Hi guys,
Today had it's normal troubles for a Tuesday lost a 1/2 hour due to some stupid problem, today it was getting an order checked in, but over all it wasn't that big of a deal I finished my route at about 3:30ish and then headed back to the yard so it could have been worse. 21 stops made it to my first stop at 7:00am. Wal-Mart which was my first stop was all backed up like a clogged colon. Pepsi said that he had been waiting there for 1 1/2 hours already when I arrived. Any how I chewed the fat with Pepsi (From what I heard from Pepsi he said having a side loader truck at Pepsi is absolute murder, the guy from Pepsi said "I feel bad for all of our side loader truck guys they work there behinds off.) and some of the bread people for about a half an hour or so I was kind of a head of schedule at that point so it didn't really matter. To all of you Sysco and Food Service guys thank god everyday you don't have to go to Wal-Mart. I couldn't stand being a bulk truck driver for Coke and Pepsi or any dairy and going to all those grocery stores ever day and putting up with that crap. The only way I would run grocery store to grocery store is if it was like Talon Logistics or the Grocery Stores Private Fleet and when I got the grocery store it's pretty much here's what the warehouse sent you, you figure it out. Any how for get all of that, it's not what I really want to talk about. What's funny is a lot of the bread guys not the big bakeries, but like Pepperidge Farm and a lot of the other breads a lot of those guys are independent drivers who own there own trucks and do all of that bread work independently. Like Little Debbie, Pepperidge Farm, Mission Tortillas, Bimbo Bakeries USA which is Tasty Cake and what I think Wonder Bread and Hostess (Interstate Brands Company) were absorbed into.
Any how again not what I want to talk about with this thread, but hey this is trucking and as a DSD driver I like to put out what other people might be up against or come to learn.
Any how if there is one thing I am kind of good at it's remembering facts about people time's and things and names. Like if you tell me what kind of car you drive and how many kids you have,and what your wife or girl friends name is I'll remember that information. Especially people I meet in real life or even had seen around.
One thing about this job that's kind of nice and I don't know if this happens to you guys out on the road, is sometimes unexpectedly I run into old friends who I haven't seen in a while working at places I deliver too. It's happened twice now and they always look at me like really surprised like "Hey how did you get that job?" My one friend works at a store that I deliver to every other Monday so I always look forward to going there.
Any how today was a new one, making new and old friends all over the place. I had this restaurant that's not really an every week account it's like a once a month maybe every 3 week kind of place. So any how I go in there not thinking anything about it except I have to get four 1/6 barrels in there as fast as I can so I can go to my next stop. Well out of the corner of my eye I instantly recognized one of the waitresses very pretty girl. Any how I ran out got another 2 1/6 barrels and brought them in and she was standing right there and before I took them down stairs I said to her "You used to work at such and such a place." (The pizza shop I used to work at a couple years ago.) She looked at me said "Yes I absolutely did." Any how I ran down stairs and put them away. While I was waiting to get paid she walked up to me and stuck out her hand and I shook her hand and she said "What's your name man?" I said "My name is Mike." She said "You know the minute you came in here, I thought to myself I don't who that is, but that guy looks awfully familiar." I said "Well, we worked at the same restaurant, furthermore you've seen me around probably a lot and never realized it, you were what at RRHS Class of 2006?" She said "Yes, yes I was." I said "I was RRHS Class of 2007 so you probably saw me in the hall all the time." She went "That all ads up, the minute I saw you I couldn't place you, but I knew I had seen you before." I said "It's better then that, that's for sure." Then we chatted a little and I had to run because some small C-Store and some place called Stinks needed there 24oz single serve Malt Beverages delivered. So that was nice a change from the normal crap that I usually get.
Any how it is funny the people that you run into in life out on the road and the things you see and people you meet, people you think you'll never see or never meet again all of a sudden you run into them. I think never in my dreams or anything did I think that I would be driving a beer truck and delivering to the places that I deliver too. I always knew I would be some kind of truck driver, but I never thought this is how I would get my start, however, things are getting better, the jobs not my dream job, but you know the route I am on now is way better then the route I was on before and some of the stops that I have, have people who know me from other things there, so that makes things nice, and while the company I work for is kind of stupid the guy at Pepsi said to me today "I'm glad to hear you guys are all screwed up too, I thought gosh it can't just be us."
Besides Gordon Food Service and others and maybe some isolated Coca Cola Bottlers and other smaller food service companies and a few beverage distributors here and there. It seems like there is rampant miss management in this entire industry. From the way things are handled from the top down. Almost like there's a better way to do everything, people know there's a better way, but management is to lazy to implement the better way. It's not just things like how the trucks are loaded, like for me sometimes I can forgive them for merging 3 customers on one pallet, because it keeps me in a smaller trailer and the neighborhood I run in I'm very thankful they have me in a 14 bay and not a 16, 18 or 20. However like Pepsi was telling me the side loader drivers have to stock coolers, rotate inventory and now the sales department has told the smaller crappier stores with small coolers "Don't worry about it our drivers will come in and stock your small cooler." So what that means is a 10 minute delivery now takes an hour, and you have an entire truck held up for an hour all on some $100.00 order.
The Pepsi bulk truck driver who told me this said "The side loader guys shouldn't have to put up with some of the stuff they, put up with, but management doesn't care, they send them out 15 stops a day some of them have and some of there stops can be very time consuming, it's awful, the only grace they have is our barn has a 6:00pm curfew all trucks need to be back at the shop at 6:00pm no matter what." I mean Pepsi I thought I get up early, I see there sideloaders out on the street at 24 hour stores delivering at 5:00am there already at there first or second stop at 5:00am delivering. I don't know how those guys at Coke or Pepsi do it I really don't because they do have it rough.
