A delivery driver for a well known company was filmed by a member of the public throwing packages into the back of his van.
The video footage clearly shows the driver scanning the parcels individually, no doubt getting ready to take them on his route, only to then pick them up one by one and chuck them without any consideration to the damage that may have been done.
With more people spending a lot of money online these days you can be sure there was some expensive items among those packages, which means they should have been placed in the van, not thrown.
Once the footage was posted onto sites like YouTube where it got millions of views, then the delivery company who the driver worked for had to face the public and give out an apology.
You know what…I bet this company isn’t too pleased with their driver because not only does it bring bad publicity to their brand but it also means many of their customers got broken packages. I’m sure drivers get training on how to handle packages, so why this driver was just throwing things around is beyond me.
Not only that, but when a delivery company breaks something then it comes directly out of their pocket. I’m sure they have enough expenses already…take van insurance for example, which is more expensive than ever before.
Now, these delivery companies can always compare van insurance, which is what I advise everybody to do, but what can they do about drivers who throw packages around? When caught on video and with enough evidence they can get rid of them of course, but in most instances they probably don’t even realise it is going on.
That’s why I think it’s important that when ordinary members of the public witness this type of thing, they film it on their mobile phones and then upload to social media.
This is the only way we are going to get their attention, so they are then forced to do more about making sure their drivers don’t throw packages around.
What makes the video even more frustrating is that many of the packages were marked “fragile” and the driver just didn’t seem bothered.
However, looking at it from another point of view, it has also been reported that many delivery drivers are working for about £6.80 an hour, which is actually below minimum wage.
Also, there have been stories about delivery companies making unreasonable demands on their drivers, which then results in behaviour such as throwing parcels around and driving on the wrong side of the road (like an Argos van driver did recently).
As UK consumers become more comfortable shopping online and their expectation is to get items delivered quicker than ever before, I think more needs to be done by the delivery companies to make sure their drivers are properly trained.
