[Closed] Yodel vs DPD

This bodes well for my new sim racing wheel/pedals that arrived at my local DPD depot a few hours ago :o)

(Although writing that ^^^ is probably the kiss of death for seeing my new toy today)

DPD sound a good company.  I met a driver recently on a flight, said he really enjoyed the job and was treated well.  If anyone is looking for work apparently you buy into the franchise at 1300, of which 1000 is a bond for the van.  That gives you a van and uniform, you do the rest. Apparently they are always looking for new drivers.

I've got the feeling that Yodel is getting better, from a very poor start. I've not had any problems with delivery in the last year or so.

DPD are awesome - their estimate of when something is delivered is accurate and you can track the driver via the webpage -

Yodel vs DPD

Definitely an away win

DPD are fantastic but I have never had an issue with Yodel always spot on.

executive.complaints@vx.yodel.co.uk

Just downloaded the DPD app - it is absolutely awesome! I can see my driver on a map, what delivery number he's onto, what delivery number I am and the estimated delivery time. Well played DPD

In our old place I was on first name terms with both DPD and Yodel drivers (ahem). I got the impression that the Yodel driver did a good job despite the organisation whereas the DPD guy did a good job because of the organisation.

DPD's information push is very good.

I detest yodel, if I know a company uses them I will only purchased if its cheap enough compared to the competition to be worth the inevitable hassle.

last delivery, waited in all day, tracked driver and suddenly the delivery status changed to the 'you were out we left a message' status... IM'd them straight away to get the 'the missed delivery card can be anywhere on you property' from 'Danielle'

really, 'don't you use the letter box' said I

'the missed delivery card can be anywhere on the property'

so I asked Danielle if it was a challenge, and did I win a prize if I found it, maybe he had stapled it to the cat to make things super hard?

Danielle had no sense of humour and cut me off for being offensive.

Roll on twenty four hours and I tracking it again all day, tracking says I'm next so I walk out and watch the delivery driver stop at my neighbours 100 yards up the hill (we live in the country) and dump my parcel there, so I roar at him as he tries to drive past me. The cheeky ****er tries to blame the sat nav despite the neighbour having a massive number painted on a stone by her gate and tells me its round the back of her house so I make him reverse back up the hill to get it.

I asked him if he tried to deliver there yesterday, he said No then realised he'd caught himself out. twunts

I hate them beyond what is reasonable

I share your sentiments.

I've had lengthy battles with them several times trying to explain that "left in a safe, secure place" is not synonymous with "abandoned on a main road in plain view somewhere in the same postcode."

I know some people pretty high up in DPD and they are a great company.

They are struggling to distinguish themselves now that other providers are starting to give you tracking and hourly delivery slots etc so keep an eye on their app. That is seeing more updates and better interation as it's also extremely cheap for them to utilize compared to text messages etc.

A lot of the complaints DPD handle are because the person shipping the parcel messes up the delivery address. Garbage in gives Garbage out.

DPD win every time for me

DPD are great. Martin always delivers to us, and always leaves it where we ask (same place).   Their app is good, and you can change delivery point (i.e. safe place). You at least know when to expect it as it also shows you how many more deliveries there are before you, and where the van is.  They have a surprising amount of deliveries in a small area.

I even caught the driver at the end of the road once, as the delivery was signed for and I was on my way out. Provided ID and was able to pick up the package (a phone).

Probably better to have GPS tracking on the dustbin lorry if it's Yodel 😉

Most likely delivery day is gonna be bin collection day, and the wheelie bin is quite a safe place for parcels, where they're out of sight of preying eyes 😉

DPD guy walked down my road in 8 inches of snow to deliver frozen dog food because he wasn't sure his van would make it back up my road.

That's dedication, I was expecting them just to cancel delivery considering I live on a private road.

DPD have made use of the technology available and offered it to the customer, a great company.

Yodel have made use of not giving a shit and passing it on to the customer.

We have a great local yodel lady here. I think her hard work and sensible decision making means that it works for us. Would still be better with DPD style timings though.

Thought about working for yodel once and with some searching and Workers reviews on the company its safe to say it's a terrible company, My experience with DPD is excellent and the drivers seem to enjoy there job.

Dpd are excellent never once had a problem with them. Yodel slower with delivery and not as accurate, but not had a problem yet!

FedEx however Managed to get my bike from Wheelbase in Staveley, it got to Rochdale hub then went up to bloody Middlebrough as it was missorted and delayed the delivery. It eventually got to Blackburn three days late. Morons.

DPD are great - I don’t understand why so many retailers don’t make more of a play out of the fact they use them.

My heart always sinks when a despatch email arrives to tell me the item’s been sent by Royal Mail, interlink or dhl as it almost always means faffing round and having to drive 5-10 miles to my “local” depot to collect the parcel they couldn’t organise themselves to deliver.

