Yousef Maknoon on the safety of bike couriers, at TPM on Stage

In this public talk, Yousef Maknoon discussed the safety pressures facing bike couriers in last-mile delivery, a workforce that has grown rapidly alongside on-demand delivery platforms but whose working conditions remain under-studied.

The talk framed courier safety as a behavioral trade-off problem: couriers are often paid per delivery and evaluated on speed, creating strong incentives to take routes and risks that reduce safety margins. Drawing on empirical data on courier routing and incident patterns, the talk examined how platform design — rather than individual behavior alone — shapes these outcomes, and what levers (routing algorithms, pay structures, infrastructure) could shift the balance without undermining delivery performance.

The session was part of the TPM on Stage public lecture series and was aimed at a general audience beyond the research community.