep hill? Ten or twenty years ago I might have managed it, but not now. That is why I buy online, and have my purchases delivered.

I ordered something on line ... I wasn't in a hurry for it and chose standard delivery. Heard nothing after six days, but I was totally relaxed about it and didn't bother chasing it up. Finally got an email saying it would be delivered in the afternoon and was working in the front garden at that time. I popped inside for a cuppa, leaving the door on the chain as the cat was out, and when I went back outside my package was lying in the middle of the lawn. Looked on line and according to them the driver had "handed it" to the customer. I couldn't help but wonder if he'd just chucked it over the gate and legged it. Fortunately there was nothing breakable in there...!

I’m with you Elegran. I don’t drive either and it’s impossible to get a weeks shopping home on the bus. I work and the small shops in the village are closed by the time I’m home so online shopping is the only option open to me. My brother often takes me but when he’s working he can’t so I either go without food for a week or shop online!

I'd rather go on to town to shop but as I'm in a wheelchair and have two young girls it's not an easy task. For larger or heavy items I need delivery or we would go without. We are also very rural.

The drivers really need to take more care when driving, despite tight schedules.