Will anyone rein in the firms frantically competing to feed Britain’s internet shopping addiction? Fury builds after two innocent people are killed by delivery drivers rushing to meet near impossible targets

• Jennifer Davies, 69, and three-year-old Milliee-Ann McKellar were both killed 

Sarah Smith glanced at the handheld device holstered to the dashboard of her delivery van. The bar on the screen was green, meaning she was on schedule for her 152nd parcel drop that day.

If the bar ever turned amber, Sarah’s heart quickened. A red light would mean she had fallen behind and her boss would call, wanting to know why.

Her next delivery was three minutes away in Streatham, South London. Approaching a main road from a side street, she whipped her head to the right, nodded to the red Nissan Micra slowing to let her out and swung the van left into the road.

Only, it wasn’t slowing at all. The ensuing crash jerked her violently to the side, her seatbelt snapping taut. A crunch of metal rang in her ears and for a brief moment she wondered what had happened.

‘I heard this crash and yelled to the other driver, “What the f*** are you doing?!” ’ she says. The Nissan, which she mistakenly thought was letting her out, had gone into her.

Milliee-Ann McKellar, a three year old girl who was killed when a Hermes delivery van reversed over her as she played in the street on a scooter outside her grandmother’s house

Former nurse Jennifer Davies (second from left), 69, was struck and killed as she crossed a roundabout in Brighton, East Sussex, at the height of lockdown in May 2020

Demand for doorstep deliveries has increased massively over the past decade, with firms such as DPD, Amazon, Evri (formerly Hermes) and Yodel now household names

‘As we got out of our vehicles, we were both pretty shaken up. My bumper was hanging off the van and there was a large dent in the other woman’s car.’ As the minutes ticked by, the bar on Sarah’s delivery device turned amber.

‘I knew I didn’t have time to lose,’ she says. ‘I rang my manager straight away to tell him what had happened but he didn’t even ask how I was. He told me to clip the bumper back in, get the woman to ring him so they could swap insurance details and then get back on the road.’ She was delivering parcels within 15 minutes of the crash.

That day in July 2018, 30-year-old Sarah — a pseudonym — was working her ninth consecutive day. This was against the company’s regulations — drivers are supposed to work only six days at a time — but the young mother-of-two from East Sussex needed the money, so her boss had turned a blind eye.

She and the other driver were lucky not to have been injured. The same cannot be said for Jennifer Davies, 69, who was killed by a different delivery van. The inquest into her death, held last month, laid bare a reckless disregard among parcel companies for the safety of their drivers and anyone unfortunate enough to get in the way of their ‘frantic’ dash to meet impossible delivery targets.

Demand for doorstep deliveries has increased massively over the past decade, with firms such as DPD, Amazon, Evri (formerly Hermes) and Yodel now household names. In 2021, 4.1 billion packages were handled by the delivery and courier market, nearly double the volume in 2014.

READ: ‘Tiny’ girl, 3, was crushed under the wheels of Hermes van as ‘knackered’ delivery driver reversed outside house of child’s grandmother as she played on her scooter, inquest hears 

But our insatiable appetite for online shopping has created a culture in which haste is prized over caution, and Mrs Davies is by no means its only victim.

In May 2020, she had packed two copies of the bestselling novel Where The Crawdads Sing in a bag, alongside handwritten letters to post to her two grown-up children to lift their spirits during lockdown.

As she crossed by a roundabout in Brighton, on her way to the post office, she was hit by a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter being driven by DPD employee, Kamil Zieba, 43.

Zieba, from Poland, later claimed not to have seen her. During his shift that day, he had not taken a break, though his dashcam had recorded him using his phone, rolling cigarettes, making notes and eating and drinking at the wheel.

At the inquest into Mrs Davies’ death, senior coroner Penelope Schofield described Zieba’s ‘frantic’ dash to stick to his punishing deliveries, which had seen him mount pavements in his zeal to keep to his schedule.

Mrs Davies, a retired nurse who planned to return to the wards to help treat Covid patients, died from head injuries two days later. Zieba later pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. Finding that Mrs Davies had died as a result of a road traffic collision, Ms Schofield raised concerns that delivery drivers could be required to work up to 11 hours a day, unlike lorry drivers who are subject to stricter regulations.

