Description
The Transportation industry focuses mostly on transporting people and cargo from one place to another. Transportation professionals use a wide variety of vehicles including, but not limited to, light and heavy-cargo trucks, buses, automobiles, vans, motorcycles, trains, and bicycles. The top two priorities in this field are safety and time efficiency.
In order to achieve safe and fast transportation of passengers and goods, there is a great deal of planning and coordinating involved. Transportation professionals spend time analyzing and deciding on the most efficient routes, as well as calculating and taking into account multiple variables, such as distance, time, and speed, so as to successfully arrange and comply with tight schedules.
Tasks Overview
Transportation professionals are usually responsible for the following:
- Inspecting vehicle conditions to ensure proper functioning and, thus, safety.
- Liaising with headquarters, stations, and dispatchers.
- Picking up and dropping off passengers at designated areas.
- Assisting passengers with limited mobility or baggage.
- Supervising or assisting in the loading or unloading of cargo.
- Monitoring and reporting the vehicle’s location and speed, as well as its condition.
- Adhering to traffic and transportation laws and regulations.
- Looking out for possible hazards on the road.
- Responding to emergencies by following the established procedure.
- Performing minor mechanical repairs when necessary.
- Adhering to a tight schedule.
All professionals working in the Transportation field usually share the same characteristics, which include, but are not limited to:
- Possessing exceptional mechanical and driving skills.
- Having high levels of self-reliance and resourcefulness.
- Being in excellent physical condition and having high levels of stamina.
- Having great stress and time management skills.
- Possessing good interpersonal and communication skills.
- Being a demonstrated team player with great leadership skills.
- Displaying high levels of honesty, integrity, and reliability.
Transportation professionals work for a wide variety of companies and employers. They can work for municipal or city governments or for private companies. The educational requirements for Drivers and Conductors will greatly depend on the type of vehicle being operated. Some positions only require applicants to have completed secondary school education, whereas other positions demand applicants to possess a college or university diploma in a field related to the mean of transportation they would be working with.
The most common requirement for all Transportation professionals is having the proper licences and certifications to operate specific vehicles. Most of these licences are issued by specialized government agencies and require applicants to go through a specific training and examination before they can earn their certification. The requirements to obtain a licence are usually different in each province or territory, although they are valid throughout the entire country regardless of where they were issued.