Most people see the van pull up, the parcel land on their doorstep, and the driver disappear. They don't see the 4:30am alarm, the 160-stop manifest, the dog that chased you up the driveway, or the moment you finally sat down for lunch at 2pm. We spoke to four delivery drivers across Australia about what a typical day actually looks like — the good, the bad, and the stories they'll never forget.
Sam, 28 — Parcel Courier, Brisbane
Owner-driver, 3 years experience, ~150 stops/day
The Morning
My alarm goes off at 4:45. By 5:15 I'm at the depot loading my van. This is actually the part of the day that sets everything up. If you load badly, you pay for it all day long — digging through parcels, pulling things out to get to the ones underneath, losing five minutes at every stop. I load in reverse delivery order now. Last stops go in first, right at the back. First stops are at the door. Took me about six months to figure out that system, and it probably saves me an hour a day.
I scan everything into Routed as I load. By the time I'm done, my route's already optimised. I used to plan routes manually on Google Maps — I'd spend 20 minutes every morning trying to group suburbs together in my head. Now it takes about 30 seconds. The difference in my finish time was immediate. I was getting home an hour earlier from the first week.
The Run
A typical day is 140–160 stops across the south side of Brisbane. Mostly residential, some businesses. The first 30 stops fly by because everyone's home in the morning. Between 9 and 11 is the sweet spot — people are still around, traffic's calmed down, and you're in a rhythm.
The midday stretch is where it gets harder. More "not home" situations. More apartments with broken intercoms. More dogs. I had a staffy charge me last month — came flying around the side of the house while I was walking up the path. Froze, didn't make eye contact, backed away slowly. The owner came out eventually, completely unfazed. "Oh, he's friendly." Sure, mate.
I eat lunch in the van around 1pm. Usually a sandwich I made that morning and a can of Coke. Fifteen minutes, then I'm back into it. The afternoon run is mostly re-attempts and the harder deliveries — businesses that were closed earlier, apartments I need to buzz up to.
The Finish
Most days I'm done by 3:30 or 4. Some days — especially around Christmas or sales events — it's closer to 6. I head back to the depot, scan out any undelivered parcels, and I'm home by 4:30 on a good day. Shower, dinner, asleep by 9. The routine sounds boring when you describe it, but honestly, I love it. I'm outside all day, I'm my own boss, and the money's decent when you're efficient.
"The best advice I got was from an old driver at my first depot. He said: 'The parcels don't care if you're stressed. Slow down, get your system right, and the speed comes naturally.' He was right. I'm faster now than when I was rushing."
Priya, 34 — Amazon Flex Driver, Melbourne
Gig driver, 2 years experience, 3–4 blocks/week
Why Flex
I started Flex because I needed something flexible around my kids' school hours. I do the morning blocks — pick up at 8, deliver until 12 or 1. It's not full-time money, but it's $120–$160 for four or five hours of work, and I'm home when the kids get back from school.
The thing nobody tells you about Flex is how much the experience varies block to block. Some days you get 30 packages in a tight suburb — easy, done in three hours. Other days you get 48 packages scattered across 40 kilometres of outer suburbs with half the addresses being farms and properties with no numbers on the letterbox. Those days test you.
One thing I've noticed is the Amazon app doesn't have quite as detailed address data as Google. Pin locations are often off, especially in newer estates and rural areas — it'll drop you at the start of a street instead of the actual house. This is where external apps really benefit over Amazon's built-in navigation. I run Routed alongside and it pulls from Google's mapping data, so the pins are almost always accurate. Small thing, but when you're doing 40+ stops it saves a lot of windscreen time squinting at house numbers.
The Hardest Part
Apartments. Melbourne has so many apartment buildings, and every single one has a different entry system. Some have lockboxes with codes that are wrong half the time. Some have intercoms where nobody answers. Some have concierges who look at you like you've committed a crime for asking them to accept a parcel.
I've also had my fair share of difficult customer interactions. A woman once opened the door and immediately started yelling at me because her order was late — it wasn't even my delivery, it was from a completely different driver the day before. You learn to let it go. Most people are lovely. The handful who aren't just come with the job.