She also pointed out that delivery van drivers, by the very nature of their work, were driving in highly populated areas where pedestrians were particularly at risk.

Mrs Davies’s son Oli, a senior lecturer at Brighton University, told the Mail: ‘I think delivery companies have capitalised on a booming economy and [the business] is not properly regulated. I get loads of drivers contacting me — some of them anonymously — to tell me how bad their working conditions are and how pressured it is.

Three-year-old Milliee-Ann McKellar was killed by a Hermes delivery driver, described by a witness as looking ‘knackered, drawn-out and tired’ in March 2021

An inquest into Milliee-Ann’s death concluded that she had died as a result of a road traffic collision

‘I think firms like DPD are exploiting their staff. Many are using foreign nationals on zero-hours contracts and we feel they are being taken advantage of. DPD makes a lot of money but no one seems to be asking any questions as to what we are doing for the safety of pedestrians.’

DPD told the Mail that Zieba was driving for a subcontractor, Precise Couriers, with whom it no longer works. Since the tragic accident, it has introduced a number of changes, such as the removal of the red indicators on the drivers’ devices.

‘We emphatically deny there is any pressure on drivers,’ said DPD. ‘The routes are planned in advance with the drivers to provide sufficient time to safely meet their delivery slots for the whole shift . . .

‘All drivers are able to take rest breaks during their routes.’

An inquest into another fatal accident involving a parcel service was also held last month. Three-year-old Milliee-Ann McKellar was killed by a Hermes delivery driver, described by a witness as looking ‘knackered, drawn-out and tired’ in March 2021.

Sergi Tomaiaya, 29, dropped off a parcel before parking his black van half-on the pavement in a cul-de-sac, as he delivered another three packages.

He ‘jumped’ back into the vehicle then began reversing, not seeing Milliee-Ann as she played on a scooter in his blind spot.

The little girl from Calne, Wiltshire, died under the wheels of the van. Tomaiaya, who is no longer in the country, stayed at the scene with the family, one of whom commented later that he was their normal delivery man and it was unusual for him to mount the pavement.

An inquest into Milliee-Ann’s death concluded that she had died as a result of a road traffic collision. A police investigation found that ‘due to her age she failed to identify the danger the van posed to her’.

A spokesperson for Evri (formerly Hermes) said: ‘It was a tragic accident and our thoughts remain with the family… Our delivery drivers are self-employed and as such are able to choose the number of parcels they deliver and the timeframe they deliver them. If a driver is delayed they are able to change their ETA which is communicated to the customer.’

Driver Sarah Smith – who has now left her delivery company due to stress-related illness – says she is surprised more accidents don’t occur.

‘All the drivers would speed,’ she says. ‘Our vans had a limit of 80mph, but we’d regularly race up roads with much lower speed limits. You quickly learned where the cameras were and which ones were working or not.

Sergi Tomaiaya, 29, dropped off a parcel before parking his black van half-on the pavement in a cul-de-sac, as he delivered another three packages

Tomaiaya, who is no longer in the country, stayed at the scene with the family, one of whom commented later that he was their normal delivery man and it was unusual for him to mount the pavement

‘Getting from one delivery to the next was a priority and you couldn’t stop to eat or drink. I’d eat at the wheel and rarely had toilet breaks – I ended up with urinary tract infections so many times from holding on.

‘Eventually, I worked out that places like hairdressers and bookies all have toilets so I’d time my toilet stops with deliveries to them,’ she says.

Tanvir Hasan from Hertfordshire has worked for five major delivery companies over the last two years and agrees there is ‘immense pressure’ to meet targets.

‘No one is going to say “Jump the lights” or “Don’t observe the speed limits” but when you’re only given one and a half minutes between drops, you’re always going drive rashly,’ he said.

If drivers didn’t meet their targets, he continued, the company’s head office would ring the franchisee responsible for the driver to complain. ‘The franchisee might then fire you so they can find faster drivers.’

Father-of-three Kasim Rashid has worked for three of the large online delivery firms and is horrified by the pressure that they put workers under, many of whom cannot speak English.

