"Bring It Right Now" and Verbal Abuse: Nearly Half of Japanese Delivery Workers Suffer From Customer Abuse

As the expansion of e-commerce drives a surge in demand for parcel delivery services in Japan, customer abuse directed at delivery drivers and customer service staff—including verbal abuse and malicious complaints—is emerging as a serious problem.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun and other reports on the 26th, a first-ever comprehensive survey conducted by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare targeting about 20,000 delivery industry workers showed that 43% of respondents experienced customer abuse within the past three years.

This figure is four times higher than the 11% response rate recorded in a government-wide survey across all industries where workers reported being victims of customer abuse.

By job category, call center and phone support staff experienced the highest victimization rate at 74%, followed by in-person counter staff at 64% and on-site delivery drivers at 32%.

Experts analyzed that Japan's unique culture of excessive service competition and the structural practice of "free redelivery at customer-requested times" have become breeding grounds that fuel customer abuse.

Consumers, accustomed to free services, view them as an inherent right and make unreasonable demands, such as shouting, "Bring it right now," even after business hours have ended.

One on-site delivery driver shared that even after delivering goods within the designated time slot, they faced pressures such as, "Why didn't you come earlier?" and "I requested morning delivery, and it is rude for you to arrive past 11 AM."

The driver added, "When I refused a redelivery request because the preferred time window was too narrow, I was subjected to verbal abuse like 'useless' and 'are you an idiot?'"

As the situation worsens, the Japanese government distributed guidelines in March for addressing customer abuse in the delivery industry, recommending strong responses against malicious complaints, including reporting them to the police.

Major courier Yamato Transport has also created its own guidelines and introduced tough measures, such as refusing deliveries to customers who make unreasonable demands.

Meanwhile, the number of industrial accident approvals for mental disorders caused by customer abuse in Japan reached 127 last year, more than doubling in two years.

(File Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.