Probably depends a lot on the driver rather than the company.  I always seem to get the same DPD guy and he's been great so far.  They always leave parcels hidden well out of sight if I'm out and upload photo as evidence.

Had a Yodel delivery the other day.  Good comms and tracking counting down the number of drops till my delivery. Timing was spot-on.

both useless and liars in my experience.  Saying they have attempted delivery and left a card when they have not.

Yodel is the worst but DPD have let us down in this way 3 times recently and lied about it

My most recent DPD experience couldn't have been further from the one described above..

Ordered set of 4 winter tyres on Monday, specifically said in the note "DO NOT deliver to neighbour" (she is an elderly neighbour and I didn't want her having to sign for 4 great big tyres for me. The online retailer said it would take up to 72 hours for the parcel to become active on the DPD tracker/app as the tyres come direct from reseller in Germany.

Fast forward from Monday to yesterday afternoon, still not active in the app, but when I get home there's a slip that just says "37" (my neighbour). Low and behold she has two great big 255/35 19 inch tyres in her narrow hallway. Dickheads. They completely ignored the request, didn't get a signature, didn't activate the parcel to track and only delivered 2 of the 4 tyres! Poor show.

Both rubbish, DPD used to be good but recent experiences tell me they’ve gone downhill

Yip dpd best delivery company by about 40 miles. Yodel, Hermes are blinking rotten though. Yodel languishing right at the relegation spot.

DPD have taken advantage of technology while no other company has to anywhere near the same level.  It is good for the customer but also good for DPD as they spend less time delivering to an empty house by giving you a lot of opportunity to change the delivery (right up until an hour before).

They are also so accurate in their timings that I can go to work and just go home for lunch to catch them (they are not allowed to deliver earlier tan the stated time so as long as home before it it works.

I know the head of Personnel at Yodel.

Don't think there is any consideration for recipients of parcels. The bottom line seems to be the over riding consideration. I won't use them and give an involuntary shudder if I'm told that they are delivering to me.

DPD have always been great.

Something to think on with DPD coming up to Christmas... if your local collection point is a MATALAN... people, lots of people love shopping in Matalan for Christmas. Don't get your parcels dropped there unless you like standing behind old biddies whinging on about the length of the queue, even when they're near the front of the queue, going ooh  look how long it is now oh yeah doreen look at all those unmanned tills  why don't they get more people serving its all those parcel pick ups they do now people don't even buy something from the shop they comeinhere withtheirphonesyoucantelltheyarejusttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttaaaaaaaaaaaargghgh

DPD have lost two high value items in the last month. One did turn up two weeks later at a random Marks and Spencer store in another town (one of their employees dropped it off on their way home in a true example of "above and beyond") and the other is still missing.

Yodel on the other hand have been spot on recently.

The most reliable service I've ever used is Royal Mail Special Delivery.

Dave from DPD is excellent.

Shaved baboon from Yodel is proof that IQ in the left bottom of the bell curve is all that's needed to operate the trebuchet.

If Yodel improved their performance by 100% then their improvement would be negligible. What with such a low base.

I run an online business from home - I buy stuff from quite a few suppliers and prefer ones who use DPD - my local driver is ace and they've never missed a delivery slot. I haven't had any problems (yet) sending stuff RM and once I get enough volume (and discount) I'll be using them as a supplier. Our local Hermes guy is OK too.

What I despair with is Amazon by the number of abandoned, empty boxes I encounter in far-flung places that leads me to believe that Amazon employ quite a few, shall we say less than honest drivers.

I'd be interested to see the stats about the first time completion rate for couriers because it must be driving up road traffic/ congestion - we should be forcing them to collaborate to create fulfilment centres in towns / workplaces that allow 24 hour access like Amazon lockers rather than delivering stuff to empty residential properties, taking them back to depots and back again. 40% of retail properties are empty / redundant - stuff could be delivered overnight and people could collect stuff at their leisure.

Yodel have the bestest tracking system on their website.

Hard to beat something that times out as soon as you've entered the tracking details

I found out recently Yodel stands for Your Delivery... ironic really

I just web chatted to tell them tracking was broken. They gave me the driver's telephone number. Bit odd, how is he supposed to fit phone calls into his day of dropping off 2000 parcels? But then I closed the web chat without writing his number down. Doh!

DPD "proper" are great - the ones with the red logo, amazing tracking system etc.

DPD Local (blue logo) = rebranded Interlink Express. Dire, but still better than...

Yodel = should be expunged from the planet. With fire.

IME it really does depend on the driver. We're out in the country, one of three houses around an old farmyard, and it's a case of "You weren't in so I left it in XXX or with your neighbour". The Yodel driver lives in the nearby village, he'll ring up (mobile number is on delivery note) and if it needs signing for he'll do it and leave it in a safe place if no-one's about. The only company we've ever had problems with were the now gladly shut down CityLink.

dpd failed to deliver a perishable parcel and left it at a collection point without leaving a card - then lied that a card had been left.  Yodels local guy can find my flat.  DPD cannot.

