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I have a green idea could it work?


colhint

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I have this idea, not for making me any money, but to help the planet a little bit.

I signed for a parcel for a neighbour the other day. I asked him how often he comes down our street, only a small street 25 houses. He told me 3 or 4 times a week. I guess there are probably a few other courier companies doing the same. So I thought that's a bit of a waste. It got me thinking. What if we made one day a week ideally but probably more realistically, one day a month, Non Prime day. It would have to apply to other online shopping, not just Amazon. I understand food and medical deliveries might be exempt.

People could still order the same stuff, but fewer times a month. It wouldn't cost business, anything as the orders would still be there, but it would mean a 3% reduction in the number of courier journeys. I know there would be more drops per day, but I think that would be more than made up in the drivers would spend less on fuel. I would think the benefits of this in major cities could be quite impressive.

Now I don't know if this is a good idea or not, and if it is, how does one push it forward. I rarely go on social media, so wouldn't really know how.

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15 minutes ago, colhint said:

I have this idea, not for making me any money, but to help the planet a little bit.

I signed for a parcel for a neighbour the other day. I asked him how often he comes down our street, only a small street 25 houses. He told me 3 or 4 times a week. I guess there are probably a few other courier companies doing the same. So I thought that's a bit of a waste. It got me thinking. What if we made one day a week ideally but probably more realistically, one day a month, Non Prime day. It would have to apply to other online shopping, not just Amazon. I understand food and medical deliveries might be exempt.

People could still order the same stuff, but fewer times a month. It wouldn't cost business, anything as the orders would still be there, but it would mean a 3% reduction in the number of courier journeys. I know there would be more drops per day, but I think that would be more than made up in the drivers would spend less on fuel. I would think the benefits of this in major cities could be quite impressive.

Now I don't know if this is a good idea or not, and if it is, how does one push it forward. I rarely go on social media, so wouldn't really know how.

I mean, it's not a bad idea, but the issue is, is that people want their stuff yesterday, so making them wait for it would be bad for them (not mentioning essentially stuff).

The other thing is, is couriers already on any given day have their vans packed, full - so they'd be out and about delivering anyway, down your street or not - that's their job, they need to deliver stuff.  And if you mean that one day a week could be "your street's delivery day", then it doesn't really work like bin day would either. 

Optimising routes is something which happens anyway (I should certainly hope!). 

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52 minutes ago, colhint said:

I have this idea, not for making me any money, but to help the planet a little bit.

I signed for a parcel for a neighbour the other day. I asked him how often he comes down our street, only a small street 25 houses. He told me 3 or 4 times a week. I guess there are probably a few other courier companies doing the same. So I thought that's a bit of a waste. It got me thinking. What if we made one day a week ideally but probably more realistically, one day a month, Non Prime day. It would have to apply to other online shopping, not just Amazon. I understand food and medical deliveries might be exempt.

People could still order the same stuff, but fewer times a month. It wouldn't cost business, anything as the orders would still be there, but it would mean a 3% reduction in the number of courier journeys. I know there would be more drops per day, but I think that would be more than made up in the drivers would spend less on fuel. I would think the benefits of this in major cities could be quite impressive.

Now I don't know if this is a good idea or not, and if it is, how does one push it forward. I rarely go on social media, so wouldn't really know how.

People have to wait longer for their stuff, that isn't going to be popular with the consumer

Probably the biggest growth in jobs recently has been the home delivery driver but the way they get paid is scandalously low already. The only people that would benefit from this approach are the companies, they'd become more efficient and employ less people and employ less people on even lower money.

 

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Like others have said, people want their stuff yesterday. What if its a part to fix a boiler? Or something for the car to help it run? Or a last minute birthday present? A new phone? People won't wait a month for that. They struggle with a day! 

My folks live in a small rural village (pop. 600 ish) and there are multiple courier drops a day - Amazon, DPD, Royal Mail, Hermes, etc. Its like a van car park sometimes! :) Most of it for my Dad and the amount of shit he buys off Prime and eBay! 

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We could have large buildings that keep the items we want.  We could put these large buildings in the centre of town.  People could travel into these areas and pick up several items at the same time.  We could call them something like "Shops". By travelling into these shops and picking up 10 items I would be cutting courier deliveries to my house by 90%.  

 

Trust me Tom.  Its a winner. 

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I've been thinking about how my loft space is absolutely baking hot like an oven all summer long.  The heat in there ought to be easily enough to heat the house throughout the winter. 

There surely ought to be some way to capture and store all that heat, or use it to generate electricity? 

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32 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I've been thinking about how my loft space is absolutely baking hot like an oven all summer long.  The heat in there ought to be easily enough to heat the house throughout the winter. 

There surely ought to be some way to capture and store all that heat, or use it to generate electricity? 

Have you tried jarring it?

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1 hour ago, sidcow said:

I've been thinking about how my loft space is absolutely baking hot like an oven all summer long.  The heat in there ought to be easily enough to heat the house throughout the winter. 

There surely ought to be some way to capture and store all that heat, or use it to generate electricity? 

