Word of Caution for Rookie Drivers

quad decade guy

Well-Known Member
If you ever played football......pkg. was cake.

Two a days in August around here were brutal. Our second practice started at 17:00. Two water breaks in 2 hours.....with ambient temp water filled with dirt from the wind. We had no shade. Full pad 220 yard conditioning sprints at the end.

It built character and toughness. And we got paid nothin. Just Friday night glory....

I could have walked into ANY military basic camp pr program and breezed through it....guaranteed. We were strong, ultra-fit and tough.

To say this.....pkg is no picnic......but there are plenty of tougher jobs for less pay and benefits.
 

Brownslave688

You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
The first time? Result of improper nutrition and being dumb enough to stay in the back of the truck looking for pieces that were showed as scanned on-car but just weren't there.

The second time? I don't think I properly recovered/replenished from the first before being thrown right back in the *. I should've seen a doctor, gotten evaluated and been cleared to return. Instead I relied on my own determination of how I was feeling. But that second time I didn't even hit the heat cramp stage, it was just an overall sense of everything being wrong with my body. I felt on the verge of another incident, so I went to get bloodwork to find out what exactly I was missing as I've been taking supplements and absolutely staying hydrated since the first incident. The doctor deemed me an emergency and recommended an ambulance to be treated at the ER for extremely low sodium and chloride levels. Sodium chloride. Table salt, man. The one thing I thought I got too much of through my diet.

End of the day, though? I might just not be built for this. I don't wanna say that but the possibility's there. Summer's a mother friend*er in those trucks, I much prefer the dead of winter when it's 15F-20F to these 95F-100F degree days. idk how you people on the West and in the deep South manage this job. It also doesn't help when you're on a 200+ stop route in a 600, though.
A week should be plenty of time to recover. If you had to abandon the route you should have went to the hospital and gotten fluids.

The key to staying safe in the heat for me is start the day hydrated. You can’t drink a ton during the day and then go home and have one drink with dinner and go to bed. I drink 40 ounces of water before I go to bed and then another 40 when I get up in the morning.
 

PPH_over_9000

Well-Known Member
A week should be plenty of time to recover. If you had to abandon the route you should have went to the hospital and gotten fluids.

The key to staying safe in the heat for me is start the day hydrated. You can’t drink a ton during the day and then go home and have one drink with dinner and go to bed. I drink 40 ounces of water before I go to bed and then another 40 when I get up in the morning.

I agree wholeheartedly, and after all the training modules they've had me do in the past two weeks I don't know why my management team allowed me to tell them I'd be okay and refuse any kind of treatment with my cascading muscle cramps all over my body well into the night/next day. It's literally in the modules that an employee suffering heat exhaustion or heat cramps for more than an hour should be taken for medical evaluation despite their protests, but again, that was me making that decision and they respected it... likely because it would help minimize any hits to my center's budget if I took option days and got better on my own.

Once I felt the onset a second time, I came to the realization that another night of muscle cramps put the fear of God into me and I had to suck it up and go see a doctor for the first non-emergency visit of my adult life.


Its sad how you dont see kids playing outside anymore when its above 80 degrees.

Man! I was one of those latchkey kids out every day for as long as I could. If it was too hot to hoop or bmx, all the kids were at one of the neighborhood pools until close.

Then some time in my 20's I just succumbed to the AC lifestyle.



Bless you for adding a tldr because I damn sure wasn’t going through all that

No worries! There's always at least one person that just sees a wall of text, and before I hit post I had a feeling there'd be wayyyy more than that with this thread. I just couldn't figure out a decent summation so it ended up being as basic as it is.
 
If you ever played football......pkg. was cake.

Two a days in August around here were brutal. Our second practice started at 17:00. Two water breaks in 2 hours.....with ambient temp water filled with dirt from the wind. We had no shade. Full pad 220 yard conditioning sprints at the end.

It built character and toughness. And we got paid nothin. Just Friday night glory....

I could have walked into ANY military basic camp pr program and breezed through it....guaranteed. We were strong, ultra-fit and tough.

To say this.....pkg is no picnic......but there are plenty of tougher jobs for less pay and benefits.
RoNqvEV.gif
 

rod

Retired 22 years
If you ever played football......pkg. was cake.

Two a days in August around here were brutal. Our second practice started at 17:00. Two water breaks in 2 hours.....with ambient temp water filled with dirt from the wind. We had no shade. Full pad 220 yard conditioning sprints at the end.

It built character and toughness. And we got paid nothin. Just Friday night glory....

I could have walked into ANY military basic camp pr program and breezed through it....guaranteed. We were strong, ultra-fit and tough.

To say this.....pkg is no picnic......but there are plenty of tougher jobs for less pay and benefits.
You tell them Al Bundy
 

Est.1998

Well-Known Member
Buy one of those big insulated water jugs, mine is under armor brand, and fill with ice to the top and water. The ice solidifies into a large chunk and stays most of the day just keep refilling with bottles. I also drink Atleast one Gatorade and 2 small Red Bull’s ( I don’t recommend the Red Bull though). Also in the past I’ve put bottles of water in the freezer until they’re mostly frozen . I take my old white tshirt undershirts and cut the sleeves off and wear that under my brown shirt. That’s if you wear undershirts. For my diet I eat a tleast one banana everyday for breakfast in addition to somthing else . For lunch I take around 12-1 and eat a sandwich and crackers or pringles or somthing . Not the healthiest but it is high sodium. If your truck doesn’t have a fan you can buy a rechargeable clip on fan but I’m not sure how they work I’ve only seen them, might help.
I wrote my truck up for a fan, shop declined my request reason: truck is on the crash list can't install.
WTF is the crash list and could this also be a reason my truck doesn't have one of those cameras?
 

