Sore Lower Back After a Delivery Shift? What Studies of Drivers Found

Lower back pain is common in studies of professional drivers, but none we found covered delivery drivers in their own cars. A review linked it with long workdays, seats, posture and heavy lifting, mostly in one-time surveys: links, not causes. Back pain after a serious accident, or with pain, tingling, numbness or weakness in both legs, needs emergency care.

01What is delivery driver lower back pain?

Delivery driver lower back pain is an ache or stiffness low in the back that builds over a working day of driving, getting in and out of the car and carrying orders. You park for the last drop of a long shift, swing your legs out, and your lower back is stiff, even though you kept your back straight all day. Or the shift felt fine, and the hard part is getting out of bed the next morning.

Back pain is common in studies of people who drive for a living. A review that pooled studies of professional drivers put the share who reported low back pain in the past 12 months at 53 percent.¹ Read that figure as rough: the studies behind it differed a lot, the authors note, and taxi drivers were studied most often.

We found no study of people who deliver in their own car. So this guide tells you what the driver studies found and where your job differs: warning signs first, then the findings, your hours, your seat, the lifting, and a log for the busy season. It names no cause for your back, and nothing in it replaces asking a health professional.

02When is it more than a sore back from the shift?

After a long shift, it is easy to decide this just comes with the job. Check these signs first.

Get emergency care

The NHS, the UK's health service, sends you to emergency care if you have back pain and:²

• Pain, tingling, weakness or numbness in both legs.
• A loss of feeling around your genitals or anus.
• Changes in your bladder or bowels, such as trouble peeing or losing control of either.
• Changes in how your genitals feel during sex, or in your sexual function.
• Chest pain.
• Pain that started after a serious accident, such as a car accident.

Do not drive yourself. Ask someone to drive you, or call for an ambulance.² That means ending the shift, whatever orders are waiting.

Get care right away

Get care right away if you have back pain and:²

• You feel hot, cold, shivery or generally unwell.
• The pain is severe and started suddenly, or it is getting worse quickly.

Ask a health professional

Ask a health professional if you have back pain and:²

• It has not improved after a few weeks of caring for it at home.
• It does not improve after resting, or it is worse at night.
• It keeps you from your day-to-day activities.
• You are worried about the pain or struggling to cope.
• You have lost weight without trying to.
• There is a lump or swelling in your back, or your back has changed shape.
• It is worse when you sneeze, cough or strain on the toilet.
• It comes from the top of your back, between your shoulders, rather than your lower back.

If you are unsure which list a sign belongs to, act on the more urgent one. A busy week is no reason to wait. If none of these fit, read on for your shift.

On The RoadMorncrest® Car Neck Pillow & Lumbar Support Set $69$109

03What did studies of professional drivers find?

You may blame the seat, or put the ache down to bad luck. A review by Jia and colleagues gathered 19 studies of professional drivers to see what went along with low back pain.¹ By the authors' count, 17 of the 19 were cross-sectional: one-time surveys.¹ Taxi drivers were studied most often, then pedicab, bus and long-distance drivers, and no study on the review's list names delivery drivers.¹

The authors graded the quality of the evidence as high for uncomfortable seating, improper driving posture and the manual handling of heavy objects, and also for age, alcohol and short sleep.¹ They graded it moderate for factors that included working long days, many years of driving, seats without back support and high job stress.¹

These are links, not causes. The authors write that longitudinal research, which follows people over time, is needed to establish the causal relationships.¹ They also note that the studies varied in how they defined and measured the factors, and that the drivers answered questionnaires.¹

One study of professional drivers compared a gel seat cushion with a plain foam one; the gel cushion's maker paid for it, though the authors state it had no role in the design or the analysis.³ Our guide to what lumbar pillow and cushion studies measured covers that research.

Our reading: the seat is on the list, but so are the hours and the lifting, so this guide goes past the seat.

04Do long hours play a part, not just the drive?

A shift is rarely one long drive. It is back-to-back orders, a wait in a parking lot, a meal eaten in the driver's seat, then more driving. In the review, more than 10 working hours a day went with low back pain, graded moderate.¹ The studies did not all agree: one included study found no clear link with daily hours, and the authors say most of the disagreement on hours came from that study.¹

A survey cannot tell you how many hours are too many for you, so we give no hour limit here. The review's authors do advise drivers to "rest adequately during extended work periods."¹

Advice to stop on a schedule assumes you set the schedule. On a delivery shift, the orders set it. So here are a few options of our own, not the review's, built on the pauses the job already gives you:

• During a long wait, get out of the car instead of sitting through it.
• Eat outside the car when you can.
• At a drop, stand and walk a few steps before you get back in.

