What is the hardest part

chadaz

Member
Of starting out as a package driver?
Getting used to the long hours? The stress associated with locating the addresses? The physical nature of the job? Please tell Me Your experiences.
Thanks
 
S

speeddemon

Guest
Not making it home in time to spend time with my kids before they go to bed. I hate it.
 

VoiceOfReason

Telling it like it is
I'll tell you what I see is the hardest part for all the new people that wash out is the sense of urgency. The guys/gals that don't have it struggle mightily because they have nothing inside of them pushing them to get moving. They don't understand the difference between being courteous and holding full blown conversations at each stop.

The thing I struggled with when I first drove was taking EDD as the road map for the route. EDD is not quite the savior it is touted to be. A lot of the high to lows are backwards in it and I would get into a street and realize I just drove past 3 stops. But this only applies when stuff is brand new to you.
 

SmithBarney

Well-Known Member
Hardest part of being new is the feeling of not being able
to finish if you don't know where your going.

After you know where your going, the hardest part is
hoping the load is right.

And after your qualify, the hardest part is knowing
what you are doing day to day... coverage driving
can have its ups and downs... but not knowing really
can suck sometimes.

I think the hardest part of anyday for me
is getting over the overwhelming look of a fully packed p1000
from front to back to the ceiling down the aisle (while still being
stacked out behind the truck)

Overall: Hardest part is Dealing with management.
Their hands are tied, they can't do anything
other than what they are instructed for fear of
losing their jobs.

Just do the best you can, thats all they can ask of you.
 

disneyworld

Well-Known Member
Of starting out as a package driver?
Getting used to the long hours? The stress associated with locating the addresses? The physical nature of the job? Please tell Me Your experiences.
Thanks
Seeing the truck in the morning jam packed and knowing you're screwed for the next 12 hrs and nobody else gives a crap.
 
N

Nameless

Guest
You come into work about 8:15am and see a jam packed truck with a terrible load quality. At that moment, this shooting pain goes through your temples and your stomach turns. After the PCM, there's a message that there is a late air load to the building and you'll have to wait a "few minutes". You finally leave the building with a dozen NDA stops and about 30 minutes to get them delivered once you get to your route. After running your ass off to catch up, you start receiving ODS messages to do pickups all over your route which throws everything off schedule. Then you get messages from the center asking, "what's your ETA?" and "is 100 Main Street a Residential address or Commercial?" or "Can you take 20 stops off some other driver?" or "that driver release at blank street wanted their package on the chair next to the side door, not under the awning of the side door.". By around 8 or 9pm you get back to the building where you have to back your package car into a sardine can tight spot because you're one of the last back that night.

That's your average day.
 

Keepingthemhonest

Bring'n sexy back
The hardest part is waiting 8 years for an opportunity to drive...waking up at 4 am working til 9:30 then going to school/other job for another 8 hours...all the while you are working more hours than most drivers' and banking 1/2 what they make...
 

j4ck4zz

Active Member
The hardest part for me is the fact that I NEVER hear how good of a job that I've done, but on the very rare occasion that I make an error it's warning letter time.
 

DS

Fenderbender
good posts...the hardest part for me is when you are told to do impossible.Like its 4PM you have 10 regular pickups that close at 5pm,you get 7 oncalls that also close at 5.You are then messaged to go to wherever and pick up the 58 pkgs that so and so could not fit in his truck.And then you get 3 more oncalls that close at 5:30.You still have 10 resis to bang off after that and they message you forget your deliveries and sheet them as missed and do 3 more pickups.I hate that.
 
W

who cares

Guest
Being the last full-time driver hired at our center and only getting to drive 5 days in Sept. and not at all this week. My sup. told me to have patience, didn't know what he was refering to...very clear now. Getting to drive on a regular basis other than summer and peak. Just waiting for several to retire at our center.
 

brown67

Well-Known Member
Swing driving. Coming in everyday and not knowing what route you'll be on. Like playing the lottery. Sometimes you win, but most of the time you lose.

I'm lucky and have a wife who understands the job and the hours, but there are a lot of drivers who's wives don't get it. They make life hell for a new driver. Just had a guy quit driving after a year, because his wife swore he'd get home earlier if he would just stop screwing around all day and work harder. After he quit she moaned about the loss of income. Poor guy.
 

browniehound

Well-Known Member
Here is my opinion: being new is tough. I think this is the easy part of your career, thoug. The hard hard part is, after you're a newbie and all gun-ho about the fact that its a good job, and it is a GREAT job, that you have to do this for the next 30 years minimum, that is the diffficult part....
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
Ditto on the trucks loaded top to bottom with more stacked outside. Here are some more....

- having a butt load of bulk stops that can't come off the truck until later in the day

- "Can you wait here ten minutes while I go get a money order"

- DHL already at the dock just to unload one package while I have 50

- Having to sort through the ENTIRE load after I finish NDA deliverys because if I don't I'm sure I'll end up finding a package later in the day that should have been delivered in the morning

- Spoiled drivers sending their NDAs down the belt for someone else to take

- Not enough gas in the truck from where the driver the day before didn't fill up even though there is an on site fuel pump

- Recieving a "Will You Be Over 9.5 Today" message everyday but never recieving help when I say yes because I haven't brown nosed enough to earn it

Man I could go on all day like this but I could also go on about things I like about the job. I think the hardest thing for me, and I didn't mention it above, is when I have several NDAs for a single commercial stop that are CODs and require seperate checks for each one and the customer is slow and wants to transfer as much information about each package onto their receipt in their check book. Instead of filling out the checks and then their reciepts after I'm gone they fill them in as they write each check. Im standing there with more Air to deliver while they are tearing open invoices and writing a thesis about each package.
 

danlin

Well-Known Member
I always have said,"the delivering and picking up for me is the easy part, the dealing with the managerial B. S. is the hard part" 26 year safe driver.
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
Waiting at a locked office door. While they put there finger up to tell you to wait one minute.

Waiting for people to answer at a place that is locked up like FT KNox. And you dont even know if they are on the way.............

Walking up on porchs that should be condemned

Trying to find pkg 5 of 6 when the truck is stuffed tighter than two coats of paint.

Ditto the thesis on each pkg.

Pawn shops with knife in hand to open the pkg before they sign, to make sure everything is there.

Delivering the pkg with a size 12 in the middle of it. That says fragile.

Delivering a pkg that you thought was damaged, and sent back out with a big OK on it, and the person is asking why it was opened and why its late, and they want to open it and check it.

But we make it through most days. And when we have a bad day, we will get told, when we have a good day, no one says much.
 

The Brown Santa

Ping Pong Ball
Delivering the pkg with a size 12 in the middle of it. That says fragile.
Agree. That just sucks. How about packages that are on your car that aren't in your EDD, and you don't find them til your an hour out of that area...

Or, as I've been getting alot of lately...packages with PAL labels that belong in the 5k section in the 8k section or vice versa, basically it's loaded like a garbage truck.
 
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