Exploring the Impact of Technology on the Nature of Work in the Logistics Sector in US and UK at University of Sheffield

The expansion of e-commerce has increased the demand for rapid home delivery, transformed logistics and facilitated the growth of sub-contracting to a diversified logistics/parcel delivery market. Logistics workers find themselves within a ‘perfect storm’ of globalisation, fragmented production, new logistics technologies, de-regulated and segmented labour markets coupled with eroding collective regulation. Research has highlighted how logistics workers experience increasing levels of workplace degradation through the implementation of ‘digital Taylorism’, close surveillance and monitoring of worker activity, coupled with draconian performance management regimes. In parcel delivery, for example, where work is episodic and remote, the introduction of algorithmic tools and routing software reduces worker autonomy, discretion and has further eroded the porosity of the working day. To date, there is limited research which provides a comparative analysis of these developments exploring the impact of technology on the experience of work at different points of the logistics supply chain (i.e., warehousing and parcel delivery).

This project will focus upon the impact of technology on the experience of work for e-commerce workers within the retail logistics sector in the UK and the US focusing on warehouse and parcel delivery workers. It aims to uncover how technology impacts upon the labour process in relation to; skill utilisation; autonomy and discretion; surveillance and monitoring; working time and performance management. It will explore how race and gender shape the experience of work for logistics workers in these two regions. The project will comprise of qualitative research methods embracing a series of case studies in both warehousing and parcel delivery in the UK and the US. The case studies will be located in key regions in the UK and US dominated by logistics employment, notably South Yorkshire and the Inland Empire. 

In the US, University of California Riverside’s Inland Empire Labor and Community Research Center (IELCRC) director and Professor of Sociology Ellen Reese will provide support to this project. Secondary support will be provided by Professor Jake Alimahomed-Wilson at the Department of Sociology at California State University – Long Beach, who will provide additional research advice and will assistance in building research contacts. Professor Reese and Professor Alimahomed-Wilson are internationally recognised experts in the study of labour issues in the global logistics industry and co-conveners of the University of Sheffield Centre for Decent Work’s International Labour and Logistics Research Network (ILLRN).

This is a fully funded 3.5 year studentship covering Home or International tuition fees, and a stipend at the basic UKRI rate (£18,622 for 2023/24). To support the international dimension of this project an enhanced research and training support grant (RTSG) of £7250 in total is available to support research costs during the successful applicants’ PhD periods. This studentship has a start date of 1st February 2024 and will be supervised by Professor Kirsty Newsome and Dr Safak Tartanoglu Bennett.

If you would like further information please contact k.j.newsome@sheffield.ac.uk.