Ghosting Your Company

I was taught that you work your hardest rather being paid minimum wage or top dollar and always give a notice. If your ghosting these companies your getting what you deserve.

I also realize your complaining about live loads. I'm guessing your dry van or reefer. Come back and complain about live loads when you actually have to secure and tarp your live loads.

Between you and Rob T. , man I KNOW you guys work really hard! (And hats off to you, for doing so.)

Yuuyo now that you have over a year in are you planning on sticking with Sysco/Food service or are you looking to make a change? I enjoyed my time at Sysco (as much as you can throwing cases in the warehouse) and only left because they kept delaying helping me get my CDL. If you like that work I highly suggest staying with the same company. I've heard from many guys that bounce around it's all the same BS just different customers you service.

As of right now (and it WILL change in the future), we're not overworked. Many people are complaining they can't get that many hours and want to work more. Where when I started it was 5-6 days and 70-80 hours (And some people are confused about going over 70 but they don't realise we deliver groceries first, drive semis second), and now it's 4 days and 40-50 hours. I'm okay with that for now since I'm making $7 more an hour than when I started.

The job still sucks, but I know a lot of routes, I know how to do the job better, and a lot of the issues I'd have the first 6-8 months when I started are largely gone. Getting lost, getting the truck stuck, not knowing where to go, truck being a mess, pallets falling over, not being able to dig out or find my cases and spending 45 minutess on a 20 case stop etc.

I'm staying with it as long as I can. The challenge right now isn't about learning how to do the job any more (for the most part), but learning the union and protecting yourself from the company because this is the season where they like to get rid of people. You know, instead of keeping people who know what they're doing and help you run the company smoothly, just replace them with new people so you pay less in labour/benefits and have a more crappily run operation. I grossed 81,000$ my first year, and I hope to gross the same this year with less hours. I don't think there's that many other trucking jobs that are easy to get a hold of that will pay this amount. I have routes I like that have stops other drivers say SUCK and they won't do the route because of them. (See: Annoying retirement homes with long walks or 200 cases downstairs first thing in the morning), but for me I just deal with those stops so I can have the rest of the day be as peaceful as it can be. Same with sysco; I'll just deal with it now so I can have the pay.

I remember a few weeks ago on a saturday a newer driver (At least to sysco AFAIK) got stuck with a 16 stop route. Now I could have done it because I knew it all, but it's not the saturday route I like to do. The person who went to help him told me later he thinks Sysco was testing him to see what they could get away with in terms of workload.

Honestly I don't know if that's true or not or if they do it on purpose, but that reeks of just playing with your customers. It's not like you're giving the driver a hard/bad day, but you're having extra people wait on him. Knowing that route the way it was, it would be an absolute nightmare if you didn't know a single stop.

Then I remember one time I was on another driver's downtown route for about 4 months, and then a little while ago he said his Friday route (Which is terrible because half of your truck goes downstairs and it's not a good time) made like 3 people who were put on it quit while he was out. Well I had to do that every Friday for like 4 months.

learning the union and protecting yourself from the company because this is the season where they like to get rid of people. You know, instead of keeping people who know what they're doing and help you run the company smoothly, just replace them with new people so you pay less in labour/benefits and have a more crappily run operation.

Where did you hear that's what they do? I spent 2 1/2 years in the warehouse at the Palmetto (Tampa) DC and they struggled to keep good employees to the point they'd hire anybody that met the qualifications even if they knew they wouldn't last. They had the same issue with drivers. Sysco offers D.I.P. (driver incentive pay) because they allow the driver to make more money per hour by getting less hours, but they're still saving money rather than paying a driver for several hours more at base rate. It increases morale and adds a level of competition to say "I made $34 an hour" and most guys strive to say they made the most per hour, or highest percentage. I wasnt on incentive pay at PFG but me and other driver liked to see who could finish the fastest ahead of schedule. The market in Tampa was very seasonal like it sounds like your market is. They don't necessarily want to fire drivers, but when you hit the slow time it allows them to weed out the drivers who are underperforming. Especially when a union is involved it should be very clear in your union contract what the disciplinary steps are. In times when its busy the employer may be more lenient due to their needs but goof up again and they have all the right you fire you. They can even say "we could have fired this employee 3 months ago but gave them the benefit of the doubt". I've seen that happen in many different jobs. Obviously I dont work where you do but I dont see Sysco making those kind of dumb decisions. They didn't become the largest foodservice distributor by playing dirty otherwise nobody would work for them. When you factor in recruiting, training, drug tests and lower production rate which results in bad customer service they are spending/losing more money than they gain by getting rid of top performers. Nearly every company has atleast 1 employee that thinks they're untouchable because they're so good at what they do. Whether that is true or not you still need to follow the rules and policies and eventually the company will move on if you decide you know what's best and won't obey their rules or policies. Companies are always trying to be the most efficient as possible. I brought it up at PFG that I was being overworked with consistently having 18-20 stops with 18-20k of product and I was told I can get it done that's why they keep overloading me. It is actually cheaper to work a driver that hard and have someone help them later in the day if needed than send 2 trucks out with that route split in half. Unfortunately with the turnover rate due to how exhausting the work is they take things one day at a time.

