Delivery Riders Research Articles

Health and safety risks faced by delivery riders during the Covid-19 pandemic

ObjectivesDelivery riders have been front-line workers throughout the pandemic but little is known about their own health and safety during this time. This study explores the health and safety issues facing delivery riders in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, during the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular during the second lockdown (May–October 2021). MethodA web-based survey of more than 800 riders was conducted in August–September 2021. Following descriptive statistics, four logit models were fitted to examine the factors associated with (a) sanitizing one’s hands, (b) using a face shield, (c) contracting a new health issue, and (d) engaging in riskier traffic behaviors during the lockdown. ResultsThe riders who were less consistent in adopting health and safety measures tended to be male, older, less-educated, and vaccinated. Also, they were under greater financial pressure and had suffered a larger loss of income during the pandemic. To recover the loss, they worked longer hours and felt under more intense pressure at work. The job pressure, long working hours, and financial burdens led many drivers to adopt risky traffic behaviors, such as speeding. Conversely, where the companies and co-workers were more supportive, riders tended to adopt health prevention measures more often. Fear of Covid-19 also acted as a facilitator. Job and financial pressure combined with the fear of contracting the virus contributed to the occurrence of new heath issues during the pandemic. Again, support from the company and co-workers helped to reduce the risk of new health problems emerging. ConclusionIn Ho Chi Minh City and other Global South megacities that employ tens of thousands of riders, ensuring their health and safety is important to support both private businesses and public health. Overall, companies should assume a much larger responsibility here.

Characteristics of crashes and injuries on delivery motorcycles: A retrospective cohort study

Objectives: The food delivery market is growing rapidly. As most delivery riders use motorcycles, motorcycle crashes will increase along with the growing delivery market size. This study aimed at examining the proportions of motorcycle crashes and characteristics of injuries incurred while using motorcycles for occupational purposes. Methods: This retrospective analysis included motorcycle crash patients aged 16 years or older, who were treated in 23 emergency rooms in Korea, between 2014 and 2018. Patients were divided into two groups: delivery riders (delivery group) and others (nondelivery group). Crash and injury characteristics were compared between the two groups. In addition, trends of patients in the delivery group were compared from 2014 to 2018. Results: This study examined 26,982 motorcycle crash patients, including 3894 (14.43%) patients in the delivery group and 23,088 (85.57%) in the nondelivery group. The number of patients in the delivery group increased drastically from 583 in 2014 to 1029 in 2018, whereas the number of patients in the nondelivery group did not considerably increase (4411 in 2014 and 4462 in 2018). The delivery group had a higher proportion of crashes caused by collisions with cars or other motorcycles (p < 0.001); however, injury severity was lower. The delivery group had a lower proportion of head and face injuries but a higher proportion of extremity injuries. Furthermore, 39.9% of all crashes in this group occurred between 17:00 and 21:00. Over time, there were neither any changes in the injury severities, nor any changes in the characteristics of the delivery group, with the exception of increases in both the proportion of motorist insurance and the proportion of wearing a helmet. Conclusions: The results indicated differences in characteristics between delivery motorcycle crashes and other motorcycle crashes. Although delivery motorcycle crash severity was low compared to other motorcycle crashes, the number of patients increased significantly. Therefore, to prevent crashes, it is necessary to improve the working environment. In addition, to prevent the extremity injuries of delivery riders, the policy of wearing extremity protective gears should be considered.

Review article: DINED (Delivery-related INjuries in the Emergency Department) part 1: A scoping review of risk factors and injuries affecting food delivery riders.

This scoping review describes the current state of research about two-wheeled delivery riders who have been injured while performing commercial food delivery. The key areas of interest are the patterns of injury, associated risk factors and current gaps in knowledge. Five databases were searched to identify key papers that describe injuries to two-wheeled food delivery riders. Papers were assessed for quality and eligibility and key information was extracted relating to patterns of injury and risk factors. From an initial 264 records from PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus and SafetyLit, studies were screened by title, abstract and full text to yield 12 key papers for analysis. No papers reporting on Australian data were identified. Men comprise over 85% of workers in the food delivery industry. The average age of injured riders varies by country, but is commonly under 30 years old. Most injuries are lower limb musculoskeletal injuries, although there are no consistent data about frequency, severity or cost to the healthcare system. Twenty-three key risk factors were categorised according to rider characteristics, working conditions and environmental factors. The most common risk factors were younger age, lack of driving experience, time-pressured work and inadequate protective gear. There are very few publications describing food delivery rider injuries and risk factors. This is an emerging industry in which the worker population may be younger and more vulnerable. Given the different legal and cultural contexts across different countries, Australian-specific research is needed.

