Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper investigates the contemporary landscape of last-mile logistics workplaces in relation to the human aspects of labour strategies. The study examines how couriers navigate their territorial environment, develop tacit knowledge and streamline their tasks to meet company objectives and enhance their own efficiency. By proposing the term ‘territorial labour’, we underscore the interplay between socio-spatial dynamics, technological applications, and couriers’ agency in the workplace. Our study shows how last-mile delivery uses territorial labour to create a work model that encompasses high control with no direct and explicit supervision. Couriers have the agency to deploy a range of methods in sorting parcels, sequencing deliveries and pickups, and handling client relationships – all embedded in a territorial context and dependent on their locale-specific knowledge. In contrast to prevailing streams of work and labour literature on logistics that exemplify the potential to digitise and automate work, our findings demonstrate that human labourers occupy a crucial position in the logistics value chain. This finding opens avenues for future research beyond the logistics industry, where territorial labour might be relevant in discussions of the transformation of work.
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