> It perplexes me why they don't shift their delivery period six hours later to start at 15:00 and end at 21:00. That would cover both business and residential hours.

I would imagine that is because the highest margins are made off of next-day deliveries from business to business. They often guarantee these deliveries by 10 AM because many companies are willing to pay extra to ensure that their package is delivered by 10 AM.

Consumers, by contrast, are more interested in paying as little as possible for shipping. Shifting their delivery hours to accommodate a group of customers who aren't willing to pay extra for the service while simultaneously killing off business from their most profitable customers would likely be a poor business decision.

> It perplexes me why they don't shift their delivery period six hours later to start at 15:00 and end at 21:00.

Maybe they feel that even people doing delivery jobs are entitled to be home with their family at the end of the day?

> Maybe they feel that even people doing delivery jobs are entitled to be home with their family at the end of the day?

More to the point, maybe they feel that the higher wage costs for that kind of shift work aren't worth whatever cost savings in other areas it would provide.

Plenty of people work jobs where they are not at home in the evening, so I'm not sure this argument is the most effective. Second and third shift are real things for factory workers, almost everyone in a hospital, grocery store clerks, gas station attendants, janitors almost everywhere, security guards, emergency responders, hell anything that's open after 5pm (which is a ton of stuff).

So yeah, adding a second shift isn't unheard of. My grandpa worked second shift his whole life, and I worked third shift the whole way through college.

Just because people do work 2nd shift does not mean it is ideal for them to do so. So I think parent is commenting to say that it is possible that delivery companies value work life balance for their employees and that is a good thing. Market forces change things sure (second shift becomes required to compete), but the first shift schedule is a benefit that I am sure a lot of delivery people appreciate.

I agree, this would be nice.

They would have to split the fleet, all business deliveries still need to be made 9-5.

Amazon have actually started doing this in reverse in the UK, you can set an address as a business address and your package should only be delivered 9-5. In practice the 'Amazon Logistics' drivers (the aforementioned blokes in cars) are terrible and rarely manage to get this right.

I wonder how this would work in more rural places in the US.

Before I graduated high school, I lived in rural-ish area where the nearest commercial couriers were 50+ minutes from my house to the north and about 90+ minutes to the south. Wal-Mart was literally my only choice for consumer goods, so I spent a good chunk of change online.

I always had the same driver for a certain courier. I asked him how often he had to come down that far, and if it was significantly out of the way compared to the rest of his route. He told me that there were occasionally other stops in my town, but it wasn't the norm. The city and the immediate suburbs were the vast majority of their deliveries. Driving 100 minutes round trip for a couple deliveries probably sucked.

Someone who lives in this rural place will find it quite profitable to become the town's Amazon delivery person. Drive to pick up packages in the morning, come back and deliver during the day, then go home.

That would coincide with rush hour?

Apart from that it's a good idea.