TNT Express



This parking by a TNT delivery van appeared in our March 2013 newsletter (see here).

We got no response to a Twitter message (but in fairness, the company's Twitter account does not seem very active).

So we wrote to the UK Managing Director. His email address was easy to acquire by phoning the company head office (the phone number was on the website) - our request for the Managing Director's email address got us put through to his PA, who was very happy to provide her email address as a route to him.

Here's the email that we sent on 22.04.2013:
For the attention of
Mr Alistair Cochrane
Managing Director UK & Ireland
TNT Express Services

Dear Mr Cochrane,

I am writing to you to ask for a comment on a TNT delivery van (DA61 GBE) parked illegally (see attached photograph). The photograph was taken in Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside at 10:00 am on 30 Jan. 2013. The driver was making a routine delivery, and he gave the impression that this kind of parking was normal for him.

The photograph was included in the March newsletter of the Wirral Pedestrian Association (see http://www.wirralpedestrians.org.uk/files/pedestrians_newsletter_mar_2013.pdf). As you can imagine, we are very disappointed at the behaviour of the driver. We would like to ask for a comment from the company, which we plan to publish in the next issue of the Newsletter.

I have already contacted TNT via the Feedback section of the company website, and was given an automated response with reference number 1365411124923, but I have so far received no proper response.

Sincerely,

Ian Campbell

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Ian Campbell
Secretary, Wirral Pedestrians Association
http://www.wirralpedestrians.org.uk
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attached: tnt_1_800.jpg

There was a reply the same day from Mr Cochrane's PA:
Dear Mr Campbell

Thank you for your e-mail and for drawing this matter to the attention of Alistair Cochrane.

Alistair is currently away on leave and I have therefore referred this complaint to our Regional Director, Peter Thompson to investigate and respond back to you.

I trust this course of action meets with your approval.

Regards

Elaine Banks
PA to Alistair Cochrane, Managing Director
TNT Express Services UK & Ireland

This was followed later the same day by a phoned apology from Peter Lascalles, General Manager of the Deeside depot; and then on 26.4.2013 by a written apology as follows:
Good afternoon Ian

Thank you for your time earlier this week and again this morning
As discussed I wanted to provide you with an update on the actions taken as a result of the photographs you have provided showing a TNT vehicle partially parked on a paved area in the Birkenhead area earlier this year.

Firstly I would like to thank you for taking the time to bring this to our attention and by doing so giving us the opportunity to actually do something about it.

As discussed TNT take matters like this very seriously and we invest a lot of time and money in providing our drivers in particular with a high level of training to ensure they operate safely.

We have now identified the driver in question and interviewed him, showing him the pictures you have provided.
The driver was extremely apologetic and agrees that this was unacceptable.
In addition to this we have written to all drivers operating out of our local depot at Deeside and attached a copy of your newsletter which includes the photograph, in an effort to raise the awareness of this problem to the wider driving community and I am confident that this too will help to eliminate such incidents.

The matter will also be placed on the agenda at our next depot health & safety meeting

I hope you feel we have taken your complaint seriously and taken swift and direct action to deal with it in a professional way.

Please accept my sincere apologies for this issue and if I can be of any further help please do not hesitate to contact me direct

Kind regards

Peter Lascelles
General Manager

Liverpool, Deeside & Warrington

T Deeside 01244 288123/Liverpool 0151 448 0077
Fax: Deeside 01244 288043/Liverpool 0151486 1642

TNT Express
Fourth Avenue, Deeside Industrial Park, Flintshire CH5 2NR, UK
John Lennon Airport, 100 Hale Road, Speke, Liverpool L24 1WG, UK
www.tnt.com

In phone calls, it transpired that the driver had voluntarily made a donation to charity as a gesture of apology. This seemed to be a prompt and efficient response to our contact. An email of thanks was sent to Mr Lascelles and copied to Mr Cochrane's PA.

TNT has set a high standard, and hopefully other companies will follow their lead.