Logistics at Work: Trucks, Containers and the Friction of Circulation in the UK

Abstract

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. ABSTRACT This paper examines logistics at work, focusing on owner-drivers in the UK container haulage industry. It draws on qualitative research conducted in south-east England in 2013 to show that the just-in-time 24/7/365 delivery required by logistics purchasers, and offered by logistics providers, is achieved in the UK logistics space through drivers displacing work, stretching time and running out of time. The location of owner-drivers in the logistics precariat is established, as is the relationship of financial precarity to the circulation of containers in the UK logistics space. Through focusing on logistics as physical real-time circulation, and not just logistics as power and discipline, the paper demonstrates the importance and effects of the friction of circulation in terrestrial (and maritime) space. It further establishes the effects of precariatisation on logistics labour in UK container haulage. These are: a crisis in labour supply, the Eastern Europeanisation of the sector and increasing pressures to illegal working practices.

Logistics: Situating flows in a spatial context

“…Recent works have started this undertaking, for example, by exploring the struggle of communities that are exposed to the toxic emissions from port and truck operations (De Lara, ), the neighborhood impact of mega‐DCs (Yuan, ), or Amazon.com fulfilment staff who are on strike for higher salaries and better working conditions (Huws, , p. 77). Given the advanced mix of information technology, big data surveillance and rigid corporate culture, it could be argued that the labor issue in most general terms provides substantial reason for concerns (Gregson, ; Gutelius, ; Hall, ; Jaffee & Bensman, ).…”

Mobilities, mobile work and habitation: truck drivers and the crisis in occupational auto-mobility in the UK

“…The rhythm of this day is typical of the work of moving shipping containers from and to the UK's ports but, in recognition of drivers' tendency to customise cab interiors, the cab as described is an ideal type, drawn from the units in the yard at the heart of the research and triangulated with data drawn from web forum posts. The focus on a typical day parallels the approach taken in Gregson (2015) and works as its mirror. Here, I de-centre driving and the work that others do with goods when driving stops.…”

“…This is the second of two companion papers that seek to open up the mobilities-economies interface through a focus on mobile work, specifically the occupational auto-mobility of truck driving. The first of these papers inflects the long standing interest in auto-mobility in mobilities research through a sharper economic focus and demonstrates how truck driving is being transformed by logistics in the service of supply chain capitalism (Gregson, 2015). The intent there is to economize the mobilities project.…”

“…In supply chain capitalism, where logistics is both a cost and a value-creating activity (Hesse & Rodrigue, 2004;Aoyama & Ratick, 2007;Coe, 2014) those who actually deliver the goods, as well as those who re-order them in warehouses and DCs, earn least. Zero hours contracts, agency-working and variants on self-employed piece work are all commonplace contractual arrangements for truck drivers (Belzer, 2000;Gregson 2015), as they are for workers in warehouses and DCs (Bonacich & de Lara, 2009;Gutelius, 2015). To this can be added poor work-life balance.…”

“…Like other forms of mobile work such as train driving, seafaring or pilots and air crew, truck driving, and particularly long-distance 'tramping', has always been difficult to combine with domestic and family life (Hollowell, 1968;Sampson, 2003;Nóvoa, 2014). Now the 24/7/365 service offered by logistics providers and demanded by clients has created a situation in which drivers run out of driving time routinely but unpredictably and thus are forced to 'over-night' away from home (Gregson, 2015).…”