'I can't do this for the rest of my life, it's slowly eroding my body' The human cost of Korea's next-day delivery

A week before her son's death, Park Mi-suk (phonetic) had urged him to quit his job. For over a year, her 27-year-old son, Jang Deok-jun (phonetic), had been working the night shift at the logistics warehouse of Korea's largest online retailer, Coupang (Coupang, 쿠팡). He drove an electric pallet truck, constantly moving pallets loaded with plastic turnover boxes and cardboard boxes around the vast warehouse. Park Mi-suk said that during that period, her son lost 15 kilograms and often complained of extreme fatigue. But Jang Deok-jun refused to quit. He likened his job to playing on a seesaw: if he left, his colleagues would have to bear a greater workload and might not be able to sustain it. A week later, Park Mi-suk found him unconscious, collapsed in the bathtub. 'We pulled him out, immediately administered first aid, and rushed him to the hospital, but he was ultimately pronounced dead.' Jang Deok-jun died of a heart attack. Korea's state-run insurance agency responsible for labor medical protection, the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service (Comwel), after completing its investigation, recognized his death as being related to overwork. Park Mi-suk wishes she had noticed her son's fatigue earlier. 'I didn't pay attention to what my son said, so I lost him. But I hope others don't repeat my mistake.' Jang Deok-jun passed away in 2020. Six years have passed, but Park Mi-suk continues to protest, hoping to end what she believes was the cause of her son's death—overnight delivery. When Jang Deok-jun died, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic when delivery demand surged dramatically, which is often used to explain his heavy workload. However, the working environment of warehouse workers and delivery personnel has become a nationally watched public issue in Korea in recent years. Unions point out that cases suspected of dying from overwork continue to occur. In highly digitalized and internet-advanced Korea, overnight delivery has become ubiquitous. As long as customers place an order before midnight, the goods are guaranteed to be delivered by 7 AM the next morning. Behind this convenience is a large team of overnight workers, including warehouse workers like Jang Deok-jun and a large number of delivery drivers. Several companies compete to provide fast and cheap delivery services, the largest of which is 'Coupang'. This company was founded by a Korean-American and, since it launched its fresh food next-day delivery service in 2015, has almost become synonymous with Korean online shopping. Now, it has established an unparalleled network of warehouses and delivery vehicles, employing nearly 100,000 employees across the group. However, the industry is now under intense scrutiny. Between 2020 and May 2026, the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service ruled that a total of 46 warehouse workers and delivery personnel, including Jang Deok-jun, died from strokes or heart attacks and were listed as occupational death cases. Apart from Jang Deok-jun, it is not clear how many of them had accidents during night shifts. The Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service did not disclose how many of these cases were further investigated to see if overwork was one of the causes of death. Investigations are only conducted when the deceased's family requests them when submitting a workers' compensation claim. Moreover, not all cases are ultimately submitted to the Korean public agency for processing, so the relevant data is incomplete. Past data from the agency shows that the rate of day-shift delivery personnel dying from overwork and industrial accidents is higher than that of night-shift workers. But this claim is now being questioned. There is an opinion that nighttime delivery is rapidly expanding, and currently, there is a lack of sufficient data to fully reflect its impact. Unions also believe that night-shift work causes greater long-term harm to health. According to data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer under the United Nations, night-shift work has been listed as a 'possible carcinogen' globally. Professor Kang Mo-yeol (phonetic) of the Catholic University of Korea's occupational medicine department said, 'In addition, more and more evidence shows that night-shift work also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and mental illness.' Unlike the UK, Korea does not have regulations on the upper limit of night-shift working hours; in the UK, night-time delivery drivers are not allowed to work more than 10 hours in 24 hours. The Korean delivery workers' union called for a complete ban on night-time delivery in 2025, but the union representing 'Coupang' delivery drivers stated that almost all members tend to continue working night shifts. Some drivers need to take care of children, the elderly, or sick family members during the day; more importantly, night-shift pay is higher. 