They're bad at last-mile, yeah. (All the providers seem to be, for one consumer-group or another.)
But if you can cut off the last mile, Amazon's "pick-up point" service beats UPS's or FedEx's hands down.
Amazon Lockers are 24hrs; never have line-ups; there's one outside every grocery store near me; and in a pinch, my own post office can be used as one, too. (Though I don't do that, because my post office is not 24hrs, and because there's a Locker directly on the way between my home and my office.)
FedEx and UPS, meanwhile, both bounce my packages to a warehouse at the airport (40 minutes away) or in a neighbouring exurb (50 minutes away), and only after first attempting to deliver them to my house (which will never work), with no option to send them straight to the pick-up location. (Yes, I can get the packages redirected from the airport warehouse to a pick-up location once they're already at the airport warehouse, but that means an extra two days of waiting for my package, and then I have to go to a pick-up point that's 20 minutes away from me anyway. I may as well go to the airport!)
I live in an apartment building with a flaky buzzer entry system and no lobby mailroom. "Pick-up from a nearby location" is the only viable option for me. Amazon nails it. Everybody else is way behind.
Last time I used a locker for delivery, they tried to deliver twice when no lockers were available, broke the item on the second try and then gave a refund instead. I think the experience varies.
You might look into UPS' My Choice, which allows you to set a permanent preferred delivery redirection. Alas it is not available for all shipments, e.g., signature required or a shipper can tell UPS not to allow redirection. There's a charge (per delivery) unless redirected to a UPS store/access-point/center or you are a premium (paying) member. FedEx Delivery Manager is similar.
Only a subset of the lockers are open 24 hours. I've had nice employees let me hang out after they lock the doors so I can wait for the delivery guy who is an hour late
But if you can cut off the last mile, Amazon's "pick-up point" service beats UPS's or FedEx's hands down.
Amazon Lockers are 24hrs; never have line-ups; there's one outside every grocery store near me; and in a pinch, my own post office can be used as one, too. (Though I don't do that, because my post office is not 24hrs, and because there's a Locker directly on the way between my home and my office.)
FedEx and UPS, meanwhile, both bounce my packages to a warehouse at the airport (40 minutes away) or in a neighbouring exurb (50 minutes away), and only after first attempting to deliver them to my house (which will never work), with no option to send them straight to the pick-up location. (Yes, I can get the packages redirected from the airport warehouse to a pick-up location once they're already at the airport warehouse, but that means an extra two days of waiting for my package, and then I have to go to a pick-up point that's 20 minutes away from me anyway. I may as well go to the airport!)
I live in an apartment building with a flaky buzzer entry system and no lobby mailroom. "Pick-up from a nearby location" is the only viable option for me. Amazon nails it. Everybody else is way behind.