Yuuyo I forgot to say...KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK! It takes a special kind of person to do that job and to perform at such a high level.

instead of keeping people who know what they're doing and help you run the company smoothly, just replace them with new people so you pay less in labour/benefits and have a more crappily run operation

Remember how long it took you, from walking in the front door, through practicing for your CDL , through road training, until you got your own truck, was two-three months at the fastest. What other job, takes that long to get a new-hire into their job? All companies need competent drivers because of the value of the loads and the huge liability of an accident. Truck drivers are not disposable. No company is cutting that corner of getting the lowest bidder into a truck and creating a potential multi-million dollar liability.

As Rob points out, truck companies don't just toss employees just because they find "cheaper" ones, They are looking under rocks these days just to get trained people behind the wheel for their business.

My thoughts might sound contradictory, but they aren't and I don't have time at the moment to fill in the gaps. Companies hire first (yes, warm body with a medical card and a CDL) but either the new driver finds out trucking is not for them , or as Rob also points out, after these new drivers turn out to be non-productive they might be asked to leave for that. It's not because they want to pay drivers peanuts, or sunflower seeds.

When food service companies are running radio ads offering a 10k dollar sign on bonus and a guaranteed minimum 70k a year I find it extremely difficult to believe they are firing just for the fun of it.

If trucking companies wanted to do this I probably would have been fired already as they could bring in a new driver at 14 cents less a mile. Imagine how much they could save by firing the top drivers and just being in new people at the minimum every year, but they don't because it doesnt make sense.

I hear two things from two groups of people.

1. Senior people with 20+ years - "This is the time of the year where they start to nitpick about every little thing, so you better be careful. This happens every year in this season."

2. People around my seniority then complain they were written up for this, *****ed at for that, etc etc.

I've heard a few stories in relation to #2 at this point since we've slown down, and for me the story is basically silent. I come in, I go out, I come back with an empty truck. I hear nothing and I say nothing (Unless things happen on the route, but that's a different story). It's actually been quite peaceful, so I think I'm just fortunate there. Or maybe other people give management trouble in ways I don't know about or can't imagine because I wouldn't do it.

I hear two things from two groups of people.

1. Senior people with 20+ years - "This is the time of the year where they start to nitpick about every little thing, so you better be careful. This happens every year in this season."

2. People around my seniority then complain they were written up for this, *****ed at for that, etc etc.

I've heard a few stories in relation to #2 at this point since we've slown down, and for me the story is basically silent. I come in, I go out, I come back with an empty truck. I hear nothing and I say nothing (Unless things happen on the route, but that's a different story). It's actually been quite peaceful, so I think I'm just fortunate there. Or maybe other people give management trouble in ways I don't know about or can't imagine because I wouldn't do it.

Sounds just like company reviews on the internet. 95% BS.

I come in, I go out, I come back with an empty truck. I hear nothing and I say nothing (Unless things happen on the route, but that's a different story).

that's the best you can do. In fact that's exactly what most managers want. I doubt they're sitting in their office trying to figure out how to make your guys lives miserable. While in training my trainer and I were both written up for things we thought were BS. I tripped the drive cam driving over to the fuel island to wash our windows while in the yard without being buckled up. My trainer had his seat belt off while I was backing so he could see better out his side. Car behind me honked their horn and I hard braked for fear I was going to hit something. Bottom line is both instances broke company policy so it was justified. When you guys are busy it's very possible they're overlooking mistakes, being lenient to a driver that tells a customer to shove it (I know you've thought about doing it, I sure did ) when it slows down they have time to get things back in order. The fact they have 20+ years in shows that they're not thinning the herd from the top THAT bad. I have quite a few terminal rats with 30+ years where I'm at and I always ask why they're still there if it's so bad. I heard the same stories in the warehouse in Tampa. The only people that were let go were those under achieving troublemakers. Management has a budget they're responsible for staying on with alot of it being payroll. It's a balancing act of what it would cost to add more trucks so you can have more drivers, or keep your current amount of drivers and pay a tremendous amount out in OT pay. You also need to factor in if you're working them too hard what injuries could happen and what the cost of that is. In my experience people complain they're worked too hard and getting too many hours, or they complain the work is too light and they cant make money.

Keep doing what you're doing and I dont think you'll have trouble. The job I have is extremely easy and the way some guys talk you'd think it's the absolute worst place to be. At PFG I had a guy tell me he gets enjoyment out of stressing out new guys with rumors trying to get them to quit so he can get more hours. When the workload slows down it gets to be cut throat among coworkers trying to get that edge.

My warehouse supervisor in Tampa told me the only difference between a driver and a puppy is the puppy stops whining after a while