'I can't do this for the rest of my life, because it's slowly eroding my body.' Kim (pseudonym), a driver who delivers for 'Coupang' through a subcontracting company, told the BBC. He refused to reveal his real name. However, he added that his monthly income of about 7 million won (4,600 dollars)—nearly twice the national average salary—makes this job worthwhile. When the BBC reporter met him at 10 PM, he had already completed the truck loading work before his first delivery. He drove through the narrow streets of Incheon, west of Seoul, stating that he works five to six days a week, from 9 PM to 7 AM the next morning. His work schedule has almost no rest time. Every time the truck stops, he grabs the package and runs. He said that almost all drivers are paid based on the number of deliveries; if they fail to complete all deliveries by 7 AM, they may lose their 'delivery area' and be replaced by other drivers. Initially, his pregnant wife was worried that he would fall asleep while driving. But he insisted that he had now gotten used to it, and the streets were less congested at night, making it easier to drive. 'We choose overnight delivery because we want to make money.' Kim said. In his view, those who think nighttime delivery should stop because it harms his health actually ignore that this is his own choice. However, Jang Deok-jun's mother, Park Mi-suk, believes that as the demand for fast delivery continues to increase, people like Kim are gradually becoming 'invisible,' and the entire industry is therefore taken for granted. The BBC reporter interviewed Park Mi-suk outside the 'Coupang' headquarters in the Songpa District office and business district of Seoul. She stood alone in front of the company's entrance, calling out to batches of employees going out for lunch, hoping they would remember her son and others who had the same fate. But hardly anyone stopped. Park Mi-suk said that in cases like Jang Deok-jun's, one of the biggest difficulties is holding the employer accountable. She said that the responsibility of proving that her son died from overwork falls on her. According to regulations, 'Coupang' is obligated to provide records, including CCTV footage, to the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service, but it is not obligated to provide them to her. After months of appealing to congressmen and government agencies, she finally obtained Jang Deok-jun's work records and related CCTV footage. Jang Deok-jun's working hours in the months before his death met the Korean legal threshold for 'death from overwork': namely, averaging 60 hours per week for the 12 weeks before death; or averaging 64 hours per week for the 4 weeks before death, resulting in a heart attack or stroke. According to the calculation rules of the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service, Jang Deok-jun's night-shift hours are calculated with a 30% higher weight. As Park Mi-suk continued to investigate the incident, local media reported that the former privacy director of 'Coupang' claimed to have had a conversation with the company's CEO, Bom Kim. In the leaked chat records, Bom Kim asked the executive to remove the description of Jang Deok-jun 'working very hard' from the internal report; many employees had used this phrase to describe Jang Deok-jun's last shift. 'Coupang' stated that this is an 'unfounded' accusation against a former executive, and the person made the statement out of dissatisfaction. But the union accused the company of attempting to cover up evidence and filed a criminal lawsuit. The police formally launched an investigation into 'Coupang' in December 2025. 'Coupang' denied the allegations, stating that the company had submitted all the requested data and fully cooperated with the investigation by the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service. Just then, another highly publicized case also made headlines. 34-year-old Oh Seung-yong died in a delivery accident when his truck crashed into a pole. The Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service ruled that this was an 'occupational death,' meaning that work factors influenced his death. Oh Seung-yong's sister told the National Assembly that her brother's work records showed he worked six days a week, more than 11 hours a day, and most of the time was night shifts. She also said that a few days after their father's death, Oh Seung-yong completed an additional four hours of delivery work before rushing to the hospital. Oh Seung-yong was employed by a logistics company contracted with 'Coupang'. 'Coupang' stated that the company regulates that its employees' working hours shall not exceed 52 hours and allows subcontracted drivers to have a full weekend off every two weeks. But the union accused that Oh Seung-yong's employer did not implement this arrangement. 'Coupang' added that the company fully pays for health check-ups for direct employees and subcontracted delivery drivers and claimed, 'We have never had any industrial accident deaths, which is the best safety record in the global logistics industry.' In December 2025, Harold Rogers, the CEO of 'Coupang', was summoned to the National Assembly to explain the two death cases of Jang Deok-jun and Oh Seung-yong.