Why Home Parcel Deliveries Aren’t The Access Boon They Should Be For The Disabled

It’s highly likely that virtually every individual with a walking impairment who routinely orders goods online is familiar with the searing frustration that comes from missing a parcel delivery.

Whether it be trying not to break one’s neck descending the stairs as quickly as possible to answer the door for an early morning delivery, or unsteadily wall and furniture walking one’s way there as the bell chimes impatiently – the feeling of just missing out due to not being sufficiently nimble is always the same.

That irritating certainty that that lone piece of card lying on the doormat will read something along the lines of “Sorry to have missed you.” The abject disappointment as one scans the street hoping to spot the driver as they speed off in their van along with your parcel. The dread that the journey out to the collection point to pick up the parcel that needs to be signed for will now be 10 times lengthier, more tiring and less accessible than the process you’ve just been through.

Such experiences are not simply anecdotal but are supported by strong customer research.

Earlier this year, a survey carried out in the U.K jointly by leading consumer choice website Which? and the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers found that seven in 10 (72%) of people with disabilities reported issues with receiving parcel deliveries.

Fifty-three percent of those surveyed stated that the courier did not wait long enough for them to answer the door and 25% felt parcels were often left in an inaccessible place or that they did not receive sufficient help from the courier concerning their disability.

The latest statistics would suggest that the situation is possibly getting worse, with similar research from 2019 undertaken by Citizens Advice Bureau, identifying that two-thirds of disabled consumers had experienced problems with deliveries over the previous 12 months.

Not living up to the promise

That this remains a significant issue is a tremendous shame because home delivery services should be, and, during the Covid-19 lockdowns quite literally were, a lifeline for clinically vulnerable disabled people.

Moreover, home delivery of goods theoretically overcomes a vast number of accessibility barriers related to physical stores, such as the built environment lacking wheelchair access, shopping precincts being far away and tiring to traverse and busy retail outlets being extremely stressful and triggering for certain individuals.

In addition to not being able to answer the door in time, another pain point for the mobility impaired is parcels sometimes being left in hard-to-reach places outside the property such as on high ledges, underneath ramps or behind shrubbery.

It would, however, be inaccurate to suggest that difficulties with home deliveries only present issues for disabled people with mobility impairments.

Deaf shoppers might not be able to hear a knock on the door unless it is extremely loud, those with sight impairments may struggle to give their signature at the door and those with intellectual or communication difficulties may experience difficulties dealing with the courier.

Equally, not knowing precisely when a delivery might arrive and therefore being able to prepare themselves accordingly can be a challenge for those with anxiety disorders.

Lines of communication

In essence, this all boils down to the same core issue – life would be orders of magnitude easier for everyone concerned if the courier just knew ahead of time that the recipient was disabled and what impact this might have on their interaction e.g., taking longer to answer the door, difficulty communicating etc.

Displaying some kind of disability symbol or explainer outside the front door is certainly not the answer as it could be an enticement to thieves and home invaders. The antithetical equivalent of a “Beware of the dog” flyer in the front window.

To be fair, many retail websites and online delivery services do offer extra data fields that can be filled out online to provide additional information related to the delivery but these are simply general-purpose fields for all consumers – they are not specific to accessibility.

The provision of additional delivery information is also not standardized across providers – making it harder to identify for consumers and easier to ignore or take out of context for delivery personnel.

As part of its 2019 research, Citizens Advice called upon delivery companies to make two core pledges on accessibility.

The first was for providers to design web interfaces whereby consumers can explicitly identify their accessibility needs.

Secondly, that they publish detailed accessibility information on their websites to enable customers with disabilities to proceed with greater knowledge and confidence.

A number of firms signed up to the pledge including DHL Parcel, Hermes and DPD. The latter of which, announced this week that it will now include a More Time option on its mobile application to ensure those who are not so fleet of foot will not be left grimacing empty-handed at the doorstep.

Unfortunately, at the time of announcing it, a number of major players were yet to sign up to the CAB pledge and these included the likes of Amazon, Parcelforce, UPS and Royal Mail.

Whether signing up to an industry pledge or developing their own in-house protocols – in the final analysis – transparency will be key.

A commitment from the top of an organization is critical. Software refinements are important too but without some type of rigorous accountability – such accessibility measures are unlikely to cut through to consumers.

For example, when electronically completing an active delivery job on a handset, couriers should be blocked from finishing the process until they have passed through and accepted the accessibility notifications.

This action needs to be fully trackable and therefore, if a complaint is ever raised, any arguments regarding a lack of awareness of the accessibility issues will quickly fall down.

This is not something to punish men and women trying to complete an honest day’s work but simply to elevate accessibility to where it belongs – as a non-negotiable, inextricably embedded core element of business-as-usual practices.