Digital Halal Logistics: The Perspective of Food Delivery Riders

Abstract. The growing awareness of Halal compliance in today’s community shows the importance of Halal on the quality of products manufactured worldwide. Hence, it is crucial to ensure that the concept of Halal extends to the entire supply chain, from the farm to the consumer. Most research covers manufacturing and procurement, leaving Halal-compliant distribution and logistics open to a number of research opportunities. We conduct an investigation into digital Halal logistics from the perspective of the individual food delivery riders, focusing on the operational level of the supply chain. The extensive reliance on Internet-enabled smart phones and the growing popularity of food delivery have created an increasing number of job opportunities for delivery riders, mainly on motorcycles. However, there is a question around whether or not this delivery process is Halal compliant, given that the riders face many challenges in ensuring an acceptable quality of service. This study investigates how the riders perceive Halal compliance in the food delivery industry, and provides suggestions for the implementation of digital Halal at various operational checkpoints. Keywords: Digital logistics, Halal logistics, supply chain management, delivery riders.

Editorial: Organising the modern workplace: are unions and labour law keeping pace with change?

Editorial:Organising the modern workplace: are unions and labour law keeping pace with change? Daniel Blackburn, Editor The title of this edition of IUR is of course a provocation, and invites an old question, are we organising workplaces, or are we organising workers? Before we try to answer an old question in a new era, we ought to reflect; are there even such things as 'workplaces' anymore? On the one hand, obviously, there are: many workers around the world remain in the familiar old environments of factories, mines, farms, hospitals and schools, and for them the workplace remains an implacably solid reality. But in the brave new world of platform work, even the mention of a workplace makes less sense. So much of the work done on behalf of digital platforms is carried out by bicycle courier, by van or private hire drivers, or by an army of online 'micro-taskers', that there is often no obvious workplace in the traditional sense at all. With millions of others required to 'work from home' during the pandemic, and many of them remaining (voluntarily or otherwise) in the new home / office environment, there is a real and widespread transformation taking place. But if many are done with workplaces altogether, and so surely it is workers we must be organising, then we are at once faced with an even more unsettling question: are there even such things as workers any more? The question seems almost idiotic to ask in a journal that reports on the struggle to organise workers and to fight against the gruelling conditions of labour around the world (and we are fortunate, in this edition, to hear from Kemal Özkan and his views not only on these themes of digitalisation and Industry 4.0 but on the wider questions of what international organised labour ought to demand in the modern era). But it is actually the logical outcome of an argument that is being pushed in the platform sector. Companies have fiercely argued that the millions of people delivering food and chauffeuring passengers are not workers at all, but are rather just a huge number of autonomous, self-employed service-providers. Far from idiotic, the claim that hundreds of thousands of food delivery riders in the UK might not be workers at all has been promoted by platforms, endorsed by courts, and, in some cases, ultimately legitimised (it may be more fair to say 'grudgingly accepted') by unions. But if there are no workplaces, and no workers, how on earth (or rather, what, or whom) are trade unions supposed to organise? IUR's contributors walk us through some of these complex questions. Aidan Chau reports on 'the world's largest platform economy' in China, where early self-organising labour initiatives have veered between success and harsh repression, but seem to have prompted both the authorities and the ACFTU to make efforts to improve representation of platform workers and to strengthen workers' rights in the sector. Becky Wright observes that traditional public sector areas such as health and social care, but also hospitality are expected to be the fastest growing sectors of employment in the UK, and that these are areas with high trade union density. That might sound encouraging for union growth, but with most work now in the private sector, Wright warns that even so overall density will fall unless new inroads are made into less well organised industries. Unions may have made early errors in viewing digital as 'not real organising' but merely part of their communications strategy, argues Nicole McPherson, but this has changed, and there is a real sense of potential emerging from the realisation that members can now 'engage with their union after hours, while feeding children dinner, or on the train'. Unions, then are finding ways to embrace the new realities. So too, are some States. Nunzia Castelli walks us through the period of crisis and deregulation in Spain up to a lauded new law reform which brings 'significant expansion' to both 'individual and collective rights'. Linked with this are initiatives discussed elsewhere in this edition, such as the 'Riders' Law', creating a presumption of employment status for delivery riders, though at least one...