"My favourite delivery was a birthday present for a little girl. The mum had been tracking it all morning and was waiting at the door. When I handed it over she actually teared up and said 'You've just saved her birthday.' That stays with you."
Davo, 42 — Freight & Express Courier, Sydney
Employed driver, 11 years experience, ~80 stops/day
The Difference Between Parcel and Freight
I do express freight — not the small parcel stuff. I'm delivering things like auto parts, medical equipment, industrial supplies, legal documents. The stop count is lower, but the stakes are higher. If I stuff up a delivery of medical supplies to a hospital, that's not just a customer complaint — that actually matters.
My run covers most of Sydney's inner west and CBD. It's a totally different game to suburban residential deliveries. Parking is the enemy. I spend more time finding somewhere legal to stop than I do at the actual delivery. I've copped parking fines that wiped out half a day's pay. You learn where every loading zone is, what times they're enforced, and which side streets have 15-minute spots nobody knows about.
What 11 Years Teaches You
Patience. That's the big one. When I started, I used to get wound up about traffic, about customers, about being behind schedule. Now I just accept that some days the road wins. You're going to hit every red light on Parramatta Road. That customer is going to make you wait while they find their reading glasses to sign the form. The loading dock is going to be full. It's all part of it.
The other thing is looking after your body. I know blokes my age who've been doing this as long as I have and they're wrecked — bad backs, bad knees, crook shoulders. I started stretching before my shift about five years ago. I lift with my legs, not my back. I drink water, not energy drinks. Small things, but they're the difference between doing this job at 50 and not being able to. Our safety tips guide covers a lot of this.
"Weirdest delivery? I once delivered a crate to a warehouse in Marrickville. The bloke who signed for it opened it in front of me — it was a full medieval suit of armour. He just said 'Cheers, been waiting for this' like it was a pair of socks. I still think about that."
Jess, 26 — Regional Courier, Toowoomba
Owner-driver, 18 months experience, ~60 stops/day
Regional Driving Is a Different World
People think courier driving is all suburbs and apartment buildings. Out here, I'm doing 300+ kilometres a day covering properties, small towns, and everything in between. Some of my deliveries are 20 minutes apart on dirt roads. My van has been bogged twice. I've delivered to properties where I had to open three separate gates and drive through paddocks to reach the house.
The stop count is low compared to city drivers — usually 50 to 70 a day — but the distance is massive. Fuel is my biggest expense by far. I've had to get really deliberate about managing fuel costs because out here, the nearest petrol station might be 40 minutes away and 15 cents a litre more expensive than in town.
The Community Side
The thing I love about regional delivery is that people actually know you. In the city, you're invisible — drop the parcel, move on. Out here, people wave, they chat, they offer you a cold drink on a hot day. There's an older couple on my Thursday run who leave a bottle of water and a Tim Tam on their front step every week with a note that says "For the driver." Every single week.
I know which properties have dogs, which gates stick, which driveways flood when it rains. That local knowledge is something no app can replace — but having a decent route planner to handle the sequencing means I can focus on the driving and the people instead of staring at a map trying to figure out where to go next.
"I delivered to a property once where the 'address' was literally just a name and 'the blue house past the second cattle grid on Range Road.' No number. No GPS pin. I found it, though. You always find it."
What Every Driver Agrees On
We asked all four drivers the same question: If you could tell a new driver one thing, what would it be?
Sam: "Get your loading system right before you worry about speed. A well-loaded van is a fast van."
Priya: "Don't take bad customer interactions personally. It's almost never about you."
Davo: "Look after your body. This job will break you if you let it. Stretch, hydrate, lift properly."
Jess: "Learn your area. Local knowledge is worth more than any technology — but use the technology too."
Across different cities, experience levels, and types of delivery work, the same themes kept coming up: get organised, stay patient, take care of yourself, and find a system that works. The drivers who last in this industry aren't the fastest or the strongest — they're the ones who figured out how to make the job sustainable.
If you're thinking about becoming a courier, or you're in your first few months and wondering if it gets easier — it does. Not because the work changes, but because you do. Read our guide on the most common mistakes new couriers make to skip a few of the hard lessons.