The delivery app industry has grown 25% every year since 2016. Many customers consider delivery to be just as important as price or product quality. As demand for delivery services rises, we expect delivery-related accidents to rise in proportion. To get a better sense of this issue, let’s look at the future of delivery accidents.
Increased Demand
Currently, 9% of Americans do their grocery shopping online. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos claims that by 2025, that number will rise to 20%. If true, that means 1-in-5 American households will do their grocery shopping online. That, in turn, means more traffic.
Likewise, food delivery apps are making an enormous statement in the marketplace. Convenience is attractive. People who wouldn’t normally go out are willing to place orders to their homes. That creates more traffic.
More traffic always means more accidents. More worrying is that delivery services hit their peak after dark. Under normal circumstances, 60% of crashes occur at night despite having only 40% of daytime traffic. Not only that, but nighttime crashes result in more fatalities than those in the day. If the delivery economy continues to grow at the expected pace, we can expect fatal car accidents to rise year after year.
The big difference between a regular driver and a delivery driver is pressure. Delivery drivers are on a time table and that makes them much more likely to engage in risky driving behaviors.
Looking Ahead
Over the past decade, many franchise restaurants and delivery companies have looked at automating delivery transactions. This includes flying drones to deliver pizza and robots maneuvering around cities.
If delivery drones and robots become a reality, we can expect chaos in the first years. Human drivers are (usually) quick to identify and avoid danger, but robots work best in controlled environments. There’s no telling what property damage the robots might cause or how people might treat them.
The only way to know for sure is to wait and see what the future has in store for the delivery industry.
If you or someone you love suffered serious injuries or wrongful death at the hands of a delivery driver, you might have a case. If you’d like an experienced Long Beach personal injury attorney from McGee, Lerer & Associates to evaluate your case, please send us an email or call (310) 231-9717.