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Driver raises insurance worries over unloading
Page 9
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SAFE WAY HAS promised to stop asking delivery drivers to break down loads after one driver complained that he was being asked to help unload at supermarket warehouses without proper insurance.
Richard Jenkins, from Long Eaton, says that both Safeway and Netto ask drivers to help with unloading. In a letter to Wheels, the magazine of the United Road Transport Union, he says that it is difficult for drivers to say no.
"If you refuse, the load will be turned away, and that is usually a quick route to getting fired from your job," he says. In a series of letters to Safeway, Jenkins claims that he was
unable to get any assurance that he was insured to work in or near the supermarket's distribution centres. But this month he was told that Safeway would stop asking drivers to help unload next month.
Jenkins adds: "The reason for the change seems to be not so much my letters, but because of the takeover by Morrison, who do things differently. But at least things are changing."
A Safeway spokeswoman says: "From 1 June loads will be broken down by internal Safeway drivers only. This decision was taken for reasons of due diligence and security." No-one at Netto was available for comment.