SafeLMD – Green and safety skills for workers in bike based urban last mile deliveries

Climate neutrality, ecological footprint, Green Deal – sustainability and environmental aspects are becoming increasingly important for all areas of life. In the current project „SafeLMD”, we will demonstrate the kind of impact this might have on vocational training and employment using the example of the emerging industry of delivery services.

The rapid increase in mail order and the use of delivery services of all kinds – accelerated by the Corona pandemic – also leads to significantly more delivery traffic – a burden on the environment and on city centre traffic. Delivery workers are responding to this by an increased use of cargo bicycles for the „last mile”. More and more employees are on the road with such cargo bikes, often without being sufficiently trained for using them.

This entails issues such as efficient route planning, necessary equipment and maintenance of the bikes, safety regulations for handling batteries with e-bikes, but also about lifting and carrying heavy loads, safety in road traffic, accident prevention as well as other sustainability, environmental and health aspects.

In the „SafeLMD” project, we want to showcase which competences the employees would require and what a tailor-made education and training should look like. The partners will develop a common competence framework, occupational profile, curriculum and online course with learning material for self-study, a trainer’s manual as well as a scheme for the online examination. All materials will be available online as an open educational resource in six languages.
Finally, we trust that the project will stimulate and foster an intensive discussion reviewing the (currently often precarious) employment situation of these delivery workers and initiate remedial actions for improvement.