Pain but no gain for workers suffering with poorly designed barcode scanners

Logistics and delivery workers say the pressures of work and poorly designed mobile barcode scanners are affecting their health and productivity, according to latest research. 63% reported they suffered from wrist or arm aches and pains with 69% forced to take time off for an average of two and three quarter sick days in the past year – costing their employer £310 per person*. Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) also affected 52% of the workforce with 78% of those affected having to take an average of three sick days in the past 12 months – costing the employer £338 per person*.

The Scanning Pain For No Gain report, undertaken by independent market research company Opinion Matters and commissioned by Panasonic Business, reported that 60% of workers from the delivery, warehouse and logistics industry felt their mobile barcode scanner device was only fairly effective or not effective at all.

Their biggest stress factors were the slow and cumbersome scanning process due to the device being used (32%), the time it took to scan packages (31%), hard to scan items (26%), delivery times being reduced (23%) and the number of packages to be scanned in a day (22%).

To compound the problem, workforces believed that scanning requirements were dramatically rising with the average worker saying they scanned 197 times a day with year-on-year growth estimated at 24%.