The CWU has long been concerned that exploitation is rife amongst parcel delivery drivers. Outside of the Royal Mail Group, the vast majority of workers are bogusly self-employed. They’ve no access to the minimum wage, sick pay or holiday pay and drivers are often mistreated at the hands of their employers.

CWU analysis shows that parcel delivery drivers rank as one of the fastest growing self-employed occupations over the past decade. A trend that has undoubtedly been turbocharged by the pandemic. Yet, very little is known about the condition of these drivers. Most government datasets do not collect detailed information on the self-employed and companies are under no obligation to publish pay rates or numbers of drivers that are “self-employed” on their behalf. Towards the end of 2021, the CWU ran a survey and conducted a number of interviews with self-employed drivers to help understand the problems facing workers in this sector.

Find the full report linked below:

https://www.cwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/06635-bogus-self-employment-March-2022.pdf