The development of the safety information sharing platform system for the delivery riders

The development of the safety information sharing platform system for the delivery riders

Competitive Optimal Pricing of O2O On-demand Platform with Multihoming Delivery Riders

As online-to-offline (O2O) market boom, O2O on-demand platforms are facing the challenge on competition. In this paper, we model the competitive dynamic pricing strategy of O2O on-demand platform with stochastic demand and uncertain supply provided by multihoming delivery riders using optimal control theory. Considering the single-homing consumers and partial multihoming delivery riders under network effect, we explore the impact of multihoming behavior on O2O on-demand platform. Our result reveals that competitive dynamic pricing strategy effectively stimulates supply-demand and decreases delayed orders loss cost.

The employment status of food delivery riders in Europe and the UK: Self-employed or worker?

Online platforms are revolutionizing our daily lives in an attempt to make it easier by offering innovative services. They also have introduced radical new business models which provide a new type of flexible working, facilitating employment. While platforms are revolutionary vehicles, they also denied workers status, resulting in food delivery riders facing precarious working conditions. The current regulatory framework is underdeveloped and unable to guarantee basic social rights to platform workers, except for Spain. At the same time, delivery workers are fighting to get some form of recognition and protection. Consequently, courts have been increasingly requested to determine the riders’ legal status. However, courts are struggling in characterizing those employment relationships resulting in disparities. For instance, the Cour de Cassation in France has established that an employer-employee relationship existed while the UK High Court denied worker status to Deliveroo riders. This lack of harmonization and different rulings could result in the application of EU rules in some countries but not others. It might, therefore, be time for the EU to start recognizing and regulating these jobs to offer better worker protections.

Understanding the experience and meaning of app-based food delivery from a mobility perspective

Online food delivery service has developed rapidly and expanded the boundaries of the catering industry. Being a food delivery rider in the gig economy attracts workers with the premises of flexibility and freedom. However, existing studies based on labor process theory revealed that freedom is fictitious. The study sheds light on how the individual rider finds meaning in their work from the mobility perspective. A mixed-method approach based on questionnaires, interviews, and mobile ethnography is applied. Findings showed that food delivery riders gain the experience of freedom in many aspects, from flexible working hours, body movement, immediate cash transfer to freedom from many other regulations. Being a rider represents a free lifestyle and a way to control one’s fate. Yet, it is perceived as a transitional job. This study contributes to making connections between the mobility perspective and work-related studies.

Last-mile challenges in on-demand food delivery during COVID-19: understanding the riders' perspective using a grounded theory approach

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the last-mile (LM) challenges faced by on-demand food delivery (ODFD) riders during the coronavirus pandemic. This study contributes to the literature on the less-explored domain of ODFD services.Design/methodology/approachA grounded theory methodology is used. Riders working for multiple ODFD firms in various urban and semi-urban areas of India were interviewed. Open, axial and selective coding of interview transcripts was done.FindingsA grounded model is developed consisting of riders' challenges represented broadly under four core categories: Operational, Customer-related, Organisational and Technological issues. The study indicates that while some of the challenges are inherent to the ODFD supply chain, these have been visibly exposed and intensified by COVID-19, while other challenges are specific to the pandemic.Research limitations/implicationsThe model is a qualitative proposition representing LM delivery issues in ODFD services faced by the riders in India's urban and semi-urban areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other countries may face similar problems, but further studies are necessary to confirm or refute the findings.Practical implicationsODFD companies must address the riders' issues to better adapt to the current and future disruptions and improve riders' quality of work–life to achieve operational excellence.Originality/valueThis study builds on the extant ODFD literature by focusing on one of its less addressed aspects: the working conditions of the riders. This work is conducted amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of a developing country and aims to study the challenges in ODFD operations.

Influence of familiarity with traffic regulations on delivery riders’ e-bike crashes and helmet use: Two mediator ordered logit models

Micro-mobility vehicles such as electric bicycles, or e-bikes, are becoming one of the essential transportation modes in metropolitan areas, and most deliveries in large cities are dependent on them. Due to the e-bike’s popularity and vulnerability, e-bike crash occurrence has become a major traffic safety problem in many cities across the world; finding the most important human factors affecting e-bike safety has thus been an important recent issue in traffic safety analysis. Since delivery riders are a key group of e-bike users, and since helmet use plays a crucial role in reducing the severity of a crash, this study conducted a city-wide online survey to analyze the helmet usage of 6,941 delivery riders in Shanghai, China. To determine the in-depth mechanisms influencing helmet use and e-bike crash occurrence, including the direct and indirect effects of the relevant factors, two mediator ordered logistic regression models were employed. The mediator ordered logistic model was compared with the traditional logistic regression model, and was found to be superior for modeling indirect as well as direct influencing factors. Results indicate that riders’ familiarity with traffic regulations (FTR) is an extremely important variable mediating between the independent variables of riders’ educational level and age, and the dependent variables of helmet use and e-bike crashes. Improving riders’ FTR can consequently increase helmet use and decrease crash occurrence. Authorities can apply these findings to develop appropriate countermeasures, particularly in legislation and rider training, to improve e-bike safety.

