Well my first day alone on the road was ...a disaster

[Climbingtheladder]

Today was my first day alone as a seasonal package car driver with only 3 days of riding with a sup .. Felt confident going in today 2 hours later...complete disaster. 4 late next day airs, one only had one if 2 next day packages they were supposed to. Left my hand trucks at two different locations and had to go back. Didn't know how to run my stops after my first 20 stops. Bounced around all day hours behind schedule. 2 drivers had to come take stops off of me after pickups. Pretty discouraged and honestly embarrassed to walk in there tomorrow. Any words of wisdom. Oh yeah and feel free to laugh at my expense. Lol

 

[Indecisi0n]

We all been there. Tomorrow you'll be a little better than yesterday and so on. My advise do everything in your power not to have late air. If that means runnig straight NDA then do so.

 

[pickup]

Today was my first day alone as a seasonal package car driver with only 3 days of riding with a sup .. Felt confident going in today 2 hours later...complete disaster. 4 late next day airs, one only had one if 2 next day packages they were supposed to. Left my hand trucks at two different locations and had to go back. Didn't know how to run my stops after my first 20 stops. Bounced around all day hours behind schedule. 2 drivers had to come take stops off of me after pickups. Pretty discouraged and honestly embarrassed to walk in there tomorrow. Any words of wisdom. Oh yeah and feel free to laugh at my expense. Lol

It sounds like you didn't hit anything, so you're doing fine.

 

[iruhnman630]

Run air only, then follow EDD. If your trace is bad, it's not your fault.

Try to stay calm and not panic.

I would say I wouldn't laugh at you, but leaving your hand truck at not one but two stops is classic.
​

 

[PT Car Washer]

Nobody is laughing at you. Well maybe a little. Just don't crash. You will be fine. Maybe.

 

[Anonymous 10]

It's going to get better day by day. Stay out of the back of the truck as much as possible. Find a steward or a veteran you know or like and ask him to point out someone that's not on the safety commitee to talk you through it. Stay positive remember this. You WILL get better every DAY.

 

[iruhnman630]

and for the record: I have never left a cart at a stop, but I have made the sudden move to pull over, throw on the 4-ways, and open up the bulkhead door to settle that sinking feeling that I just did.

 

[PT Car Washer]

and for the record: I have never left a cart at a stop, but I have made the sudden move to pull over, throw on the 4-ways, and open up the bulkhead door to settle that sinking feeling that I just did.

Only time I do that is to see if I left the back door up.

 

[TooTechie]

Find your air before you leave the building. Print out a manifest and drive the route this weekend in your personal vehicle making notes. Slide packages forward as you go putting them in order but only until you find what you're looking for. Move with a sense of urgency. Don't get hurt or in an accident or game over.

Almost all of us fell on our faces when the sup took the training wheels off.

 

[doolittle95]

Today was my first day alone as a seasonal package car driver with only 3 days of riding with a sup .. Felt confident going in today 2 hours later...complete disaster. 4 late next day airs, one only had one if 2 next day packages they were supposed to. Left my hand trucks at two different locations and had to go back. Didn't know how to run my stops after my first 20 stops. Bounced around all day hours behind schedule. 2 drivers had to come take stops off of me after pickups. Pretty discouraged and honestly embarrassed to walk in there tomorrow. Any words of wisdom. Oh yeah and feel free to laugh at my expense. Lol

Same first day we all had. Definitely run straight air, no late air. When u got air done, set up 5 stops at a time
Keep your head up and knock em out. Next 5. Go...etc.

I know drivers that would go drive their routes on weekends to get familier with area. Google maps might help
with that too. Keep your head up. Good luck.

 

[PT Car Washer]

Or depending on the sup did better.

 

[728ups]

We have ALL been there. Run Straight NDA fo a couple of weeks, then start mixing in ground. Make yourself stop and check you ahve your handtrucks before you leavea stop. after a week it will be automatic. When I read a post like this i envisage a person being so stressed they are running in circles ,and getting flustered just addes to the tension. This is a VERY good setting for a wreck to occur . BE CAREFUL!

 

[Allen Fair]

Hey it gets better believe me I had a long day today to. I got put on a satellite route out in bfe. First day I went out by myself a couple years ago bent over and set a heavy package on the hand card and it came back and smacked me in the head seen stars for a minute or so

 

[Re-Raise]

Hey it gets better believe me I had a long day today to. I got put on a satellite route out in bfe. First day I went out by myself a couple years ago bent over and set a heavy package on the hand card and it came back and smacked me in the head seen stars for a minute or so

I did the same thing 22 years ago. I just kept thinking "don't pass out" ha ha. Haven't done it since.

 

[Rainman]

We all were like that the first day. You didn't wreck, you didn't get hurt. It was a good learning experience. It will get better every day. If you made mistakes maybe the sup didn't prepare you good enough. Don't sweat it. Just learn from what you did wrong. Get the phone number of another driver you can call for advice or encouragement. If anyone holds anything against you for a tough first day, then they must have forgotten how bad they screwed up on their first day. It WILL get better. Good luck.

 

[hurricanegunner]

Don't give up. We all went through what you just went through. You will get better at this over time. Hang in there.

 

[PT Car Washer]

How many times can you say "this has been the worst day of my life". Oh, but it will get worst. Either suck it up or run. One stop at a time.

 

[upsgrunt]

Some day you will look back and laugh at today. Any driver who says they didn't have the same first day alone as you is lying! I will warn you that tomorrow morning, the closer you get to start time, the knot in your stomach will get bigger, and you will feel like you want to puke- fight through it.
If I can do this job for as long as I have, anyone can.

 

[IVE GOTTA PACKAGE 4U]

Some day you will look back and laugh at today. Any driver who says they didn't have the same first day alone as you is lying! I will warn you that tomorrow morning, the closer you get to start time, the knot in your stomach will get bigger, and you will feel like you want to puke- fight through it.
If I can do this job for as long as I have, anyone can.

I can still remember how bad my first day was! Almost 30 years ago! I wanted to leave my truck right there and call a cab...lol

 

[PeasAndCarrots]

My first day alone was absolutely terrible. Like you, I had 2 late NDA's and my first couple of hours weren't bad IMO (at the time.) around 5:30, I got a phone call to meet a driver so he could get my air and ground. I got there and 3 other drivers followed behind him taking about 10 stops off of me each. I got in at like 9 o'clock and felt awful. My supervisor talked to me the next day saying, "Not gonna sugar coat it, you fell flat on your face yesterday. What we're looking for now is improvement from here on out."

To get better, I would just get a print out of the forecasted packages for the next days route. If go home and go through them one by one and pull up any stops I didn't know on google maps. And it also helped to write down what each stop was business-wise next to each address on the sheet.

About 1-2 weeks after my dreaded first day I was very confident and started running very close to scratch every day. You'll get better. Just study the route on your own time on paper or in your personal vehicle and you'll get it very easily.