What was that sound I heard? "Click!"

[wiggletrain]

It did. You guys, the guys at work, my supervisors, ya'll said it would happen. That one day it would just "click"... That it would go well and I wouldn't know why, or what I had done differently...

Yesterday was almost 900 cases and 17 stops. And to the beach on Friday before memorial day on a sunny weekend...

And I did it. I couldn't find 4 cases of mayonaise for my first stop. Tried to find it where the scanner said it should be, to no avail. Spent more time than I wanted looking before I gave up. Got in the truck expecting to already be behind. If I hadn't spent the time looking I would have been over 15 minutes ahead of manifest.

By stop 9 I was about half an hour behind. By stop 17 I was an hour, but a lot of that was because of traffic of the weekend idiots on Hwy 101.

Halfway through the day I texted another driver, asked him how is it possible that I was keeping up with manifest. He said it was because I am awesome. lol!

I felt like I was in the twilight zone. I found things, I recognized boxes, I kept the trailer organized. What an accomplished feeling, honestly. My bosses thought I would have to lay over with the route being that size on that weekend. I did go over hours by the time I unloded my trailer, but not by far. Even they said I had done awesome yesterday!

"Click"

Let's hope I hear it again today on an unfamiliar route...

 

[grocerythrower]

Just wait till you start getting 2-4 hours ahead, now thats a good feeling! I think product recognition and keeping the trailer organized is the biggest thing in getting ahead, or keeping up.

I never feel bad if I fall behind, routing might give me an hour for 130 cases, but at the next stop they will only give me 45 min for 150, IDK why, our bidding is finally almost over, nearly 3 weeks to bid 14 guys, it didn't help that I took shuttle, no one expected that, seems they don't want the guy that I bid out of it on delivery so they are moving him somewhere, IDK why they are catering to him but thats why the bid came down this last time.

Sorry for that last part WT, not trying to hijack.

You should be proud of yourself, seems you are focused, it usually takes longer, now that the frustration factor is over, it only gets better from here!!

 

[wiggletrain]

I'm not fooling myself. I'm sure it was some sort of a fluke. I'm sure it won't happen every day. But it was great to have a day where I didn't feel so inept! Saturday was ok, I had another driver with me, and we started the route over an hour late because of my hours, but we caught up to and went ahead of manifest. A lot of miles on Saturday and that made a difference.

Our bids start the 4th... I'm not happy with my block, but happy I atleast got one. There are two guys under me (haha... I always giggle when I tell someone there are two guys under me, lol) so atleast they got the worste (in my eyes) of the last three routes. Mine has a Bend reverse, so I will be spending the winter hauling over Mt Hood. From what I'm being told it's somewhat of a difficult route. Plus I got a downtown Portland route mid-week. Not going to like that one, but that's okay.

How come it took so long for the other guys to bid? We had to do our re-bid also, but they got it done in two days with the 15 of us that had to bid...

 

[grocerythrower]

I'm not fooling myself. I'm sure it was some sort of a fluke. I'm sure it won't happen every day. But it was great to have a day where I didn't feel so inept! Saturday was ok, I had another driver with me, and we started the route over an hour late because of my hours, but we caught up to and went ahead of manifest. A lot of miles on Saturday and that made a difference.

Our bids start the 4th... I'm not happy with my block, but happy I atleast got one. There are two guys under me (haha... I always giggle when I tell someone there are two guys under me, lol) so atleast they got the worste (in my eyes) of the last three routes. Mine has a Bend reverse, so I will be spending the winter hauling over Mt Hood. From what I'm being told it's somewhat of a difficult route. Plus I got a downtown Portland route mid-week. Not going to like that one, but that's okay.

How come it took so long for the other guys to bid? We had to do our re-bid also, but they got it done in two days with the 15 of us that had to bid...

Our bids always take time, guys drag around on it, just like vacation bids, they gotta go home and get mommas permission to bid a certian route or vacation, or they stall because they can, IDK, I bid Sun afternoon before my shuttle route, now there are 4 more left, I'm being told I'm starting shuttle this week, that remains to be seen though, I hope so but who knows.

Downtown routes can be better than you think, once you get to know the route, everything is close together, 3 or 4 times and your going to be blowing right through it, I like doing downtown Tulsa, but I know the area well too.