Rural shipping to Range Road/Twp Rd address

[Puma]

Anyone else have trouble having items shipped to a rural address ?

Alberta has set up a rural address system that is pretty easy to understand, numbered range roads run north/south and township roads run east/west.

You can even put these addresses into Google maps or GPS units and it will show you exactly where they are.

I really wonder why international couriers like DHL cannot find these?

I had a package shipped from England, and it arrived in the Calgary sorting plant on Sunday, cleared customs on Monday and DHL has been trying for four days to get it to my address which is 40 minutes away from their plant ? When I called yesterday, they couldnt tell me where the package was so I could go pick it up....

Any suggestions?

[fish_e_o]

there was a home invasion at a house by me the the rcmp couldn't find the house for over an hour.

given that i'm not surprised dhl can't get it right

[CNP]

Can't get UPS to deliver to my house in Crowsnest Pass. An uncompetitive, inefficient, useless company. Whenever I am in control over choosing the method of delivery, UPS is not considered.

[Masterchief]

Originally Posted by fish_e_o

there was a home invasion at a house by me the the rcmp couldn't find the house for over an hour.

given that i'm not surprised dhl can't get it right

We had to change our rural address so that emergency services could quickly be dispatched to the correct location. We called an ambulance and they drove 20 minutes on the other side of the river before realizing there was no bridge there... luckily it was not a life threatening event

[Puma]

We live one quarter section off of a major secondary highway. I see FedEx, DHL, & UPS trucks on the road all the time.

I wonder if they are all just lost ....

The gal at the call center (Toronto) told me they use Google maps for their directions but in Alberta and Sask, "Google maps are not very accurate"

"We are not sure when your delivery will be there"

[Tannerdog]

I've had issues with this before as well. Ended up getting courier shipments to a business address in the nearest town. Most have depots you can deliver to. Most courier companies don't deliver to rural addresses to keep their trucks/drivers from touring all over the country side for a few buck delivery charge. Or get lost or stuck or.....

[Albertaktm]

I live on Lac St Anne on an acreage and there is a local agent in Onoway that all the couriers ship to. I give me municipal address when I order something and it automatically gets sent to the agent. About a 10 minute drive. If someone ships via Canada Post, I give them the drive through parcel pick up location in west Edmonton. It's pretty handy. I've had stuff make it from New York to Edmonton in a few days then take a week to go the last 55 km. The local agent and drive through have eliminated this

[FCLightning]

I keep putting it in there on the hopes that one of these times they will actually ship to it. It comes up on both Google and Apple maps so not sure why they can't find it to deliver to it.

[DevilsAdvocate]

Originally Posted by FCLightning

I keep putting it in there on the hopes that one of these times they will actually ship to it. It comes up on both Google and Apple maps so not sure why they can't find it to deliver to it.

Same issue on getting deliveries to our acreage...which is simple to find and only a few miles from town.

So the reasons are:
1) Laziness
2) Illiterate...tech or language
3) Great way to claim attempted delivery and take the afternoon off
4) Wages reflect quality of workers

Gave up on getting deliveries.....just focusing on trying to get consistent Canada Post mail....which recently seems like a challenge for them.

[Jack Hardin]

UPS will deliver to our place but Fed X will not deliver to a rural address and I end up driving up to Red Deer to pick up any packages, a return route of over 60 kms. Anything from Amazon.ca comes by courier however, I now use the Drug Store Post office address in Innisfail and they then come via Canada Post.

[KegRiver]

Couriers won't deliver to our address. We are too far from town they say.

We don't even get rural mail delivery here. Just one of those dang super boxes and it's 12 miles from where we live.

We had to set up a deal with a business in town to accept our courier deliveries. We've had problems with that too. But nothing serious, just delayed delivery on a few things.

[waterninja]

Originally Posted by Puma

Anyone else have trouble having items shipped to a rural address ?

Alberta has set up a rural address system that is pretty easy to understand, numbered range roads run north/south and township roads run east/west.

You can even put these addresses into Google maps or GPS units and it will show you exactly where they are.

I really wonder why international couriers like DHL cannot find these?

I had a package shipped from England, and it arrived in the Calgary sorting plant on Sunday, cleared customs on Monday and DHL has been trying for four days to get it to my address which is 40 minutes away from their plant ? When I called yesterday, they couldnt tell me where the package was so I could go pick it up....

Any suggestions?

My suggestion would be to have any future pkgs. sent to the same place you pick up your mail.
This fall I was sitting outside the post office in Manning AB. It was so busy that I thought there was some sort of event or sale going on. After talking to one of the locals I realised what should have been obvious from the start. They were picking up there mail. They don't have mailboxes or super boxes in most rural locations.
Over the last few years, I have realised from asking about land permission that a lot of residents couldn't tell you the TWP or RR they live on. It's not that there slow, they just don't give a chit.

