Why FedEx is not knocking at your door

It has happened three times this year. I ordered something online, they shipped it by FedEx and the driver just dropped it off at my porch without even bother knocking my door, even when it was evident there were people in the house.

This is unconfirmed, but I overheard two FedEx drivers talking between them, one telling the other a third driver had the record of effective deliveries at his route, with a hundred-forty-something deliveries in one day. After I thought of it, it made sense of the way FedEx delivers to my address. The only way they can achieve such high goals is by avoiding wasting time having the customers sign for accepting deliveries.

Let's do some math. Let's say an average park-drop off-continue routine takes the driver only one minute, that is, without knocking, talking with the customer and getting the signature. If you sum these, they will add up an average 4 minutes to their routine.

Let's suppose an 8 hours working schedule. If we take off the time driving around, of let's say 5 hours, it would leave 3 effective hours for deliveries. Now, if the whole delivery process takes only one minute, it would allow them, in theory, make 180 deliveries per day. Now, if the process took 5 minutes, that would reduce their effectivity to only 36 deliveries a day. Of course, this calculation is very simple and many other influencing parameters should be considered for getting a more real estimate, but anyway it somewhat illustrates my point.

I suspect FedEx's management is fully aware of it, and they maybe encourage (or a least suggest) their drivers to simply drop off the packages at the door and run away to the next. Even if the package is lost or stolen, their calculated costs of dealing with the angry customer and/or the careless shipper is much lower than not reaching their daily delivery levels. It's simple benefit-cost math, the lower the effectiveness in deliveries the higher the number of trucks and drivers they need to fulfill their goals; and that's much more expensive than paying the cost of replacing that $100 crap you purchased online or even the cost of being the second largest parking violator in San Francisco.

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