Today had it's normal troubles for a Tuesday lost a 1/2 hour due to some stupid problem, today it was getting an order checked in, but over all it wasn't that big of a deal I finished my route at about 3:30ish and then headed back to the yard so it could have been worse. 21 stops made it to my first stop at 7:00am. Wal-Mart which was my first stop was all backed up like a clogged colon. Pepsi said that he had been waiting there for 1 1/2 hours already when I arrived. Any how I chewed the fat with Pepsi (From what I heard from Pepsi he said having a side loader truck at Pepsi is absolute murder, the guy from Pepsi said "I feel bad for all of our side loader truck guys they work there behinds off.) and some of the bread people for about a half an hour or so I was kind of a head of schedule at that point so it didn't really matter. To all of you Sysco and Food Service guys thank god everyday you don't have to go to Wal-Mart. I couldn't stand being a bulk truck driver for Coke and Pepsi or any dairy and going to all those grocery stores ever day and putting up with that crap. The only way I would run grocery store to grocery store is if it was like Talon Logistics or the Grocery Stores Private Fleet and when I got the grocery store it's pretty much here's what the warehouse sent you, you figure it out. Any how for get all of that, it's not what I really want to talk about. What's funny is a lot of the bread guys not the big bakeries, but like Pepperidge Farm and a lot of the other breads a lot of those guys are independent drivers who own there own trucks and do all of that bread work independently. Like Little Debbie, Pepperidge Farm, Mission Tortillas, Bimbo Bakeries USA which is Tasty Cake and what I think Wonder Bread and Hostess (Interstate Brands Company) were absorbed into.
Any how again not what I want to talk about with this thread, but hey this is trucking and as a DSD driver I like to put out what other people might be up against or come to learn.
Any how if there is one thing I am kind of good at it's remembering facts about people time's and things and names. Like if you tell me what kind of car you drive and how many kids you have,and what your wife or girl friends name is I'll remember that information. Especially people I meet in real life or even had seen around.
One thing about this job that's kind of nice and I don't know if this happens to you guys out on the road, is sometimes unexpectedly I run into old friends who I haven't seen in a while working at places I deliver too. It's happened twice now and they always look at me like really surprised like "Hey how did you get that job?" My one friend works at a store that I deliver to every other Monday so I always look forward to going there.
Any how today was a new one, making new and old friends all over the place. I had this restaurant that's not really an every week account it's like a once a month maybe every 3 week kind of place. So any how I go in there not thinking anything about it except I have to get four 1/6 barrels in there as fast as I can so I can go to my next stop. Well out of the corner of my eye I instantly recognized one of the waitresses very pretty girl. Any how I ran out got another 2 1/6 barrels and brought them in and she was standing right there and before I took them down stairs I said to her "You used to work at such and such a place." (The pizza shop I used to work at a couple years ago.) She looked at me said "Yes I absolutely did." Any how I ran down stairs and put them away. While I was waiting to get paid she walked up to me and stuck out her hand and I shook her hand and she said "What's your name man?" I said "My name is Mike." She said "You know the minute you came in here, I thought to myself I don't who that is, but that guy looks awfully familiar." I said "Well, we worked at the same restaurant, furthermore you've seen me around probably a lot and never realized it, you were what at RRHS Class of 2006?" She said "Yes, yes I was." I said "I was RRHS Class of 2007 so you probably saw me in the hall all the time." She went "That all ads up, the minute I saw you I couldn't place you, but I knew I had seen you before." I said "It's better then that, that's for sure." Then we chatted a little and I had to run because some small C-Store and some place called Stinks needed there 24oz single serve Malt Beverages delivered. So that was nice a change from the normal crap that I usually get.
Any how it is funny the people that you run into in life out on the road and the things you see and people you meet, people you think you'll never see or never meet again all of a sudden you run into them. I think never in my dreams or anything did I think that I would be driving a beer truck and delivering to the places that I deliver too. I always knew I would be some kind of truck driver, but I never thought this is how I would get my start, however, things are getting better, the jobs not my dream job, but you know the route I am on now is way better then the route I was on before and some of the stops that I have, have people who know me from other things there, so that makes things nice, and while the company I work for is kind of stupid the guy at Pepsi said to me today "I'm glad to hear you guys are all screwed up too, I thought gosh it can't just be us."
Besides Gordon Food Service and others and maybe some isolated Coca Cola Bottlers and other smaller food service companies and a few beverage distributors here and there. It seems like there is rampant miss management in this entire industry. From the way things are handled from the top down. Almost like there's a better way to do everything, people know there's a better way, but management is to lazy to implement the better way. It's not just things like how the trucks are loaded, like for me sometimes I can forgive them for merging 3 customers on one pallet, because it keeps me in a smaller trailer and the neighborhood I run in I'm very thankful they have me in a 14 bay and not a 16, 18 or 20. However like Pepsi was telling me the side loader drivers have to stock coolers, rotate inventory and now the sales department has told the smaller crappier stores with small coolers "Don't worry about it our drivers will come in and stock your small cooler." So what that means is a 10 minute delivery now takes an hour, and you have an entire truck held up for an hour all on some $100.00 order.
The Pepsi bulk truck driver who told me this said "The side loader guys shouldn't have to put up with some of the stuff they, put up with, but management doesn't care, they send them out 15 stops a day some of them have and some of there stops can be very time consuming, it's awful, the only grace they have is our barn has a 6:00pm curfew all trucks need to be back at the shop at 6:00pm no matter what." I mean Pepsi I thought I get up early, I see there sideloaders out on the street at 24 hour stores delivering at 5:00am there already at there first or second stop at 5:00am delivering. I don't know how those guys at Coke or Pepsi do it I really don't because they do have it rough.