Paul Morgan-Bentley went undercover for The Times to work for the biggest delivery company in the UK – Hermes ‘’which delivers online orders for retailers including John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Next, amid a surge in complaints about packages being late, damaged or lost’’.
For some couriers it wasn’t clear what not to do on the day job clearly, especially with smartphones around, some missed the memo on how to handle parcels on their first day. The Times posted a video showing couriers going off on the parcels, throwing them around, and after I scrolled to marvel at the whole post, I wanted to have a look at the comments, because that’s where the juice is.
Several users wrote in their own experiences with the company and showed photos of their parcels, or their broken wine glasses. Even after showing the broken glasses there had to be someone to comment that ‘’Your items were improperly packaged.’’. My issue with that is, if I order from anywhere they already know how to package and label their product to land to my house safely so the comment is insensitive to the situation of others.
Clearly, the problem is Hermes(who by some search online is not affiliated with the luxury brand Hermes we know of). I have been blessed to have amazing couriers who know me by first name and greet each other every time we meet. Is it really frustration to work overtime unpaid?
It shows there is no respect for the work, the company and no Fs given about the customers and there are ‘’n’’ reasons for that. I think those big supermarkets should really take a decision as to whether to continue working with them if nothing ever changes. Why would M&S tolerate a business partner who may not pay their workers living wages and treat parcels this way? It comes down to business standard which makes everyone involved look bad. If they are looking at the posts from The Times and not feel appalled there’s a big problem.
Instead of firing them, which should be a last resort always, they should get therapy, anger management sessions. IF they refuse then ‘’sign your resignation’’. With additional sessions for the Board of Directors and executives, managers who watched this going on and left them do it.
Whilst I scrolled through the thread there was a comment on alleged driver interference with vehicle monitoring systems: engineers ‘‘do high level of monitoring of drivers BUT in vehicle there seems to be higher level of failure of equipment than anywhere else! Driver interference suggested’’, isn’t that illegal? Even more than tampering with the parcels anyway!
To conclude, no company should get away with paying low wages(Hi Pretty Little Thing) – it’s one of those things that shouldn’t ever exist. It’s one of the causes I wish governments would take a stand for. Hermes just happen to be caught on video but as others pointed out in the comment section, that behavior like this happen at other courier services. Maybe toughening the laws and applying them would be the cure for this and some really big fines to finally learn what to do on the day job.
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