Producing the subject delivery. Spanish migrant workers and Central-European platformized work

Abstract

The particular characteristics of the transport and logistics sector make it a privileged lens through which to analyze the transformation of production models in regions traditionally seen as developed, such as Europe. This sector’s significance is underscored by its growing contribution to European GDP, its reliance on physical and unskilled labor often employing workers from peripheral countries, its relationship with the radical transformation of consumption patterns, and its centrality to the business strategies of large multinational corporations, in terms of both organizational structures and investment models. As stated at the outset of this paper, the e-commerce business requires the ability to react immediately to consumer demands and deliver products swiftly and efficiently, a circumstance that places the entire chain of production under stress. This time pressure is evident not only in the shortening of production times (producing more in less time), or in competition between different platforms to provide better quality service, as in other sectors. Rather, there are two other factors at play: on the one hand, the just-in-time profitability model seeks to shorten the time during which capital is immobilized as “productive capital”, and accelerate profit realization by investing only at times of peak profitability. On the other hand, an intrinsic element of e-commerce (and of any home delivery service) is the tension between the time value of consumers versus that of the delivery personnel