Occupational road safety in last-mile delivery: a qualitative comparison of parcel delivery drivers and platform food couriers in Belgium

Abstract

Platform food couriers and parcel delivery drivers are generally studied separately, despite their shared role in last-mile delivery. This qualitative study compares how both groups experience occupational road safety and manage dangerous situations during delivery work in Belgium. The analysis draws on interviews with 10 parcel drivers and 12 stakeholders and experts, as well as a focus group with 16 platform food couriers. Although both groups experienced pressure to complete deliveries efficiently, this pressure arose in different ways. Food couriers’ earnings depended directly on completed orders, which could encourage faster delivery and longer working hours. These pressures, together with limited organizational support and the physical vulnerability associated with two-wheeled vehicles, shaped the dangerous situations couriers described while travelling through traffic. Parcel drivers generally had more organizational protection and greater familiarity with their delivery areas. Their safety challenges were instead concentrated around the practical requirements of van-based delivery, particularly when stopping near customers and manoeuvring in urban streets with limited parking or loading space. The findings reveal two distinct patterns of occupational road safety experiences. Parcel drivers primarily described dangerous situations when stopping and re-entering traffic, whereas food couriers mainly described them while moving through traffic. In both groups, potentially unsafe practices frequently constituted pragmatic responses to organizational and infrastructural constraints. Improving safety therefore requires action beyond the level of individual workers.