This week’s blog post is looking more like a story of what life has been like for a courier driver during the shaky and uncertain times of this pandemic. We have gathered some interesting opinions from people in the job and collated this into a short read describing the day of the person taking care of your deliveries and their important role as an intermediate between individuals and businesses.
How does a day start for a courier driver?
A man in delivery has an early morning, most often. This really depends on the individual driver and their flexibility to cover more jobs, and ones over longer distances. A lot of drivers like to work in the normal working hours and they take up various different jobs usually within the city, while others have the experience and the preference for doing bigger deliveries in the outskirts. Regardless of the time and the length of the journey, every courier driver must report to the company’s loading facility. They usually receive a cart with their packages which are transported together in the allocated route for the day.
What’s it like to drive for a living?
Again it depends on the route and the particular day they are driving. During this pandemic we saw a lot of empty streets and desolated office spaces, as well as less people on the public transport (especially in the beginning). This actually made driving around town a slightly better experience for many drivers, who were previously battling through traffic while keeping a very tight schedule with multiple deliveries. The main thing, which makes the job of a courier more exciting is that no two days are the same. The GPS is usually guiding you through from a destination to the next one, following a route plan that was prepared in advance, which in turn is always different in one way or another.
How do you deliver?
We believe that courier drivers have been a bit like the unsung heroes in this pandemic. When times were uncertain for all of us, everyone was relying on delivery and especially the most vulnerable groups in the population. The days and the nights were packed with distributing important deliveries to maintain the operation of many businesses, but also the deliveries between individuals. Since our services are point-to-point, we had to ensure the highest health and safety standards for our drivers who were meeting numerous customers every day. Following the social distancing guidelines and wearing PPE was a must when doing the hand deliveries to the recipients. Our electronic system was helpful to ensure minimum contact at delivery, other than electronic signature or a photo for confirmation.
Who are the courier drivers?
We certainly saw the courier driver job being more in demand during these times, compared to what we saw in the past. It is no secret how there has been an evident shift in the type of skills needed by a lot of employers after the start of this pandemic. Many companies were doing their deliveries in-house and they needed more staff to cover for these new job openings. Delivery companies like Zendfast were also recruiting more people as courier drivers and others to cover for different stages in the logistics process. We could see people from various backgrounds who were exploring the flexible working routine of being a courier driver in and outside the city.
The day ends well…
The day of a courier driver usually ends well because of the great value they add in these fluctuating times. Having a trusted driver to deliver to your door has meant the world to many people, who could not leave their homes for many months in the last year. The importance of drivers should be noted and appreciated from all of us who have been using or running these services in a challenging year for the logistics business.
We are always going to support local businesses as a third-party delivery solution for businesses and their clients, between businesses and between individuals.