It’s a tale as old as time: an unfortunate Postman gets attacked by the family’s dog.
It’s not the most obvious statement you might hear about dogs and Christmas. In fact, it’s normally something along the lines of how dogs aren’t just for Christmas. However, if you’re a delivery driver, then at this current time, dogs may have the potential to ruin your holidays.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter how cute and friendly a dog is, they may still consider a delivery driver’s fingers as intruders when you dare to slip post through their letterbox.
Just a couple of days ago, we saw reports of a poor Scotsman who got his fingers mauled by a pooch. He works as a courier for Hermes, and has loyally done so for the past 8 years. In that time, veteran parcel delivery driver Glen Morgan has been attacked a whopping 4 times.
In fact, the first time he was attacked, Mr Morgan even had to receive stitches and a tetanus injection, due to the severity of his injuries.
Normally, delivery drivers may be aware of dogs that are aggressive in the neighbourhood they work in. However, there is nothing that the driver can do about it, except hope that the owners use their initiative and keep their pets back. Not quite what you would want to be wishing for as a wish to Santa, eh?
Of course, you have the surprise attacks, too. A sneak attack is perhaps even more frustrating because you aren’t expecting it.
We bet many of you breathed a sigh of relief when non-contact delivery came into effect due to the ongoing pandemic. In fact, according to the Royal Mail, there were 31% fewer dog attacks on their delivery drivers with the introduction of non-contact delivery.
You can check out the ‘Dog Awareness’ Royal Mail page for more advice on dealing with dogs as a postie; what you can do to help if you’re a dog owner; case studies of similar events like Mr Glen Morgan’s; and details on the unfortunate areas in the UK that are top for delivery drivers being attacked by dogs.
Have you ever been attacked by a dog whilst doing your deliveries? Let us know in the comments.
The moral of the story is, please be careful out there. Especially in the run-up to Christmas where delivery drivers are being worked harder than ever.
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