Big Shout Out to Federal Express!

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Over the years, I’ve not been happy with various postal and courier services, including Canada Post, Purolator, and others – and these days, the Greek ELTA has proven they need a huge overhaul both in customer service and mail/package delivery efficiency.

But today, I’m not writing to complain.

I want to provide a great review to Federal Express, who delivered an important document to me today in Nea Ionia, Attica, Greece. As some may know, I arrived here in Greece last January toward the end of the month, with the intent on staying until May. However, with the COVID pandemic, plans have changed, and while everything is still up in the air at this point in time as to when I might be returning to Canada, I’m still here in Greece.

I had previously applied for and received and International Driving Permit (IDP) from CAA in Orangeville, that expired on May 18, 2019. So obviously, any driving done in Greece since then has been essentially illegal. With the pandemic going on, we figured that this could easily be explained and hopefully excused should I be pulled over by the police while driving. In fact, in August, I was pulled over in a spot check in Ataladi, Greece – but I was never asked to produce any ID. I was only asked to prove that I had not been drinking alcohol and required to blow into a roadside alcohol screening device. When the device registered an alcohol reading of 0, I was immediately free to go.

Recently I discovered that I could renew my IDP from afar, which was really good news – I’d rather have the required documentation than not, in a foreign country. So I sent the CAA office in Orangeville, Ontario the necessary paperwork, photos, and information and also requested if possible, that they courier me the new IDP.

The CAA were great, including the contact person I was in touch with, Julie Laverty. Julie did everything she could, which was great considering my application arrived around Christmas time. The Orangeville office sent the IDP to an office in Markham, who in turn had FedEx courier it to me.

The FedEx tracking is fantastic! You can see almost every single step along the journey that my document took to reach me. It was picked up in Markham on January 5 at 3:15PM local time. From there, it went to Mississauga, ON, onto Memphis, TN, and was in Cologne, Germany by 8:51PM the next day, January 6.

It left Cologne at 7 minutes after midnight, January 7, and was scheduled to arrive where I am in Nea Ionia by 6PM local time. Well, that did not happen, but I’m not going to worry too much – as it did arrive today, January 8, 2021 just after Noon, local time here.

It had arrived at the Athens airport yesterday morning, but cleared customs too late to get on the FedEx delivery vehicle, but this morning, it was on the truck and dropped off at the FedEx depot at Marousi at 9:27AM. From there it was delivered to me a short three hours later.

So, with all the disappointments recently of packages taking literally months at times, (most often, weeks), or even non-delivery, I’m really happy with the great job FedEx did, and their tracking is wonderful!

Now if other courier companies and post offices could learn from them, things would be great!

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