DPD announce strategic review after tragic death of driver Don Lane

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DPD boss Dwain McDonald,

We are devastated by the news of Don Lane's passing. There will be a strategic review.

 

Nineteen year DPD driver Don Lane from Dorset died after working through the Christmas peak, his wife spoke out to the Guardian.

The Guardian reported,

A courier for the parcel giant DPD who was fined for attending a medical appointment to treat his diabetes collapsed and died of the disease, it has emerged. Don Lane, 53, from Christchurch in Dorset, missed appointments with specialists because he felt under pressure to cover his round and faced DPD’s £150 daily penalties if he did not find cover, his widow has told the Guardian.

DPD boss, Dwain McDonald tweeted Friday Feb 9th

there will be a strategic review and further announcements, in the meantime I can confirm that no franchisee driver will be charged for attending healthcare appointments.

 

The Guardian further reported:-

Don Lane had collapsed twice, including once into a diabetic coma while at the wheel of his DPD van during deliveries, when the company fined him in July after he went to see a specialist about eye damage caused by diabetes.

He collapsed again in September and finally in late December having worked through illness during the Christmas rush.

He died at the Royal Bournemouth hospital on 4 January, leaving behind a widow, Ruth, and a 22-year-old son.

He had worked for DPD for 19 years.

Ruth Lane told the Guardian:

There was a constant threat of a fine. They had to deliver the parcels to tight slots and the pressure to get them done was huge. He was putting the company before his own health. He wasn’t able to do his parcels first and make the hospital appointments, so he would cancel on the day.

He collapsed in January 2017 and they knew that because they collected his van. It was after that Don cancelled three appointments. DPD had a duty of care to make sure he got to those appointments, but they failed in it.

 

She added that in March her husband had told her:

I think I am going to die.

IoC