When looking at the delivery supply chain, and how to improve efficiencies within it, it can be easy to overlook the basics. Yet a new survey claims that the pressures faced by logistics and delivery workers in their daily role is both affecting productivity and leading to absences.
The survey said that 63% were suffering from wrist or arms aches and pains with more than two-thirds (69%) forced to take an average of 2.75 sick days in the past year. The study claimed that more than half (52%) of staff had suffered RSI with more than three-quarters (78%) of those affected taking an average of three days off sick in the past twelve months as a result.
The survey, Scanning Pain for No Gain, undertaken independently but commissioned by Panasonic Business, claims that mobile barcode scanner devices were to blame with 60% of workers saying such devices were only fairly effective or not effective at all.
It claims workers are facing a number of problems with a range of stress factors encountered by staff. Nearly a third (32%) said it was down to the device being used, 31% said it was the time taken to scan packages. 26% got frustrated with hard to scan items and delivery times being reduced for 23%. For 22% it was the sheer volume of packages that need to be scanned in a day with the average worker saying they had to scan 197 time a day – a year on year rise of 24%.
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