Comparative study of two organizations using information and communication technology: effects on the health of operators in the road haulage

The Road Transport and Logistics sector is subjected to strong competitive pressures within continuous changing socio-economic and regulatory contexts. These constraints have led companies in this sector to resort extensively to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT); these tools have both positive and negative effects. On the positive side, they promote higher productivity, traceability and error reduction, for example. Their main negative effects specifically affecting working conditions are increased pace and intensity of work, closer activity monitoring (reduced employee independence), weakening of inter-personnel and/or collective work relationships, for example (DGT report, 2012).
Our hypothesis is that these effects depend on user ICT implementation, which is broadly determined by corporate organisation and management instructions. The aim of this study is to test this hypothesis in two companies organized differently but with an ICT since the last ten years, within an employee health and safety prevention scope.