Est.1998

Well-Known Member
No it means it's designated to go to the boneyard
Oh no!
This truck is one of my favorites!
It's quick on the draw when i need to get into traffic, turn radius is awesome!
Never shifts inhibit, it's wider than any other I've driven, seat is somewhat comfy, has that shelf in the cab (great place for tape guns and my Bluetooth speaker),
wide floor in the cab (none of that useless handrail taking up space.)
 

MECH-lift

Union Brother ✊🧔 RPCD
(this is a bit long-winded with a lot of numbers. my apologies if it's too much to read, but there is a tl;dr at the bottom)

I'm a rookie myself (less than two years driving) so please don't take this as condescending. This is my second summer and I've suffered heat exhaustion twice in the past three weeks. The first time I was pulled from the route and had about a week off to replenish/recover. Felt fine after a week, went back to work, made it three days before it happened again (I finished the route that day but had to call out the next.) So I let my team know, went to get bloodwork done to figure out what I'm missing, and next thing you know the doctor's saying I need an ambulance to transport me to an ER due to extremely low sodium content.

I drink 10-14 16oz bottles of water a day, at least 56oz of sugar-free Gatorade, and I keep a liter of Pedialyte in my cooler at all times to sip on as needed. Where I've been lacking is my diet, so I also take 3 supplements a day: magnesium, potassium gluconate, and dicalcium phosphate. Thing is, dealing with heat indexes of 100F-115F (about 80% humidity), it just wasn't enough.

This job is absolutely easy in a sense. You follow the methods, deliver the boxes, get the job done. Dealing with the elements can be a dance with the devil, though, and in these hot summer months you really need to take care of yourselves and be aware of any negative changes in your body/the way you're feeling so that you don't end up in the same position I've come to find myself in.

Proper hydration isn't just about slamming fluids and taking your lunch break when you're sweating for 10-12hrs in this summer heat. You've got to ensure that your diet is also providing you with more than just energy and a feeling of fullness, even when taking supplemental minerals and electrolytes. You can't let yourself get stuck in the back of the truck looking for that one package that you were just told was scanned and loaded on-car. Keep an eye out for shady areas when pulling up to a delivery location-- even if you've gotta walk an extra 20ft, do what you can to park out of direct sunlight and make sure to occasionally open the bulkhead and backdoors to let some of that oven-worthy heat escape back out into the wild. Make mental notes of places where you could take a break in an air-conditioned environment, and for Christ's sake use them to cool down and prevent yourself from starting to develop any kind of heat illness.

I know they pound this stuff into us at PCMs, and I also know that once you're on-car you may just want to get the day over with as quickly as you can (especially the newer drivers.) It's easy to tell yourself you just need to weather the storm for one more hour, or you'll get that next bottle of water after your next stop, or you'll wait until you're in a certain area to take all or part of your lunch break. Don't do that. When the thought first hits you that you need water, get water. Same with food, finding a place to cool-down, all of that. Don't postpone it and, if anything, try to make it a habit to take action before you have those thoughts.

I hope everybody stays safe and healthy out there because, depending on where you work, that can be much easier said than done.


tl;dr: Don't be dumb. Take care of yourself during these summer months.


*edited a few times to make for a cleaner read. I always proofread after I hit post, lol. Like an idiot
RPCD don’t get dehydrated

🧔✊
 

Brownslave688

You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
I agree wholeheartedly, and after all the training modules they've had me do in the past two weeks I don't know why my management team allowed me to tell them I'd be okay and refuse any kind of treatment with my cascading muscle cramps all over my body well into the night/next day. It's literally in the modules that an employee suffering heat exhaustion or heat cramps for more than an hour should be taken for medical evaluation despite their protests, but again, that was me making that decision and they respected it... likely because it would help minimize any hits to my center's budget if I took option days and got better on my own.

Once I felt the onset a second time, I came to the realization that another night of muscle cramps put the fear of God into me and I had to suck it up and go see a doctor for the first non-emergency visit of my adult life.




Man! I was one of those latchkey kids out every day for as long as I could. If it was too hot to hoop or bmx, all the kids were at one of the neighborhood pools until close.

Then some time in my 20's I just succumbed to the AC lifestyle.





No worries! There's always at least one person that just sees a wall of text, and before I hit post I had a feeling there'd be wayyyy more than that with this thread. I just couldn't figure out a decent summation so it ended up being as basic as it is.
Dude management doesn’t care. I’ve seen an employee that ended up in the hospital for multiple days with the beginning stages of organ failure dropped off at their house because god forbid an injury be reported.
 

Last One In

Well-Known Member
It's literally in the modules that an employee suffering heat exhaustion or heat cramps for more than an hour should be taken for medical evaluation despite their protests, but again, that was me making that decision and they respected it... likely because it would help minimize any hits to my center's budget if I took option days and got better on my own.
You were having muscle cramps, declined treatment, management should have sent you anyway.

I know you are kinda new. Do not worry EVER about the center "taking a hit." This job is a marathon, not a sprint. 25 to 30 years of this.
 
Oh no!
This truck is one of my favorites!
It's quick on the draw when i need to get into traffic, turn radius is awesome!
Never shifts inhibit, it's wider than any other I've driven, seat is somewhat comfy, has that shelf in the cab (great place for tape guns and my Bluetooth speaker),
wide floor in the cab (none of that useless handrail taking up space.)
I feel your pain my brother mine just got designated to be beer cans....
 
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