Brittle Days

Hi there,

Apologies for making this letter public, but your contact form only allows 500 characters of text, so I don’t have much choice.

I’d like to give you some feedback about one of your drivers. He was driving the van with the licence plate 1FI 2TH in Carlton on the morning of the 21st February. The incident I would like to relate took place at 08:40 in the morning.

In this incident, your driver turns right from Kay St into Canning St. While doing so, he fails to give way to the dozen-or-so cyclists proceeding along Canning street and enters the junction even though it is not safe to do so. While making the turn, he over-corrects and mounts the central reservation. Fortunately, the oncoming traffic had been able to stop in time to avoid a collision.

At the next junction, one of the cyclists remonstrated with your driver, who chose to express the opinion that cyclists “shouldn’t be on the road”.

I bring this feedback to you as it is concerning for a number of reasons.

Firstly, your driver is not operating his vehicle safely. He is needlessly and recklessly putting the lives of other road users at risk. That would be worrisome for a private driver, but given he drives professionally, this is supremely poor judgement.

Secondly, he was unable to make the turn without mounting the pavement. This shows such poor control over his vehicle that it would have caused him to fail a driving test even if no other road users were present.

Thirdly, he is under the misapprehension that cyclists are not allowed on the road. This is not correct. This lack of understanding is not appropriate for a professional driver who is responsible for the safety of those around him.

Finally and most seriously, the combination of these things constitutes bullying. Because your driver believed he had more of a right to the road than a number of people on bicycles, he chose to drive in a manner that put their safety at risk for no reason other than to assert his own sense of authority.

Mark McGinley, Couriers Please’s CEO, claims that the management team is committed to “providing a healthy and safe place of work, to every employee’s health and well-being, personal growth and the right to be treated fairly and with respect.” For those employees who work on public roads, it is only reasonable to expect that they treat the public with the same regard for safety and respect as they expect from their employer.

Would you please, at your earliest convenience, share with me details of what remediation has been taken to ensure that this driver shows a reasonable level of respect to the public in future.

Many thanks,

Tom Sulston.