Apollo Couriers

JUST SHORT OF A FIASCO
I’m employed by a large medical center in Los Angeles. By contract, my department is obligated to use Apollo Couriers.
This week, I had to send a 60-​lb, irregularly shaped, refrigerated storage container over to another medical center, where some frozen, therapeutic blood products were to be added to the device, and the container then returned to me. When placing the order for the pick-​up, I specifically stressed the weight of the container and its awkward size. It’s the type of device routinely used for such transfers.
The courier, a young man of about twenty, showed up a half hour past the scheduled pick-​up time. On seeing his delivery package, he said that he didn’t think it would fit into his car and that he didn’t have a hand-​truck or cart to get it to his vehicle. He then called his dispatcher to say that, because of an injury suffered in high school, he wasn’t supposed to lift so heavy an object.
Really?
After some discussion with his home base, he said he’d go ahead and transport the container if I’d help him get it to his car, which I did with the help of a cart. His car, apparently his own, had room enough on the front passenger seat to accommodate the container — barely. And off he went.
I don’t know how he managed at the other hospital, but he returned in about an hour, mission accomplished. On his arrival back, he had to call me to come with my cart to get the container out of his car and back inside my hospital department.
I honestly felt sorry for the young man caught as he was between a rock — me, the irritated customer — and a hard place — his dispatcher, who sent him out unprepared on a fool’s errand. I actually gave him a tip as he meant well and did accomplish the job.
I got the impression that this driver was hired from the pool of those otherwise delivering pizzas.
This was my first occasion to use Apollo. If I have to use them again, I’ll have no confidence in their ability to send the proper resources for the task at hand.
On the basis of this one interaction, I can’t recommend Apollo Couriers.