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A young mans job?

Moneyman01

Moneyman01

Proud to be a dad!
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Everyone I seem to talk to keeps saying this is a young mans job. They look at me and try and tell me to get out of it before I get to many years vested in the co. Thats before I tell them I'm a shuttle driver. Then they tell me to stay away from routes and save my body from the abuse or they tell me its to hard of work and they would never do it. Told to go LTL. Been there done that.

Yeah it maybe alot of work but right now I personally feel its the best way to go. People gotta eat. Most foodservice companies are still giving raises or even better Profit Sharing and 401k contributes. With the economy so uncertain I'm just glad to have a job that pays so well while so many people are being laid off and there jobs being sent overseas.

Also with the new cross border trucking that will start with Mexico I'm glad to work for a private carrier because I beleive that private carriers wont be affected or hardly affected by it.

Just a few things to ponder about

Be safe everyone
 
Young man's job? That is funny. I am the second youngest at our account(36). Was the youngest for a long time but one driver has me beat, he is 33. Look at GT, he's an OLD FART and he is quick.




















J/K about the old fart part GT, just had to RAZZ you a little.
 
LOL GT isnt that old. hes only 36 isnt he? hahaha. Yeah I've met alot of guys in there 40s or 50s doing this type of work. I dont know why people think its a young mans job but o well. Look at all the pop and beer guys. Alot of em are older and they do more work because they gotta build displays and rotate product and put it away
 
GT in 43(?) I believe. All the drivers at my place are 40 or over with me and one other being the exception. When I worked for Allied, I was the youngest driver(23), they trained me to drive. When I moved on four years later and worked for a Wendys distributor, I was the youngest(27). There were only three of us under 30. When I stared where I am at now, I was 28, the youngest.
 
At 55 I can say it's not really a young mans game, but it all depends on the company you work for and how well its run, routing,customer demands, demands of the product, and how well the warehouse departments are picking,building and loading the trucks, That being said, I can say that when any, a few or all of the above are messed up, it makes it so you have to pick your own pace (over and above what should be needed) to stay on track, thats when its young mans game, heck I dont run to get out of the rain, so I had enough and hung it up a couple weeks ago, got to the point were I hated to go to work, and I used to love it. So I'll take a few weeks or more to find something that I can look forward to punching in.
 
Yeah this type of work isn't for everyone. I like it because most places your like your own boss. As long as you do your job the bosses leave you alone. Plus you don't spend the whole day with the same people. If you don't like a person you
just have to see them a little while a day. There is good parts and bad parts just like every job. I just like this type of work. I was in a factory for 9 years before I got my CDL most days it sucked.
 
Doubler i knew GT was over 40 i just wanted to make him feel young lol.

Kboomarang you can be my shuttle driver here at gordon. I might be going to days and they might need a new transit guy. You could retire from that

Bubba i could never work in a factory. I dont like being in 1 place all day
 
Money..my Brother, you have been pulling my chain here lately, I'm 44, I ain't met a yankee I couldn't out work yet!!! Just kidding Bro..hang on a minute......

RR I'm not calling you a yankee.

Ok Money, I'm back, that was RR on the other line complaining that I called him a yankee, he knows I can out work him, he was reading between the lines..how cute. Anyhow, I know you will do great on delivery, I hate to see you give up shuttle though, you gotta do what you gotta though, Bubba is gonna do good man, he has a great attitude, like you he is doing what he is for his family, so he can't fail!
 
GT someones gotta pick on you might as well be me but also double r gives you crap to.

Yeah i know you'd like to see me stay on shuttle but I would like to have a regular schedule and weekend again now that I have a family. Another way I look at it I'll be 25 next month so I'm young enough to keep doing this and I'll let the older guys do shuttle. I can go back to it eventually but then there might be more opportunities in the future to. Like a grocery store route :) Time will tell. Plus the way it sounds i'm gonna have some pretty sweet routes.

Bubba does have a real good attitude and he will do pretty good.
 
Yeah family time is nice. Like today I was watching my son practice football. The first two years he played I missed a lot. I would drive all nite on Friday just so i could see him play on sat. morning. Sometimes I would drive 5-600 miles after being up all day stupid and illegal. putting my life and others on the line
 
It may not be how old you are but how long you have been doing it. Now days you have ramps, lift gates and aluminum two wheelers. Back when I started you had none of these. If you were lucky you might get one of those new trucks with A/C and a AM radio but no power steering. You would hang off the side of the trailer while pulling product stacked to the top of the door. Everything was floor loaded so you had to tailgate it then get out and re-stack it on this steel two wheeler because ramps hadn't been invented yet. Then the days that you didn't have a run (there wasn't such a thing as a four day work week) and had to unload boxcars praying you had a cereal car and not that car full of 100 lb. bags of flour. Don't get me wrong this is still a tough job but there has been some improvements in the industry so they can get a few more years out of their mules. I did it for 23 years and probably would have continued if my division hadn't been closed. It gave me an opportunity to try something different for seven years. Now I have been back for two years but not driving. That's the good thing about foodservice. People have to eat and they are always hiring.

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I love those pictures Rowdy. It sounds like it wouldve been a pain in the ass back then. I've always wondered how resturants got there food back in the day. I knew it was with trucks but didnt know if it was like it is today. Wasnt White Swan bought out or merged to make US Foodservice? What kind of truck did you have there in those pics? Old B61 Mack? Who took the pics and is that you unloading? Sorry for all the questions.
 
I love them too Rowdy, please put up more if you have them, I know a guy that worked for WS back in the day, I know how hard it was, we are really lucky compared to what you guys went through back then.
 
The White Swan/US Foodservice shortened version:
White Swan created and owned by Waples-Platter a wholesale grocer originally from Denison,Tx that moved to Ft.Worth, TX. Waples-PLatter also owned Great Western Foods (Ranch Style Beans). Waples-Platter and White Swan were bought by Fleming Foods in the 80's. When Fleming sold White Swan thats when things got complicated and you weren't sure who you were working for.
Here is a little explantion from Wikipedia:
The name "US Foodservice" comes from United Signature Foods, Inc.[5], a broadline distributor based in Wilkes-Barre, PA. US Foodservice Inc was formed in March 1992 by Unifax Inc specifically to acquire the White Swan Inc, a Dallas-based distributor.[6] The merger with White Swan Inc was completed in October 1993. Via a share exchange (shares of White Swan were swapped for shares of US Foodservice), it created one of the largest broadline distributors in the country.

As for the pics these were of a Lubbock division driver. I will get some more pics together and post.
 
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