Courier Jobs: The Important Skills

While it may sound easy to drive up and down the country making deliveries, courier jobs are often not for the faint of heart! Not only do you need a high level of driving ability, a good sense of direction and navigation, and a friendly manner in order to keep everything running smoothly once you hand over your delivery charge - you also need a number of 'softer' skills and qualities, attributes of character that may not be immediately apparent to one entering the delivery profession. In order to gain the most freelance contracts, or excel if you're working for a company, a driver should try to develop certain characteristics in order to help them complete their jobs.

Resilience

Courier jobs often take place over long periods of time, and often the jobs themselves are back-to-back as well. When making multiple deliveries over long hours, Diaplex the characteristic of resilience becomes very important. Not only is it useful in weathering the day-to-day stresses of long hours driving, but also when things deviate from an expected plan. When the recipient of the item under transport is nowhere to be found at the arranged delivery location, and there are three more deliveries clamouring for attention, a sense of resilience is even more important than during regular routine. A resilient courier is one who can thrive under pressure!

Integrity

For a courier to prosper, they need to consider alternatives. Alternative routes in case of traffic, alternative arrangements for deliveries if the recipient isn't available to take them, even alternative means of communication if necessary, to receive orders from a dispatcher or to get updates on traffic and weather. However, with all these alternatives open, the temptation is to cut corners in one way or another on courier jobs. The integrity of making sure the right route is chosen if other, slower options are available is the responsibility of the driver. In another example, if a package is damaged during transit, for example, the integrity to explain the situation calmly can be very important for a delivery company's future business.

Professionalism

Above all, a sense of professionalism is one of the most important factors in completing courier jobs successfully. Taking pride in the deliveries that are made and completing each one to the highest possible standard is a good way to ensure that you bring your best capabilities to the jobs assigned, and leave a long trail of happy customers behind you in your travels.

Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world's largest neutral trading hub for same day courier jobs in the express freight exchange industry. Over 2,500 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.