So i'm stuck driving rental vehicles most of the time...

[HomeDelivery]

... well, i'm going to mod it to maximize my stops-per-road-hour, yo!



where's the seat, you say? it's in my minivan since it's just a waste of space... now I can stuff up to 30 stops where the passenger seat was located & still provide an un-obstructed view of the side mirror/ window... and my tote of smalls sit right next to me.

this provides me with less time running to the back of the boxvan/truck and opening/closing that rollup door repeatedly (i miss those stepvans with a pass through to the cargo area)



i use straps to keep my stuff in order; these are code 07s 11s 06s and sometimes 02s/ 03s... blue tote is my personal box-o-tricks (DRbags, extra shoes, water, juice, tape, doortags, etc.)

bonus question: why do you think I put the send agains on top of the wheel wells?



other side of my send agains... haha lookit my own little hand truck that I use thank goodness i'm in HD, not ground; how the heck do you guys keep organized with no shelves???



other side of the missing passenger seat; I use totes for small/medium sized parcels and just shove it in there as my day progresses... again, to minimize my time opening / closing that rear garage door



3/4 of my day done... oh since HD has a sequential order on how to deliver packages, I build walls like a tractor trailer's & put the highest or last stops in the far back and bottom... straps are better than those cargo rods... more flexible. some days I use every inch of this 10' box truck when I get bulk stops or when the packages are huge... it's usually 4 walls to fill up my truck to the max

am I the only one doing this? or is there another driver that does something similar for HD?

as for doing this in cargo vans as well...







and when i finally get a properly labeled FedEx HD stepvan, i'll be like a hermit crab and make it my "home/office"

 

[DOWNTRODDEN IN TEXAS]

ROFLMAO@ hermit crab!! If we even CONSIDERED removing a seat in a rental to carry freight up front, we'd be gone. It's kind of funny how different the company's are, at Express, most of us look forward to rentals, that means a radio and no banging, crashing and rattling to listen too!

 

[bbsam]

If a route has 70-80 stops, a box truck isn't that bad. In fact, I prefer them. Heat, A/C, radio, relative comfort. And if you are careful, you can load a truck without the straps and have very little cargo shifting.

 

[HomeDelivery]

i can stuff it to at least 130 stops w/ my methods... my max packages i have squeezed in during peak was close to 200 pieces...

And, once it starts getting empty, theres a whole lotta shifting & time wasted trying to find that one package. (these things are alot faster than those slow accelerating stepvans so a speed bump or quick turn = mess in the back) + when it comes to flatscreen tvs, i'll strap 'em to the side walls; customers appreciate that i take extra care of their packages "purple promise"

come on, no other driver in my division of pseudo-FedEx does this? (great, i'm singling myself out then)

 

[HomeDelivery]

ROFLMAO@ hermit crab!! If we even CONSIDERED removing a seat in a rental to carry freight up front, we'd be gone.

i guess that's one of the perks of being in pseudo-FedEx... we're kinda like employees, but not that much so i can do wacky stuff like this & my porta-john trick...

almost every other HD driver i've seen will put the smalls in that dead-space area; i just took it up a notch

 

[whenIgetthere]

Freight up front? I had a letter up front last week before leaving the building, went to the can before leaving, come back and my manager says get that package out of the cab!

 

[BoxDriver]

I've been driving for HD for about 5 years and have not seen anyone use straps like that. In fact the tub strapped in the front of the step van down right scares me. When I drove a step van I had one strap to hold up my jump seat after the boss put it back together without the spring. It came loose on a bump one day and went flying across the cab. Currently I drive a cargo van and only keep my smalls tub up front usually. My stuff I don't need during the day is behind the passenger seat and my cooler on the seat. I don't even have any straps in my current van although I could use one once and awhile. Most of the time I can prop up tv's and such with other boxes so they really aren't needed. Just need to rearrange the boxes a bit after every 10 stops or so.

No idea about the send agains on the wheel well either. I also don't get the post it's all over the doors. I have seen other guys do it though.

 

[HomeDelivery]

yea, I don't really put all that stuff in the cab of the stepvan, just a place to put my paperwork and DR bags when I'm finally out of the terminal and on the road; the personal stuff gets to ride in the cargo area on a shelf/floor once I cleared out some stops...

wheel well area- weight for traction- these things are too light in winter to have any decent traction & those wineboxes / computers that were code 07s send agains will help out; somewhere I've heard putting weight over the drive axle is better??? correct me if i'm wrong...

Just need to rearrange the boxes a bit after every 10 stops or so

this is what I avoid when doing it this way... I just pick a few boxes out of the cargo area, cram it on the passenger side & move on with my day. Also, I've talked to many drivers admitted to forgetting to secure the rear door down before heading out to their next stop... I've done it myself once as well!

It's bad enough that our stops-per-road-hour suffers because of these box trucks vs a stepvan with a pass-through to the cargo area

 

[BoxDriver]

Ok, I see what you were getting at with the send agains. Keeping all the weight you can over the axle does help on snowy/icy roads. Just couldn't figure out why you specified send agains. By rearranging the boxes once and a while it keeps me from having to climb into the back much at all. Once I can't reach any more from the door I get in and pile up more at the doors. I miss delivering out of my step van but don't miss the constant break downs at all.

 

[MrFedEx]

yea, I don't really put all that stuff in the cab of the stepvan, just a place to put my paperwork and DR bags when I'm finally out of the terminal and on the road; the personal stuff gets to ride in the cargo area on a shelf/floor once I cleared out some stops...

wheel well area- weight for traction- these things are too light in winter to have any decent traction & those wineboxes / computers that were code 07s send agains will help out; somewhere I've heard putting weight over the drive axle is better??? correct me if i'm wrong...



this is what I avoid when doing it this way... I just pick a few boxes out of the cargo area, cram it on the passenger side & move on with my day. Also, I've talked to many drivers admitted to forgetting to secure the rear door down before heading out to their next stop... I've done it myself once as well!

It's bad enough that our stops-per-road-hour suffers because of these box trucks vs a stepvan with a pass-through to the cargo area

I thought that the Ground and HD drivers just drank all the wine. Never knew any actually got delivered.

 

[DOWNTRODDEN IN TEXAS]

I thought that the Ground and HD drivers just drank all the wine. Never knew any actually got delivered.

OOOhhhhh....that totally explains that Ground guy getting caught on camera taking a leak in that yard!!

 

[MrFedEx]

OOOhhhhh....that totally explains that Ground guy getting caught on camera taking a leak in that yard!!

Nah. He was drinking beer on the job. You know how it goes straight through you.

 

[DOWNTRODDEN IN TEXAS]

Oh, that is so true, especially on a hot day on the road. Wish I could do my day drunk, just once...