JHB branch: Hijacking in Fourways

Public service announcement:

Missing bicycle during Hijacking in Fourways

Yes, it finally happened. We send lots of bicycles all across the country each day and touch wood in 8 years had no incidents. But this year we had. Just this weekend. Which means in this instance touching the wood didn’t work. Below is what happened so that we can learn from it.

When the ‘Police’ can’t be trusted

What happened was quite simple: we collected a customer’s boxed bicycle from a shop in CPT during last week and sent it up the JHB. It arrived at the JHB depot and was loaded onto the smaller vehicle for final delivery on Friday. The driver started with his rounds, and after completing 5 of the 30 deliveries for the day, he stopped by the ‘Police’ (not knowing they were impersonators pretending to be police officers) and was hijacked on the spot in Fourways. He was demanded to get out – and I quote verbatim from the incident report:

“…he was then attacked from behind with unidentified object, then he was pushed inside the (Toyota) Quantum after been attacked and they covered his face and he was handcuffed, then he was dropped off at Lanseria…”

Natural response to this Hijacking in Fourways?

If it was my bike that was involved in this hijacking incident, then I would have been just as upset. Maybe our initial response should not be to take to social media and various online platforms and complain to all the bike shops about the service we deliver and say it is fraud and a scam. Let’s think of the driver. What about his family? Is he OK? And I am glad to report that he is, despite the ordeal.

We are proud of the service we deliver,

And take our reputation very seriously. In fact, one could argue that our focus is slanted more towards good customer service than purely on profit. To the benefit of our customers. Please refer to the 1000+ comments on our testimonials page and the five star top reviews right here. A quick checklist concludes:

• Did the sender place the online order herself? YES.
• Did the sender accept the terms of transport? YES.
• Did the sender have an opportunity to insure? YES, twice.

What about insurance?

In this case the sender (A) didn’t have existing cover, and (B) she did not opt in for the optional but available goods in transit cover, which we put together after some effort (and it comes at half to two-thirds cheaper than what we typically found elsewhere in the courier service industry). In fact, I am surprised by how few people actually do take out the additional insurance. Probably because they already have their bicycles covered on their on short term policies. Or because they assume the risk.

Over to you

What would you have done? What else could we have done to prevent this hijacking in Fourways, or anywhere else, now or in future? Oh, and please review our fine print – we try to keep it keep it as simple and transparent as possible.