subject: Overnight Parcel Delivery - The Graveyard Shift [print this page] While youre all tucked up and warm and cosy, dreaming of lying on a sandy beach away from the cold wet weather of the UK, spare a thought for those that are out there making it possible for you to receive that gorgeous handbag or those golden tickets to Glastonbury in the morning when you only bought them the day before. Overnight delivery is not something new to the world, after all delivery used to rely on horse and carts, shipping and messengers on foot, meaning getting something from A to B took a very long time but it is relatively new to the individual consumer.
Were officially the most spoilt generation since the birth of man; when it comes to information its at our finger tips instantly and the same goes for material things, items that we want but we dont need. The internet has meant that we refuse to wait long for anything, we want everything now and when we dont get it the service is instantly seen as sub standard. This is the drawback of the power of the World Wide Web and its a small price to pay for the freedom and knowledge it gives us.
The now expectation isnt solely reserved for access to information, its leaked into restaurant service, public transport and online shopping. Consumers expect to be greeted, seated and served immediately when they arrive at a restaurant, to wait no longer than two or three minutes for the right bus, train or tram and to be given the option of receiving the item weve ordered online to arrive on the next working day.
In order for this now culture to be possible, there has to be a serious infrastructure in place and people that are prepared to work behind the scenes and at anti-social hours. For your parcel to get to you before 12 noon on the day after you placed your order or the day after your friend or colleague posted it to you from another area of the UK, it must be packaged, labelled, shipped and delivered within a short period of time and overnight.
Its rare these days that people make the time to stop and think about anything, as long as the world keeps turning people will see it as a sign of weakness to slow down or stop, especially in the world of business and e-commerce. It would improve job satisfaction no end if people did stop and did take a minute to think of and thank all those on graveyard shifts that make it possible to send and receive urgent items.
