Reduce Stress With These Relaxation Techniques For Couriers

Carrying out courier jobs is not for everyone. It takes a particular set of skills to be truly successful in the transportation field, with patience and a fairly calm attitude being a top priority. The stakes are quite high when you are on the job, especially if you are self-employed, and losing your cool behind the wheel will only contribute to your stress. So, just how do you keep in the ‘zen zone’ during rush-hour traffic with a tight schedule to keep? Here is some practical advice, along with a few nifty tricks.

Use Your Crystal Ball

Plan, strategise and coordinate every step of your work day with the precision tools that the Technology Gods have given us. Services such as Sat Navs, GPS and Google Maps are the crystal balls of our generation. Use them to gain confidence in your work and to dilute road-rage. Here are a few tricks.

1.    Plan your itinerary with the use of a high-quality Sat Nav. Make sure that your route is clear of road construction hold-ups, and that the roads can support the vehicle that you are driving. If your vehicle is particularly large, avoid one-lane roads and low bridges for the sake of everyone’s sanity.

2.    Plan your schedule with a heavy dose of common sense. Courier jobs are much easier if you work with traffic schedules, rather than against them. Heavy traffic times are predictable. Get to know them and learn how to manoeuvre around them.

3.    Before you set off, check and then double check your vehicle. Ensuring that your vehicle is 100% roadworthy should be part of your daily routine of head-ache-avoidance habits. Most self-employed drivers consider their vehicle the lifeblood of their work, and losing it due to a lack of proper maintenance would be a devastating blow.

It’s Not Me, It’s You

When you drive for a living, you quickly realise that the only person you have control over is you. Yes, it is more than likely true that you are in fact a much better driver than 75% of the other drivers on the road (after all, practise makes perfect!). However, being overly aggressive will not ‘teach them a lesson’ as you might intend, but will certainly raise your blood pressure and blemish your reputation. Utilise the phrase ‘let it go’ as your work mantra and say it often.

Follow Mum’s Advice

Other, more concrete methods of stress-reduction can include:

1.     Listening to music, audio books or your favourite podcast.

2.     Keeping a good supply of fresh water and healthy snacks on hand to stave off fatigue and hunger.

3.    Factoring in breaks to stretch and walk around for at least 15 minutes a few times during the day.

Some courier jobs are easier than others, so it is best to choose the type and time duration of work that best suits your lifestyle. However, a few points of advice suit every kind of driving. Don’t smoke, don’t drink excessively, exercise, eat healthy food and get adequate amounts of sleep. After all, a driver’s physical condition can ultimately make or break them mentally.

Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world's largest neutral trading hub for same day self employed courier jobs in the express freight exchange industry. Over 4,500 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.