‘Driver’ (c) 2013 Nicolas Alejandro. Used under a Creative Commons license. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode)

Hello, darlings!

As promised in my last post, this week I will be analysing the pros and cons of being a more experienced (or ‘mature’, if you will) owner driver, as opposed to a young hopeful. As I also mentioned last week, this will be the first in a two- or perhaps three-part analysis of age with regards to courier and delivery jobs. The conclusion I’m trying to reach? Well, none in particular, really. I just thought this might be an interesting theme to discuss for a couple of posts. Besides, it’s my blog, I do what I want, and you can’t stop me!

Just joking, you know I like all of you!

Anyway...yes...advantages of being an experienced owner driver. Right away, there’s that – the experience. There’s a reason most jobs ask for it – as much as you young’uns don’t like it – and that’s this: the more experience you have, the fewer mistakes you make. And as you all are probably aware, most companies and customers like professionals who make as few mistakes as possible.

Experience also helps because it prepares you for all the different situations that may arise on the course of your work. Once you’ve been ‘around the block’ a few times – regardless of your line of work – less and less situations surprise you, and you begin to ‘adapt’ to account for all the different things that could happen. That definitely happened to me with the cafe, and is happening again now with my new job as a freelance courier.

But of course, there is also a downside to being an older owner driver that I should not have to tell you about: that’s the fact that, the further you get in life, the more your vital organs tend to not respond the way they should. What I mean by that is, older drivers may have eyesight problems, or not be as resilient as a younger man or woman would be, and this can work against them when they’re trying to do their job.

Still, if I was the boss of a company and had to choose between someone less resilient but more reliable, or a young man with lots of stamina but who made lots of mistakes, I know who I would choose! How about you?

- Gertie
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