The Guide to Courier Driver Jobs
Most courier jobs do not require workers to obtain more than a diploma from high school. Employment is not expected to experience much change, which reflects the more widespread use of technologies surrounding electronic handling of information such as fax or e-mail. Couriers and messengers as well as other are designed to move and distribute documents, small packages and information for government agencies, businesses and other institutions. Couriers pick up letters, business documents and other packages and they are also responsible for delivering them. Couriers are especially useful in situations where these items need to be picked up and delivered quickly within a specific local area.
Couriers and messengers can use bicycles or small cars for smaller deliveries or tricks and vans for larger deliveries. Sending an item via a courier means ensuring that it will be delivered on the same day and sometimes within only an hour or two. Couriers and other messengers are also responsible for delivering items that the sender is not interested in entrusting to other methods or means of delivery, such as financial or legal documents, airline tickets, passports or medical samples, which are things that are irreplaceable if lost in the mail.
Courier jobs and other similar driving jobs involve spending a great deal of time alone, primarily making deliveries, and these jobs are not typically closely supervised. People who deliver via bicycle have to be physically fit in order to perform well, and they must be able to cope with all kinds of weather conditions as well as hazards associated with heavy traffic. Courier and driver jobs involving cars, vans and trucks may involve carrying heavy loads. These drivers also have to deal with parking situations, road construction, traffic jams and other similar situations.
The typical work week for courier jobs and similar driving jobs is between Monday and Friday, although some evening hours as well as weekend hours are common depending on the nature of the work performed.
Most courier jobs involve on the job training rather than any prior knowledge or skills, but communication skills are helpful. Having a clean driving record and a good sense of knowing where you are or a good sense of direction is also extremely useful when trying to get a courier job. Most courier jobs do not require more than a high school diploma. Most couriers do their learning as they work, training with someone more experienced until they learn the ropes. Some couriers work for a company while others operate as independent contractors. Both types of workers are generally able to set their own hours to a degree. In the year 2006 alone there were more than 134,000 courier jobs is the United States. Approximately 25 percent of these couriers were employed in the messengers industry, with 15 percent working in the health care field, 9 percent working in legal services and the remaining 19 percent working as self employed delivery people.