As long as your loft is well insulated you're already getting the benefit of "free heat" when your houses' internal temperature drops.  

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On 26/11/2020 at 01:00, colhint said:

I have this idea, not for making me any money, but to help the planet a little bit.

I signed for a parcel for a neighbour the other day. I asked him how often he comes down our street, only a small street 25 houses. He told me 3 or 4 times a week. I guess there are probably a few other courier companies doing the same. So I thought that's a bit of a waste. It got me thinking. What if we made one day a week ideally but probably more realistically, one day a month, Non Prime day. It would have to apply to other online shopping, not just Amazon. I understand food and medical deliveries might be exempt.

People could still order the same stuff, but fewer times a month. It wouldn't cost business, anything as the orders would still be there, but it would mean a 3% reduction in the number of courier journeys. I know there would be more drops per day, but I think that would be more than made up in the drivers would spend less on fuel. I would think the benefits of this in major cities could be quite impressive.

Now I don't know if this is a good idea or not, and if it is, how does one push it forward. I rarely go on social media, so wouldn't really know how.

Not in 'free market' capitalist territory, I wouldn't think. As for the idea itself, I appreciate you sharing, though I don't really have much feedback for you. 

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As for saving fuel, Bronwyn bishop spent $5,000 at tax payer expense on an 80km helicopter ride to a political party fundraiser, that's one third of the annual income of those on the dole. I reckon we could start with that if you want to save fuel usage.

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13 hours ago, WhatAboutTheFinish said:

This suggestion coming from chrisp has record shop proprietors the country over reaching for the Xanax! 

I find out this evening if this week’s order was a success!

It’s my only vice.

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Right................let's get this courier problem sorted.  

Let's nationalise all the courier companies and form one massive company responsible for delivering mail.  This mail delivery company cold employ men on bikes to delver post each morning, just as day is dawning.  

 

Trust me Tom.  Its a winner.  

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38 minutes ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

Right................let's get this courier problem sorted.  

Let's nationalise all the courier companies and form one massive company responsible for delivering mail.  This mail delivery company cold employ men on bikes to delver post each morning, just as day is dawning.  

 

Trust me Tom.  Its a winner.  

Hmmm, I dunno, one big company, the workers could get together and insist on decent pay and working conditions.

That doesn’t sound like the best fit for the giant U.S. based non tax paying leeches.

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55 minutes ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

Right................let's get this courier problem sorted.  

Let's nationalise all the courier companies and form one massive company responsible for delivering mail.  This mail delivery company cold employ men on bikes to delver post each morning, just as day is dawning.  

 

Trust me Tom.  Its a winner.  

Maybe we could get somekind of Royal endorsement for this daily delivery service? 

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56 minutes ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

Right................let's get this courier problem sorted.  

Let's nationalise all the courier companies and form one massive company responsible for delivering mail.  This mail delivery company cold employ men on bikes to delver post each morning, just as day is dawning.  

Day is dawning? Maybe mid afternoon on a good day! 

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Between leaving college and starting a full time job I spent 2 weeks working at The Royal Mail at their parcel distribution centre in Curzon Street. 

The inefficiency was a real eye opener even for an 18 year old who had never had a proper job before. 

Basically the department I worked in had someone off on holiday.   My boss said when someone goes on holiday they have a fund to get in a temp for that period.  He said he had literally nothing for me to do but he was damned if he wasn't going to spend his temp budget. Those were his exact words. 

So I spent 2 week doing literally nothing useful. I was passed from department to department doing such tasks as drawing lines in books and fetching and carrying stuff. 

Everywhere I looked there was wastage. Another thing my boss said was that if ever they had any kind of competition they would be crucified. 

I mean just imagine how much money they must have spent on temps they didn't need annually. 

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For what it’s worth, hypothetically, if I was ordering something and after I typed in the delivery address it came up with 

“You can receive your order in two days, however we’re scheduled to deliver other goods in or near your postcode in five days time, would you like help the environment a bit and receive them then instead?”

or words to that effect, more often than not I’d select to receive my order later. 

I’m sure there are reasons why that’s difficult and impractical but anyway, it would be a feature I’d be ok with using.

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1 minute ago, sidcow said:

Between leaving college and starting a full time job I spent 2 weeks working at The Royal Mail at their parcel distribution centre in Curzon Street. 

The inefficiency was a real eye opener even for an 18 year old who had never had a proper job before. 

Basically the department I worked in had someone off on holiday.   My boss said when someone goes on holiday they have a fund to get in a temp for that period.  He said he had literally nothing for me to do but he was damned if he wasn't going to spend his temp budget. Those were his exact words. 

So I spent 2 week doing literally nothing useful. I was passed from department to department doing such tasks as drawing lines in books and fetching and carrying stuff. 

Everywhere I looked there was wastage. Another thing my boss said was that if ever they had any kind of competition they would be crucified. 

I mean just imagine how much money they must has spent on temps they didn't need annually. 

I remember seeing one of those undercover programmes, Dispatches, i think and it was at a Royal Mail sorting office in London. It was an absolute shambles. 

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