‘Right from the moment you leave the depot with your parcels you have a chap constantly phoning you up to say: “You’re behind!” or “Why have you stopped?” and every hour they send you a report to tell you how many drops you’ve done,’ he says.

He was expected to deliver 60 parcels an hour, one a minute. ‘I think the fastest I ever managed was 25 in one hour but that’s because I was throwing the parcel at people’s doors and then running back to the van.’

Low pay is an issue which further fuels the race to earn as little as 80p per package delivered. Kasim explains that he might earn £700 a week but the company would deduct £200 for the van hire and the driver would have to pay for their own petrol and any damage done to the vehicle.

‘It’s diabolical. I’ve had so many people tell me their mental health is really suffering from the pressure, but they don’t know what else to do,’ he says.

The scene and police cordon after the crash casued by Kamil Zieba, 42, who was driving a DPD delivery van when he hit Jennifer Davies, 69, was struck and killed

When demand is so high, and labour so expendable, what can[itals] be done? Peter Kyle MP has written to Transport Secretary Mark Harper on behalf of the family of his constituent Jennifer Davies who died after a collision with a DPD van, asking for ‘urgent action to prevent future deaths’.

He insists that Mr Harper ‘should order an investigation into the working practices of DPD and the wider industry, and consider regulatory changes to ensure that drivers are not prioritising deliveries over safety – their own and that of the community around them.’

A Department of Transport spokesperson told the Mail: ‘Van drivers, including those working in the gig economy, must already obey the rules of the road and strict limits on working hours. While we have some of the safest roads in the world, we are working with the Health and Safety Executive to bolster guidance for gig economy drivers.’

Meanwhile, the third anniversary of the death of Mrs Davies has just passed and her son Oli says getting any answers has been a long, drawn out process.

‘Mum was such a great person, a mother-of-two and a nurse who was loved in the community. We felt as a family we wanted to shine a light on what’s happening because we really don’t want this to happen to anyone else.’

Hour by frenzied hour, day in a delivery driver’s life 

John*, 45, has been a £165-a-day driver for a well-known company in the North West for more than two years. Here he shares his diary . . .

10am: Arrive at the depot for a driver vehicle inspection check.

10.50am: We start loading up. I have 220 parcels but it could be up to 400. You get 12 minutes to load but they hassle us to hurry up after seven minutes.

11.02am: Amazon says my nine-hour shift begins now when I leave the depot, despite arriving at work an hour earlier.

11.45am: First drop at a house where owner is in and is quick to sign. Good start to the day. I’ve got two minutes for every drop off – even for what’s called a ‘multi-drop-off’ where you can be delivering to six houses in one cul-de-sac.

12.30pm: Still on track, managing 30 parcel deliveries per hour.

1.15pm: Stuck in traffic. Take a diversion up a one-way street. Get flashed at by several cars. I stopped caring about that sort of thing a long time ago.

3pm: Running just behind schedule as I needed the toilet and couldn’t just use the bottles I keep in the van. Ran into a local Tesco but that cost me five minutes and the office rang to ask what I was doing.

4pm: Had a couple of drop-offs where no-one was in to sign and no neighbours around. Argh. Will have to come back and deliver later.

4.30pm: Traffic building up for rush hour. Have to mount pavements, park and block traffic with hazards on.

6.30pm: Heart sinks when I realise one drop-off is at a young lad’s house who always wastes my time. He’s ordered booze which I can’t give to him as he’ll be unable to supply an Age Verified Documentation.

7pm: Near miss with another driver. I haven’t worn a seatbelt for over two years in the van – buckling up wastes seconds but no harm done, so far.

8pm: Not eaten anything all day so getting hungry but I only have 10 parcels left. I’m really annoyed that I have to re-deliver a couple to people who weren’t in and hadn’t designated a ‘safe place’ to drop off on the delivery note.

9pm: Finish shift. Exhausted. I like the flexibility of the job because I don’t have to work every day. But for those who do this, day in-day out, it’s very, very hard.

The Mail approached the well-known company for a comment but have received no reply.

*not his real name

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