Couriers need holidays

Like everyone else, but unlike workers and contractors in many other industries, there’s not much talk of winding back leading up to the major public holidays.

The pre-Christmas rush is arguably the busiest time in the transportation and courier industry. Everything is ‘urgent’ and simply must be delivered before businesses close and families lock up their houses and go away on holidays. Some courier companies practically forbid their drivers to start their holidays before Christmas Eve; it’s all hands on deck until darkness falls on the 24th of December..

But what about after Christmas? Then it’s a different story. Things settle down for a bit, and there’s one good reason why you might enjoy working as a courier holiday driver in the days and weeks after Christmas: less cars on the road! Traffic is one of those necessary evils which every taxi driver and courier must simply learn to live with. School traffic – i.e. mums, dads and school buses dropping off their kids before 9am and picking them up after 3pm is a substantial contributor to the ‘peak hour traffic’ on the roads of all major Australian cities. Who hasn’t felt their temperature rising as the Lollypop lady with her broad brimmed hat patiently ushers the last school stragglers across the zebra crossing, absorbed in their library books, or (in the case of high school kids) intently staring at their mobile phone screens, oblivious to their surroundings. Not to mention the Police Highway Patrol vehicles lurking in amongst the parked cars. “What do you mean, 65 in a 40 zone??”

5 minutes and $500 something dollars later..

But school zones aside, the mere absence of so many cars is immediate felt by all courier drivers. This, together with a couple of million Australian’s who don’t need to travel to and from work during the Christmas and early January period, makes a compelling case to be a courier during this holiday period. You’ll almost have the road to yourself.

Merry Christmas to all the couriers, truck drivers and other drivers out there!