50 Times Disappointment With Deliveries Couldn’t Be Described With Words

It’s wild to think just how much stuff we humans keep shipping around the world every single day. In 2023 alone, a jaw-dropping 356 billion packages made their way from warehouses to doorsteps. That’s like every single person on Earth getting about 44 packages each in a year! And get this: by 2028, that number is expected to skyrocket to nearly 500 billion parcels zooming across the globe. So yeah, the delivery guy isn’t resting anytime soon.

And it’s not just boxes bouncing around, it’s big bucks, too. Global shipping is booming, pulling in an eye-watering $1.02 trillion in revenue in 2022 alone. And experts say that’s just the beginning: by 2028, it’s predicted that this mega-industry will rake in about $1.5 trillion.

But with billions of boxes flying around, let’s be honest, things are bound to go hilariously sideways sometimes. Packages vanish into thin air, boxes arrive looking like they survived a tornado, or they end up on someone else’s porch entirely. To find out what really happens behind the scenes, we spoke to Ashok Chahun, a seasoned delivery partner from India with over eight years in the game and plenty of stories to tell.

“People think it’s always our fault when something is late,” Ashok says. “But come on, your new phone is coming all the way from Europe! It’s stuck in customs, then stuck in a warehouse, then I finally get it days later. By the time it’s my turn to deliver, everyone’s already mad at me. All I do is pick it up at the pack station and drop it at your door. I don’t control ships or planes!”

Traffic jams and crazy weather are the daily enemies of every delivery hero. “I don’t know how people expect us to magically appear at their doorstep during a thunderstorm,” Ashok laughs. “In big cities, we battle traffic jams that can turn a 5-minute trip into an hour-long crawl. And yet people call every five minutes: ‘Where are you? Why so late?’ Well, I’m stuck behind 200 cars and a cow crossing the street, give me a minute!”

And then there are the ‘I paid extra!’ folks. “People love to yell, ‘I paid for express delivery!’ But what can we do if the vendor hands it over late?” Ashok says. “They expect miracles. Some people even threaten or scream at us like we’re sitting on their package for fun. Newsflash: if it’s late leaving the warehouse, we can’t teleport it to you!”

So how do drivers handle all the yelling and blaming? Training! “We actually get trained for this stuff,” Ashok shares. “How to stay calm, how to handle angry customers, when to explain and when to just nod and say sorry. Most of the time, people just want to vent and we’re the only ones they see in person, so we take the heat.”

But when things really blow up? “If a situation gets out of hand, like if someone gets aggressive, we call our supervisors right away,” Ashok says. “They can talk to the customer, fix things, or sometimes just reschedule the delivery altogether. No package is worth a fistfight!”

Of course, Ashok admits not every delivery fail is the customer’s imagination. “Sometimes drivers mess up,” he shrugs. “Like, if your house is on the way home, a few people sneak in a quick pit stop to drop off their own groceries or pick up lunch. It’s not professional and it slows everyone else’s deliveries down.”

And then there’s the not-so-cool side hustle. “Once in a while, someone uses the company van to run personal errands like dropping off laundry or picking up their kids,” Ashok says. “They think nobody notices. But trust me, the GPS and cameras notice everything!”