Yodel are utter, utter, utter, utter shite.....

DPD used to be woeful - I had a biggish order from Bike Discount a few years ago whch they left outside the front door in full view of everyone. It was worth a few hundred quid - thanks. However, now they seem to be very very good - accurate times, deliver to a safe place etc.

Yodel seem OK but have been a bit hit and miss. My Herpes is the worst though - our local driver is a sod for not leaving cards, she doesn't come back the the next day etc. Useless.

It's DHL this time - email to say they'd deliver between 14h45 & 15h45 yesterday. Then the O2 outage hits and we get a message to say the driver is delayed. At 18h20 last evening we get another email to say that the parcel was delivered at 14h55 and signed for with our surname. Now, I was in at 14h55 because we were expecting said parcel and nothing was delivered or signed for by me (the missus was out walking the dog!) - twunts!

With all of the courier companies I think a lot depends on your local driver. We know most of ours pretty well but when they go on holiday it can all fall apart.

Dpd every time. Why are Hermes still in business???

DPD for the win never had an issue with them . Hermes and Yodel use individuals who drive round in cars rammed to the hilt with parcels so much so they can not see clearly out of their passenger window. They will just leave the parcels anywhere even in sight of people walking past. Wife has had a couple of parcels go missing with hermes. Royal Mail are up against it with their hands tied behind their backs with the USO and having to deliver the competitors mail their technology is finally getter better with their Tracked 24/48 service very good.

DPD have always been spot on - tracking is great etc, never had any issue with Hermes tbh.
But Yodel - these buffoons take incompetence to another level.
I purchsed a couple of items from the US via ebay - using their Global shipping programme - which is 'sposed to speed up th ewhole process as paying customs charges at the same time as shipoing fees.
They have 4 UK couriers - DPD, Hermes, Parcel Force and Yodel - unfortunatley the later were entrusted with my consignment !
Anyhow I was able to track the delivery from the USD through Customs then via a couple a depots to my local depot within 2 miles from my house and then back to the airport WTF ??
Well it's easier having an audience with the Pope than actually speaking to anyone at this shambolic setup - finally after hours of them informing me via this ludicrous webchat thing they have that they had no record they finally conceded it was in Deryshire and would I like the address to collect from there which entails a 200 mile round trip or they'll send it back to the US - you couldn't make it up.
Ebay's response is that they've got a month to resolve and then I may get a refund !!!
If I'd know that these incompetent shower had the possibiliity of (mis) handling my purchase I simply wouldn't have bothered !!!

Yodel, right. So if their website had been working properly last week I could've arranged to collect from the local depot, which it turns out is only a 5 min drive from my work! But no, it wasn't working until Friday. So I logged on then and said I'd pick up to the depot. I get an email confirming pickup between Monday 10th and Friday 14th. In the meantime they've tried 3 deliveries and left a final (orange) card, which says I can now pick up from the depot.
Gotta be simple that, I'll drive to work Monday and pick it up and do a shop at lunchtime as I've got the car... I get to the depot, which isn't signposted any-bleedin-where. And bloke stops his indoor football game in the warehouse, takes my card, disappears. Comes back, mutters something, goes up stairs, comes back with another fella and they explain that the orange card means it's with a courier not back at the depot.. eh? So I still haven't got it. Apparently it'll be dropped round tonight...
Simples.

Orders a heating element for my oven from Spares UK on Thursday evening at 8pm, got a message from DPD early Friday morning to say it was on its way to their Carlisle depot, Ian the driver then delivered to me (70 miles away) at 1pm.

17hrs to travel door to door from somewhere down south to deepest Scottish Borders. Impressive stuff.

Bearing in mind that Yodel just left a parcel in our front garden, no fence or anything around it to hide it in anyway. Someone was home all the time, no notification through the door and no email or text message, I'd not be recommending them either right now!

Try not to be too harsh: almost all these people are self-employed and with the entire global retail and logistics markets yelling at them to go quicker. They're being run ragged by apps and overwork. They're given ridiculously large numbers of items to deliver and no-one could possibly do them all.

Got my Yodel parcel 😀 Yay!

Just here for a rant about myhermes... utterly, utterly useless.

Got a notification that my ebay order was being delivered to the click & collect point yesterday, the shop said, that they rejected as they don't accept myhermes deliveries... checked the parcel tracking... it said contact us - no clear way how to do that, have spend 1hr 30 on their online chat, having been cut off once, they've now told me they can't change the delivery address unless it's in the same post code & that it'll take up to 28 hours before they get a response from their driver.

utterly, utterly useless.

Apart from the 40 parcels they've delivered for me without a single hitch.