Between 2020 and 2024, over 242,000 reports of accidents occurring in the Transport and Warehousing sector were filed with Inail, with 923 fatal cases. Compared to 2020, the total number of reports grew by 13.6%, with a particularly marked increase for accidents occurring in itinere, on the home-work-home commute (+45.4%), while those occurring during work recorded an increase of 8.8%. This is highlighted by the new issue of Dati Inail, a periodical curated by the Institute’s Statistical Actuarial Consultancy, which updates the analysis on one of the productive sectors most exposed to occupational risks, which between 2024 and the first months of this year found itself operating in a very complex economic, geopolitical, and regulatory scenario.
The sector in 2023 had more than 119,000 active enterprises, 87% of which had fewer than 10 employees, and employed about 1.2 million people, the majority of whom were in large companies, which account for over 42% of the employees. The average number of workers per enterprise is 10, a slight increase compared to 9.8 the previous year. From 2016 to 2023, the overall growth in employment was 6.9%, driven mainly by warehousing (+15.5%) and land transport (+7.4%), while maritime and air transport companies, and those dealing with postal and courier shipments, recorded a decrease in employees of 5.2%, 23.5%, and 17.4% respectively.
In the five-year period analyzed, Transport and Warehousing ranks third among all economic activities for the number of reports during work, representing about 12% of the total cases, and second for fatal events (18% of the total). Considering the positively defined accidents during work, excluding Covid-19 cases, the male component is largely predominant, with over 85% of the reports and 97% of the fatal cases. Women represent 14.5% of the accidents, but only eight of the 351 recognized fatalities. From a territorial point of view, almost 60% of the cases are concentrated in Northern Italy, particularly in Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, and Veneto, which together account for over 41% of the fatalities.
Almost three quarters of the workers who suffer an accident during work in the sector are Italian and just over one fifth are non-EU citizens, predominantly born in Morocco, Albania, Moldova, and Pakistan. The distribution by age shows that the youngest injured, aged between 15 and 29, are just under 10%, those between 40 and 54 are the most affected with 40.6% of the cases, while the injured over 60 represent about 8% of the total. In over six out of ten cases, the injury causes contusions, dislocations, sprains, and strains, with the upper and lower limbs as the most affected body part. From the point of view of dynamics, means of transport are involved in only 12% of accidents during work, while almost half of the non-fatal events are attributable to the handling of loads or the loss of control of equipment. For fatalities, however, the involvement of a means of transport is decisive.
Accidents in work environments dedicated to warehousing constitute a significant portion of both overall accidents and fatal ones.
In many accidents, motorized forklifts, the so-called muletti, are involved, often due to maneuvers performed in conditions of poor visibility, caused by the bulk of the handled load, or incorrect methods of operating the vehicle, which not infrequently cause it to overturn. Dati Inail, in particular, draws attention to a type of accident in which the forklift truck is only involved at the beginning of a series of events that can have very serious consequences, highlighting the importance of adopting safe behaviors and respecting procedures, especially in the phases following the use of lifting equipment.
The reports of occupational disease filed for the Transport and Warehousing sector between 2020 and 2024 averaged three thousand per year, equal to 7.2% of the total coded cases of the Industry and services insurance management and with a growing trend, from 2,138 cases in 2020 to 3,993 in 2024. In 2024, the most frequent pathologies, equal to 83% of the total coded, were those of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, especially dorsopathies (disorders of the intervertebral discs and hernias) due to excessive efforts and fixed and prolonged postures that lead to degeneration, loss of elasticity and dehydration of the discs. These are followed by diseases of the nervous system (6.3%) and the ear (4.6%), tumors (2.7%), respiratory diseases (1.9%) and mental and behavioral disorders (0.9%). The male component is prevalent (92% of cases), especially in land transport, while among female workers almost 80% of cases concern warehousing and postal services.
From the focus that Dati Inail dedicates to recreational boating, a constantly growing trend emerges in recent years, both in terms of active insurance positions, which rose in 2024 to 1,468, 24.4% more than the 1,180 in 2020 (+22.0% recreational, +33.2% recreational for hire), and for the amount of declared remuneration, which stood at about 80.5 million euros, with an increase of 54.6% over the five-year period (+51.2% recreational, +70.4% recreational for hire). This is a significant increase that corresponds, overall, to about 11.5% per year, an indication of a sector of activity in strong recovery after the contraction caused by the pandemic.
