Human rights risks across transport

Transport is a critical blind spot in many supply chains that can pose systemic, severe, hidden risks to the companies it serves. This guidance summarises the key human rights risks, including labour rights, companies must identify and address across transport supply chains, and what effective HRDD requires in practice.

Each section sets out the risk and the actions needed to prevent, mitigate and remediate it. Addressing these risks is essential to protect workers, safeguard operations, reduce legal liability and regulatory exposure, and to conduct robust HRDD grounded in meaningful engagement with workers and trade unions, in line with human rights standards and labour law obligations across global supply chains.

Risks
Structural Risk
Structural risks in transport are driven by how work is organised – across mobile workplaces and fragmented subcontracting chains.
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OSH Risks
Commercial pressure and unrealistic schedules can drive excessive hours and unsafe working conditions.
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Sanitation
Access to safe and secure facilities is essential to worker health, dignity, and equality in transport.
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Violence + Harrassment
A widespread risk across transport, shaped by public-facing work, isolation, and power imbalance
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New Technology
Technology is changing how work is organised, supervised, controlled and performed across global supply chains.
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Discrimination
Fragmented employment arrangements weaken accountability and expose workers to greater risk.
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Forced Labour and Human Trafficking
Rising temperatures and severe weather are already reshaping working conditions in transport
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Freedom of Association + Collective Bargaining
Restrictions on freedom of association and collective bargaining are systemic risks across transport supply chains and undermine the realisation of all other labour rights.
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Wages, Working and Living Conditions
Challenges with attracting and retaining workers across some transport sectors have become a persistent, long-term challenge for supply chains.
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