In Turkey, especially during the pandemic, the number of motorcycle courier employees started to increase. Violations of rights and pressures also increased.

According to the data announced by the Motorcycle Courier Rights Association, 30 moto-couriers lost their lives in accidents in 2021, 58 in 2022 and at least 64 in 2023. Motorcycle couriers, who were initially seen as workers, are no longer seen as such in official records due to the bosses' desire to avoid responsibility for the violations.

With the Tradesman Courier model introduced before the pandemic, motorcycle courier employees are forced to set up a one-man company. These companies are seen as subcontractors of bigger companies such as Trendyol, Hepsi Burada and Getir, and motorcycle couriers are paid based on the number of packages they deliver. Their deaths are not recorded as occupational homicides. The fact that they are recorded as traffic accidents frees the companies they work for from all legal obligations.

Mehmet Timurtaş, himself a motorcycle courier and one of the Green Left Party Istanbul MP candidates in the 14 May General Elections, spoke about the problems faced by motorcycle couriers to ANF.

'The biggest problem is the artisan courier model'

Stating that the biggest problem in Istanbul is the artisan courier model, Timurtaş said that with the new rule, they now have left the status of workers, they are not exempt from VAT, and they pay their insurance premiums over the money they earn. Timurtaş continued: "Because of the new status we are travelling faster because the areas of delivery are wider. We are officially putting ourselves and people's lives in danger."

Stating that they are forced to take more packages at once due to the profit greed of the bosses in this period, unlike the period when they worked with insurance, Timurtaş said that this overload causes an increase in accidents. Timurtaş said: "We are not workers on paper. In the new model, we have to establish a private company and since we work on our own account, the bosses have no responsibility if we have an accident or die. There are more than 300 thousand moto-couriers working in Istanbul."

Timurtaş said that a friend of theirs had recently lost his life in a traffic accident and that the person who caused the accident was released after his statement was taken because he worked at a consulate. Timurtaş continued: "Since we were not considered as workers on paper, this death was recorded as a traffic accident.

They give us much more than the load that a motorbike can carry because otherwise they would have to employ more motor-couriers and they do not want to do that.

For example, they ask us to carry 8 packets of water in one go when we should carry at most one at a time. The boss does that as he would have to pay for each trip separately. Accidents happen because of this."

Timurtaş was referring to the accident in which Somali president’s son allegedly killed a motorcycle courier in a traffic accident in Istanbul’s Fatih district. The man fled the country after the incident.

64 motocycle couriers lost their lives in Turkey in 2023

Timurtaş said that 64 moto-couriers lost their lives only in 2023 in Turkey, and added that not only the bosses but also the people who place orders should be careful about some issues, and should take into account the delays when ordering in adverse weather conditions. Timurtaş said that there is a scoring system for motorcycle couriers and that even a five-minute delay increases the pressure on that delivery worker because of the fear to be given a low score.

Timurtaş added: “There are people who scold us and insult us when we are late in stormy or unfavourable weather conditions. They do not think that it is not possible to work in such bad weather. We put ourselves at risk, but they insult us for being five minutes late. We ask them to be a little more understanding. In bad weather, the number of orders increases and it’s more dangerous for us. There is a scoring system, where they give bad low scores and this gives the bosses the opportunity to dismiss us. With the new model, the more you work, the more money you get. Bosses also use this and put the motorcycle courier under pressure for more profit and force them to make risky manoeuvres that will cause accidents and deaths."