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Sagawa Express apologizes over clip of driver’s parcel rage

Sagawa Express apologized over a widely circulated video showing one of its male drivers repeatedly slamming parcels and flinging a cart around in Tokyo (Nippon News Network)
Sagawa Express apologized over a widely circulated video showing one of its male drivers repeatedly slamming parcels and flinging a cart around in Tokyo (Nippon News Network)

TOKYO (TR) – Major logistics firm Sagawa Express apologized on Tuesday over a widely circulated video showing one of its frustrated male drivers repeatedly slamming parcels and flinging a cart around.

The footage uploaded to YouTube on Dec. 6 shows the worker in Sagawa Express uniform repeatedly flinging the cart up a flight of stairs and slamming parcels against the ground and the cart near an apartment building in the capital at around noon the same day, Nippon News Network reports (Dec. 28).

Sagawa Express investigated after the video was uploaded and identified the man, who explained that he was hauling parcels back to his truck after the customer wasn’t at home when he “did it because I got irritated, I was stressed out for a lot of reasons. I’m seriously reflecting on that.”

The worker has been removed from delivery duty and will be appropriately disciplined, Sagawa Express said, adding the company was “sincerely sorry for causing inconvenience and concern on everyone involved because of the thoughtless actions of an employee.”

The abused parcels were thought to have been delivered after the fit of rage, but Sagawa Express is working to identify the recipients and plans to apologize to them in addition to replacing their deliveries, NHK reported (Dec. 27).

Sagawa Express has been hit by complaints of late deliveries in seven prefectures and municipalities, including Tokyo, Saitama, Aichi and Osaka since Dec. 22 due to what the company says is an unexpected volume of holiday deliveries and lack of drivers, the Mainichi Shimbun reported on Dec. 22.

Teetering on death by overwork line

Delivery drivers in Japan are facing difficult conditions amid soaring demand for online deliveries from the likes of Amazon.co.jp, which according to an Impress Corporation survey posted the highest online sales of 930 billion yen in 2015 compared to Yodobashi Camera in second with 79 billion yen.

A driver for Yamato Transport told Bengo4.com News that they and many of their colleagues were hovering near or over 80 hours of overtime a month, which is said to be the karoshi (death by overwork) limit, without a chance to rest during days that extend 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.

The driver said they lost three kilograms entering December because of a bulging workload, much of it from Amazon.co.jp.