starting as a ground driver tomorrow, what should i know?
- Thread starter halitzor
- Start date
hypo hanna
Well-Known Member
Beats me, I'm a little surprised I passed
Lol!
Code 82 Approved
Titanium Plus+ Level Member with benefits!
Hundreds of things. Do you have dog biscuits, a flashlight, does the heater work, what support do you have if you are overloaded, the number to CPC, how to handsheet, what to do if the crotch of your pants rip at your first dock stop, how to properly change batteries in the scanner, door codes, customers expecting their freight 2 hours earlier, random citizens thinking you left their door tag but it was hd or express, remembering to fuel up, understanding google translate at a nail salon just to name a few.
Welcome to Ground, let us know how it goes.
Welcome to Ground, let us know how it goes.
thanks for all the replies guys. Today was pretty good. I went out on a route of an area where I lived for 5 years so it was very familiar to me. I had some paperwork to do this morning then I helped my "manager" load our truck. He showed me the scanner and how to use it and what to check on the truck, ect. I got there about 10 minutes before 7 and we didn't get on the road until about 8:15. We got to our route area about 8:30 and he began showing me how to scan the package and we did the first 5 or so stops together. After that I was doing all the deliveries on my own. I jogged about 80% of my drops because we wanted to be done by 3pm. We had 125 deliveries and 133 packages delivered and got done at 2:30 and back to the terminal by 2:45. They're starting me at $1.20 per stop and he's giving me the same route I did today as my own. So around $18.75/hr my first day! I'm pretty happy about it to say the least.
Here is the most important tip you will get...don't panic. Do one stop at at a time. Plan your rt ahead but focus on the next stop only. BIGGEST TIP~~~ This isn''t your career....p-huck em. They will try to pressure the she=ite out of you. Calmly look at them, wait for them to finish, and restart your sort etc. Restart this process if necessary. If all else fails, bail out and be happy you have no regrets what a ciity job it is.
so far it doesn't look like im going to have as crappy of a time as most. The contractor I'm working for apparently pays quite well according to the guy training me. He is my age (29) and he basically runs everything himself and the contractor just signs the checks. Doug is the guys name, we got along great and he seems like a great guy. There are 16 of us working for this contractor and they all seem to happy. Maybe I got lucky?
HomeDelivery
Well-Known Member
maybe or maybe not... 15 minutes to your 1st stop & your stops-per-on-road-hour was pretty fast & glad for your "tight service area"
i'm thinking about switching back to a contractor as well next week; i just hope it doesn't snow real bad this peak or my stops per hour will suffer & i may go back to being paid hourly
PS: freelabor, was that a 700 stepvan? i'm just guessing because i see rear door rollup tracks on the top sides of the shelves... that's alot of big boxes; how many pieces were in there?
i'm thinking about switching back to a contractor as well next week; i just hope it doesn't snow real bad this peak or my stops per hour will suffer & i may go back to being paid hourly
PS: freelabor, was that a 700 stepvan? i'm just guessing because i see rear door rollup tracks on the top sides of the shelves... that's alot of big boxes; how many pieces were in there?
!Retired!
Well-Known Member
There's your key words. I hope it works out for you.
yea it was an ex-express 700. Best truck i've ever driven even though it had 350k miles. It was about 200 pieces in there. A bunch of bulky stuff all along the floor underneath the bottom shelves and a whole bunch of irregs in the middle... Made for a great morning trying to open the bulkhead for the first 20 or so stops.
and to the OP. You don't have to jog to finish at a decent time. Learn to jump around and walk briskly. For me there wasn't much of a difference in finish time with jogging vs walking briskly. Knowing the area definitely shortens the time you spend on the road.
