Hello, my dears!
Well, here we are in the second week of the month already! The first week had our reader interaction post, so it must be time for the answers.
Starting Out in Courier Jobs
Last week, I challenged you lot to fill up my inbox and, as always, you did not disappoint! Even though our topic was a bit more restrictive than usual, all of you out there doing self employed courier jobs seem to have some pretty strong opinions and I had a healthy pool of answers to choose from when trying to decide which replies to publish.
Interestingly, many of you who undertake self employed courier jobs for a living took my question very literally and applied it to your own children. I was originally being more generic – wondering about whether young people should have to have more experience before taking on a career in driving – but it's wonderful that so many of you focused on an even younger demographic and told me lots of tales about being prepared for the industry from childhood. Interesting stuff! While I got a lot of responses about the need (or otherwise) to raise the age when young people should be able to get their licence, I decided to publish the answers dealing with 'training them while they're young' – so to speak. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
'I actually let my ten- and twelve-year-old boys do their own self-employed courier jobs on the weekend and over the summer! I make home-made jam, and I sell it to people around town, so sometimes I let Jamie and Matthew be the ones to take it to people's homes – provided they don't live too far away and it's safe, of course. They're self-employed because they only go if they've nothing better to do. They love it – it makes them feel like 'Mum's employees', as Matthew likes to put it – and it gives them a nice sense of responsibility. I even trust them to take payments from people!' - Susan, Wiltshire.
'I did my first self-employed courier jobs at the age of 15 – on my bike – and got employed full-time by a company as soon as I could drive. So I say yes, let them start young! I did, and it's helped me no end in my career I think. Sure, it was a different time, but kids can be trusted with more responsibility than you may think, even in this day and age.' - Dan, Yorkshire.
'I suppose I can see the merits of trusting kids with that sort of thing at an early age, but personally, I'd play it safe and wait until they were old enough to understand issues of safety, responsibility and the value of hard work.' – Pat, Devon.
Join me next time for more delivery-related excitement.
Until then, ta-ra!
Gertie
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