kerbinator
Active Member
Reading all these new driver threads has made me recall my first few weeks as a driver last summer (2012). It was the 3rd hottest summer in state history, and every day was nothing less than 11 hours of hell. I was called into the office every morning for weeks. Warning letters - so many warning letters. A pending term, reduced to a 1-day suspension ("Wait a minute, this is punishment?"). The most condescending, unrealistic on-car in the history of managers anywhere. The only thing that kept me from quitting was knowing I'd waited 3 years to do this.
Probably the best thing to happen to me was a driver retiring last november. Nobody wanted his route, so it went to me by default since I was the lowest on the totem pole. I quickly found out why no one wanted it. 200+ stops nearly every day, in the worst truck imaginable. It gave new meaning to "no power steering", and just getting it into gear was a chore. But I was so glad I had one route to focus on and master. I was having a hard enough time with the training routes, I couldn't imagine having to do a new one every week as a cover driver. In the year since then, the a-hole boss is gone, the truck has been replaced with a slightly less-crappy one, and I know my route like the back of my hand. Haven't been called into the office in months. Scratch every day - today I had 210 stops and punched out at 5:15.
I guess if any new drivers are reading this - it gets easier. Slowly but surely, it gets easier. It's never a breeze, but it's far from the daunting hopelessness it was at the start. Comfortably challenging.
Probably the best thing to happen to me was a driver retiring last november. Nobody wanted his route, so it went to me by default since I was the lowest on the totem pole. I quickly found out why no one wanted it. 200+ stops nearly every day, in the worst truck imaginable. It gave new meaning to "no power steering", and just getting it into gear was a chore. But I was so glad I had one route to focus on and master. I was having a hard enough time with the training routes, I couldn't imagine having to do a new one every week as a cover driver. In the year since then, the a-hole boss is gone, the truck has been replaced with a slightly less-crappy one, and I know my route like the back of my hand. Haven't been called into the office in months. Scratch every day - today I had 210 stops and punched out at 5:15.
I guess if any new drivers are reading this - it gets easier. Slowly but surely, it gets easier. It's never a breeze, but it's far from the daunting hopelessness it was at the start. Comfortably challenging.
