Klaus-Peter Traupe has been delivering parcels in Braunschweig for around 30 years. Shortly before Christmas he is particularly busy. The 53-year-old has little understanding for the allegations from customers.
by Peter Jagla
It beeps and beeps and beeps without a break in the huge DHL parcel hall in Braunschweig. Red laser beams scan black and white barcodes on countless parcels from near and far. The first employees start their work shortly after midnight. Usually the door does not open until 4.30 a.m. – but not in the run-up to Christmas. At 9 o’clock there is a hustle and bustle in the hall: parcel carriers carry parcels and parcels into 30 small vans, which will drive in all directions in the Braunschweig city center. When they are gone, the next 30 vans arrive. Traupe is one of the parcel deliverers. Today he scans almost 300 packages with his scanner. “You make the stress yourself,” says the civil servant delivery driver, “but at some point it really gets down to business when you have to walk so much every day.”
Because of Corona, a particularly large number of parcels are on the way this year. Tips on timely dispatch and important dates. more
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Despite Corona everything was the same again
Born in Braunschweig, he has been on the road with parcels and parcels for Swiss Post for three decades. When Corona changed everything this year, his job also changed, says the 53-year-old as he sprints up a staircase with four parcels in hand: “In the beginning we could often leave the parcels down. But now it is somehow forgotten everything again. ” People expected him to get to the front door, even if it was the top floor apartment. “We would help if people at least met us something,” says Traupe. Although many people are currently working from home, not all of them open when he is at the door with a package. “I’ve also been puffed up many times,” says the delivery man. “Then people say that they are in a meeting or something and why I would ring them,” the parcel deliverer quotes and just shakes his head. He’s just doing his job.
“I always ring the bell!”
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Klaus-Peter Traupe rings every parcel recipient, as he says.
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The deliverer knows the criticism that parcel carriers often have to listen to: that they never rang the bell, that they did not even try to deliver parcels, but instead bring them directly to a branch, or that parcels are delivered far too late. “I always ring the bell,” assures the 53-year-old and is almost angry. He is passionate about his job – and good. But now there are so many different companies and also at DHL many different deliverers. “Of course there can be black sheep there,” says Traupe, but adds that it is often also up to the recipients. “If someone tells me he’s been at home all day, but I’ve seen him hanging up in the garden doing his laundry, then I ask myself: Did he have his doorbell with him in the garden?”
Misunderstandings when looking out the window
The Post’s own navigation software, with which the parcel delivery man curves through the narrow streets and alleys in the northern part of Brunswick, is a “curse and a blessing” at the same time, according to Traupe. “It is of great help to us because the program calculates the perfect route.” Sometimes he adjusts the paths a bit, he simply knows his district and any construction sites better, after all, he has been there for eight years. “The information from the app then also reaches the recipient, who can see in his app approximately when I will arrive with the parcel,” says Traupe. “Sometimes people see me earlier in the street, but then I turn, drive somewhere else and only come back with the package later. Then they often complain because they think that I was almost there and why I didn’t come to them right away. “
Loyal customer: The Packstation
A “customer” who is always there and doesn’t complain is the packing station. In the morning, Traupe always drives to you first in its delivery district in the north of Braunschweig. Then he usually scans around 100 packages. “People are using it more and more,” says the messenger, “because then they don’t have to ring the neighbors’ doorbell when they are not at home themselves.” Little by little the small package slots open. Traupe feeds them large and small packages. But the problem: “Because there are so many parcels now and people have nine days to pick them up, I often don’t have space for all the parcels.” That is why there are often some left over that no longer fit in the packing station. “I have to go back here at the end of my tour,” says the deliverer, almost resigned, “then maybe some people have already picked up their parcels and I can get rid of more.”
The day that changed his life
But Traupe will probably never forget one day. That was long before Corona, when he was still carrying parcels through the city center as a deliverer. “Back then, I always went to a shop where a woman worked,” he remembers, “and when I got there and announced I was loud, she was so frightened that she almost fell off her stool is. ” In the meantime, he says with such a big grin that you can even see it under his mask, the two have been married a long time. Then the door buzzer goes off. “Hello?” Says a voice from the intercom. “Hello, I have a package for you!” Replies the delivery man, pushes the door open and disappears into the stairwell. He has to run again. Fourth floor. Attic.
First she crouched on her shoulder, then on the outside mirror of the van: A 37-year-old parcel delivery person from Oldenburg was visited by a jackdaw on his tour. (01/20/2020) more
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A parcel delivery man locked himself in his van in Braunschweig. According to the police, the help came on time: the packages could be delivered before Christmas. (23.12.2020) more
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