DELIVERYMEN STRUGGLE WITH HEAVY WORKLOAD

[Anchor Lead]

Some industries are benefiting from the campaign to practice social distancing amid the coronavirus epidemic. One of them is the logistics industry. Parcel delivery and courier services are thriving with surging demand. However, delivery workers are complaining about heavier workload and resulting stress and exhaustion.

[Pkg]

Delivery worker Choi Young-hoon starts work at 7 in the morning. He sorts out the parcels based on their destinations then begins delivery. Due to the heavy workload, there's barely enough time to sqeeze in a brisk breather. With as many parcels as he can carry, he climbs up and down the stairs dozens of times during the day. There are roughly 450 parcels to deliver daily. That's up nearly 30 percent from the usual workload of 350 per day. The changes require him to work two hours longer than usual. Due to COVID-19 fears, a growing number of consumers avoid going out, so they turn to online shopping, resulting in increased workload for delivery workers. As couriers have to meet customers' expectations for quick delivery, they are plagued by greater fatigue and are exposed to higher risk of accidents.

[Soundbite] CHOI YOUNG-HOON(DELIVERY WORKER) : "Large and heavy parcels strain my joints. It gets so physically demanding, sometimes, I'm dozing off while working."

Recently, a delivery worker in the nation died while on duty. Courier companies are enjoying an unexpected business boom amid the epidemic. However, their employees are suffering from the spiked workload. It's vital that the government, consumers and companies devise ways to help ease the burden of delivery workers, suffering due to demanding workload, while being exposed to potential infections.