Contact patterns of UK home delivery drivers and their use of protective measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objectives: To quantify contact patterns of UK home delivery drivers and identify protective measures adopted during the pandemic. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey to measure the interactions of 170 UK delivery drivers during a working shift between 7 December 2020 and 31 March 2021. Results: Delivery drivers had a mean number of 71.6 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 61.0 to 84.1) customer contacts per shift and 15.0 (95%CI 11.19 to 19.20) depot contacts per shift. Maintaining physical distancing with customers was more common than at delivery depots. Prolonged contact (more than 5 minutes) with customers was reported by 5.4% of drivers on their last shift. We found 3.0% of drivers had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 since the start of the pandemic and 16.8% of drivers had self-isolated due to a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19. Additionally, 5.3% (95%CI 2.3% to 10.2%) of participants reported having worked whilst ill with COVID-19 symptoms, or with a member of their household having a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19. Conclusion: Delivery drivers had a large number of face-to-face customer and depot contacts per shift compared to other working adults during this time. However, transmission risk may be curtailed as contact with customers was of short duration. Most drivers were unable to maintain physical distance with customers and at depots at all times. Usage of protective items such as face masks and hand sanitizer was widespread.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Funding Statement

HW, CW, YH, IH and MvT received funding from the UKRI COVID-19 Rapid Response call, Grant Ref: MC_PC_19083. JMR and CPJ were supported by UKRI through the JUNIPER modelling consortium, Grant Ref: MR/V038613/1. JREB is supported by a Lancaster University Faculty of Health and Medicine doctoral scholarship.

Author Declarations

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

This study was approved by the Faculty of Health and Medicine Ethics Committee at Lancaster University (reference FHMREC20040).

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

Yes

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable.

Yes

Data Availability

Data are available in a public, open access repository. The survey data are available online from Lancaster University research directory. License: Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY).

https://doi.org/10.17635/lancaster/researchdata/553

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