Asda driver Shaun battles through thick snow to deliver to nursing home and nursery

We love hearing positive feedback about our amazing colleagues – like this tweet from Monifieth resident Lou who spotted an Asda van trying to deliver to one of her neighbours in heavy snow on Wednesday.

She said: "Whoever is this delivery driver deserves some recognition. Treacherous conditions at mine and he’s abandoned van and trailed all the shopping up to the house whose delivery he was making!!!"

The driver was Shaun Dickson, one of our home shopping section leaders at Dundee Milton, who battled through the heavy snow on Wednesday to deliver to Lou's neighbour in Monifieth – as well as a nursery and a nursing home.

Although the main roads were drivable, a lot of the side streets were deep in snow, so Shaun had to finish the deliveries by dragging a trolley on foot through the snow.

"When I got into work I saw there was a nursery and a nursing home on the list of orders and I knew I couldn't let them down," he said.

"I think it's important to lead by example. All the drivers have been taking trolleys with them. The trolleys are hard to push in the snow so yesterday I was trying to find sledges instead but, as you can imagine, we've sold out!"

Shaun, who started his career at Asda Milton on the night shift 15 years ago, was a delivery driver in Aberdeen and Bristol before becoming section leader at Dundee Milton. He and his wife live in Arbroath and have a son, a daughter and two grandchildren - Imogen, who's seven, and Zach, three - whom he hasn't seen for four months due to lockdown restrictions.

Shaun used to train Asda drivers and has this advice for driving in snow:

"Keep your revs at between 1,500 and 2,000. Front wheel drive is great. Don't brake suddenly – if you've got an automatic you can go down the gears but if you're in a manual you want to keep it in 1st, 2nd or 3rd gear. You don't want to panic in snow; you shouldn't be in a hurry. I always say, you want to drive like you play snooker – think three steps ahead!"

Shaun also dropped off essentials to a vulnerable customer last night on his way home after her shopping was cancelled due to the bad weather.

Store manage James Carachie says he's so proud of the way Shaun and his team have coped with the bad weather.

He said: "Shaun has done a brilliant job, 100%, in treacherous conditions. There was a vulnerable customer we couldn't deliver to yesterday because the weather was too bad to get a van out to her. I spoke to her and found out she lives out near Shaun so we got some essentials sorted out for her, like bread and milk, and I paid for them at store cost. Shaun dropped them off for her on his way home.

"There's still quite a bit of snow on the ground. Today was a record day for us on e-commerce - the most we've ever picked and packed. We just haven't been able to get out to every customers over the past couple of days so we're working hard to catch up. The whole team have been brilliant this week - the pickers and packers working hard to get the shopping out in the vans and the drivers out in all weathers. It's always nice to get positive feedback from our customers!"