Morrisons to investigate Bridgwater distribution centre’s issues raised by driver

The agency driver, who has asked not to be named, said he was mainly working from that centre during Covid lockdowns and claimed there were “numerous issues” such as the truck’s load safety, and the temperatures of the items delivered.

A Morrisons spokesperson said a "full investigation" will be carried out.

A photo took by the driver (Image: Submitted)

The driver claimed “loads were lost during travel” several times, including pallets and cases and he reported the issues on different occasions.

He said: “Over the years there were numerous issues the most recurrent was the load safety.

“Loads are not being secured by legal standards (the load in the back of the trucks are not secured).

“On 12 occasions I have complained about the load security. The 13th time, I did it in writing and I was told it was my responsibility.

“My concerns were ignored, and I said, ‘what’s it going to take? Is a driver going to lose his licence’?

‘We need to get this sorted’, but nothing was done and that’s the source of my frustration.

“I don’t do it for me, I do it for others who have mortgages and kids.

“The temperature at the depot was good, but when I got down to Totnes the temperature was way off. -25 was +8, and +5 was +17.

“Chilled items were becoming frozen and the frozen were becoming chilled. I couldn’t keep the food at the right temperature because there was no plug at the end of the socket.

A photo took by the driver to show there was no plug at the end of the cable (Image: Submitted)

“There were issues with the weight bridge, and I couldn’t use it” and claimed that on some occasions the trucks were overweight.

“You need a thick bar when you have trolleys like these, there was no bar and one of the straps was mine.

“The pallet was rammed in so when you load it, is unstable and will trip over. I had to re-load it properly so they would not trip over.”

The driver claimed he had issues in securing the load and keeping it at the right temperatures (Image: Submitted)

Another photo showing the conditions of the load inside a truck (Image: Submitted)

The driver said he had to secure the load with his own strap (Image: Submitted)

A Morrisons spokesperson said: "We take health and safety incredibly seriously throughout Morrisons, including at our Bridgewater Distribution Centre and we will now carry out a full investigation."