Ljubljana - The newspaper Dnevnik is sceptical that the agreement between food delivery companies and the Ljubljana city will achieve the desired effect of slowing down the couriers to improve traffic safety, calling for improvement of working conditions instead.

Under the headline Why Are They in Such a Hurry, the paper notes that while Wolt and Glovo officials argued yesterday that delivery times are set in such a way the couriers can meet them easily at a normal pace, the couriers, who are the companies' partners rather than employees, say it is the system of work which induces them to deliver their orders as fast as possible.

"For a precarious worker whose only source of income is delivering food for Wolt or Glovo survival may depend on how many deliveries they will make in a day.

"This does to justify reckless racing on an electric scooter in a pedestrianised zone [...] Any such offence merits a fine. However, without learning about what encourages or even forces the couriers to break the road code (even at the cost of their own safety), and without addressing the issue, agreements such as the one in Ljubljana can hardly be expected to achieve the desired effect."

Noting that the Ljubljana mayor has threatened to propose for the city council to impose a full ban on couriers in pedestrianised areas if the situation does not improve in a foreseeable future, the paper says before he takes such a measure the state should be encouraged to examine whether the couriers' working conditions needed improvement. "It may well have a positive effect on traffic safety as well."