Think anyone can be a UPS driver? Think some more.

‘No offense, Martin,’ one of my dearest friends, Dave, was telling me. I’d just started as a UPS driver, and as luck would have it, I caught him at home one day when I showed up with a delivery to his address. I decided to take a ten-minute break to catch him up on my new job.

‘No offense, Martin.’ I braced myself for something offensive.

I needn’t have worried. Dave’s a sharp and talented guy; he’s a leader in his field. He’s also gracious, humble, and servant-hearted; his involvement in our community astonishes me. I know for a fact that Dave would never knowingly offend anyone.

‘No offense, Martin, but it must be kinda nice to have such a mindless job.’

I knew what he was getting at. Dave is amazing – a true renaissance man. He directs a staff of dozens and oversees a budget of millions. He helps combat veterans deal with their traumas. He prepares lectures and conducts seminars for area undergraduate and graduate students. He writes sermons and preaches them every Sunday at a nearby church. He helps organize an annual parade through our downtown. He accompanies veterans on our local chapter of Honor Flight. He does a lot of different work, paid and unpaid, and nearly all of this work is mental – is mind-full.

What he was getting at was this: being a UPS driver must feel like a refreshing contrast to all of that. Yes, he’s right. It is.

But mindless, my job is not. And I told him so.

In her modern-day classic, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich argues that every job requires skill – even those minimum-wage jobs that seem like mindless drudgery. I made a similar observation about my time working in the UPS warehouse.

One of the many things I love about what I do is that it’s constantly engaging my mind as well as my body. It’s my mind, after all, telling my body what to do. My job as UPS driver is just as mind-full as any job I’ve ever had.

Here are just a few of the ways being a UPS driver engages me mentally:

1. Scanning. Whether I’m behind the wheel or on foot to a delivery point, I have to be constantly scanning for hazards in my environment. Risk can potentially come from anything or anyone, anywhere, at any time. I have to keep my eyes moving.
2. Anticipating. Once I identify those potential hazards, I have to figure out how to navigate around them, or avoid them altogether. I must be ready to react in a way that keeps myself, my vehicle, and everyone and everything around me safe. I have to leave myself an out.
3. Searching. The three main things I’m searching for are: (a) packages in the cargo area of my package car; (b) visual confirmation of the address; and (c) the precise location of, and pathway to, the dropoff or pickup point. In most cases the search for these three things goes smoothly and successfully. But occasionally it does not.
4. Discerning. When I can’t find the package I’m searching for, I have a decision to make: how long do I keep looking before I move on? It’s a judgment call. I have to weigh the odds of my finally finding the right package versus the extra time it costs me to look for it.
5. Problem-solving. My search for a given address is guided by GPS. The navigation is almost always accurate, but now and then it’s imprecise or flat-out wrong. Then there are times I’m stymied by poor lighting and/or signage – or none at all. All of these cases call upon my problem-solving skills.
6. Asking for help. When I don’t have what I need to get to a dropoff or pickup point, I usually reach out to someone who I think might be in a position to help me. I’ve been known to call the UPS office, or even the customer – if they’re a business or their number is on the shipping label – for a security code or directions on how/where to proceed. Neighbors or passersby can also be helpful.
7. Creative thinking. And just as there’s more than one way to get stuck – metaphorically or literally – there’s often more than one way to get un-stuck. In these instances I have to ‘think outside the box’ (ha!) Sometimes this involves my taking a step back and pausing to collect my thoughts.
8. Prioritizing. Although my job is physically demanding, ordinarily it isn’t stressful. There are exceptions to this, however. When I’m asked or expected to be in more than one place at any given time, or in too many places in too short a time, I’m forced to prioritize. Thankfully the more time I spend on a particular route, the more predictable these situations become, and thus the more routine my response to them.

Experience matters because these thinking habits deepen and strengthen over time. Eventually they get so engrained as to be almost second nature. And ironically, it’s our training in – and repeated practice of – those skills and routines that we come to depend on in moments of crisis. It may not be as dramatic or high-stakes for UPS drivers as for surgeons or airline pilots, but the principles are the same.

Before I started my 30-day trial, I rode along with Steve, a 30-plus-year driver. He was already a member of the vaunted Circle of Honor, an elite group of UPS drivers who have not had an avoidable accident for 25 years or more. I asked Steve what his secret was. He told me, ‘I clear each and every intersection before entering it.’ ‘Each and every intersection?’ I pressed him. ‘Yes. I don’t even think about it anymore. I just do it.’

By now we’ve all heard about the 10,000-hour rule: our skills develop with practice. It’s the reason why our wage progresses with each additional year on the job (up to four years, that is). Our earning power increases as we become that much better at what we do, even as we have to expend less mental effort to do it.

Dave’s non-offensive comment that day helped me reflect on the many different ways I use my mind as a UPS driver, an exercise I found very valuable.