Revisiting Engels’ ‘housing question’: Work and housing conditions of immigrant platform delivery riders in Barcelona

In his 1872 The housing question, Friedrich Engels addressed the housing problems faced by the proletarian migrant workers in major industrial centres. He asserted that they could only be solved by first resolving their harsh working conditions in the capitalist mode of mass production. Presently, with transnational migrant flows to urban centres and the mass acceptance of the digital platform economy, the housing question manifests itself, among other expressions, in the case of immigrants working in this digital contract-based market. While the platform economy provides immigrants with quick access into a host country’s labour market, the income insecurity and high risks associated with such work put them in a state of precariousness. Through the framework of Engels’ proposed action lines and analysis of observations and interviews with immigrant riders working for the food delivery platforms Glovo and Deliveroo, the paper highlights the negative impacts that this contemporary capitalist model of work, the municipal housing plan and the ongoing Covid-19 crisis have on the immigrant riders’ residential and working conditions in Barcelona, Spain, a city facing a severe rental housing shortage. Lastly, it suggests that, while the social market economy in Spain can be reformed to ameliorate the negative impacts of the platform economy on immigrant riders, bridging the gap between immigrant housing provision and employment inclusion would need to consider decent labour and housing as rights for residents, immigrants included, asserting the currency of Engels’ ideas.

An observational study on the risk behaviors of electric bicycle riders performing meal delivery at urban intersections in China

Along with the increase of online catering, the number of accidents involved meal delivery riders increases dramatically in China, and their riding behavior might contribute to fatal accidents. We conducted a field observation study to investigate the risk behavior characteristics of meal delivery couriers riding electric bicycles at urban intersections in China. We selected 4 typical signalized urban intersections in Beijing, and video recorded traffic behaviors of meal delivery riders for eight hours. A total of 1891 couriers crossing intersections on electric bicycles were observed, categorized, and analyzed. The results showed that red-light-running and riding-on-the-motor-lane were the most frequent risky traffic behaviors. The ratios of risk behaviors from delivery couriers were almost all significantly higher than those of normal riders (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in these risk behaviors for riders across different platforms. The findings provide valuable insights for understanding couriers’ risk behaviors at intersections and make useful suggestions for improving traffic safety.

Road safety situation of electric bike riders: A cross-sectional study in courier and take-out food delivery population

Objective Almost all courier and take-out food delivery riders in China use electric bikes as the main transport mode. This study aims to understand their riding behaviors and road traffic injury information of this population. Methods A cross-sectional field study focused on this population was conducted, including roadside observation and face-to-face retrospective street intercept interviews. Results Six hundred target delivery riders were observed and 480 were interviewed. The rate of overspeeding was 91.3%, and windshield use during winter was 91.2%. Traffic violation behaviors observed included riding in the motor vehicle lane (32.8%), not waiting behind the white line at a red light (23.3%), and using cell phone when riding (21.2%). Helmet use was significantly more common during the day (73.0%) than at night (64.7%; P = .028). About 46.5% of respondents rode an e-bike more than 8 h per day. In addition, 76.5% of interviewees had been involved in a traffic crash at least once. About 13.9% of crashes happened in motor vehicle lanes and 8.2% on sidewalks. Logistic regression analysis indicated that compared with uninjured riders, injured riders showed significantly greater odds ratios of unsafe behaviors for running red lights (odds ratio [OR] = 1.75) and protective factors for wearing a helmet (OR = 0.56). Conclusions The courier and take-out food delivery population is a vulnerable occupational group and road traffic injuries related to e-bike use require more attention.

High prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among food delivery riders. A case study from Quito, Ecuador

AimCOVID-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented pressure on health systems and economies worldwide. Delivery services have grown as an alternative source of revenue for many people. Consumers generally perceive that delivery services are safer than going into a restaurant, because they reduce exposure to other people and their risk of SARS-CoV-2 contagion. There are no studies analyzing viral load or the burden of COID-19 within this population. This study aims to describe the presence of SARS-CoV-2 among food delivery riders in the city of Quito, Ecuador. Study designFrom July and August 2020, bike and motorbike riders self-employed in two of the main online delivery services in Quito, Ecuador, were invited for RT-PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 detection during the compulsory lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) RT-qPCR Diagnostic Panel was used to identify the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal swabs. All samples were processed in the BSL2 certified molecular biology laboratory at Universidad de Las Americas. ResultsA total of 22 out of 145 delivery workers (15.2%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The majority of workers were men (n = 138), the average age of male workers was 32 years-old (±7.3) and 38 years-old (± 10.6) for females. The presence of mild symptoms was reported in only 9 subjects (6%). The calculated viral load was higher among males with 1.31E+08 copies/mL vs 2.30E+06 in females, although this difference was not statistically significant (p value: 0.68, [CI: −53 to −79]). ConclusionsThe self-employed food delivery riders have a high incidence rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection in relation to the national average. It is important to point out that this is the first study of its kind in Latin-American and probably one of the very few in the world. The results emphasize the need for policy makers to look at the pandemic from as many population's sub-groups as possible. Delivery riders are a highly moving population that offer their services to a wide range of clients, including vulnerable populations such as the elderly or those less likely to leave their house for basic needs stoking.

