New driver need help

The grinch

New Member
When I was going through my 30 days they put me on an easy in town route with hardly no pickups at all I killed it!! after my 30 days they begin putting me on all kinds of route rural to in town with 18 schedule pickups plus ODP (on demand pickups) I’m struggling I don’t know north from south I’m using gps and I’m starting to hate it please help I’m struggling to learn..what should I do
 
When I was going through my 30 days they put me on an easy in town route with hardly no pickups at all I killed it!! after my 30 days they begin putting me on all kinds of route rural to in town with 18 schedule pickups plus ODP (on demand pickups) I’m struggling I don’t know north from south I’m using gps and I’m starting to hate it please help I’m struggling to learn..what should I do
The GPS will kill you on time. Try learning the area. Maybe go take a drive today on your route
 

DumbTruckDriver

Allergic to cardboard.
When I was going through my 30 days they put me on an easy in town route with hardly no pickups at all I killed it!! after my 30 days they begin putting me on all kinds of route rural to in town with 18 schedule pickups plus ODP (on demand pickups) I’m struggling I don’t know north from south I’m using gps and I’m starting to hate it please help I’m struggling to learn..what should I do
Just take it one stop at a time. Make time committed packages, businesses and pickups your priority until you learn the area. Communicate with the office when you don’t think you can make any of these commitments.
 

DumbTruckDriver

Allergic to cardboard.
This has been happening a lot in my center. They’ve been hiring so many drivers in a short time span that they ran out of actual training routes and started putting noobs on resi routes. They’re left completely unprepared for a real route.
 

Siveriano

Well-Known Member
Send me blind, expect blind results.

Just relax do your best and remember this all ends when you punch out.

We had a guy who actually made book on a route like yours, pretty ez then they started rotating him, and he couldn't deal with the stress, so he quit.
 

KOG72

I’m full of it
When I was going through my 30 days they put me on an easy in town route with hardly no pickups at all I killed it!! after my 30 days they begin putting me on all kinds of route rural to in town with 18 schedule pickups plus ODP (on demand pickups) I’m struggling I don’t know north from south I’m using gps and I’m starting to hate it please help I’m struggling to learn..what should I do
If you keep running it for a week or two you will come back and laugh at your post.
 

iruhnman630

Well-Known Member
Rule #1: calm down.

You've made your 30 days, you are in. Commits, business, and pickups before resis, communicate your est rtb time, and let them worry about it.

Honestly it takes a year or two to truly get comfortable on this job.
 

542thruNthru

Well-Known Member
When I was going through my 30 days they put me on an easy in town route with hardly no pickups at all I killed it!! after my 30 days they begin putting me on all kinds of route rural to in town with 18 schedule pickups plus ODP (on demand pickups) I’m struggling I don’t know north from south I’m using gps and I’m starting to hate it please help I’m struggling to learn..what should I do

You've passed.

Don't stress out. Just do the best you can and remember you get paid by the hour. Numbers are their problem.
 

burrheadd

KING Of GIFS
When I was going through my 30 days they put me on an easy in town route with hardly no pickups at all I killed it!! after my 30 days they begin putting me on all kinds of route rural to in town with 18 schedule pickups plus ODP (on demand pickups) I’m struggling I don’t know north from south I’m using gps and I’m starting to hate it please help I’m struggling to learn..what should I do

learn how to read a map
 

Whither

Scofflaw
When I was going through my 30 days they put me on an easy in town route with hardly no pickups at all I killed it!! after my 30 days they begin putting me on all kinds of route rural to in town with 18 schedule pickups plus ODP (on demand pickups) I’m struggling I don’t know north from south I’m using gps and I’m starting to hate it please help I’m struggling to learn..what should I do

You're putting too much on yourself if you expect to 'kill it' every route you get tossed on. A better goal, and by no means easy, is remember you have seniority now and don't let the routes kill you. Throw me blind on a decently-planned 200 stop resi route (businesses all early in the board) with room to work in the cargo area and only a couple pickups? I'll scratch it. Blind on business-heavy route, several stops blown out and a lot of pickups? I'll call the center after my air run and be 2 hours over with help.

