My first days on the road were all different, same route but kept getting shifted around until my training on car sup was happy with the route. Day 4 and my first day on my own I was flustered, felt like I was running behind but didn’t understand how. The first three days we had finished at 1700 and I knew I had to finish before then. I never ran, but I speedwalked like an Olympian at every stop. I’ll admit I skipped my lunch that first day, but only because all day long I felt like I was running an hour behind.
Guess what? I was. Why? It was the first day I had done the route since daylight savings time and I never adjusted my watch. My rookie-self was so stressed I didn’t even notice the Diad showed the time on the screen either. I finished that day 45mins paid under....learned a lesson about taking my lunch too.
To be fair, I only did like 100 stops that day, once I learned the route it would go out with 150-180 and I’d finish it pretty close to scratching.
Once I learned to deliver ground with my air when possible I did better. Also once I learned that following trace 100% doesn’t always make the most sense. I learned to try not to drive past stops that were later in my board if I could deliver them while I was doing my businesses.
I learned that if possible, doing the route in a down and back loop was better than crossing a busy road repeatedly.
Learning what type of boxes to expect certain customers to get helps a lot if your load isn’t perfect. Lots of customers get the same shipments daily and usually they know what the boxes look, especially if they’re dock stops and can see in the truck.
Learning where boxes might be hidden in a load helps too. If you can’t find a package on the shelf I always check the ends of the 5,6,7, and 8 Thousand shelves because preloaders tend to set stuff there while they’re catching up on the belt. RDR and RDL are common to find stuff too. If you’re missing a box for RDR, check at RDL if you can.
Learning what pickups you can do with their delivery saves a lot of time too. If you don’t have a lot of pickups, or you have one that’s inconvenient to get to, calling and asking if they’re sending anything out that day can be helpful if you’re willing to use your own phone to save time.
The biggest struggles I had were adjusting to delivering in the dark and how much different neighborhoods can look in the dark. I learned my route before it started to get dark really early, I was given more area that I had to learn in the dark, and then when spring came I had to relearn those same new areas in the daytime.
Don’t you only have to scratch like 3 or 4 times during your 30 days to qualify? That’s only like once a week so don’t let a bad day ruin it and discourage you.
