The promise of delivery within a couple of days or sometimes even hours has helped certain companies dominate online sales in recent years. However, delivery traffic on the road adds to the danger experienced by the general public.
The more stressful the delivery job becomes and the more demands the company places on its drivers, the greater the risk that those delivery vehicles will eventually cause crashes. Overworked delivery drivers contribute to safety risks in many ways, including the three issues below.
They don’t get bathroom breaks
Social media has recently exploded with stories of delivery drivers urinating in single-use plastic bottles because they can’t legally relieve themselves outside and have no way to access bathrooms safely on their route.
Drivers who desperately need to urinate may feel distracted by that urge, increasing the risk of a crash. Obviously, the act of peeing into a bottle while driving will limit someone’s safety at the wheel and increase their likelihood of causing a collision.
They park in places they definitely should not
Have you ever come around a blind corner on a rural road at a steady clip only to see a delivery van parked right in the street with its flashers on? Only by swerving or slamming on the brakes were you able to avoid rear-ending that vehicle.
Unfortunately, bad parking decisions made by delivery drivers can lead to crashes because other drivers have no way of knowing when they might encounter those stop delivery vehicles.
They don’t know their way around their route
When delivery drivers have to make hundreds of stops a day, they don’t learn a route the way that postal workers might. They drive on different roads every day, making them reliant on navigation systems. Inputting data into navigation systems is a serious distraction risk that could keep a driver from making the right choice at the wheel.
Those hurt in car crashes caused by delivery drivers may need to file an insurance claim or even a civil lawsuit to recover their losses and hopefully prompt the company into reviewing its policies to make its delivery practices safer.
