Near Miss of the Day 404 revisited: Hermes apologises for "unacceptable" close pass

A road.cc reader who wrote to the CEO of the UK subsidiary of Germany-based delivery giant Hermes after one of its vehicles was featured in our Near Miss of the Day series earlier this week has been told that it is “unacceptable” for the driver concerned “to be so reckless and inconsiderate.”

The footage had been shot by road.cc reader Andy on Shipbourne Road, who said: "Hermes delivery may be classed as key workers but do they need to make attempts to increase the numbers visiting hospital?"

After seeing the footage, another road.cc reader – who besides being a cyclist and car driver, also drives a 7.5 tonne truck – wrote to Martijn De Lange, CEO of Hermes in the UK, to make him aware of the video and the poor driving shown.

His message was passed on to the team that deals with complaints made to the CEO, with the employee responding asking to “pass on my apologies to the cyclist who was involved in this incident.

 “It is unacceptable for one of our drivers to be so reckless and inconsiderate when out on the roads.”

They added that the incident would be referred to the management team of Hermes Parcel Shop, which operates the vehicle in question, to enable them to “identify who this driver is so we can begin an investigation into why the courier was driving so carelessly.”

Subsequently, the company confirmed that the complaint had been received by the management team, who “will be addressing this issue with the driver and the most appropriate action will be taken towards them.

“This is not how we want to portray Hermes as a company and we will make sure that this doesn't happen again. All further matters have now been dealt with internally,” the company added.

It's always good to hear about positive resolutions to the incidents we feature in the series, and we will pass on their apologies to the cyclist involved – while also remaining hopeful we won't see a submission featuring one of their vans again.

> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?

Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.

If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.

If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).

Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.

> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling