Delivery Riders Research Articles

Delivery riders’ cultural production in Spain: A thematic analysis of their self-representation on YouTube

This study analyses YouTube videos about delivery riders in Spain as well as the channels in which the videos were uploaded. The aim is to understand the ways that riders are represented in the videos and determine the labour imaginaries that emerge in the context of platformization, which includes work that depends on platforms that use computer architecture and automation systems to arrange exchanges between people, goods, and corporations, such as the work of delivery riders. This article shows how platformization of labour intersects with cultural production because delivery riders’ work has become a video theme in the YouTube platform. Moreover, in some cases riders (or aspiring ones) use YouTube and other social media to interact, share knowledge and organize their job. Based on a thematic analysis of delivery riders' YouTube videos ( n = 40) from 26 channels mined with YouTube Data Tools, this study presents a typology of channels in which riders appear. It also categorizes the main representations of riders as well as the imaginaries that emerge about this type of labour in YouTube videos. The analysis indicates that delivery riders’ work has a transitory nature, which is expressed in the analysed videos. Moreover, the study demonstrates that immigrants are the people who tend to do this type of work in Spain, and shows how being an immigrant plays a particular role in the way riders are represented or gain their social conceptions and aspirations about this kind of work.

Investigating the Effects of Job Stress on the Distraction and Risky Driving Behaviors of Food Delivery Motorcycle Riders

BackgroundOccupational safety issues related to food delivery riders emerge with evidence of an increase in associated traffic accidents and injuries along with the rapid growth of the online food delivery business. This paper focuses on food delivery riders' job stress and investigates its relationships with both antecedents and risky riding outcomes. MethodSurvey data were collected from 279 Taiwanese food delivery motorcycle riders and analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis. ResultsThe results show that job overload and time pressure positively impact riders' job stress, while self-efficacy slightly reduces job stress. Job stress positively leads to risky driving behavior and distraction. In addition, time pressure can strengthen the impact of job overload on job stress. Riders' risky riding attitude can also strengthen the impacts of job stress on risky riding behaviors and distraction. ConclusionThis paper advances the literature on online food delivery as well as the occupational safety improvement of food delivery riders. Specifically, this study provides insights into the job stress of food delivery motorcycle riders and the effects of job characteristics and risky behavioral consequences.

플랫폼노동 조직화 모델 제안: 플랫폼노동과 그림자노동 관점의 통합

This study aims to identify the relationship between algorithm management in digital labor platforms and platform labor in a phenomenal way. Based upon prior studies, we approach to investigate how the algorithm management organizes platform labor. To understand the phenomenon of platform labor, we have conducted in-depth interviews with various stakeholders including a delivery platform company, delivery riders, and delivery platform consumers. By analyzing the interview manuscripts based on grounded theory methodology, we have derived three core categories such as platform algorithm management, specificity of platform labor, and platform labor by incorporating similar concepts from the coding steps. This study contributes to understanding how the platform algorithm management organizes platform labor. In addition, this study has practical implications in that our findings help many platforms understand how to control algorithm management.

Time Pressure Affects the Risk Preference and Outcome Evaluation.

It is ubiquitous that food delivery riders do not have unlimited periods of time for deliberation to make decisions. Time pressure plays a significant role in decision-making processes. This study investigated how time pressure affected risk preference and outcome evaluation through behavioral and electrophysiological responses during decision-making. Participants finished a simple gambling task under three different time constraint conditions (high/medium/low). Behavioral and event-related potentials (ERPs) data were recorded during the experiment. The results showed that the decision time of people was shorter under high time pressure than under medium and low time pressures. People tend to make more risky choices when under high time pressure. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitude was smaller in the high time pressure than in medium and low time pressure conditions. These findings provided evidence that time pressure has an impact on the risk decision-making process.

How Does Algorithm Control Affect Platform Workers’ Responses? Algorithm as a Digital Taylorism

While many online labor platforms have adopted algorithms to monitor or control workforces as a new form of algorithm management, there is no academic attempt to empirically examine how the algorithmic control of platforms influences platform workers’ behaviors in a platform context. In this study, we consider how algorithm management affects the platform workers’ response from a Digital Taylorism perspective. Digital Taylorism involves management’s use of technology to monitor workers by assigning and tracking work. Therefore, this study examines how algorithm control influences the platform workers’ response by mediating the tension of work compensation in an online labor platform context. Survey data collected from 216 food delivery riders in South Korea are used to test the model using partial least squares analysis. Our results show that algorithm control affects platform workers’ responses by mediating tensions of platform work compensation. Based upon our empirical findings, we can provide a theoretical perspective to relevant researchers who seek to find a theoretical mechanism of algorithm management. Moreover, we can offer practical insights to practitioners who are interested in algorithm management.

Prevalence Of Back Pain Among Food Delivery Riders In Kota Bharu, Kelantan: A Preliminary Study

The introduction of Industrial Revolution 4.0 and the current pandemic has increased the demand for food delivery services. However, riding motorcycles may pose the risk of experiencing musculoskeletal disorders. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of back pain among food delivery riders. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 39 riders in Kota Bharu. A modified and adapted questionnaire from Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire was used to assess the musculoskeletal symptoms. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-Square Test. This study found that the highest one-year prevalence of whole body for the food delivery riders was lower back pain (59.0%), followed by neck pain (53.8%), shoulder pain (53.8%), and upper back pain (48.7%). Whereas for seven-days prevalence was led by both lower back pain and shoulder pain (59.0%, respectively). Classification of work and the delivery bag did show significant associations with lower back pain (p<0.05). Meanwhile lifting load and body bending were associated significantly with experiencing upper back pain (p<0.05). In conclusion, work-related characteristics had demonstrated significant associations with back pain. The riders should adopt a good posture while riding to prevent back pain. Measures should also be taken by both the management company and the rider, as to improve the working conditions of these delivery riders.

Auditing Gig Work Platforms: Fairwork’s Research, Advocacy, and Impact

The rise of the “gig economy” poses fundamental challenges to pre-existing social compacts regarding labour relations around the world, with vital implications for Singapore’s workforce, economic growth, and its tripartism framework. While some see an inevitable trend towards digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platforms dominating workers, others seek to find solutions through state intervention and/or corporate self-management. Both latter approaches, we contend, would be incomplete without hearing the voices of gig workers and considering their experiences in light of relevant platform policies and government regulations. Can gig work platforms be subjected to labour audits? If so, how? This paper introduces the Fairwork project as a case in which labour audits are conducted to assess ride-hailing and food delivery platforms across five continents in 30 countries including Singapore. We aim to discuss the project’s background and its five main principles, its methods of research and advocacy, the promises of auditing gig work platforms, its social and policy impact, and its limitations. We also present findings from focus groups and interviews involving ride-hailing drivers and food delivery riders in Singapore, which were conducted in 2021–2022 using the Fairwork methodology. In so doing, we discuss the lessons learnt from the case of Fairwork and similar projects of labour-auditing gig work platforms, which deserve more attention and exploration in Singapore and elsewhere.

Factors Determined Food Delivery Rider’s Well-Being in Seri Kembangan, Selangor

The food delivery service is an alternative way for Malaysian consumers to buy food online. It became routine for young adults, university students and it is a need for ageing people. The study about well-being among food delivery riders’ is limited and mainly the past literature mentions the course of the road accident. Working as a food delivery rider is one of the job solutions to generate family income during a pandemic. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyse the factors that determine food delivery riders’ well-being in Seri Kembangan, Selangor. Motivation, physiological and safety needs are independent variables related to the well-being of food delivery riders. The data were collected at Seri Kembangan, and the respondent was chosen by random sampling. The finding is important to The Ministry of Human Resources to create a policy for the food delivery riders’ well-being. The well-being of food delivery riders in terms of financial, emotional and social have to explore further. The recommendation to food delivery riders is to increase their well-being by having insurance; social workers to assist this group manage their resource management such as self-management, money and debt management which leads to quality of life.

SELF-CARE BEHAVIORS TO PREVENT COVID-19 INFECTION AMONG FOOD DELIVERY RIDERS IN THAILAND

The COVID-19 pandemic plays a key role in people's behavior worldwide, especially, during the measures of locking down and social distancing, the demand for food delivery increased worldwide. To prevent the transmission of COVID-19, the food delivery riders require to have good self-care behaviors during working. Therefore, this research aims to assess the self-care behaviors to prevent COVID-19 among food delivery riders and determine the associations of demographic data of food delivery riders and self-care behaviors to prevent COVID-19. This research employed online cross-sectional research involving 440 food delivery riders in Bangkok from October to November 2020. The findings showed that most food delivery riders had a high level of self-care behaviors to prevent COVID-19 infection (M= 4.04, SD= 0.63). The factor associated with the self-care behaviors to prevent COVID-19 infection was educational level (p< 0.05). This research provides an understanding of the level and factors associated with self-care behaviors to prevent COVID-19 infection among food delivery riders. The healthcare providers, public health sectors, and food delivery companies are recommended to promote self-care behaviors among food delivery riders and necessary to have the effective health communication, health education or intervention to all food delivery riders by concerning about their educational background.

What if delivery riders quit? Challenges to last-mile logistics during the Covid-19 pandemic

Notoriously precarious, hazardous, and stressful, delivery jobs became even more onerous and dangerous during the pandemic. In this study, set in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, we applied Structural Equation Modelling to a large sample of primary data to measure delivery riders' intention to quit their jobs at the height of the pandemic. We found that job burnout was the key trigger to the intention to quit whereas the risk of Covid-19 infection did not directly affect this behavioral intention. Female riders, migrants, persons living with chronic diseases, and those who had seen their income decimated during the pandemic were more likely to want to quit their job. But if a mass of delivery drivers or riders had failed to show up for work, the last-mile delivery sector would have become paralysed, leaving individuals in various states of lockdown or isolation without food and supplies. As the sector is poised to retain its importance in the post-pandemic period, we recommend a number of approaches for both private companies and public policy makers to persuade riders to stay in their jobs. First and foremost, strategies to prevent and mitigate job burnout should be formulated.

Deadly meals: The influence of personal and job factors on burnout and risky riding behaviours of food delivery motorcyclists

Food delivery riders are overrepresented in road crashes. Arguably, the increased risk experienced by food delivery riders is linked to the working conditions offered by the “gig economy”. Research is needed to fully understand the safety-related issues this vulnerable group of road users face daily and identify opportunities for counter measures. In this investigation, we proposed a new theoretical model to explain the risky behaviour of food delivery motorcyclists based on the well-established Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. Following the JD-R, we considered the impact of job demands (job aspects that require sustained effort) and job resources (job aspects that help achieve work-related goals, reduce job demands and stimulate personal development) on the risky riding behaviours of food delivery motorcyclists. The JD-R model was also extended with three constructs, including personal demands, personal resources, and perceived safety risk to explore the role of individuals' within-person aspects. The developed model was tested using data collected from 554 food delivery riders in the two biggest cities in Vietnam. The results showed that job burnout, job resources, and personal demands directly impact risky riding behaviours, in which job burnout was the most significant predictor. Constructs such as job demands, personal resources, and perceived safety risk were not significant predictors of risky riding behaviours. This research shows that organisation-level factors could be modified to prevent risky riding behaviour. The gig economy industry can do much more to improve the safety of delivery riders.

Factors influencing road safety compliance among food delivery riders: An extension of the job demands-resources (JD-R) model

Factors influencing road safety compliance among food delivery riders: An extension of the job demands-resources (JD-R) model

Gig Economy Riders on Social Media in Thailand: Contested Identities and Emergent Civil Society Organisations.

The emergence of the gig economy has generated a new class of workers who are categorised as independent "partners" instead of employees with rights to labour protection. Triggered by observations of a protest movement by platform-based delivery riders in Thailand, we engaged in seven months of digital ethnographic research of riders' interactions online to understand the emergence of informal groups facilitating mutual aid and collective action. Civil society research has neglected to analyse such groups within the gig economy. The study finds that social media is a site for the development and contestation of identity narratives. We observed a "Hero" narrative that glorifies delivery riders' independent status and a "Worker" narrative that challenges riders' conditions. We argue that these collective identity narratives crucially facilitate or inhibit the emergence of labour-oriented civil society organisations, thus contributing to third sector research that examines civil society in the Global South.

Work, Health, and Safety Conditions of Delivery Riders in the Philippines during COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction. The delivery sector has experienced a remarkable expansion in recent years, owing mainly to theCOVID-19 pandemic. However, numerous elements, like practices, regulations, and health and safety conditions,impact their efficiency. Similarly, the issues and complaints of delivery services, notably its on-the-ground workers/riders, have grown.Objective. This research aims to describe delivery riders' work-related health and safety conditions in the Philippines.Method. An online survey was conducted for delivery riders to inquire about working conditions, and health and safety issues. Eighty survey respondents were included via snowball sampling. The survey focused on seven variables: precautions at work, health risks due to work, accident involvement, bad driving practices, road conditions, potential dangers for riders, and employer regulations and support. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.Results. Most riders are low-income married men who have finished at least high school and work more than eight hours a day, six days a week. Most of them also work for food delivery businesses during the day. The findings show a general adherence to traffic and safety laws, a propensity to push oneself to work despite poor conditions, and a lack of company support for riders' health, safety, and other requirements. The regular delivery rider's everyday difficulties include dirt roads, a lack of traffic signals, the presence of wandering animals and irresponsible pedestrians, and an insistence on showing up to work despite weather or health concerns. Furthermore, responders have high esteem for and thoroughly grasp local traffic laws.Conclusion. Although the riders are generally perceived to comply with safety standards, their employers’ rules and support indicate that delivery firms are deficient in providing adequate safety and health measures for their workers. There is low importance on strategies to prevent transmission and contraction of COVID-19, such as vaccinations, testing, face masks, face shields, and sanitizers, among others.

Delivering hot food on motorcycles: A mixed method study of the impact of business model on rider behaviour and safety

In Great Britain, motorcyclists have the highest fatality rate per billion passenger miles of all road users, and people who work on motorcyclists have a much greater risk of injury compared to other motorcyclists. Many hot meal delivery services are provided by people using motorcycles. Work can be accessed by an app or by being employed by a restaurant. There is a need to understand whether the business model under which riders work influences their experience of risk or whether this is just related to the risks of delivering food by motorbike per se. Interviews were conducted with six gig riders and 14 employed riders and an online survey was completed by 164 riders working via apps and 155 employed by restaurants. Gig workers were significantly more likely to agree that that their phone was a distraction and that they violated traffic laws related to speeding, red light running and, unsurprisingly, they had more points on their licence compared to employed riders. Gig riders were also more likely to be incentivised to ride in dangerous conditions and carry unstable loads. Gig workers were more likely to report being involved in collisions where their vehicle was damaged and where someone was injured. These findings were also evident in interview narratives. More needs to be done to make gig companies embed practices that do not increase risks for delivery riders.

Factors Affecting Food Delivery Riders’ Intention to Participate in the Gig Economy

Since Covid-19 (C19) became a global pandemic, there has been a rise in the number of people joining food delivery platforms (FDPs). Although this form of gig work is gaining its pace, food delivery riders (FDRs) are falling behind in terms of rules and legislation designed to safeguard their employees. To understand the spread of these unstable forms of employment, it is essential to comprehend the factors that keep FDRs in it. This quantitative study employed PPM to determine the relationship between push, pull, and mooring factors and FDRs’ intention to participate in the gig economy; and to test whether these factors prevent or lead to their participative behaviour. The SPSS 26.0 and Smart PLS 3.30 programmes were used to analyse the survey data from 393 respondents. Economic necessities, extra income, flexibility, and control and autonomy, encouraged FDRs' gig economy participation, whereas limited alternatives and enjoyment minimise it. It is also evident that FDRs will have lower participation due to the lack of employment protection that also moderates the relationship between economic necessities and their participation in the gig economy. This research provides widespread implications for both theory and practice.

