World kindness day – driver stories
CARL DUHANEY
Tuesday, 8th September was just another ordinary day for Ocado driver Carl Duhaney as he left Hatfield and made his way around the M25; little did he know that he’d end up being a lifesaver.
Jo Harland’s car’s brakes had stopped working and although she’d managed to go down the gears to bring the car to a halt, she was now stuck in the middle lane of a 5-lane section of motorway, with her infant son in the back of the car.
Jo was able to dial 999 and the police desperately tried to find her, but in her own words Jo said:
“I felt completely sick. I felt like I wanted to ring my mum and my husband and say, ‘I don’t think I’m going to make it out of this and I just want you to know what’s happened,’ because I was expecting at any minute someone to hit me and it wouldn’t have been their fault.”
It was at this point that Carl arrived on the scene: “I actually started to indicate to get around her and the person behind me flashed me to let me go, but I looked and I thought, well, hang on a second, maybe she can’t move. So I decided that I was going to sit where I was. I was watching the mirrors all the time and I could see that there was a lot of traffic building up… To be honest I thought I was going to get in trouble for being late and blocking the motorway, and that Ocado would have received complaints about one of their big lorries causing traffic on the M25!”
The police arrived and were able to block off the road before safely moving Jo and her son to safety before Carl went on his way.
Jo said that when she spoke to officers afterwards she was told: “That man saved your life.”
Sunday, 13th September was actually Jo’s son’s second birthday so Ocado decided to make it extra special by sending a van to the family home to deliver a range of birthday treats including Percy Pig sweets and Colin the Caterpillar cakes.
Carl has been recognised locally by his LGV team and presented with one of our limited edition model trucks, a £100 Amazon voucher, and a day off as part of our Heroes Recognition Scheme for Service Delivery employees in the UK.
STEVEN GOODEY
During one of our Q&A’s, Ocado driver Steven Goodey shared with us an amazing story.
Steven wrote:
“One day I was delivering around Chichester, when I arrived at a customers’ house… I delivered their shopping and returned to the van… I noticed there was a nail sticking out of the side wall of my tyre which meant I could not continue my deliveries until it had been repaired.“
After contacting his manager, Steven was told that his vehicle would not be recovered for around three hours due to an impending storm.
“Luckily all of my customers were in the same area. So I called each one and told them the situation and asked them if they would be okay coming to the van to collect their shopping. Everyone agreed so I opened what could only be described as a little Ocado supermarket on Chichester seafront “.
Not a flat tyre nor the weather gods can hold the Ocado spirit back. Way to go, Steven!