The Advent of the Lifestyle Courier Driver

The vision of a courier driver is usually one of a busy worker with a van stacked full of documents and parcels, employed by a transport company to deliver a certain number of parcels a day. You probably wouldn’t think of someone in their own car, working odd hours in their spare time on a specific route. But this is the life of a so-called 'lifestyle courier' – the driver who works part-time and fits their parcel deliveries in around their other commitments.

How many people work like this?

Of course, this is a very small group of people. It is estimated they only account for fewer than 10% of all the drivers working in the industry today. However, for some, this type of courier driver business is the only way they could do a job like this. A mum might fit in some parcel deliveries during the day while her kids are at school for example.

Many other people take on this type of work part-time to earn some extra cash, while others do it as an additional stream of income. Someone working Monday to Friday, for example, could earn extra cash by delivering parcels from on a Saturday.

Is this way of working set to become more popular?

The flexibility of becoming a lifestyle courier driver is certainly attractive for some. Some of the major names in the parcel delivery business take on casual drivers and intend to carry on doing so. In some instances it may be one of the easiest ways to make sure there are always enough delivery drivers to handle surges in demand, most often around the festive season.

Self-employment appeals to many

There has been a rise in self-employment since the recession, although it is unclear how many people were forced into it through circumstances rather than choice. However it is the case that many lifestyle courier drivers are indeed self-employed, and this can give them more freedom than if they were to take a job with a large company. That additional degree of freedom can make a big difference in terms of whether this type of work is suitable an individual or not.

So what can we expect in the future? Could we reasonably expect an explosion of these kinds of workers to flood the market? While not all professional drivers like the presence of the lifestyle couriers (mostly due to a difference in the amount charged for services rendered), it seems they are here to stay. The only question is whether or not we will start to see more of them as the business develops in the future.

Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world's largest neutral trading hub for same day courier driver jobs in the express freight exchange industry. Over 3,000 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading courier jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.