Sharing within the gig economy: The use of shared e-bikes by on-demand platform-based instant meal delivery workers in Paris

The gig economy and digital platforms have developed in an exponential way over the past few years. In large cities, instant on-demand meal delivery has gained tremendous momentum. This activity is mainly taken on by self-employed workers; consequently, they are in charge of providing their own equipment and vehicle, may it be their own or a rented vehicle. The aim of this paper is to explore delivery riders’ mobility practices in Paris. This research relies on quantitative data from a survey conducted in February 2021 on a sample of more than 500 instant meal delivery riders operating in the northeast district of Paris. Data allowed to characterize the mobility of delivery riders in Paris when on the job. Results reveal that 46.4% of them use bicycles and 38.8% of these bicycle riders rely on Paris’ public shared bicycle service, Vélib’. Results suggest that the Paris shared bicycle scheme allows them to access an electric bicycle at a cheap price. This raises several policy questions. First, in the mind of its early promoters, Vélib’ was not designed to serve the needs of professional delivery workers; their use of the service might limit the availability of bicycles for private users, among other operational challenges. Second, Vélib is providing precarious gig workers with a valuable resource to cope with the insecure conditions associated with instant delivery for digital platforms. This work brings new insights in terms of working conditions of delivery cyclists, and points to the need for comprehensive policy interventions at the municipal level.

LAST MILE LOGISTICS: IMPACT OF UNSTRUCTURED ADDRESSES ON DELIVERY TIMES

Abstract. The e-commerce industry has seen significant growth over the past few years. One significant issue that has sprung up as a result of this growth is unstructured addresses during last mile delivery. These ambiguous addresses are an established issue, particularly in developing countries like Pakistan. They are difficult to read and locate by last mile delivery riders thereby increasing delivery times and cost, negatively impacting the business of the company. Increased delivery times are also detrimental to the environment. In this paper, we aim to quantify the effects of unstructured addresses on last mile logistics. Many attempts have been made to standardise addresses to tackle this problem. Deep learning based approaches using recurrent neural networks (RNN) as well as probabilistic approaches using hidden Markov models (HMM) have been used. However, the main downside to these approaches are the underlying variation in address schemes in housing societies. We present an end to end rule based pipeline using Levenshtein distance (LD) and regular expressions (RegEx) rules which takes those unstructured addresses and outputs their structured forms along with their Geo-coordinates. The pipeline also returns the optimized route to minimize the last mile distance traveled.

A comparison of characteristics between food delivery riders with and without traffic crash experience during delivery in Malaysia

The rapid development of e-commerce and the spread of the COVID-19 virus created many new jobs opportunity including food delivery riders known as P-Hailing riders. The number of food delivery riders has increased drastically, especially in Malaysia. Consequently, the number of food delivery riders involved in traffic crashes also increased. This study aimed to examine the characteristics of food delivery riders involved in traffic crashes during delivery and to compare with the characteristics of food delivery riders without any traffic crash history. This paper explores and compares general characteristics, previous experience of working and receiving traffic tickets, and knowledge of road safety. Due to unavailable official records about the number of active food delivery riders in Malaysia, this study focuses on riders who registered as members of the Malaysian P-Hailing Association, PENGHANTAR. A total of 225 food delivery riders participated in the online survey conducted through Google Form. Categorical data analysis techniques were used to examine the different characteristics of food delivery riders with and without traffic crash experiences. Results show that the odds ratio of young and full-time riders are respectively about 2.05 times and 1.79 times higher than being involved in traffic crashes. Other factors that increase the odds of being involved in traffic crashes include having more than two years of experience in delivery, an average distance travelled of>100 km a day, working previously in the food and grocery sector, and without working experience. The findings from this study will help related agencies to design and develop awareness programs targeting this group of riders.

From discreet resistances to Yellow Vests protests in platform capitalism? An ethnographic survey among bicycle delivery workers

ABSTRACT Based on ethnographic fieldwork with Parisian food delivery riders during 2018–2019, this article describes how these gig economy workers appropriate their own work to collectively resist the more restrictive dimensions of digital application control. These forms of resistance are often expressed as the refusal to ‘accept everything’. I show that domination is thus rejected by modelling a sense of labour respectability. These silenced resistances make it possible to recode an otherwise unpleasant job. Furthermore, I highlight how psychotropic substances appear to riders as a means of coping and escaping total capture. In a group composed mostly of men who claim a virile self-image, competition combines with peer solidarity in order to numb suffering while involuntary mystifying exploitation. Finally, I explore resistances against the State and the tax system, by introducing some riders who joined the Yellow Vests movement.