Parcel delivery firm Evri has announced a partnership with disability equality charity Scope aimed at improving doorstep deliveries for people with a condition or impairment.
More options will be offered for those who might need longer, or who can’t get to the door to accept a delivery.
Evri, which said it estimated that one in four home deliveries go to people with a disability, has entered into a three-year partnership with Scope, including a £125,000 donation to support the charity’s work.
The initiative includes the ability for disabled people to request more time to get to the door and to ring the doorbell instead of knocking.
Martijn de Lange, Evri’s chief executive, Evri, said: “Our own research shows that one in four people rely on home deliveries to maintain their independence or improve the quality of their life.
“We are launching exciting new product developments which will improve services for those with accessibility needs.”
Amanda Mitchell, executive director of fundraising at Scope, said: “There are 16 million disabled people in the UK, reflecting a huge proportion of Evri’s customers and workforce.”Our employment experts will be working with Evri to support them in becoming a more accessible and inclusive business for their employees and customers.
“We are encouraged that Evri is prioritising addressing disability inequality in its business and is committed to learning and improving its practices. It’s only by working together that we will achieve real social change and can create an equal future for disabled people.”
Lisa Webb, Which? consumer law expert, said: “Which? research previously found that seven in 10 disabled consumers who used a delivery firm had faced problems, so it’s positive to see Evri taking steps to improve their doorstep delivery experience.
“Other retailers and delivery companies that are falling short on customer service should follow suit and put effective systems in place so disabled consumers can specify their needs and feel confident that they will have parcels delivered in a safe and secure way.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here