The timing could not have been worse, nor the series name more appropriate, for the airing of Channel 4’s Dispatches series documentary on the eve of the Delivery Conference focused on the rather disappointing behaviour of Yodel employees at one of its depots in the Greater Manchester area. The documentary showed Yodel workers hurling customer packages into delivery vans as well as onto conveyor belts with no regard for their contents, rather than taking the care that most retailers and their end customers would expect of employees of a parcel delivery firm. Not surprisingly there was outrage expressed by customers on social media at the lack of supervision evident in the depot….
It fell to Dick Stead, executive chairman of Yodel, to publicly take responsibility for this appalling breach of trust as he took the platform at The Delivery Conference today, 2nd February, to present his rather ironically titled “Working Together to Deliver Great Customer Experiences” session to a room packed with competitors and retailers. Yodel had, he said, handled over 22 million packages in the five weeks to 24 December. The vast majority had been successfully delivered without incurring damage. He was quick to call the filmed culprits a disgrace and most keen to impress on the audience that what had been filmed were isolated incidents but were not unique to Yodel.
It will fall to newly appointed Yodel CEO Mike Cooper to tackle this problem and reassure retailers that the promises they are making to their customers are honoured by their delivery service provider.
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