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Becoming an owner driver in the delivery industry might not be a career you’ve considered. But whether you’re just starting out in the working world or looking to change direction, courier work can be a fulfilling and fun way to earn money and gain experience working in an exciting growth sector. All you need is a driver’s licence and a vehicle to consider setting off on your journey working in the transport industry. And, with companies like popular online freight exchange Courier Exchange (CX), it’s easy to learn the ropes, find work and get your new career up and running. In this article, we’ll go through some of the reasons you might want to explore a career in the delivery industry, some of the benefits your previous experience may provide you and how CX can help you get started. Reasons to Become an Owner Driver It might not seem glamorous, but there are a lot of major benefits to working in the courier industry, including: • working with a variety of different clients • travelling the country, and further afield • playing a key role in the functioning of the national economy. By far the best reason to consider switching to the transport sector, though, is the freedom you can gain. Irregular hours aren’t for everyone, but many couriers really enjoy the ability to choose which jobs they take, and when. It might sound like a cliché, but many truly value being able to ‘be their own boss’. How Courier Exchange can Help With over 38,000 loyal members, CX is the fastest growing freight exchange network in the UK, and it does a lot to ensure it’s always ahead of its members’ needs. Crucially for anyone looking to become an owner driver, this includes providing easily accessible ways to find and deliver lucrative loads. Once you’ve signed up, you simply create a profile page listing your experience and availability and then search for matching jobs. Each load is posted with a short description, allowing you to focus on what interests you. Every member is encouraged to leave feedback, allowing you to benefit from doing good work by building up your own reputation. In turn, this will help you to get more work and also helps businesses feel secure in the knowledge that the job will get completed properly and efficiently. Top Tip: Avoid Empty Journeys Another feature CX provides is live updates to the driver availability feature. The main benefit of this for couriers is that it allows them to avoid having to make any unladen journeys. It’s a common mistake for a new owner driver to only calculate costs and profits for an outbound journey. This creates ‘dead mileage’ if you then have to travel unpaid from your point of delivery to your next pickup, or back home. Additional Benefits Finally, you might be surprised to note that there are a lot of ways to make experience in other sectors relevant to your career as an owner driver. This point is best illustrated with an example. One mature-aged man had more than 40 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry before he took the leap and started delivering courier loads. Using the freight exchange, he was able to find work with clients in the energy sector, using his knowledge and skills to meet their needs, build an impressive reputation and gain lucrative work in a niche sector. With so many good reasons to become an owner driver, why not look into a life on the road to see if it works for you? Author Plate Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world's largest neutral trading hub for same day owner driver courier jobs in the express freight exchange industry. Numerous transport exchange businesses are networked together on their website, trading jobs and capacity through what is now the fastest growing Freight Exchange in the UK.
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