Introduction

Reflecting the surge in online delivery under COVID-19, UK government figures show significant growth in logistics, warehouse and transport jobs during the pandemic (ONS, 2021a). Typically non-standard, low paid and closely monitored, the character of jobs in this sector raises questions about flexible labour markets and notions of ‘self-employment’. Terms including ‘precarity’, ‘gig’ and ‘platform’ work now arguably dominate the narrative within the field of work and industrial relations. Yet, the wider academic discourse on ‘flexible’ work has been with us far longer: Pollert (1988) dismantled flexibility, along with the concept of dual labour markets, in 1988. Her analysis revealed the way in which contemporary analysts were prone to conflate under flexibility the distinct processes of job enlargement, effort intensification and cost controls. The same tendency can be seen in recent accounts that invoke flexibility to mask management prerogative, work degradation and job insecurity. This chapter reviews ‘new’ forms of work organization through the lens of parcel delivery. It explores notions of flexibility and work autonomy, and focuses on the contradictory relationship between digital technology and self-employment.

At the end of the supply chain: parcel delivery and flexible labour markets

‘Essential’ parcel-delivery workers in the UK are particularly emblematic of work in the contemporary economy. With the growth of online retailing and business models embracing a myriad of subcontracted supply chains, transformations in parcel delivery have been directed at securing more exacting, demanding and time-critical levels of service delivery at minimum cost. Increasingly complex information technology (IT) systems provide coherence to fragmented employment systems, as well as tracking the movement of parcels under the gaze of the final customer. Amazon and other large retailers entice their customers with ‘free and immediate’ delivery, which relies upon the supply of flexible and closely monitored labour at minimum cost. Overall, the result is an increasingly competitive market for parcel delivery companies, dominated by intense supply chain pressures and fissured workplaces resulting in a degradation of work for parcel-delivery workers (Moore and Newsome, 2018).

For delivery companies, the time incurred by non-delivery represents a crucial cost. The use of so-called ‘self-employed’ delivery workers paid by delivery removes these costs, as labour time incurred in non-delivery is unpaid.