Skills For A Delivery Driver: Examples And Tips To Improve

Delivery drivers help businesses and families receive their packages and couriers on time. This versatile profession requires technical and soft skills like navigating correctly to the desired location, obeying traffic rules and interacting with others. Learning about the skills required to become an efficient delivery driver can help you decide if this profession is right for you. In this article, we explain what a delivery driver is, list some example skills for a delivery driver, learn the steps to improve these skills and explore ways to highlight them during the hiring process.

What Is A Delivery Driver?

A delivery driver is a professional who collects packages and couriers from one location and transports them to different locations. These professionals might drive short and long routes and transport anything from toys to furniture. Employers expect a delivery driver to transport items safely and on time to their respective destinations. Depending on the employer, they might deliver packages to an organisation or other businesses. Some common job responsibilities of a delivery driver include:

• Loading, transporting and delivering packages to businesses or customers

• Accepting payments

• Reviewing orders before and after delivery to ensure the correct order gets delivered

• Reporting back to the shipment depot for another delivery

• Following driving routes and time schedules

• Preparing, inspecting and operating the delivery vehicle

• Abiding by transportation laws and maintaining a safe driving record

• Preparing reports related to the deliveries

Skills For A Delivery Driver

Here are some skills for a delivery driver that can ensure a successful and fulfilling career:

Communication skills

Whether you give delivery updates to customers or share the delivery records with supervisors, you require excellent communication skills. Knowing how to communicate with others can help you share your thought process and ensure the timely delivery of packages. While driving, you might contact your supervisor to inform them about an unexpected vehicle breakdown.

Related: 10 Ways To Improve Your English Communication Skills

Safe driving

As you drive for most of your workday, maintaining a strong driving record with little or no traffic rule violation is essential for this job role. Safe driving comes useful when delivering products that require careful handling. Having an extensive driving record and experience can help you deliver products safely to the customer. Also, employers typically expect delivery drivers to know road rules.

Technical familiarity

A delivery driver might often use existing and new technologies like map and navigation applications, company billing systems, and third-party delivery applications to complete their job duties. Learning more about these technologies can help you excel in the job role. For instance, reading the map accurately can help you navigate to the desired locations and deliver packages on time.

Reliability and personal responsibility

You might sometime deliver expensive and valuable packages to customers. The ability to deliver the packages responsibly is essential for a successful career. For these reasons, employers prefer delivery drivers who are reliable and whom they can trust to complete their work without supervision.

Basic maintenance knowledge

Delivery vehicles might break down or might not function properly. As this might happen often, employers prefer candidates who can perform essential vehicle maintenance to ensure timely delivery of goods. Having basic vehicle maintenance knowledge can help you fix simple mechanical problems that might occur unexpectedly.

Physical stamina

Having good upper body and back strength is essential for performing your job duties. Loading, unloading and carrying packages from one location to another and driving a vehicle throughout the day requires physical stamina and endurance. These professionals require physical stamina when delivering in remote locations, and they often require standing or walking for an extended period of time.

Adaptability

Adapting to changing workplace situations is essential for a fulfilling career. Employers might contact you to cancel deliveries or transport them to a new location. When you enter a heavy traffic area, this skill set helps you find alternative routes to reach the destination on time.

Related: Adaptability: An Essential Skill For Changing Workplaces

Teamwork skills

The ability to collaborate with others and resolve workplace conflicts can help deliver goods faster. Often, delivery drivers collaborate with professionals involved in the delivery process, such as delivery personnel, packaging specialist, delivery manager and front desk associate. Good teamwork skills reduce stress because the team collectively works to deliver packages on time.

Time management

Package delivery requires stopping at different destinations. You may have a strict schedule to follow to make sure each package arrives at its destination on time. Employers often expect delivery drivers to possess strong time management skills and the ability to maintain their schedules.

Detailed-oriented

Employers typically prefer detailed-oriented delivery drivers who can ensure that the right customers get the right package. Being detail-oriented helps drivers notice the order number of a package and thus ensure customers receive the intended package. Being detailed-oriented can also help you complete your tasks with minimum errors.

Customer service

Providing excellent customer service is essential to ensure customers remain loyal and return to get their packages delivered. As a delivery driver interacts with a customer while unloading and delivering items, employers expect these professionals to have excellent customer service skills. These skills provide a positive experience to customers receiving a package.

How To Improve The Skills For A Delivery Driver

Here are a few steps to improve your delivery driving skills:

1. Get a driver's licence

The first step of becoming a driver is earning a driver's licence. You require a commercial driving licence (CDL) for driving a commercial vehicle. Before earning a private or commercial licence, you require a learner's licence. You might complete training at a government school and clear a driving test to get your permanent driving licence.

2. Shadow an experienced driver

To get more experience and understand how to deliver goods on time, shadow an experienced driver. An experienced driver might sit with you in your vehicle to improve your skills. Having conversations with other delivery drivers can help you learn additional tips.

3. Take a driving course

Enrol in offline or online driving courses to learn more about driving techniques. This course keeps you up-to-date with the latest traffic rules and regulations. Also, mentioning these courses on your resume show employers that you constantly strive to learn more about being a better driver.

4. Practice driving

Regularly practicing can improve your skill set. Consider driving a car or two-wheeler to feel more confident about your driving abilities. While practicing driving, learn the street signs and follow them while driving on the road.

Delivery Driver Skills In The Workplace

You can use your delivery driver skills in the workplace in the following ways:

• Follow traffic rules and regulations. Often, employers value drivers who can follow every traffic and safety rule. The ability to adhere to these rules ensures you deliver items safely to the customers.

• Adapt to changing conditions. During unprecedented situations, focus on using your adaptability strategies to create a new plan. For instance, if you have three deliveries and one customer cancels the delivery last minute, you might revise your travel route to deliver the other two packages on time.

• Provide updates to the team members. Use your communication skills to update team members about delivery or route. For instance, if you encounter a road closure, you can communicate it to the team members so that they can plan another route.

How To Highlight Delivery Driver Skills

After improving your skill set, focus on developing strategies to show employers you are a suitable candidate for a delivery driver position. Here are some ways to highlight your delivery driver skills:

1. Highlight them on your resume

Elaborate on your delivery driver skills by mentioning the number of deliveries you completed and your driving abilities. Create a separate skills section and include them as a bulleted list. Focus on listing those skills mentioned in the job description because it shows employers you have read the job listing. This also makes your resume applicant tracking system (ATS) compliant. When you include these skills in the work experience section, you can use action verbs to show your driving abilities.

2. Mention them on your cover letter

Use your cover letter to discuss your delivery driver skills. Mention achievements and skills not previously mentioned in your resume. Explain how your skills relate to the job role. Also, wherever possible, relate your personal goals with the company's goals to show employers you can fit into the company's culture.

3. Discuss them during the interview

During your interview, talk about your delivery driving skills and how they helped you succeed in past roles. Talk about any skill you are proud of and how it can help the company achieve their goals. Elaborate on how your communication and technical familiarity helped you complete your work duties while ensuring timely delivery. Before the interview, prepare for commonly asked questions to give thoughtful answers.