A day in the life of a parcel delivery courier
Our drivers work extremely hard to make sure parcels get to their destinations on time. As they cover many miles a day in their recognisable Parcel Pete vans, you may have often seen our drivers and wondered just what a day in their life consists of. Well wonder no more.
As a part of the UK Mail group we have a fleet of around 3,500 delivery vehicles, travelling all around the country between our 50+ depots. Each driver is assigned a local post code area to cover, as well as a local depot. Even working within a relatively small area, our drivers cover quite some distance, travelling around 70 miles a day.
Despite being long hours, it is a flexible job, with some of our drivers even working for ipostparcels on a self-employed basis, fitting driving around their other jobs. All of our drivers undergo a special training programme and are formally vetted before joining the team.
Early start for deliveries
Lee is just one of our delivery drivers. As an owner driver, he covers some of the Slough area. Lee's alarm goes off bright and early at 4.20, then, after a quick shower and a flask of coffee to go, he gets to his local depot for 5am.
First stop is to check in on the freight assigned to him, before making a solid plan for the day. Careful planning is the key to a smooth route and smart parcel delivery. This usually takes a couple of hours, so at around 7.30am, fuelled with coffee, Lee leaves the depot in his van - now filled with packages and parcels for delivery. Timing is key; all of our drivers have estimated times of arrival (ETA), as many of our customers opt for guaranteed time slots for their deliveries.
These slots run from before 9am, up until noon, so the morning rush hour is always a challenge to overcome.
After the morning's deliveries have been dropped off with their recipients or left in a designated safe place, it's time for a spot of lunch. Hopefully, all being well, deliveries and lunch are all over and done with by 3pm.
Afternoon collections
From 3.30pm onwards, Lee begins his collections; gathering parcels from customers as the first part of the package's journey. Battling rush hour can also be problematic, as Lee has plenty of destinations to cover before the cut off of 6pm.
Not all of our drivers do their collections in the afternoon, though. As
ipostparcels offers collections from as early as 8am, this means we have drivers who collect in the morning and deliver in the afternoon!
Once all the parcels are collected, Lee heads back to the Slough depot. These parcels will be offloaded ready for sorting, before they continue their journeys to other parts of the UK and beyond. After a long day of driving, Lee usually returns home around 6.45pm for a well-earned rest!
You can read a bit more about Lee and his thoughts on his day
here or to find out about becoming an owner delivery driver for ipostparcels then click
here.
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