As the urban delivery sector explodes, it is also subject to much controversy. Between questionable working conditions and environmental impact not always controlled, last mile delivery is making its way.
A dazzling growth that hides a real environmental problem
In 2019, e-commerce turnover passed the symbolic milestone of 100 billion euros in France, or more than 500 million packages delivered. Having been booming for around ten years, last mile delivery is enjoying growth of around 10 % per year. Today, the logistics sector represents 11 % of French employment and nearly 1.6 million jobs. According to Pôle Emploi, this sector of activity should create around 540,000 jobs by 2022. However, this exponential growth is also accompanied by a heavy ecological toll. On the one hand, the increase in deliveries implies an increase in urban traffic, contributing to the increase in pollution. Furthermore, on the consumer side, the advent of e-commerce coupled with the democratization of home delivery is generating an infinite flow of orders. Consumers no longer bother to group their purchases and receive a new package every day! This trend towards overconsumption is not without impact on the carbon footprint. To reduce it, there are increasingly encouraged alternatives such as relocation and made in France. It is therefore a question of restoring ethics to urban delivery. To do this, the activity must meet a set of environmental, but also social, criteria.
Urban delivery or slave 2.0
The current economic model forces delivery players to simplify their model by resorting to self-employed workers for the sake of economic flexibility. Seduced by the idea of being his own boss and having flexible hours, the self-employed deliveryman quickly becomes disillusioned with dehumanized working conditions which endanger workers' rights. Delivery people are paid to go as quickly and as far as possible, even if it means putting themselves in danger. On average, a delivery person makes two deliveries per hour and each delivery is subject to a commission. It is estimated today that 3/4 of self-employed delivery drivers are undocumented foreigners. For the rare salaried delivery drivers, the situation is not glorious either, little considered by companies, they have almost no prospect of career development. And the Covid-19 crisis has only reinforced an already extremely precarious situation. Overexposed workers, delivery drivers found themselves on the front line during confinement and sometimes even forced to ignore the health restrictions in force. For delivery people to be able to earn a decent living, it is essential to review their working conditions, but legislating on this subject takes time, because we must be able to secure both parties. It is therefore a matter of finding solutions which offer the possibility for delivery people to work peacefully and for those involved in delivery to be able to make proper margins. More and more start-ups are becoming aware of this subject and are initiating multiple actions in order to offer more comfortable packages to delivery people.
How can we respond to the environmental and social challenges of urban delivery?
To reduce environmental impact, companies can rely on local warehouses to simplify delivery chains as well as the pooling of orders. Pooling is a key issue. To achieve this, it is necessary to educate on new consumption patterns so that consumers become aware of their carbon footprint and commit to reducing it by globalizing their order. On the side of delivery players, it is about being as pragmatic as possible, in particular by investing in green vehicles and being able to deploy a policy of proximity with warehouses. Finally, regarding the social aspect, the project is vast. To ensure a peaceful professional future for delivery people, it is essential to raise awareness among all those who use self-employed workers for economic flexibility of the problems generated by this system. It is obvious that internalizing the production chain represents a massive investment and, as a result, many companies cannot afford to have their own fleet of delivery people. However, by becoming aware of the extent of the difficulties that self-employed delivery drivers face, companies and delivery players must readjust their working conditions with full knowledge of the facts, which involves in particular a salary increase. The urban delivery sector, which already constitutes a formidable vector of career opportunities, has everything to gain by transforming towards a more ethical activity!
Tomorrow, all delivered by drone?
Who hasn't dreamed of seeing their package land directly in front of their door as if by magic? In recent years, thanks to drones dedicated to deliveries, life-size experiences have multiplied all over the world to make this fantasy possible. The concept of parcel delivery by drone is gradually becoming a reality. And the Covid-19 pandemic only amplifies this phenomenon. Indeed, current living conditions have considerably increased the demand for home delivery, particularly for shopping and meals. While most companies use delivery drivers, some are now banking on autonomous drones for last mile delivery. In the United States, Walmart is announcing the start of a drone delivery program for Covid-19 screening kits while the giant Amazon, always looking for greater speed and efficiency, has just obtained a license to test its delivery by drone on a large scale with the aim of offering delivery in 30 minutes. In France, it is DPDgroup which is innovating, by deploying the “Delivery Assistant” solution where a drone is used in a complementary way to make deliveries in areas that are difficult to access.
Between utopia and underlying trend
The use of drones has significant advantages. It allows the delivery person to save time and take fewer risks when the roads are dangerous, particularly in winter or in mountainous regions. For the consumer, it is also the guarantee of receiving their package quickly, whatever the weather conditions. In remote and isolated areas, the relevance of delivery by drone no longer needs to be proven. This is particularly the case in Africa where the company Zipline has developed the delivery of medicines by drones in order to facilitate the supply of medical centers in difficult-to-access regions. Used in an punctual and targeted manner, drone delivery is a fantastic tool. On the other hand, contrary to what one might think, the ecological argument is far from being proven. A study from Germany's Martin Luther University even found that in dense urban areas, delivery drones consume up to 10 times more energy than electric vans. The drone will therefore not be the main tool of the ecological transition, especially since its use also raises the question of overconsumption. Also, in terms of productivity, is a drone really profitable if it cannot transport more than 25 kilos of goods? And what about the subject of security? How to differentiate a delivery drone from a spy drone? Many questions, which remain until now, unanswered…
Towards a dehumanization of delivery?
Although delivery by drone is a real competitive advantage in the field of innovation, what about the social impact of drones which dehumanize the work of delivery people and ultimately questions their vocation. Is the drone the future of delivery? Is it destined to replace humans? If the answer is no, at least for the moment, it is still appropriate to question the social impact of such technological advancement. Despite its obvious qualities, consumers did not wait for the drone to set their sights on delivery as their preferred mode of consumption. On the other hand, the delivery sector is one of those currently hiring the most. So is the drone really a competition for urban delivery people? Are the delivery people of tomorrow future drone pilots? All these questions raise issues concerning the opportunities for development of the delivery profession and the notion of a better reconciliation between human skills and machines. At this stage, delivery by drone remains very embryonic, even a bit utopian. It's more a subject of communication, than a lasting trend. Today, the prospect of a fleet of delivery drones within 5 years seems unlikely and that is surely for the best. However, it's a safe bet that the next step in the delivery industry will be the use of innovation to optimize the customer experience. This is the future of delivery!
In the meantime, several ecological alternatives are being deployed on a large scale. We are obviously talking about the cargo bike, the electric scooter, the electric bike (Vélyvelo), delivery on foot, by scooter and many other green solutions which still require a human to drive.
Read all the “Expert Opinion” articles on the SprintProject blog
