Are Your Delivery Drivers Safe in the Field?

Bureau of Labor Statistics data show delivery drivers account for nearly 20% of all occupational fatalities and are 1.8 times more likely to be killed on the job than police officers—startling statistics reflecting the need for businesses to include field workers in their assessments of crime risk. 

It’s a troubling trend with tragedy behind every data point:

• Robert Williams, a father of seven, was shot and killed while sitting in his delivery truck in a neighborhood in Jackson, MS.
• Noel Njoku, a 48-year-old father of four, was delivering food in Mitchellville, MD, when he was shot multiple times while inside his vehicle.
• A 31-year-old Uber Eats driver was robbed of her cell phone and stabbed to death by two 14-year-olds while out on delivery.

From road rage incidents, and robberies, to attacks with unclear motives, victimization of delivery drivers has become routine. Carjackings are up across the country, including 300% in Minneapolis, 143% in Washington DC, and ten-fold in Louisville, KY—and the ubiquity of home deliveries is cited as a primary cause.

Criminologists explain that in certain neighborhoods the prospect of delivery drivers, unfamiliar with the area, who may leave a vehicle running while dropping off packages, is proving to be an irresistible mix for local thieves. In one story, DoorDash driver Jeffrey Fang returned to his minivan after dropping off an order at a San Francisco address to discover two men inside. The carjackers drove away after pushing Fang out of the vehicle—with his two young children, ages 4 and 1, still buckled in their seats. 

“We are driving around with targets on our backs,” said Kevin Nelson, an organizer for the advocacy group Chicago Independent Drivers Guild, in a statement.

Better Alignment of Risk and Protection

“Any company that is part of last-mile delivery has a responsibility to understand what the risks are for the individuals who perform that job”  “Any company that is part of last-mile delivery has a responsibility to understand what the risks are for the individuals who perform that job,” according to Brittain Ladd, a retail and supply chain consultant and board member of the GMU Center for Retail Transformation. Ladd advises companies to consider risks related to weather if streets are dangerous in terms of infrastructure such as lacking bike lanes, and—most critically—the risk from crime. “They need to do a crime risk threat assessment if they haven’t already,” he warned.

It’s imperative that companies can accomplish this with help from CAP Index’s CRIMECAST Reports and Data. Critical for understanding the risk of crime for a targeted address, the heat-map view calculates CAP Index Scores for every point on the map with colors shaded to indicate its corresponding risk level, providing business and security leaders the ability to visualize crime risk that empower better operational and security decisions. Based on its understanding of area risk, companies can develop protocols and take appropriate solutions to shield people and inventory when off-site.

After a critical examination of reliable data, Ladd said companies could decide that the risk of crime in some areas is simply too great, catalyzing new, safer models of operations. Delivery services in areas with the highest crime risk scores might instead create ‘Safe Zone Pick-Up’ locations where customers can get deliveries through pick-up windows in reinforced, bullet-proof portable containers. It’s just one idea, but businesses must devise solutions that match the risk in areas where they send employees, Ladd suggested. “While serving the needs of the business, we still have to protect our associates,” he said.

While delivery drivers are an instructive example, they are merely representative of the changing definition of ‘workplace security.’ For many sales representatives, home care and social services workers, and field employees, the workplace is wherever they go.

Meeting Security Needs of the New ‘Workplace’

Protecting personnel from harm is every organization’s top priority, and to meet this mission private businesses have focused on erecting protective shields around the workforce. Most of the sophisticated security technology that companies have purchased in the last decade reflects that effort, including electronic access control, surveillance cameras, and perimeter detection devices. Businesses have spent millions to keep out intruders and for years this model has helped private businesses meet their goal of protecting workers.

This protection model has limitations, however, as approaching personnel security with a bunker mentality only offers security when employees stay in the bunker. But today’s employees are less likely than ever to be under a company’s protective shield. Supported by mobile technologies, they are often on-the-go, traveling to emerging markets, or working remotely from home or client sites. As the nature of the “workplace” has evolved, so must the strategies to keep workers safe.

Although the challenge is different, the process is like that of site protection—starting with a risk assessment. For an employer to implement the most appropriate security solutions for its mobile workforce, protection professionals first need to identify the particular risks facing this population:

• Cultivate data sources to better understand where employees travel for work and where they work from. These may include GPS data, remote login data, travel itineraries, mileage reimbursement reports, and other sources that indicate locations of interest.
• Obtain data that depicts the risk of crime in the areas where employees perform work. Crime risk scores will suggest specific actions that it may make sense to take, such as extending to a certain department security awareness training against the crimes that risk scores show they might encounter.
• Communicate with mobile workers (via focus groups, surveys, one-on-one discussions, etc.) to get their feedback on security and safety risks they perceive while away from the office.
• Make sure the design of the security incident reporting system is sufficient to capture events that happen to workers when they are away from company property, including all threats. Security incident report forms should include a data field for identifying the exact location of the employee at the time of the incident.

Data makes it clear that companies must adopt a broader view of workplace security to include wherever workers go. They must know the risk scores for those locations and develop security controls that workers can “take with them.”

Personnel security still requires providing workers with a physically secure location in which to perform work, but it also requires an effective framework for managing security issues and addressing risks when the company has little or no control over the location itself.

Contact CAP Index now to ensure your delivery drivers are better protected in the field.