Optimal pricing of crowdsourcing logistics services with social delivery capacity

Based on the sharing economy, crowdsourcing logistics services share social delivery freelancers instead of traditional full-time delivery employees. The optimal dynamic pricing model of crowdsourcing logistics services, which could be applied to adjust the social delivery capacity supply to meet the stochastic demand especially during the peak period, is established based on optimal control theory. We study optimal pricing strategies under both conditions when the supply and the demand is balanced and accumulated delivery orders are minimized. Moreover, the impact of delivery riders’ wage ratio on pricing and platforms’ expected revenue are analyzed. It is verified by numerical simulation results that optimal dynamic pricing strategies of crowdsourcing logistics services could effectively balance supply and demand, further maximize the expected revenue of platforms. The growth rate of optimal pricing of crowdsourcing logistics services is increasing with respect to the delivery riders’ wage ratio. However, the expected revenue of crowdsourcing logistics platforms declines as the wage ratio increases.

The formation and operation mechanism of delivery riders self‑organization—Taking a delivery riders’self‑organization in Beijing as an example

The formation and operation mechanism of delivery riders self‑organization—Taking a delivery riders’self‑organization in Beijing as an example

How can millions of Chinese food delivery riders be managed in an orderly way: Based on the labor process theory

Ordering food through smartphones brings millions of laborers into a new occupation -food delivery rider. To date, insufficient research has focused on this group of population in platform economy. This paper examines the management mechanism of Chinese food delivery industry based on Marxist labor process theory and its extensions. Three main findings are revealed. First, the food delivery platform strictly set online and off-line institutions to manage food delivery riders; second, riders are involved in an illusion of flexitime but indeed provide more labor forces; third, riders are not free as they are constantly monitored by platform’s algorithm driven by big data. Given this, the conclusion suggests that all platform enterprises should abide professional ethnics and undertake social responsibility and to liberate food delivery riders’ nature.

The classical concept of employment and the long march of self-employment

In spite of the technological changes experienced by the economic organisations, the concept of employment continues to be a milestone of labour and employment law. The main goal of labour law should be that of enlarging the scope of employment protection as to include blue collar workers such as food delivery riders and app-drivers. Genuine self-employment plays nonetheless a central role while the number of working poor has substantially increased in the self-employment sector. These changes enhance the need to increase the level of social security protection and to guarantee decent minimum wages, collective bargaining, right to strike.

The Complex Interrelationship of Work-Related Factors Underlying Risky Driving Behavior of Food Delivery Riders in Athens, Greece.

BackgroundIn this study, the association of work and demographic characteristics with different traffic offenses committed by food delivery riders in Greece was examined. Previous research has identified various factors related to risky driving however, there is a need for exploring the complex interrelationship of work-related factors underlying risky driving behavior.Materials and MethodsA 2-items uestionnaire was used exploring delivery riders demographic characteristics, terms of employment, issues of concern during work and type of traffic offenses committed. In total, uestionnaires were analyzed using logistic regression in order to identify characteristics independently associated with serious traffic offenses, namely, red-light running and helmet non-use.ResultsThe analysis showed that: (i) typical health and safety measures had no effect on serious traffic offenses, (ii) young age was related to both offenses however (iii) different sets of work conditions were associated with reports of red-light running (i.e. low work experience, use of personal vehicle for work, and payment by hour) and helmet non-use respectively (i.e. intense work pace, high tip income per day and low concern about vehicle condition).ConclusionThe above findings provide evidence that serious traffic offenses are manifestations of underlying conflict experienced by the riders between safety and various performance criteria. Each one of the two offenses is related to different rider profiles aiming to satisfy different goals, namely, those mainly trying to maximize profit non-helmet users and those, mostly inexperienced ones, trying to cope with work pressure red light runners. Potential regulatory measures to alleviate risky practices are discussed.