Our Values in Action: QCD’s Special Delivery

This week, the QCD team delivered a lot more than coffee products in Charlotte, North Carolina. In a Starbucks store parking lot along QCD’s last-mile delivery route, three associates quickly jumped into action to assist a mother with the delivery of her child. 

QCD’s Tim Bates, Ryan Pollard, and Jose Ynoa immediately responded to a distressed woman, whose baby had already started to make its arrival on the way to the emergency room, located just blocks away from the Starbucks parking lot. 

“The grandmother was driving, and her daughter has turned sideways with her feet facing the passenger side window,” explains Tim, who serves as QCD’s Corporate Quality Systems Director, Logistics. “They opened the window and were yelling for help.” 

Ryan (QCD’s Continuous Improvement Manager) called emergency services, while Tim approached the car to assist.  He recounts, “It looked like the baby would fall to the floor when it came out, so I took off my vest and placed it under the baby. I had grandma pull into the lot slowly to get out of traffic, and with seconds the baby was out.” 

Once parked near the rear of the QCD truck’s trailer, Tim helped deliver the child, who initially was not breathing. He slapped the child’s back a few times, and she started crying while held tightly in her mother’s arms. Jose, a QCD Charlotte delivery driver, spoke to the grandmother in Spanish and helped calm her down during the special delivery of her new grandchild. 

A good Samaritan, Rick, who had just bought a Starbucks coffee also joined the scene. After the baby’s birth, Tim asked Rick to jump into the driver seat and drive the mother, grandmother, and baby to the hospital. Tim followed in his car and ran into the emergency room upon arrival to alert the hospital about the newly born baby in the car outside. 

When Tim and Ryan headed to Charlotte this week to work with the local team on a future continuous improvement project, they could not have imagined this incredible experience. Their involvement demonstrated QCD’s values in action, as they worked as a team with Jose and Rick to respond to an emergency without hesitation and treat others the way they would like to be treated.