None of these shortens the shift, so the hours still go in the shift log later in this guide.

05What can you change in the seat you drive all day?

Partway through the shift, you have slid down the seat, and the lumbar knob, if it has one, is where it was the day you got the car. In the review, seats without back support went with low back pain, graded moderate and drawn from a few surveys of drivers.¹

The seat comes first and the support second. If yours is not set yet, our guide to setting the seat angle and the reach to the pedals walks you through it.

Then reset each time you get back in. This routine is ours, not a method from a study:

• Sit all the way back before you pull the belt, so your hips meet the seat back.
• If the seat has a lumbar adjustment, use it before you pull away.
• Check that whatever support you use is still in the small of your back; getting in and out all day can shift anything you sit against.
• Make sure you still reach the pedals and the wheel comfortably.

The small of your back is where a lumbar cushion goes. We make the Car neck pillow and lumbar set, and its lumbar support cushion is the piece for that spot. It goes on after the seat is set, not instead of setting it.

Whatever sits behind your back, the hours and the lifting on the review's list are still there.

06What about lifting and getting in and out of the car?

Much of the job happens outside the seat: the trunk, the bags, the stairs, the car door all day. The review graded the quality of the evidence as high for the manual handling of heavy objects.¹ One study came closer to delivery work: a one-time survey of French postal workers who drove light-duty vehicles on mail and parcel rounds, compared with workers who did not drive.⁴

Among the drivers in that survey, the full results tie handling heavy loads to low back pain in the women.⁴ The authors write that their design cannot show cause.⁴ A postal round in a light-duty vehicle is also a different setup from your own car.

For the lift itself, OSHA lifting pages written for electrical contractors put it simply:⁵

• Keep the load close to your body.
• Avoid twisting, especially when you bend forward to lift.
• Turn by moving your feet rather than twisting your body.
• When you lift from somewhere low, move the item close to your body and use your legs.
• Lift heavier or bulky loads with a buddy.⁶

We found no study that measured getting in and out of a car, so we cannot say the steps below change how your back feels. Our own way to keep the twist out:

• On the way out, turn your whole body toward the door and put both feet on the ground before you stand.
• On the way in, sit first, then bring both legs in together.

07What should you watch across a busy season?

Deep in a busy season of long shifts, the ache is there earlier each day. The review also linked sleeping under 6 full hours a night with low back pain in drivers, an association like the rest.¹ Note your sleep, but do not read it as the cause.

The NHS says to "stay active and try to continue with your daily activities," and that back pain usually improves within a few weeks but can sometimes last longer or keep coming back.² That timeline is no reason to wait: any warning sign above comes first, whatever the week.

Our suggestion is a short shift log. For each shift, note:

• Hours on the road.
• The longest stretch without getting out of the car.
• The heaviest thing you carried.
• Hours of sleep the night before.
• How your back felt at the end of the shift and the next morning.

If the ache has not improved after a few weeks of caring for it at home, does not improve after resting, or is worse at night, ask a health professional and bring the log.² Across a week, the log shows patterns one day cannot. You do not need a full week of notes to ask.

08What this cannot fix

A review of driver studies cannot tell you why your back hurts. It found links, not causes; none of its studies named delivery drivers, and none tested our set. A seat reset and a lumbar cushion change what sits behind your lower back. They do not shorten a shift, lighten what you carry or add sleep, and nothing here says they change how your back feels.

Your car may not have a lumbar adjustment, and the orders may not let you get out during a wait. Warning signs come first. Get emergency care for back pain after a serious accident or with chest pain, bladder or bowel changes, a loss of feeling around the genitals or anus, or pain, tingling, numbness or weakness in both legs. If the ache does not improve after resting, is worse at night, or keeps coming back across the season, ask a health professional and bring your shift log.

09Which set is this?

This is our Car neck pillow and lumbar set, one matched set of two pieces: a car neck pillow and a lumbar support cushion, both made of slow-rebound natural-rubber memory foam. The lumbar cushion is 15.7 x 13.0 x 4.7 in, shaped with a raised mid-ridge and four contoured support zones. Its cover is a breathable knit that you wipe with a soft damp cloth and leave to air dry. It comes in Grey, Black or Beige, and it also works on office chairs and recliners.

We make it for the driver who spends a working day in a car seat, has already set that seat, and wants something behind the lower back. It does not change your hours, your lifting or your seat settings, and it is not a fix for a back that hurts.

Back pain after a serious accident, or with pain, tingling, numbness or weakness in both legs, is for emergency care. An ache that does not improve after resting, is worse at night or keeps coming back is for a health professional. Browse all our Car guides for more on car seats and long drives.