Evil8Beezle:
He’s not going to explain anything mate, he hasn’t addressed any of the questions other here have asked.
He just wanted to come on and try to firefight on behalf of the firm without backing up his claims…
Well, it wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t give Art the opportunity to explain.
I’ve helped him with his amnesia above, so it’s up to Art now… and a simple denial just won’t work.
I don’t think Art has anything to really explain, I am pretty sure I know who he is, and don’t believe he has any direct connection to Matthews apart from doing business together in the past.
His comment can be read many ways, I believe he meant that Matthews , having handled this badly initially, now find themselves in a hole with public opinion and anything they do or say now will only inflame the situation.
I agree with the post by Muckles
A. offer a complete apology to the family, no excuses, no mitigating circumstances, just a plain and simple. We were wrong and we’re are deeply ashamed of the distress we have caused to the Family
This takes a big man (or woman) to admit they [zb] up and not try and blame anybody else and we rarely see it in business.
B. offer to match the repatriation fee to a charity of the families choice, no conditions attached.
C. Make sure they have the correct insurance and procedures in place, if anything like this happens again.
For me the ONLY way Matthews could show that they genuinely accept they handled this terribly and are GENUINELY remorseful is to park up their entire fleet on the day of Pauls funeral and not turn a wheel all day as a mark of respect…doubt they will.
raymundo:
newmercman:
Art B Logistics:
I have read all the posts…Seen all the Facebook coverage on this matter and clearly there is now a whole lot of
“Misinformation” about this matter.
I have known the company for over 25 years within the industry and I can assure everyone that this is NOT how they
work at all and the whole attack mentality is giving them No option to help the family at this terrible time.
The whole timings of the incident and the response of the insurance company kind of threw the situation into
dissaray when clearly they were under the impression they were covered for such an incident as they indeed have been in the past.Its a terrible situation for all concerned and just how do you get the situation resolved ? Where on earth do you start ?
Its clear an offer was made to the family to cover initial costs in this situation as NO ONE could have actually known the cost
or indeed how to go about it ?The only option I feel Matthews has is to engage a Solicitor to act for the company and to go between them and the family to keep things calm
now and allow things to proceed with all speed. This “Attack” Mentality will achieve nothing at the end of the day.There seem to be people who have have little or no knowledge of the company or its Directors jumping on the bandwagon to attack the company
and its Directors.I am sure and yes i mean sure they are decent people who will do all they can to assist in anyway they can…It just needs calming down
and lets lose the eye for an eye mentality it will solve nothing.And no…I am not connected to the company in any way shape or form.
Now…The priority is to allow the man to be repatriated and arrangements made with all speed and utmost respect to him and his family.
A Neville Brooker said exactly the same on faceache …
The same Neville ex Heritage I wonder.
Rikki-UK:
I believe he meant that Matthews , having handled this badly initially, now find themselves in a hole with public opinion and anything they do or say now will only inflame the situation.
It’s never too late to say “We got it wrong”. And it never harms a company to say that.
Harry Monk:
Rikki-UK:
I believe he meant that Matthews , having handled this badly initially, now find themselves in a hole with public opinion and anything they do or say now will only inflame the situation.It’s never too late to say “We got it wrong”. And it never harms a company to say that.
I agree with Harry. One of the directors needs to stand up on camera and do a full mea culpa and say sorry and possibly match the sum raised and give it to the family. Most of this hate would evaporate fairly rapidly then. Companies have been in much deeper holes than this and pulled it back. They just need to get their arse into gear
xichrisxi:
For me the ONLY way Matthews could show that they genuinely accept they handled this terribly and are GENUINELY remorseful is to park up their entire fleet on the day of Pauls funeral and not turn a wheel all day as a mark of respect…doubt they will.
Their fleet may well be parked up a little longer after this
James the cat:
xichrisxi:
For me the ONLY way Matthews could show that they genuinely accept they handled this terribly and are GENUINELY remorseful is to park up their entire fleet on the day of Pauls funeral and not turn a wheel all day as a mark of respect…doubt they will.Their fleet may well be parked up a little longer after this
It won’t be
switchlogic:
James the cat:
xichrisxi:
For me the ONLY way Matthews could show that they genuinely accept they handled this terribly and are GENUINELY remorseful is to park up their entire fleet on the day of Pauls funeral and not turn a wheel all day as a mark of respect…doubt they will.Their fleet may well be parked up a little longer after this
It won’t be
If it were not for the fact they employ people who rely on a job I’d say shame
switchlogic:
waynedl:
Virginia were seemingly very different to Matthews. Insurance or not you could always rely on them being there to help you. But then I reckon Matthews is a lot bigger than Virginia. I wouldn’t work for a company that acted this way.I remember Virginia doing themselves VERY VERY proud in that one incident mate.[/Wayne do
Which incident are you referring to?
The ditch?
switchlogic:
Harry Monk:
Rikki-UK:
I believe he meant that Matthews , having handled this badly initially, now find themselves in a hole with public opinion and anything they do or say now will only inflame the situation.It’s never too late to say “We got it wrong”. And it never harms a company to say that.
I agree with Harry. One of the directors needs to stand up on camera and do a full mea culpa and say sorry and possibly match the sum raised and give it to the family. Most of this hate would evaporate fairly rapidly then. Companies have been in much deeper holes than this and pulled it back. They just need to get their arse into gear
That won’t happen. Expect legally managed media mitigation and remote press releases.
