CSA Exclusive: Delivery drivers prefer these employers

A new survey released exclusively to Chain Store Age reveals the delivery and food delivery companies most popular with drivers.

Sixty-eight percent of respondents said Amazon is a good delivery company to work for, according to the survey of over 900 delivery drivers from route optimization technology provider Circuit for Teams. Amazon was far ahead of second-place FedEx (41%). DHL (34%), USPS and UPS (23% each) rounded out the top five. More than seven in 10 (72%) would like to deliver for TikTok if/when that possibility arises.

Among food delivery companies, more than half of respondents (55%) gave a positive rating to DoorDash. Almost half (49%) cited Uber Eats, followed by Grubhub (46%), Seamless (37%), and Instacart (26%).

HR issues are near-universal
Ninety-four percent of respondents reported having access to HR, and 89% have needed to use it. Interestingly, almost all surveyed package delivery drivers (98%) had access to HR, while only 78% of other surveyed delivery drivers reported the same.

More than nine in 10 (92%) respondents who have reported an issue to HR said HR could resolve it. Common issues included:

• Discrimination (39%).
• Harassment (35%).
• Medical issues (32%).
• Assault (28%).
• Physical outburst (24%).

Meanwhile, the most common issues that led to complaints against drivers included:

• Harassment (28%).
• Discrimination (27%).
• Assault (21%).

Management issues
Although 92% of surveyed drivers said they like their current boss, close to half have had a boss ask them to:

• Drive for extended periods without breaks (46%).
• Speed (45%).
• Drive more than 60 hours in seven days (44%).

Other interesting findings include:

• More than six in 10 (62%) respondents have changed jobs to find better routes and hours.
• More than one in five (22%) respondents have been asked to retaliate against other drivers who act as company whistleblowers.
• One in respondents have been asked to ignore hostile work environments.

See the full results here.

DoorDash launches new driver safety features

DoorDash, the most popular food delivery service with drivers, recently launched five new offerings designed to ensure that drivers make safe deliveries. If DoorDash detects that a delivery is taking longer than expected, the company automatically check in to see if the driver is okay.

The company is also partnering with global crisis detection platform SamDesk to roll out real-time safety alerts. Other driver safety features include automatic detection of inappropriate or offensive language in a chat on the DoorDash app, as well as in-app reporting of unsafe customer behavior and notifications to customers asking them to turn their porch or house lights on as the driver is approaching.