Others have said this job can be death by a million cuts. Me, I'm sticking with it because, hey, most jobs have their fair share of frustrations. We're union, and while the power of unions is waning, that still counts for plenty. And where else am I (and the majority of us) gonna get wages and bennies like these?
 

quad decade guy

Well-Known Member
Don't worry, it'll only last for as long as it takes to go to feeders. 15 years for me. Imagine hating your

job and feeling this way.....every day. I would quit if I had to go back to pkg.
 

Netsua 3:16

AND THAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE
Ignore Orion order. As long as your center isn’t pushing Orion compliance. Get to know the OMS ask him to print you out a manifest with stops in HIN order. ORION destroys commercial routes with commits and pickups. Now you know. Gotta learn how to run shelf to shelf if you WANT to be productive on a business route. Start looking at the dispatch as a puzzle to solve because that’s basically what it is. My worst days ever at this job have been going out blind on business routes...if it’s heavy you are basically guaranteed to miss service following Orion trace.
 

Whither

Scofflaw
Don't worry, it'll only last for as long as it takes to go to feeders. 15 years for me. Imagine hating your

job and feeling this way.....every day. I would quit if I had to go back to pkg.

Still wet behind the ears here but the honeymoon is long gone. At least I don't dread coming to work. Not yet anyway. There are moments, sometimes even whole days, when I still enjoy the job and remember why I wound up here (besides the wages). I treat the work as a trade and take pride in doing it safely and without losing my sanity haha. No disrespect to the feeder drivers who are happier there than in pkg but I don't look to big rigs as my escape route. I'm more interested in us drivers standing up for ourselves, not cringing before unreasonable production demands, leveraging whatever power we can (it's more than we realize) to make our working conditions better.

Of course, I doubt they'll ever be rosy. For me, the stress of learning routes/making service pales compared to the absurd hours many, maybe most, of us work. There's an odd day every quarter at my building that mgmt 'enforces' 9.5. Different job altogether when you know you won't fight the load until mid-afternoon and will make it home around 7p. I can learn how to play the game/when and how to deal with mgmt, but 50 hr-plus weeks year and in out will take its toll. My wife is a union electrician; she already thinks my schedule is insane. No forced OT in her local. I hear drivers say "that's the industry," but is it? Or is it an old, bad habit of drivers to agree with living to work rather than insisting that we have the reverse option?
 
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burrheadd

KING Of GIFS
Still wet behind the ears here but the honeymoon is long gone. At least I don't dread coming to work. Not yet anyway. There are moments, sometimes even whole days, when I still enjoy the job and remember why I wound up here (besides the wages). I treat the work as a trade and take pride in doing it safely and without losing my sanity haha. No disrespect to the feeder drivers who are happier there than in pkg but I don't look to big rigs as my escape route. I'm more interested in us drivers standing up for ourselves, not cringing before unreasonable production demands, leveraging whatever power we can (it's more than we realize) to make our working conditions better.

Of course, I doubt they'll ever be rosy. For me, the stress of learning routes/making service pales compared to the absurd hours many, maybe most, of us work. There's an odd day every quarter at my building that mgmt 'enforces' 9.5. Different job altogether when you know you won't fight the load until mid-afternoon and will make it home around 7p. I can learn how to play the game/when and how to deal with mgmt, but 50 hr-plus weeks year and in out will take its toll. My wife is a union electrician; she already thinks my schedule is insane. No forced OT in her local. I hear drivers say "that's the industry," but is it? Or is it an old, bad habit of drivers to agree with living to work rather than insisting that we have the reverse option?

Seriously

I appreciate your enthusiasm

fight the good fight
 

FromOffTheStreets

Well-Known Member
They do a very bad job of preparing newer drivers after you've qualified. It's surprising actually.

You have to take it upon yourself to print maps & ask older drivers that know routes about delivery points & roads if your out in rural areas. If you don't your in for many never ending days in your future.

But hang in there, after a couple years you'll be the guy coaching the younger drivers.
 

RIMMY DIRT

Slow and steady
Deliver your businesses, Take a break every day, learn how to read a map, don’t worry about bonus, call management throughout the day if you are having issues and remember that it will take you a year or two to feel comfortable doing this job. The pyramids weren’t built in a day!
 
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