Tesco cancelled my delivery due to severe weather

[GingerBeverage]

It's not much of chat topic but Tesco just cancelled my delivery due in 1 hour - 'because of the severe weather'.

My friend is a delivery driver for Sainsbury’s

He said that at his store only 2 of the vehicles actually have working aircon.

When it’s super hot the fridges and freezers struggle to work properly and get down to the correct temperatures and they regularly breakdown

Yeah… and if they’re at home looking after their kids because their school has closed like many round here, they won’t be able to be out delivering at 9am.

Then the vans should be air conditioned. Them not having a safe or appropriate work environment for their staff to save costs shouldn't be something we're all just ok with.

It makes me wonder how actual hot countries are still standing!oh wait….I mean it’s a bit ridiculous

Surely you must realise there are a number of issues that don't require it getting to peak heat, at a peak time of day to cause problems?

Multiple stores have already had freezers and fridges stop working recently due to heat so dont necessarily need extremes to stop working, so they may have shortages of products.

I have friends working in industries where they are seeing excessive amounts of people calling in sick today, probably expecting very hot weather and if they know their workplace isnt equipped for it have made the decision to call in. And given that people are saying delivery vans have no air con, those drivers may well be calling in sick expecting it to be hell so they could be short staffed.

They may also have vans already malfunctioning due to the warmer weather so they may have looked at this combination and realised they just cannot fulfil orders and therefore cancelled a number of them.

But if the schools have closed and the parents need tro look after the children, then they won't be going to work, and if their job was delivery driver (or order picker) for a supermarket someone somewhere isn't going to get a delivery!

It's like Covid all over again. People demanding that office workers WFH and schools are closed but God forbid anyone who provides essential services also doesn't work because we have a right to have our groceries brought to our door come rain or (extreme) shine.

I'm sure you'll be able to make alternative arrangements or book another delivery for a couple of days later.

My god this comment again. Its on every thread and even on this very one. How do you, along with multiple other people not grasp that other countries are set up to deal with these extremes in a way we arent? We dont have it all the time so investing in the infrastructure for occasional extremes is just not economically viable. However for countries that see these extremes regularly, it makes sense to pay out to ensure these things dont have negative consequences because for those countries its the norm.

I thought this was common sense but apparently not seeing as this comment appears on every single thread related to weather extremes both hot and cold.

We've got used to deliveries from supermarkets. We still don't do it because the exercise is good for me. Mind you the pain waiting for two hip replacements meant that it was a quick small shop. I couldn't manage heavy bags. But blessed the inventor of trolleys to lean on instead of sticks.

Tesco doesn’t give a 9am delivery slot, it’s 9am-10am.

My Tesco shop has to come from 30mins away, down the motorway, obviously that would take longer in the morning traffic. I could be the last delivery so my food could be on that van for at least 2hrs or more. Tesco know more than me, and you, how their vans are performing in this weather so using that knowledge they have taken the decision to cancel. They, also, have to think about the welfare of their drivers.

The thing is, a supermarket delivery driver is a very physical job, they have to lift heavy loads outside for the entire shift and quite often have to go up a lot of stairs or flights of stairs if a lift is out of order. It's not just a case of wheeling a few baskets to your house up a drive or something. Excessive physical exertion in up to 40 degree heat is dangerous.

Could be a local transport issue, or something like staff phoning in ill - if they have too many off, something has to give.

They don't have aircon, we asked our Tesco delivery lady last week.

It is very hot. People are feeling sick from heat in my work place

That’s weird. I’ve just had a Tesco’s order at my work (boiling in London)

Emmmm. How is that relevant. There are thousands of different Tesco shops all over the country. Each one will decide to do what they want

Yeah it’s dangerous for kids to be in school in this heat!! They could die!!! Unless of course the parents are supermarket workers or other essential jobs. Their kids will be totally fine at school of course! Ridiculous that they could be off work looking after their own children!

Funny that you say that when quoting me, I’m doing the same 😂

Last time it was really hot their fridges and freezers on the vans were packing up. Can’t risk a delivery of spoiled food.

It'll be a combination of the refrigeration not coping on the vans and the increased physical strain on the drivers. You'll also see supermarkets taking the frozen goods off the shop floor into big freezer storage as they also don't function well at this kind of temperature.
We don't (yet) get enough of this extreme hot weather to make it financially viable to buy the more powerful units they use in very hot climates (before someone says hot countries manage lol)

My frozen food all arrived melted the other day so I’m not surprised. UK is not set up for this extreme climate induced heat.

Plus, good for the drivers. No-one should be lugging around heavy crates in this weather

As a Souther European person I am baffled. These temperatures are the norm in other countries (unpleasant, but still expected in summer, every year). And magically life goes on, deliveries keep happening, public transport infrastructure doesn't melt, fridges and freezer keep up, people go to work and, with basic common sense applied, nobody dies.

Oh I dont think those on the other thread demanding the right to work from home mean that people useful to them (like delivery drivers, retail staff, coffee shop minions) should be off too. It might prove inconvenient for them.

A couple of years ago when we had another very hot spell my Sainsburys driver asked for a refill of her water bottle and told me their vans don't have air con. She would sit in the back of the van just to get cool, but it was in the dark, so not something she could do for long. Hopefully they have air con in their cabs now

Simply, this country's infrastructure isn't set up for weather like this - not our roads, not our rail links, not our public buildings or homes. And it's going to become more and more of an issue each year until our collective hand is forced.

I run a food bank for a living. I spent yesterday and then this morning physically moving a tonne - a Transit van's worth - of food around, because if I took the decision to shut I'd then have rotten food and vulnerable, hungry service users. Some volunteers (rightly) took the decision not to come in because the heat would be too much for them. Some of my work I did with my eight year old next to me propped in front of a fan, because her school has shut. That's the reality for me this week. Lots of these small decisions have knock-on effects.