Delivery Riders at the Crossroads of Occupational Health, Climate Change, and Algorithmic Management
Abstract
Abstract: Delivery riders have become a defining workforce of contemporary urban economies, yet existing occupational health frameworks remain poorly adapted to the realities of platform-mediated work. This editorial proposes a shift from static, factor-based models of risk toward a dynamic and cumulative perspective, and provides a comparative classification of regulatory approaches worldwide, highlighting how jurisdictions are addressing, or failing to address, the occupational risks of platform work. Riders operate at the intersection of three interacting domains: algorithmic management, environmental exposure, and climate-related stressors. Rather than acting as independent risk factors, these processes mutually reinforce one another, shaping exposure and behaviour in real time. Platform-driven time pressures influence riding practices within hazardous urban environments, while extreme weather and air pollution further affect psychophysiological performance. Within this framework, algorithmic management should be understood not merely as a mode of work organization but as a structural determinant of occupational health. By regulating task allocation, temporal constraints, and incentive structures, digital systems actively generate and redistribute risk. Occupational hazards are therefore not simply encountered by riders but dynamically produced through the interaction between technological control, environmental conditions, and urban infrastructures.
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