British parcels carrier Yodel has promised to make changes after staff were secretly filmed throwing parcels during peak season sorting at one of its depots, and is also planning to launch new products and services this year as part of a forthcoming strategy review.
An undercover reporter from TV documentary programme Dispatches, who spent two weeks working at a depot near Manchester as a temporary hire, secretly filmed workers casually tossing parcels on to conveyor belts, into vans and down into cages, regardless of ‘fragile’ or ‘handle with care’ labels.
In response, Yodel executive chairman Dick Stead stated: “The allegations brought to our attention by Dispatches indicated some unacceptable practices. There were some specific and isolated incidents that were brought to light that we are investigating and are taking appropriate action on. We are very sorry for the occasions when we let customers down."
Yodel, which has often been the subject of criticism in the media and on social media in recent years, underlined that an independent survey carried out in the last six months showed that 84% of the company’s more than 3,000 self-employed couriers enjoy their job and 85% are committed to the success of Yodel.
Stead added: “We handle over 155 million parcels every year and the vast majority of these are delivered successfully thanks to our committed and valued people. Clearly there are still improvements to be made and we will accelerate activities which have already seen our customer satisfaction score increase from a disappointing 35% two years ago to over 80% today which is among the best in the industry.”
Speaking at MetaPack’s The Delivery Conference on Tuesday (February 2), the morning after the TV programme was broadcast, Stead said staff throwing parcels is “an absolute disgrace and completely unacceptable”.
But he stressed to an audience of 1,400 conference visitors, including a large number of retail customers, that Yodel had extremely low breakage rates and “the vast majority” of customers “are completely satisfied” with the company’s service.
Stead said that Yodel has already started planning for peak season this year and will be “focusing on customer experience” with investments in more service centres and new services. The company will introduce a two-hour delivery timeslot and also a new app in the coming months.
However, he noted that the company had just appointed a new CEO and will conduct a strategy review. “We will determine our priorities within the next two months,” he said.
Yodel announced last month that Mike Cooper, formerly deputy CEO at passenger transport company Arriva and previously with budget airline Easyjet and holiday company Thomson, would become CEO as of February 1, 2016.
