Driving light utility vehicles, working conditions and musculoskeletal disorders in courier distribution activities

Occupational driving risks are currently run by 1 in every 4 employees, but the numbers of workers running such risks are expanding rapidly in the service trades, in particular in the courier activity sector that currently employs over 200,000 people in France. While research has focused more on heavy vehicle drivers, exposure to driving related to the intensive use of light utility vehicles (LUVs) for courier distribution activities is characterised by a particular type of movement and by an accumulation of biomechanical, psychosocial, and organisational strains. Constituting a major occupational health issue, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) represent the pathologies that are most widely reported in connection with the use of LUVs in specific activity sectors, but these results are difficult to extrapolate to the courier / delivery activities. We therefore propose to analyse the effect of driving LUVs in the courier distribution activities on MSDs (low back pain and upper limb,) and on self-perceived health, while taking account of working conditions and work organisation.
The study will be conducted in workers of Parcel and Mail delivery activities of the French Post Office (La Poste Group) who do deliveries by LUVs, compared with postal workers who are not exposed to LUVs delivery activities. The data will be collected during the periodic consultation with the occupational physician by questionnaire and clinical examination. The exposure data will be collected by self-administered questionnaire (individual data, characteristics of the work activity, self-perceived psychosocial demands), the health data will be collected by self-administered questionnaire (low back pain, self-perceived health) and by the SALTSA European protocol (three types of MSDs of the upper limb), and the organisational factors will be collected by self-administered questionnaire from the site manager. In order to analyse the specific MSDs risk related to driving LUVs, exposure scores will be developed based on the characteristics of the driving activity and on the physical demands specific to the distribution activity The determinants of the MSDs will be quantified to improve understanding of the mechanisms that link together biomechanical, organisational and psychosocial factors, and MSDs. By identifying the different risk factors that can be changed in the work activity, it will be possible to open up avenues for finding prevention solutions.
It will be possible to generalise the results to activity sectors characterised by the same type of travelling and work organisation, such as express courier, deliveries, after-sales service, etc.

Planned results diffusion:
The results of the study will be published in international journals and in journals for OSH specialists. Oral/poster presentations will be proposed at scientific and OSH events. Transfer products will be produced for OSH stakeholders, companies and employees.