I’m feeling the same way about UPS now. Our driver has been holding our deliveries until the end of the day, so the wine has been sitting on the truck for 12 hours before we get it. I had 2 “2 hour delivery” windows to use up, so I put them on 2 shipments I was supposed to receive last Friday. One of the shipments ended up being postponed until Monday. The other was delivered close to the end of the time window on Friday, and the delivery person asked my husband what was in the box. The driver was mad when my husband said “wine”. The same driver refused to carry a case to our back door the previous week when my husband wasn’t home. Since I can’t lift a case of wine, I was on my front landing bringing in 2 bottles at a time. Never had an issue with my previous drivers.
That sucks…I’m going on two days no tracking updates from FedEx as well. It’s kind of a pain in the ask.
I get so much wine delivered there that they already know to set my stuff aside. But when Ground delivers to a Fedex store, it doesnt show as ready for delivery, they just leave it there.
Mine does; it says ready for pickup.
Ditto
A little tracking app comes up in the UPS app that pinpoints the driver location during the delivery window. I watch them jump all over my neighborhood, and they don’t end up delivering until the end if the day. The only thing I can think of is that the software routes it later in the day because it has to be signed. Perhaps their stats show earlier delivery lead to stickers on the door. Of course, that does not answer the fake delivery attempts but I think that is driver avoidance and they don’t want to be bothered that day. Especially if no stickers is left on your door.
Try signing up for text messages.
It’s definitely driver dependent. We have the same guy now for the past year and when he first started our route he did a fake delivery attempt THREE TIMES for the same box, which wouldve been sent back!
Fortunately I saw him driving away after the third attempt and chased him down the street. When he stopped I asked him why, he lied and said he rang the doorbell. When I told him that was a lie, he just lamely said “sorry” and we’ve not had an issue since. So frustrating.
Yea. They all suck. Recently had a Fed ex guy, as he was handing over my case of wine, drop the box on to a muddy ground. Fortunately, it was well packed and nothing broke. I’ve also had instances of Fed ex just dropping off wine without signing. UPS isn’t any better.
Whether someone is an employee or independent contractor is statute-specific, and thus state-law-specific, (you can be an IC for one purpose and an employee for another), but this is neither generally nor broadly true.
Drivers are not ICs: Slayman v. FedEx Ground Package Sys., Inc., 765 F.3d 1033 (9th Cir. 2014) (Oregon law); Alexander v. FedEx Ground Package Sys., Inc., 765 F.3d 981 (9th Cir. 2014) (CA law); Huggins v. FedEx Ground Package Sys., Inc., 592 F.3d 853 (8th Cir. 2010) (MO law); Estrada v. FedEx Ground Package Sys., Inc., 154 Cal. App. 4th 1, 64 Cal. Rptr. 3d 327 (2007) (CA law).
Drivers specifically might not be, but they work for an IC. Most trucks say the contractor’s name on the side. But that was only tangential to my point which is every driver is different and many drivers don’t pull shenanigans like this, while others do.
You didn’t read the cases, which is fine, but again, this is incorrect. In each cited case, the defendant was Fed Ex and in each FED EX’S DRIVER were held to be employees, not contractors.
It’s of course possible that the drivers in your neighborhood are contractors. I have no insight into that.
I do worker’s’ comp litigation. I can 100% assure you that the drivers in Georgia are employees of independent contractors. Their status as drivers makes no difference under the IRS rules, DOL rules, pr state rules.
This happened to me a lot when we first moved in 2022, including times where I am watching the truck drive by without stopping as the ‘you’re not home’ email arrives. Found a way to contact the local station. Long story short, I read the riot act to the station manager who called the driver and had him return 30 min later and wouldn’t look me in the eye as I signed for it. Never happened since. For some reason no issue with UPS in these parts.
Our FedEx driver here in Frederick is great. We’ve come to an agreement to leave boxes on the porch without the signature. As long as she’s working that day.
One of my recurring issues are some wineries just can’t follow simple directions.
On the other hand, UPS delivery windows are completely worthless, even the projected day is usually wrong. Then they want to scan my driver’s license.
Happen to me last week. Watched the map and saw them in the next neighborhood over so I sat in the office aside of the front door. Got the text that it was undeliverable. Not surprisingly it was raining.
Few years ago I video’d a Fedex Ground driver driving past my house and in real time received the “recipient unavailable or business closed” email. I called Fedex and they couldn’t care less.
I must be living a charmed life. Both FedEx and UPS around here are very reliable. If I wont be home, there’s a Walgreens 3 miles away and a UPS store half a mile away.
The last time I wasn’t home for a wine shipment to my home, my FedEx guy left me a note saying he took it to Walgreens.
I had this happen 1 time this year but the other 15+ packages have shown up as ready for pickup once it reaches the fedex store. Unless I ship it directly to the fedex store, then it shows “delivered”. Again, probably variable and I don’t see it getting better anytime soon, only worse.
I have my wine delivered to work now.
I had this happen to my engagement ring and I called support and they made the driver loop back around at the end of the day. I’ve had delivery windows from 10am-5pm and then it not deliver at all. I’ve learned my lesson… always have it delivered to a local FedEx or work (I’m at work a lot more than home).