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Phone Interview

MikeJ

MikeJ

TB Veteran
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Hi guys,
Today I received two telephone calls. One from Budweiser, they need drivers and another from Gordon Food Service
I took the telephone interview with GFS. Pretty standard questions. They asked me what's most difficult and I said well it's all hard but I get it done I just do my best it's all I can do haha.

Any how I start a new route on Monday will see how it goes. The job at GFS is a direct start on a route.
So none of this extra board getting swung from place to place.

Some of the politics of where I currently work are very goofy and really in all honesty I would like to give the company I'm at more time. However I get this feeling in my stomach that's not a good feeling I don't know I don't mind delivering beer the route I'm going to be on now talk about endless steps.

Took 4 wheeler loads of bottled water down some steps today. Man I'll tell you what I took some kegs down some scary steps yesterday. We're talking wooden stair cases that are steep and old and were talking no sides on the stair case no room for error scary stuff made me hesitate a little.
 
MikeJ said:
However I get this feeling in my stomach that's not a good feeling.
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Trust your gut, if something seems off it usually is.
Food=no kegs, no empty kegs to pick up, no stocking/rotating crap, and (usually) fewer stops.
Downside? You've been on here long enough to know most of the common gripes...I used to drive a Coke truck and as aggravated as I can get sometimes I still think this side of the world is a whole lot better.

Find out the area their warehouse covers so you know what you're getting into. I'm guessing with beer you're used to in-city work only, most food warehouses cover a pretty decent area with some routes having to layover or running right at the daily limit.
 
The down side of food, is long hours, bad management (that could be said for any place), poorly loaded trucks (we have no shortage of those where I currently work.) Warehouse workers being able to run amok loading trucks any way they want and building pallets any which way they please (we have no shortage of that where I work, you should see some of the master pieces that I have gone out for delivery.), obviously it's hard to park in some places (I have no shortage of that in the beer truck) all the tricky logistics and everything else.

That being said 7-14 stops sounds a heck of a lot better then 23-25 stops a day. The Budweiser truck that runs the same route I was on today they were loaded down 24 stops 900 cases holy cow bat man I'm tired just thinking about it. This new route I have the steps that I have to traverse are plain dangerous in some spots and it's taken a lot of strain the man I am taking over for showed me a better way to handle the two wheeler which is good, but right now my back has a knot in it. It will go away, but man those kegs can be heavy and dangerous and a real pain to manage. I'll just say this draft beer I guess it must be worth it, I guess, but to me it seems like nothing, but a total pain in the @$$ for the restaurant operator. I guess it's worth it, but I mean you should see some of these keg coolers I go into, how they keep anything straight is beyond me.
 
Lazlo said:
Trust your gut, if something seems off it usually is.
Food=no kegs, no empty kegs to pick up, no stocking/rotating crap, and (usually) fewer stops.
Downside? You've been on here long enough to know most of the common gripes...I used to drive a Coke truck and as aggravated as I can get sometimes I still think this side of the world is a whole lot better.

Find out the area their warehouse covers so you know what you're getting into. I'm guessing with beer you're used to in-city work only, most food warehouses cover a pretty decent area with some routes having to layover or running right at the daily limit.
Click to expand...

GFS has like a sales office and drop lot well there one in the same here in Cleveland. The big factory/warehouse is in Springfield, Ohio far away from where I live. Or they have there main main main warehouse and headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They also have another big plant factory/warehouse in Shepardsville, Kentucky. Those are the 3 big ones I know of.

I see them pulling doubles quite often on I-90 and I-71. They have a nice fleet of trucks there trucks and trailers they are always clean and nice looking. They told me most of the job would be city driving, but what ever if they sent me out of the city into the country with less traffic and spaces that were a little more open I'm not going to complain.

Will see what happens it's going to be a tad odd going from a side loader to a 28' side loaders sit low to the ground and all that jazz however the length difference from one to the other isn't much.
 
GFS is a good outfit. I run transit (shuttle) for them. They have good principles but they also have humans working for them.

Guardrail
 
If it were me Mike I would try and go to GFS, they are a wonderful company, you wouldn't be sorry if you went there, also, food is much easier than the beverage end of things.
 
MikeJ said:
GFS has like a sales office and drop lot well there one in the same here in Cleveland. The big factory/warehouse is in Springfield, Ohio far away from where I live. Or they have there main main main warehouse and headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They also have another big plant factory/warehouse in Shepardsville, Kentucky. Those are the 3 big ones I know of.

I see them pulling doubles quite often on I-90 and I-71. They have a nice fleet of trucks there trucks and trailers they are always clean and nice looking. They told me most of the job would be city driving, but what ever if they sent me out of the city into the country with less traffic and spaces that were a little more open I'm not going to complain.

Will see what happens it's going to be a tad odd going from a side loader to a 28' side loaders sit low to the ground and all that jazz however the length difference from one to the other isn't much.
Click to expand...

GFS is currently building a HUGE warehouse a little west of Pittsburgh. Right now they have just a drop yard with 10 trucks just west of Pittsburgh. The new warehouse will open in 2015.
 
Hi guys, I'll see what GFS has to say, I think I did pretty good on there phone interview. I'm looking for a place that I can stay at for a while. I keep getting switched around where I work and it's hard for me to become efficient when I am always getting thrown around, it's not just me either, even the guys who have regular routes there always getting there routes meddled with and I know it's starting to tick a lot of them off as well. I've heard it twice now from senior drivers and they have both said the same thing which is: "I guess I understand there logic, but that doesn't mean I agree with it."

Plus I never really felt like I belonged at my current job, I don't know, but it's like I'm kind of on my own, not that anyone's been mean or anything like that, but a more of this is an old boys club and you are not in this club. I guess it shouldn't matter, but I don't know for no reason I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach you all know that feeling, when you can tell something is off, or something is way out of wack. That's how I feel about my current job. My dad told me if Gordon Food Service wants you, you quit doing beer and go to GFS go where it pays. Actually I just got paid Friday my paycheck wasn't to shabby, most money I ever made, what I got paid last Friday used to take me a whole month to make and that was after taxes, but like anything else, go where it's better. GFS hasn't had an opening here in Cleveland in a very long time, which is a good sing unlike my current employer which has constant openings all year round for every position imaginable. Delivery Drivers, Shuttle Drivers, Tow Motor Operators, Administration People, the office staff where I work it's no picnic for those people either, you should read some of the things they have to say about the company, it's worse then what I say. I doing beverages does have it's bad points that for sure, my patience is running very thin, with these grocery stores and big box retailers. I can't stand those places and the way they go about things, they give me more trouble then anywhere else. Honest to goodness the restaurants and convenience stores are great compared to the big box retailers and major grocery stores.

The bread guys and the potato chip guys and Coke and Pepsi that have to go to those grocery stores and big box stores every single day I don't know how they do it, with out going absolutely nuts. Even when I cleaned carpet full time, I had a couple grocery stores that I would do now and again and they would manage to hold me up and screw me, even on that side of the line. Those places they just have a way about them ha-ha!

That's pretty much the bottom line if GFS calls I'm going.
 
GFS is a great company to work for. I miss working there. I heard they picked up a big account up here. I believe it was old country buffet. There growing like crazy and with the whole sysco/us foods thing they'll grow even more.
 
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