Evil8Beezle:
muckles:
I think the only way Matthews can salvage anything from this is toA. offer a complete apology to the family, no excuses, no mitigating circumstances, just a plain and simple. We were wrong and we’re are deeply ashamed of the distress we have caused to he Family of Stephen Stanyard.
This takes a big man (or woman) to admit they [zb] up and not try and blame anybody else and we rarely see it in business.
B. offer to match the repatriation fee to a charity of the families choice, no conditions attached.
C. Make sure they have the correct insurance and procedures in place, if anything like this happens again.
+1
Donated just now saw fund has reached over £22K wonderful to see drivers of all nationalities donating. Now that the family has the money they wanted they should set up a charity as was done in Ireland by the family of a young lad who died in the states and the public contributed on this gofund thing to get him home. Since then loads of young irish and older ones too who have died abroad have been repatriated by this charity. Many here now just have a standing order of a few pounds every month going into this charity. It is named after the young lad who died. It could mean that there never would be another situation like this happen. Would be a fitting tribute to the the driver who died,
Won’t be long before this fund can buy out the tattered remains of the former Matthews operation.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I am amazed by the kindness of people that helped out by giving money to get Paul home to his loved ones.
Paul would have known about the camaraderie that once existed with fellow drivers pounding the tarmac around Europe many years ago.
Where drivers helped each other out in times of need, from giving money to a driver, if he had got his wallet stolen , to help changing blown out tyres on the road side with a scaffolding pole.
In a way, camaraderie came back to help out.
I think we should move on now and forget Matthews, many trucks hooting their horns for the funeral would be a great tribute, a huge convoy that would make the news.
volvo2:
Donated just now saw fund has reached over £22K wonderful to see drivers of all nationalities donating. Now that the family has the money they wanted they should set up a charity as was done in Ireland by the family of a young lad who died in the states and the public contributed on this gofund thing to get him home. Since then loads of young irish and older ones too who have died abroad have been repatriated by this charity. Many here now just have a standing order of a few pounds every month going into this charity. It is named after the young lad who died. It could mean that there never would be another situation like this happen. Would be a fitting tribute to the the driver who died,
That’s a nice thought but it should be without question that it is the employers responsibility to bring any worker home who falls ill or dies when working abroad, a charitable fund may tempt others to walk away from their presumed and moral responsibilities; somebody working away from home should not have to rely on charity.
I would guess their are a lot of international hauliers checking the small print on their insurance at this moment and it wouldn’t surprise me if the exclusions that may have existed in the policy that allowed the insurer to walk away because the driver was not actively working will exist in other policies. There is a lot of small print in insurance policies and when you study it in detail you may find you are covered for a lot less than you may have thought - I’m sure I heard recently that 1 in 10 travel insurance claims are refused!
If what is being reported is correct then certainly the haulier in this case should have acted with far higher morals and just brought their driver home without question - but I would hazard a guess that the real low life’s in this case will be the insurer weaselling out of their side of the bargain with small print.
Certainly any driver who does work abroad should ask their employers for it in writing exactly what they are covered for regarding health care and repatriation for the entire time they are overseas even when they are on a break or away from the truck.
volvo2:
Donated just now saw fund has reached over £22K wonderful to see drivers of all nationalities donating. Now that the family has the money they wanted they should set up a charity as was done in Ireland by the family of a young lad who died in the states and the public contributed on this gofund thing to get him home. Since then loads of young irish and older ones too who have died abroad have been repatriated by this charity. Many here now just have a standing order of a few pounds every month going into this charity. It is named after the young lad who died. It could mean that there never would be another situation like this happen. Would be a fitting tribute to the the driver who died,
The Kevin Bell repatriation fund set up by a father who had to bring his son home after an accident abroad. An excellent fund which I have donated to in the past
Rikki-UK:
I don’t think Art has anything to really explain, I am pretty sure I know who he is, and don’t believe he has any direct connection to Matthews apart from doing business together in the past.His comment can be read many ways, I believe he meant that Matthews , having handled this badly initially, now find themselves in a hole with public opinion and anything they do or say now will only inflame the situation.
I agree with the post by Muckles
A. offer a complete apology to the family, no excuses, no mitigating circumstances, just a plain and simple. We were wrong and we’re are deeply ashamed of the distress we have caused to the Family
This takes a big man (or woman) to admit they [zb] up and not try and blame anybody else and we rarely see it in business.
B. offer to match the repatriation fee to a charity of the families choice, no conditions attached.
C. Make sure they have the correct insurance and procedures in place, if anything like this happens again.
I can’t help completely agreeing with both of the above quotes.
I should have explained my meaning in a better way. 
If my understanding is correct, I meant that Art appeared (to me) to deny having said “the whole attack mentality is giving them No option to help the family at this terrible time.”
The things that Art might explain (if he wishes to) are:
1.) How he feels that posters attacking the company for its behaviour stops the company from doing the ‘right thing.’
2.) His denial that he said that.
As other posters have said (and I agree with them too)… if the company did the right thing (eg.as per muckles above, and Luke) even at this extremely late stage, they could begin the salvage process on their reputation.
Agreed, a public and genuine apology and the promise, carried out not empty words, to put things right.
It worked for Toyota who had some bad press a few years ago, some deserved, mostly not deserved, the chairman made a humble and very public apology for taking their eye off the ball so to speak and a promise to get back up to speed, their reputation if anything is now better than it ever was.
Behaving honourably and truthfully when things have gone wrong, and standing by your product and your people works wonders.