I've read a lot of complaints from people living in apartments, gated communities and the like dealing with UPS, USPS, Fed Ex and OnTrac. Is it because the delivery people are in such a rush, they're less careful?
I've also had numerous deliveries by OnTrac and never a problem. When I've seen them they have been in standard white Ford/Chevy cargo vans rather than trucks like FedEx or UPS.
I would think the same could be true for normal residential deliveries as well. I've lived in apartments, so can't say for sure. I had two different FedEx drivers delivering packages on the same day. One driver must have gotten let in by someone else & left the package outside my apartment door. No knock, no ringing of the front door bell, nothing. The other driver left the package in the foyer of the building. No ringing of the doorbell. The tracking even said it was left in the foyer. I was home that day, but still the package left in the foyer was stolen (no surprise). The seller got replacement items out pretty quick. UPS & FedEx regularly leave packages in the hallways where I live now and the office is in my building. No excuse to leave anything in the hallway. So yeah, if there's a choice, I always go for the seller promising USPS, even if it's a couple dollars more.
[letter carrier's hat on] Yes, that is it. Or the shipper has released the item for release without the receiver being present. A third reason would be that most in the community have asked the delivery person to leave stuff so by default unless a signature is required he leaves everything in that community to save time. The general rule is to leave nothing yet a year ago our office got overloaded and the local postmaster ordered us to leave everything under $200 insured, signature required limit. A new supervisor below her tried to issue discipline for breaking the general rule only to find out a higher level boss had issued conflicting orders. And the local LAPD lead officer was asking questions about the increase in burglaries in our zone.