Tales from the Covid Courier supporting the NHS during lockdown

DAY 2 of  a journal from the front line by a veteran Scottish Courier working through Coronavirus lockdown in Glasgow

Eagle Couriers control room staff at work at the firm’s Bathgate HQ

BY ALYSON McKELL

SOMETIMES during lockdown it can feel the whole world has ground to a halt.

Of course, that’s not the case and working as a courier there are plenty of insights into the parts of everyday life that are still ticking over.

Today’s first job is a collection of legal documents that are still in demand and need delivered to different addresses across Glasgow, for lawyers and legal staff who are now working from home. This takes up the early part of the morning

That was followed by a job in a slightly different part of the legal world – this time to collect documents for the Procurator Fiscal service from a Royal Mail sorting office and deliver them.

Next up there is a stop off at a major distribution hub to collect various items that have been en route to Scotland overnight (some of them over days). Once collected, these are then delivered to their final destination.

A regular part of my daily work in Glasgow is to collected hot meals from school production kitchens and deliver them to those schools which don’t have their own kitchens on site, to ensure the pupils enjoy a hot meal.

Even though most schools are currently shut down, a small number are still operating for the children of essential workers; the people who are working in shops, in hospitals or doing other vital jobs to keep the country running.

So it is gratifying to know I am doing my bit to help, when I deliver trays of hot meals to a school in the city.

Another part of my daily workload is to collect blood and other samples from clinics across the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, then safely deliver them to the testing labs at Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI). Today is no exception. It’s a job I’m all too familiar with and often will have to make more than one run per day.

Later I’m busy with more worthwhile NHS work. This time I’m stopping off at the NHS Pharmacy Distribution Centre in Govan to collect medicines which are taken to the pharmacy at GRI.

That’s followed by a trip to the Marie Curie Hospice at Stobhill Hospital to collect items which need transferred to Royal Infirmary – some items go to the labs, while others go to the pharmacy.

Eagle Couriers in Scotland workd with the NHS including the Marie Curie hospice in Glasgow

It’s actually a return journey and while at the GRI Pharmacy I pick up vital packages which are then taken back to the hospice. However on that return journey I see something very unexpected on such quiet roads – an accident

As I exited the M8 motorway at the Blochairn junction, I saw a car ahead which must have lost control, skidded onto the grass verge and then into a pole. The people in the car were standing up the embankment.

I stopped, called 101 to report the accident and turned around and checked the people were ok. They assured me they were unhurt and I let them know I had alerted the police before heading back on my journey.

Eventually it is time to go home – but we know we’ll do it all again tomorrow  in the world of Eagle Couriers.

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