Signature required, or no signature required, that should be the question?

I’m here, waiting in for another delivery and once again, it’s a delivery that’s due ‘some time’ today! It’s the afternoon and I’ve been waiting in all day; maybe I should’ve paid for a timed delivery after all?

Whilst waiting for the familiar ding-dong of the doorbell, it’s occurred to me that I shouldn’t need to wait in for every delivery. I count myself lucky to be in a position to work from home so I can wait in all day, but should I really need to?

The item I’m waiting for cost less than £5, with the standard shipping option costing me nearly as much again, but it still includes a compulsory signature required at the delivery point. Compulsory in deed.… what if I don’t want to adjust my entire schedule, to be home all day, or perhaps even to get home for a timed delivery, when all that’s coming is a low-value item I’ve ordered online?

My house is secluded; I have a porch I can leave on the latch, there’s a shed in the front garden I can leave with the padlock undone, or I could even have a delivery drop box fitted. In fact I dare say I’d be happy with a fairly high value item being left in any of these places, as long as it was locked properly after the drop off. I can’t be alone… surely there are numerous places to securely leave an item at most peoples home with very little risk of damage or theft?

A little research on the subject shows that many of the leading carriers are starting to address this issue, with offerings such as SafePlace from Royal Mail and the ‘Leave in a safe place’ option from DPD. These both allow you to declare a suitable secure delivery location, either on a one off basis or as a general rule, allowing you to take responsibility for the safety of your own parcels.

A few other interesting solutions for home delivery include; click and collect, where items are picked up from the store, generic manned collection points in local shops and public automated locker-banks where you can have your deliveries sent to for later collection. All well and good, but is going to collect all of your deliveries really a solution? I’d say they are good alternatives to home delivery altogether, but not really a solution to the problem.

If only the retailers could give us more choice on our own delivery and whether a signature is required, or more specifically whether or not we’re willing to take responsibility for our own parcels, then I think that the online shopping and home delivery experience could be significantly improved.

Tags: signature required, signed deliveries, signing for deliveries, signing for packages, signing for parcels