I used to actively avoid retailers who used Evri, but now we have a local driver who we have got to know and he is excellent.
I think at this time of year, its pretty much pot luck, what with the number of seasonal or short term delivery operators being used.
last week we had a parcel left in the wheelie bin on bin day, even though there was someone in the house all day, and the bin itself had several bin bags of rubbish in it. It was only when the post was delivered did we see a DPD card scrawled with crayon laying on the mat.
A couple of years back, I opened the front door to go and walk the dog, and surprised the 5hit out of a DPD guy posting a "sorry we tried to deliver your parcel" card through the front door. He obviously hadnt knocked, and was actually in a little red fiesta with no parcels in it (not a van) clutching a huge wad of failed delivery cards. Cheeky fooker.