4 Fundamental Skills Needed For Owner Driver Jobs

Running your own transportation company or even contracting owner driver jobs for another transportation company is not easy. But it can certainly be rewarding employment, as you pick up the skills necessary to prosper in the field and develop your business or professional life.

These skills include those specific to the industry, but there are some fundamental skills, common to many work environments and industries, that are essential to this field of employment.

Communication

In business, as in much of life, how you communicate with people is how you appear to them, and how you appear is how you are. Even when undertaking owner driver jobs, basic healthy communication skills will present your business or your professional image to clients, employees or employers in the right light. These skills are as simple as having empathy, using reflective listening, maintaining good non-verbal positions and gestures, and careful assertiveness. Yet, however simple, they need to be practised to be perfected and absorbed as genuine skills.

Time-management

Almost every job advertisement these days will carry an expectation of good time-management skills. This expectation is higher with owner driver jobs. It may seem mere common sense, but since common sense is sadly not always so common, it’s worthwhile pointing out that moving goods and packages from location to location relies on exact times and schedules being met. Whether you are starting out as driver or have a large fleet to manage, you will always benefit from honing your personal skills in time-management and your capacity to understand how your business can save time.

Spatial awareness and foresight

Some types of employment require the skills of foresight and spatial awareness more than others. It is certainly necessary when working on owner driver jobs. Despite the advent of GPS systems and mobile technology, there is still a demand for drivers, cyclists and other operators to know their routes inside out. You should also know how to transport goods and parcels in such a way that you are prepared for changes in your route and the unexpected, such as traffic. This is an essential skill that, at a basic level, is needed in any industry that requires physical movement, but is all the more integral in transportation.

Self-promotion

Whether you are knocking on the doors of customers or sitting in the boardroom presenting to your associates, your business can benefit from the right type of self-promotion. But it is important that it is the right type. In a way, in any business the art of self-promotion is delicate. By picking up skills in showcasing your strengths and best achievements, without stepping on the toes of others or ignoring areas in which you need to improve, you can drive yourself or your business forward. Essential to progress in all industries, this skill takes time to perfect but reaps great rewards.

Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world's largest neutral trading hub for same day owner driver jobs in the express freight exchange industry. Over 2,500 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.