UK parcel firm Yodel has defended the performance of its couriers after receiving criticism oversome of the more than 800,000 deliveries of ceramic model poppies that had formed the centrepiece
of the UK’s First World War centenary commemorations.The fragile and emotionally sensitive nature of the shipments has led to UK mainstream mediaoutlets reporting anecdotal examples in which the recipients claimed the contents were damaged, nottreated as fragile, or not delivered in a manner that they felt was appropriate. In one case, CCTVfootage uploaded to YouTube shows a courier apparently throwing a parcel over a garden fence afterspending several minutes trying to open the gates of the property.
Responding to the criticism, executive chairman Dick Stead told CEP-Research: “It’s a greatprivilege to be delivering all 888,246 poppies and we have briefed our staff to act with specialcare. One poor delivery is one too many.
“If anyone is found to have not treated the parcels with the respect they require, they willface disciplinary action. In the case of the YouTube footage showing a delivery driver throwing apoppy, we are immensely relieved to hear the poppy was undamaged but have taken the incident veryseriously and have suspended the courier with immediate effect.”
Stead said some of the issues surrounding the poppies concerned damage and packaging problemsfor which Yodel was not wholly responsible. “Yodel is not a packaging company and isresponsible for the delivery of the poppies only,” he added. “We are very sorry to hear that asmall number of poppies have arrived broken and there is a process in place to provide replacementswhere this occurs.”
He said Yodel had so far delivered more than 126,000 poppies, of which 0.12% had resulted inqueries, “and we have promptly rectified and apologised for all of these” Stead added. “We have hadno complaints from our client who is arranging delivery via Yodel and we speak to them everyday.”
The poppies each formed part of a major art installation, ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas ofRed’, at the Tower of London, marking one hundred years since the first full day of Britain’sinvolvement in the First World War. Created by artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper, 888,246 ceramicpoppies progressively filled the Tower’s moat between 17 July and 11 November 2014.
Each poppy represented a British military fatality during the war. Most of the hand-made ceramicpoppies were then sold to individuals, with the net proceeds, hoped to be in excess of £15million, being shared equally among a group of charities.
