Literature review on health and safety in express delivery services

Status:

ongoing

Aims:

The express delivery services sector has grown significantly in recent years. Driven by changing consumer habits, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, the business model of so-called "quick commerce" services has developed rapidly. Workers in this sector are often exposed to high levels of physical and mental load. Drivers are under considerable time pressure to deliver orders in the shortest possible time. In addition, there is the risk of road traffic accidents, constant exposure to road noise and physical load from vibration, UV radiation and physically demanding activities.

Despite increasing public and academic attention to the issue, there has been no overview of working conditions in the express delivery sector. The project presented here will conduct an initial literature review to identify the existing scientific and grey literature on the topic of safety and health of workers in express delivery services and to provide an initial overview of the key issues (e. g. driving behavior or musculoskeletal workload). The results will serve as a basis for further research activities to improve working conditions in express delivery services. These activities could be carried out with the involvement of the IFA, focusing on areas where a particular research need has been identified.

Activities/Methods:

Initially, a non-systematic literature search will be conducted in national and international scientific databases using various synonyms of the term express delivery services (e.g. fast commerce, fast delivery). Based on these results, topics for which there is sufficient scientific literature are analysed in more detail. Additional search terms are used for specific stress factors (e.g. accident risks, physical/mental load) to narrow down the results more precisely. The search period is chosen to cover both current developments and longer-term trends.

The selection of literature is based on the PRISMA scheme. First, titles are screened to identify relevant publications. In a second step, a selection of publications is made on the basis of the abstracts, the full texts of which are reviewed and the results analysed and summarised. The literature is selected on the basis of predefined criteria. For example, only articles in German and English are included. In addition to peer-reviewed studies, grey literature is also included in the analysis to provide as complete a picture as possible of the current state of research. Publications on different types of vehicles (bicycle, moped, car) are included, while there is no restriction on the type of goods delivered (e.g. food, meals, pharmacy products).

The literature reviewed is grouped thematically to identify key areas of research. If certain subject areas are found to be particularly well researched (i.e. have a high number of relevant publications), an in-depth, systematic literature search is conducted for that area.

The results are published nationally, for example as poster contributions at congresses.

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