[hal53]

Originally Posted by waterninja

My suggestion would be to have any future pkgs. sent to the same place you pick up your mail.
This fall I was sitting outside the post office in Manning AB. It was so busy that I thought there was some sort of event or sale going on. After talking to one of the locals I realised what should have been obvious from the start. They were picking up there mail. They don't have mailboxes or super boxes in most rural locations.
Over the last few years, I have realised from asking about land permission that a lot of residents couldn't tell you the TWP or RR they live on. It's not that there slow, they just don't give a chit.

try telling the land owner which 1/4 of what section . Twp and range you want to hunt, if it's his land he will know exactly which field you are talking about...acreage owners I agree, most of them know zero about how the grid system works

[Digger1]

Ordered some goodies from that good cheap dealer in Vancouver. They ship Canpar. Truck goes by our place, goes another 90 km to Lethbridge, then they call we should come and pick it up. 20 years ago I drove and later dispatched in the LTL trucking business in 10 provinces, 43 states and 5 islands, and we'd make anything work to serve our customers. Wonder how these guys stay in business!

[hunting4?]

Originally Posted by Puma

Anyone else have trouble having items shipped to a rural address ?

Alberta has set up a rural address system that is pretty easy to understand, numbered range roads run north/south and township roads run east/west.

You can even put these addresses into Google maps or GPS units and it will show you exactly where they are.

I really wonder why international couriers like DHL cannot find these?

I had a package shipped from England, and it arrived in the Calgary sorting plant on Sunday, cleared customs on Monday and DHL has been trying for four days to get it to my address which is 40 minutes away from their plant ? When I called yesterday, they couldnt tell me where the package was so I could go pick it up....

Any suggestions?

Canada Post is the only company to deliver to most of Canada. Unless the item is either very heavy or large most Courier companies use Canada post to deliver the last leg. They charge you a lot and then give it to Canada Post.

[waterninja]

Originally Posted by Digger1

Ordered some goodies from that good cheap dealer in Vancouver. They ship Canpar. Truck goes by our place, goes another 90 km to Lethbridge, then they call we should come and pick it up. 20 years ago I drove and later dispatched in the LTL trucking business in 10 provinces, 43 states and 5 islands, and we'd make anything work to serve our customers. Wonder how these guys stay in business!

I have to add another company that went out of thier way to help a custumer. HY9 trucking here in AB. They once drove a big tractor rig an extra 20 or so kilcks to deliver a small doghouse to an elderly lady who was more then willing to come into town for it anways.
Don't think they made a nickel on that delivery.

[laststopdelivery]

Originally Posted by CNP

Can't get UPS to deliver to my house in Crowsnest Pass. An uncompetitive, inefficient, useless company. Whenever I am in control over choosing the method of delivery, UPS is not considered.

try last stop delivery from pincher creek ups drop off, not a fix but its on your door step

[laststopdelivery]

I find these post interesting, I have customers that are flat refused pickup and delivery services to their rural addresses. Yet big freight fights me on delivery and pickup. I have one big freight partner that requires about 3-4 email communications for one parcel.(payment concerns for final delivery or pickup) I'm thinking the best fix will to be setup rural collection and distribution points. And for those customers that require door to door, that's where local services come in. Yes there is an added cost but you have your local guy that either knows you or can at least find you.

[reddeerguy2015]

Seen FedEx drop off a 19$ parcel from Amazon (including shipping) to my place in the country. Full sized semi delivery truck.

I liked the item, ordered another one just to see if it was a once off or if they'd deliver again....they did.

There's no way they didn't lose a pile of money delivering those stupid Amazon items. So I don't know.

Purolator certainly won't.

[Grizzly Adams]

Originally Posted by laststopdelivery

I find these post interesting, I have customers that are flat refused pickup and delivery services to their rural addresses. Yet big freight fights me on delivery and pickup. I have one big freight partner that requires about 3-4 email communications for one parcel.(payment concerns for final delivery or pickup) I'm thinking the best fix will to be setup rural collection and distribution points. And for those customers that require door to door, that's where local services come in. Yes there is an added cost but you have your local guy that either knows you or can at least find you.

UPS and DHL at least, have depots in smaller towns. Got resigned to picking up my packages long ago. Frustrating, but dependable.


Grizz

[nimrod]

UPS and Canada post are the only ones coming to our place, Fed Ex will pass the package onto Canada post, and everyone not mentioned drops all to a local business in town,