Uber Eats deliverers have been associated with road accidents in Tokyo in recent months as voluntary restrictions on going out with the increasing coronavirus outbreak has increased demand for food deliveries.
The number of eateries that have signed up for the Uber Eats delivery service have become popular in Japan in recent years, exceeding 20,000 by the end of March.
The Kobe government in Hyogo Prefecture has joined hands with the service to help eateries with declining sales because of the COVID-19 crisis. Until now, there are over 16,000 cases of coronavirus in the country.
On the other hand, a university student in his 20s, who was delivering food by bicycle, died in a crash with a minivehicle in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward on April 6, the Metropolitan Police Department stated.
A collision also took place in Chuo Ward on May 15, causing a male deliverer to suffer a broken face bone. Three days later, a delivery bicycle crashed with a pedestrian in her 50s in Itabashi Ward.
Traffic offenses have occurred as well.
On May 12, a male delivery worker got inside Metropolitan Expressway Co.’s expressway network by bicycle, which is not permitted.
Images of the man with a bag with the Uber Eats logo traveling by bicycle together with vehicles were posted on Twitter, prompting the Tokyo police to identify and interview the person on voluntary basis.
Uber Japan Co., which operates the Uber Eats service in Japan, stated it will further raise awareness regarding traffic safety among its delivery workers, who are independent contractors with no employment contracts with the company.
The metropolitan police are attempting to reinforce traffic safety education for Uber Eats delivery personnel. But the police is having a hard time to reach them because many do not have any specific bases for their task.
After a fatal accident involving an Uber Eats deliverer in August 2018, the police asked the company to review safety of its delivery workers on roads.
In the last year, two events for traffic safety education were held for Uber Eats deliverers. Messages about traffic safety are circulated through the app for Uber Eats delivery workers once a month from July last year.
“Smartphones are the only tool to reach individual deliverers. Providing traffic safety education to them is difficult,” an investigative source stated.
