Many of the goods we order online are delivered free. However, the couriers that deliver them sometimes pay a high price. One courier that allowed a recipient’s neighbours sign for a bicycle was forced to stump up 8,000 euro. Another courier to the VRT’s consumer affairs team ‘WinWin’ that they lose several hundred euro each month due to “lost” parcels. A ‘WinWin’ report broadcast on the TV channel VRT1 shows how high the volume of parcels and impossible deadlines cost couriers dear. The transport economist Roel Gevaers says that “There is no such thing as free. Someone pays and this is almost always the last link in the chain; the courrier”
While customers increasingly expect quick and free delivery, it is often the courier that pays the price. More than 1 million parcels are delivered every day in Belgium. The vast majority of these are delivered by subcontractors and self-employed couriers that work under high time pressure, for low pay and with considerable financial risks.
As a result of the layered structure in subcontracting, liability is increasingly being shifted to the person that actually delivers the parcel. At the end of the month parcel companies and their subcontractors pass on the costs for lost or damaged parcels to the courier.
One courier told the VRT that “A colleague of mine once delivered an electric bicycle and had the neighbours sign for it. The recipient said afterwards that he had never received the bicycle. The courier had to reimburse the value of the bicycle that was worth 8,000 euro”.
Another courier said that “At the end of the month, we are sent a “settlement not” for all the parcels receipts on our round say that they haven’t received. As we are self-employed, we are liable and we have reimbursed the value of what has been lost. The amount varies each month, but it can easily reach to 500 euro”.
The transport economist Roel Gevaers says that this is no exception and is a consequence of the economic model used in the parcel delivery industry.
1,500 couriers work for 180 subcontractors
The parcel delivery industry is made up consists of a complex chain of subcontractors. Large distribution companies employ relatively few staff and outsource delivery work. As a result, the couriers often do not work directly for the brand on the parcel delivery company directly, but for a subcontractor.
One employee of one of these subcontractors told the VRT that his employer does deliveries for several large parcel companies. According to insiders, this arrangement is the rule rather than the exception.
At PostNL, for example, approximately 1,500 couriers work for 180 subcontractors, while only about 50 of PostNL’s 1,500 rounds are covered by the Dutch parcel company’s own staff.
2 minutes per delivery
Couriers have a heavy workload. Every day, they are given between 150 and 250 addresses to deliver to. For an 8-hour working day, this means that a courier has 2 minutes to deliver each per parcel. In those 2 minutes they have to drive to the address, park, find the right parcel, ring the doorbell, wait and if no one is home possibly knock or ring the neighbours' doorbells or drop the parcel off at a collection point.
Couriers are usually not paid by the hour, but per parcel delivered. The amount they receive varies between 1.50 euro and 2.50 euro per delivery. They receive considerably less if they deliver to a collection point. Sometimes this is just 16 eurocent per parcel, despite this often taking more time and requiring more paperwork. This combination of low fees per parcel and the high volume they have to deliver means that they are under constant pressure. It also explains why parcels are sometimes left on doorsteps or half pushed into letterboxes. “If the recipient is at home, you earn money. If not, you lose time”, several of the courier that ‘WinWin’ spoke to said.
“This not how we work”
In response, PostNL’s CEO Arvin Willemse told the VRT that subcontractors have to follow the same regulations as couriers that are employed directly by his company. “According to our data, couriers drive an average of 7.6 hours per day. There are peak periods, but we rarely exceed 8 hours”,’ Mr Willemse says.
He is keen to stress that extremely long working days and unachievable delivery volumes are not in line with company policy. “If there are couriers who are given just two minutes to deliver a parcel by subcontractors and have to work under such conditions, I urge them to report this to us. That's not how we wish to work.”
The ‘WinWin’ team received no response from the other major parcel delivery companies. DPD explicitly refused to cooperate, GLS never replied to WinWin’s emails and Colis Privé could not be contacted.