Being a delivery driver, operative or manager can be an exciting job. Not only is this a job that takes you to different places across the country, meeting new people as you go, but it can also be incredibly lucrative, with sole successful traders regularly making over $100,000 in a year and managers of fleets making considerably more than that. In order to make a success of this kind of career path, though, you’ll need to know some of the tricks of the trade. This article details some of them, giving you advice on how to go from zero to hero in the delivery space.
Table of Contents
Your Vehicle
First up, you’ll need to consider the vehicle that you’re going to use to deliver things from A to B. Remember that in the earlier stages of your career, you might be delivering everything from flat-pack furniture to food that people have ordered from their local takeaway. As such, the of vehicle you’re using will dictate the size of jobs you’re able to move up towards. A bicycle or scooter will work for food deliveries, but it’ll work less well for furniture.
Most delivery operatives start small and work their way up when it comes to their vehicle of choice. They might begin with a simple coupe or saloon car before moving on to a larger truck and then to the bigger trucks that you see on the big interstate highways. Make sure you also have the correct license to drive any new vehicle you’re purchasing in order to avoid the long arms of the law.
First Experiences
When you’re starting out as a delivery operative, you have to be a little less selective on the kinds of work that you’re prepared to do. You should accept all the jobs that come your way in order to maximize your income and set yourself on the path to earning more and more cash as a driver. In this sense, it might be worth joining an agency, some of which provide you with your own vehicle in order to get deliveries under your belt and experience that’ll earn you better and more lucrative jobs down the line.
Remember that word travels fast in this industry, and references are important at every stage in your career. With this in mind, always make sure you’re a diligent driver so that you’re able to make the most of the opportunities that are presented to you in the future. A reputation for timely deliveries and professional service will proceed you and will help you climb the ladder towards better positions sooner in your delivery career.
Going it Alone
In the modern world, you need to rely less on agencies in order to find delivery work. You’ll know this by exposing yourself to the so-called gig economy, which allows you to pick your own shifts and your own deliveries from an online database. Bust, you can also go further, ensuring that you’re able to select your own work without working via an intermediary. Find a load board online in order to select loads that have been shared by those in need of a driver. You can select the jobs that work for you – often those that suit your schedule and your locations.
Load boards are particularly useful for those drivers who are taking a long one-way trip to deliver a load across the country. Instead of having to drive back empty-handed, you can plan to collect a load and transport it back to where you tend to operate. That can help you to make more cash from a single journey, boosting your income and leaving you with more jobs at the end of each month.
Career Progression
As a driver who’s been operating for a number of years, you might even set your sights on removing yourself from the roads entirely and instead operating from an office with your own fleet of drivers. This is how you’ll earn a lot more money from doing coordination work, using your contacts and your experience to bring your income to a new level. Of course, it takes time to build a fleet – but if you one day fancy a change from the open road, this is a fantastic way to achieve that change.
To start building a fleet, you’ll, of course, want to double your vehicle number – from one to two. That means bringing on a worker, preferably someone near that start of their career, to help you with deliveries. As you start ramping up the volume of deliveries that you can perform, it’s likely that more and more of your clients will turn to you for larger and larger jobs. That’ll give you the capacity to add further drivers and vehicles to your fleet, which in turn will see you grow from a one man operation to something that’s far larger and more profitable.
Contacts and Clients
Finally, even if you choose not to go it alone in the delivery space by creating your own delivery firm, it’s still important for you to build up a contact book of clients that you can turn to in the tough times or when you don’t have many deliveries on your plate. These clients are more likely to get in touch with you for work when you’ve delivered consistently for them over a long time period – so make sure you’re always working with a handful of the same clients in order to make good impressions with them.
You shouldn’t be fearful of raising your prices, too. With the cost of fuel rising, you shouldn’t be the individual who is shouldering the extra burden – that should be on the consumer. It’s up to your clients to charge their customers extra for delivery charges so that you do not have to bear the burden of inflation in gas prices. With a solid reputation, asking for a little more money for your deliveries shouldn’t go down badly with your clients.
There you have it: the basic stages you can pass through in order to forge a successful career as a delivery operative, from purchasing your own vehicle to owning your own fleet.
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