Comments By Papa Pig

There is food service which is a lot of night unloading using a ramp and hand cart. Depending on the area of the country you live in it may pay better. I live in the south and when I was pulling dollar general i was making more than most of the guys i know that did food service. It depends on what company you work for and what area of the country you are in. And to be honest believe it or not dg is way easier than most of those jobs

How long have you been pulling and unloading at dollar general? Which company are you with? After you are established , get your technique down you should be able to pull around 2000 a week.

I can’t answer anything about owner op. Not my forte

How you liking them doubles?

So far so good. Once I figured the right way to hook them so far they seem way easier to drive than a 53. I just try to it notice the extra “wiggle” lol.

Do you like the swap of a bed for a window in the back?

Most of those day cab drivers work pretty long hours but you seem to have a nice schedule but I imagine you selected them partly because your pay is still pretty good.

Best wishes for a successful career there!

Thanks Harvey. As long as I sleep in my own bed I don’t mind the back window.

The only issue is that the pup trailers do not cover up enough of the tandem axle and from what I have been told it can cause rocks to fly up and hit the window causing it to break. Tonight I only did 248 miles total. So not a bad gig at all.

Started my new job as a shuttle driver on Monday with Ben E Keith food division. My initial impression so far is very positive.

From application to offer it took about a week and a half. The background checks seem to be more thorough than most companies . A friend of mine told me it’s because you are dealing with food but I don’t know. It could just be the agency they use.

There was only 4 of us in our 2 days of orientation/ onboarding. Most of the information was not transportation related but ALOT to do with proper food handling, OSHA type training. Then your basic jj Keller trucking videos that everyone knows about

The facility was new and top of the line and everyone was VERY friendly and accommodating. The people that work here definitely believe in the company and try to represent it the best they can. Very professional and polite all the way through. The HR rep and the transportation manager asked us where we wanted to eat and took us to a local bbq place and ate lunch with us. When I got to my yard I was assigned a mentor who walked me through hooking doubles and the elogs system. The elogs and pretrip procedures here are very different than what I am used to but I’m picking it up. I’m trying to feel my way around the procedures and how things are done so I am taking my time.

The warehouse pickup procedure is very organized. We fuel up on the yard and they have a fuel station that allows you to hit both tractor tanks, def, and both reefer trailers at one time. It’s a very smooth process. And the people dealing with getting the loads out and the yard drivers are great and very helpful

Every driver at the yard and every employee I have met has nothing but great things to say and so far it seems like this is going to be a very good fit. Only about 7-8 hours on duty a day. 5 days a week.

So far I’m very impressed and glad I made the move. I have been missing driving since I left Werner. I enjoyed my time teaching but I think this is going to be a much better fit.

I thought you liked touching freight, you got great exercise on that DG account and stuck it out for quite a long time, relatively speaking. Good luck in your new job!

I didn’t mind pushing rolltainers onto a liftgate. But stacking boxes on a dolly and pushing them down a ramp. Sometimes having to go up and down stairs…nah no interst for me. Plus the new schedule leaves time for the gym. Also I’m a bit older now and got fat while I was a cdl trainer 😂.. In all seriousness I would do dg again if the hometime fit my needs. I went straight from 24 years in the military into a regional driving job. So being home more is nice. Once my sons are out of the house I will get back regional

Looks like I’m in stores for some new adventures!

I left the Werner DG account at the end of 2021 and started a training as a cdl instructor. Overall instructing was a very rewarding experience. Like any job it had it’s ups and downs with more ups than downs. I really enjoyed helping people to build the confidence and provide training and feedback to take the test and get their CDL. But the whole time I really missed actually driving a truck. I think once driving gets in your blood it’s kinda hard to let it go. So after awhile I decided to start looking around and if I found the perfect setup I would get back on the road! It took a few months and I was doing it casually at first and then I found it!I won’t say the name as yet because I’m not sure of their policies but it’s a food service company that is not Sysco, us foods, or pfg. Did a working interview and background and now have an orientation date scheduled next week.

Shuttle driver! I made sure to verify that I was in no way interested in touching freight or being a delivery driver lol! Essentially it’s running empties double from a drop yard to the dc. Picking up full ones and bringing them back so the young and strong guys can deliver. The schedule seems nice. 2pm till about 9-11pm Depending on the warehouse. I’m really excited to get back into the swing of things and will do an update after I’m on the job for a few weeks!

Forgot to mention that one day I was dropping an empty and got distracted. I unhooked my lines , talked to another driver. I had been running hard and was tired. So I absentmindedly got in the truck and hit my kingpin release. Luckily I always only pull until the trailer is off of the skid plate. And boom ! Trailer apron landed on the frame. Very lucky. Also no one else seemed to see so I sheepishly got out and started cranking .

Man I love this thread. I’m going to venture that over 90% of the drivers on this site have done or will do at least one of the things you described. My first solo load…..I reported to the distribution center and had to go over a pretrip with my safety rep and he pointed out that I had signed for a truck with a fairly nasty gouge on the side of my drive tire. We then did some close quarters training and he cleared me to call breakdown and get a new tire. He wanted me to unhook from the trailer and go to the maintenance point. Luckily he had left. I was so excited that I remembered to drop my landing gear but forgot to unhook my lines. I pulled out and heard a rather large “thump” luckily there was no damage besides for my pride. Later that week I was doing a tight back at night that happened to be very close to some road construction. I had to get out and look multiple times. On one of the get out and looks I forgot to set my brakes. Luckily a mound of rubble “gently” stopped my trailer and there was no damage thank goodness. Locked myself out of my truck while getting fuel and when I went to find my spare key that was discreetly hidden on the back of the tractor I realized I had made the huge mistake of hiding it while I was bobtail so it was fairly difficult to get to. (30 minutes and very greasy dirty cloths later) You didn’t hit anything and learned. Roll on driver! Good luck!

Local routes can be hard coming in with some very tight backing. Also you can tend to work longer shifts and 6 days a week. I also agree that company sponsored training might be your way to go. A lot of regional flatbed companies have you home on weekends and also pay to get you a cdl. Maverick/tmc/ for example. Good luck!

Hi Brian

The first thing I would do is to start studying “the high road” program that this site provides for free.

2nd thing to get a leg up and make your schooling less stressful is to study the pretrip and get familiar with the parts of the truck. This site provides a pretty good pretrip inspection that one of the members created. I’m sure someone else will link it shortly .

https://youtube.com/@Ms.Abbott

This lady has a few videos on pretrip that should fall in line with whatever your school will teach you.

Good luck!

I’m gonna say the biggest thing is to try and never get in a rush and to relax. Any near bind I have ever been in has been due to a time crunch and self induced stress. Eat when you are hungry Stop when you are tired You can never turn too slow but will only turn too fast 1 time. Good luck!