Struggling new driver looking for advice

[NewGuy71]

I am a new driver hired on a few weeks ago, went to driver school, rode with a ORS for a few days and now on my own. I am struggling with being over allowed time by about 2 hours per day after 5 days solo.

Route has been around 90 stops, (supposed to be 7 hours) 35-40 commercial with stores like Walmart, Target, Lowes, Party City, etc. These stops generally have 15-50 packages each. The high was 78 packages for one stop yesterday. The rest are typical residential. I know the area well, have driven the route the last two weekends in my car to perfect my knowledge of it, and am working as hard and fast as I can. I have been coming in an hour early to go through the load but I am still struggling. I have the in and out of car methods down pretty well but still improving. Can anyone give me some advice on how to get faster?

Thank you!

 

[MECH-lift]

faster?

It’s not about speed my man , it’s about accuracy...just blame the loader, it works every time..tell your boss the loader is mixing your bulk stops

 

[MC0493]

Peak is here, over allowed isn't a thing. Work as safe and quickly as you can.

 

[scooby0048]

I am a new driver hired on a few weeks ago, went to driver school, rode with a ORS for a few days and now on my own. I am struggling with being over allowed time by about 2 hours per day after 5 days solo.

Route has been around 90 stops, (supposed to be 7 hours) 35-40 commercial with stores like Walmart, Target, Lowes, Party City, etc. These stops generally have 15-50 packages each. The high was 78 packages for one stop yesterday. The rest are typical residential. I know the area well, have driven the route the last two weekends in my car to perfect my knowledge of it, and am working as hard and fast as I can. I have been coming in an hour early to go through the load but I am still struggling. I have the in and out of car methods down pretty well but still improving. Can anyone give me some advice on how to get faster?

Thank you!

If you're a seasonal, don't worry about it you will be gone in January. And, if you are FT, also don't worry about it as you can't qualify again until January. Use the search function. there are only like half a million threads just like yours.

 

[MECH-lift]

Peak is here, over allowed isn't a thing. Work as safe and quickly as you can

He might be trying to qualify still , I’m not sure..

 

[MC0493]

Can't qualify this time of year. We're in the free period.

 

[Turdferguson]

If you're a seasonal, don't worry about it you will be gone in January. And, if you are FT, also don't worry about it as you can't qualify again until January. Use the search function. there are only like half a million threads just like yours.

Half a million and one now...deal with it punk

 

[scooby0048]

Half a million and one now...deal with it punk

You shut your pissflap or I'll have hehexd come up there and take care of you!

 

[NewGuy71]

I was hired as seasonal but my center has 7 vacant FT positions. I was told, we are hiring 9 seasonal drivers, be in the top 7 and you will stay on after January.

 

[MECH-lift]

over allowed time by about 2 hours per day after 5 days solo.

Don’t let management fool you , they can adjust those numbers depending on what driver is on the route .

 

[scooby0048]

I was hired as seasonal but my center has 7 vacant FT positions. I was told, we are hiring 9 seasonal drivers, be in the top 7 and you will stay on after January.

Well good luck if that is the case. I was serious when I said use the search function. You will find more help reading through the many hours of info in those other threads that has already been given.

One word of advice though, keep your options open for a better job because the other 90K employees that were hired on for the season were also given some BS motivational speech about doing well enough to stay on. It's called lighting a fire under your ass.

 

[Dumbo]

You can qualify this time of year. I just did yesterday. Every hub is different.

I made a lot of progress when I stopped to fine sort my truck a couple times throughout the day. How much time are you spending looking up addresses? You may know the general area for your resi's but do you know how the numbers run? When you stop and open the bulkhead door do you know where the package is?

One thing Google maps cannot do is give you address ranges. A map book is great for that. Memorize how the ranges run, then print off several copies of your area from Google maps, trace the roads with a sharpie to make them darker and then adjust the image to have higher brightness so just the road lines show, then practice writing the roads in. Laminate one and put one in your car.

It gets better. Make sure you use RDO, at least in my center nobody cares about ODO. Also try to get off as much ground with your air. Have an air at one building? Try to get that whole building done so you don't have to come back (that depends how much air you have...don't cut it too close). Also a big step forward for me was getting off bulk right away. Find your biggest irregs in your truck and see if you can get them off on the way to your first air.

 

[bumped]

This job is not for everyone.

 

[NewGuy71]

What is the difference between ODO and RDO? I was told to only use ODO and I have so far. Also, I have heard nothing about qualifying. What do you have to do to qualify?

 

[What The Hawk?]

just blame the loader, it works every time..tell your boss the loader is mixing your bulk stops

DICK!

LMAO


No but some loaders absolutely blow..

 

[Dr.Brownz]

Can't qualify this time of year. We're in the free period.

I qualified during peak. I'm in the west though.

 

[Dr.Brownz]

What is the difference between ODO and RDO? I was told to only use ODO and I have so far. Also, I have heard nothing about qualifying. What do you have to do to qualify?

ODO is Orion (UPS's failure of a program that is supposed to figure out ways to save miles on your route) and RDO is the older system, it is just the HIN numbers in order or what ever customization were built in when your route was created. Usually RDO works better on really bulky routes.

 

[Ms.PacMan]

Keep moving was the best advice I got in the beginning. Dont get distracted by all the other boxes in the truck and focus on the stop at hand. You might hear an old driver or supe say one stop at a time. Sounds simple but it works and speeds things along.

 

[zubenelgenubi]

What is the difference between ODO and RDO? I was told to only use ODO and I have so far. Also, I have heard nothing about qualifying. What do you have to do to qualify?

Generally you need run scratch 5 days within your 30 days, and have no accidents. Ask what your target "stops per on road hour" is. If you know that you can figure out your pace better. Mine is 19 sporh, only took them three years to bring it up, now I know where I need to be at a certain time. If you can meet sporh you should be scratch, but under/over takes morning and evening time into consideration too. If you aren't leaving the building until an hour after start, then you will need to be able to code your inside time as skilled sort under extra work, or you won't be able to scratch unless your sporh is significantly above target. Some managers don't want you to code preload time, but they can't technically stop you.

 

[NewGuy71]

Yea, I just found out about coding preload time today and did it for the first time. Air has been late all week and we have been loading.