In today’s blog post we are sharing a story of what’s like being a courier driver for a luxury chocolate brand! Is there any yummy bonuses at the end of a long day and how the day looks like for a chocolate courier?
There are a lot of perks to being a driver and one of them is enjoying the interaction with many people every day. There are no two days alike or two deliveries that are the same. Many courier drivers have clients they provide with services on a regular basis and delivering their stock becomes more of a personal experience. This is what also happened to Mike and his time of being a delivery driver for a luxury chocolatier in Dublin.
Michael started working as a courier driver two years back after nearly 10 years of teaching French in middle school. This was a rather unexpected career switch that he was not too certain about in the beginning. Learning to be efficient and keeping a tight schedule with deliveries, while battling through traffic on a regular basis was not something Mike had experience before…
On his first day as a delivery driver, he had no idea what to expect. As a courier solution, we had to provide the whole starting kit, appropriate training, and a welcoming chat to make him feel comfortable. The rest is just history.
There is no algorithm of who takes what deliveries at the start of the day unless you have been a dedicated driver for some time. Mike had no experience with manual handling and he was worried he could fail in his first day, if he was assigned with more challenging orders. We wanted to take care of him in the early days so we had a very special job for him which we hoped he would enjoy.
Our company had just started a new contract with a famous chocolatier in Dublin and we were recruiting drivers to complete the shipping for these delicious confectionaries. Mike was a real perfectionist at first glance, so we thought he would be the right person for this job! The most important thing about transporting chocolates is looking after the packaging and keeping an eye on the temperature outside. The last thing you want is to deliver a smudged box of sweets or ones that are fully melted. We chose Mike because we knew that he was a very considerate person who was always making sure that everything was going according to plan. We had a clear instruction for storing the exquisite boxes in the van and ordering them in a specific manner so they can be preserved for the whole time. Mike took this job wholeheartedly and he did brilliantly!
When we asked him about his experience with the chocolatier brand, he shared his side of the story:
‘I started as a courier driver with no experience at all. I had my own vehicle, but that’s all. Quite frankly, I was very nervous on my first day because I had no confidence I could do a good job. After 10 years in teaching I needed a change and my life turned upside down. ‘
‘My first assignment as a courier driver was delivering branded chocolates! I thought that was a good sign and my days would hopefully be looking ‘sweet’! When I went to the collection site where the shop was at the time, I was given a list of chocolate products sorted by models and box types, against time of delivery. Most of them were for a same-day service and only some of them for the following day. I remember the boxes looked so neatly packed and so lovely and appetizing!’
‘I started distributing the chocolate boxes round town and my first day was going great. There was not a single chocolate receiver that did not come across as a friendly and a bubbly person. I was making some amazing interactions along the way and it was only my first day as a driver. I remember I was sitting in the van feeling really relieved about my decision to leave teaching and I was heading towards one of my last jobs for the day.’
‘I went to deliver this nicely packaged chocolate hamper box to an address in Southern Dublin. I was thinking I should buy the same one for myself to treat myself for my first day as a driver. Arriving at the house entrance, I buzzed and a lady quickly came out. She was literally glowing with positivity. I made her a compliment about her choice of chocolates and she replied she was thanking herself at the end of each month for her hard work with a handcrafted chocolate box from this shop.’
‘That day I learned through chocolate deliveries that it’s important to be grateful to yourself for being alive, doing your best in every job, and every challenge you take. I thanked myself for this day with a special Brazilian milk chocolate selection and my days as a courier driver were truly looking sweet from there onwards…’
