Delivering To Grocery Stores

Thanks for the kind words!

Still trying to wrap my head around how the pay is structured. It sort of doesnt compute, but then again theres no added bonuses or much in the way of anything past whatever your hourly pay is in construction.

Because I work Sundays I'm currently on $30/hour for all hours (no OT pay except on holidays). The other hourly option is $26/hour I'm at that does pay overtime after 40 hours. I get 50 cent increases every 6 months until I'm at full scale which is currently $28. My supervisor never got back to me about what my pay per stop would be if I switched to that plan. Hours worked, vacation and holiday pay came out to roughly $91k with around $10k in bonuses. The quarterly bonus check I received in January was 10.89% of my earnings for that quarter, just under $3k, but the taxman took about 1/3rd of it.

I would stay on that pay plan you have currently, too.

Today marks my 3 year anniversary and for the most part I'm still happy here.  Due to everything Covid related, plus new stores opening up we've been hiring like crazy so i for sure have 55 drivers below me in seniority plus atleast another 10 they're looking to hire.  I'm still around #134 though because we've only had 8 or so guys above me leave :(.   We're also going to opening a freezer expansion to our warehouse in April or May to start shipping ice cream and pizza. 

Warehouse has been struggling to keep up so some days loads are pretty late.  That's really the only frustration I have but now that I have some seniority I'm able to take routes to account for it.  To me a great/perfect day is a 1 or 2 am start time, 400 miles with 1 or 2 stores with a backhaul that takes a couple hours.  Yesterday I had a single stop in Lincoln NE, a backhaul in Lincoln that took 3 1/2 hours, then 2 backhauls in Omaha.  First took an hour, the other just 15 minutes, 427 miles.   Made it back with 12 minutes on my 14.  Despite all the time sitting they'll also pay me an additional hour for my break I didn't take.  As it was explained to me time waiting on loads does not count as a break because you're not free to leave the truck/property.  Today was 1 stop Dubuque with a contract freight pickup on the east side of des moines and direct deliver it a few miles away.  I sat for 2 hours at the pickup and was told it'll be about 2 1/2 hours at the delivery (as I'm typing this up).  It was dispatched at 404 miles and I'll likely get close to 16 hours by the time I clock and hour break paid out.  This is the 3rd day of my work week and came into the day with close to 30 hours already. Hourly pay is up to $28/hr with OT after 40.  Lots of places around here are hiring at that or higher but I feel like I have it too good here and the others don't have the quantity of hours I desire.  I'm finally reaping some of the rewards of a seniority system.  I did get stuck in bad weather last week but the storm hit a majority of the state so that's to he expected though I've managed to avoid the other storms that have hit the region.  Many of the drivers above me are approaching normal retirement age so I imagine within the next 5 years I will bump up quite a bit.  There's also a few guys showing interest in the new DC that's going to open in the Nashville TN area.  Hy-vee released plans that they're planning to branch out and open stores in Tennesse, Alabama, Kentucky, and Indiana in the next couple years.  They're also set to further expand into Wisconsin with LaCrosse and Green Bay being run our of our current DCs. 

Although it's not perfect it checks most of the boxes and works for the family.  4 weeks vacation, daily route selection, pay and 4 day work weeks Makes it easier to deal with minor inconveniences. 

Congratulations Rob T. on the three years!

Congratulations Rob!!!

That all sounds good Rob. I was in your area last week. I needed some serious rest so I didn't bother to contact you. One of these days we will get together again.

That job sounds ideal for you, and the fact that very few people above you are quitting is really a testament that other drivers are happy there also.

Thanks guys!

That all sounds good Rob. I was in your area last week. I needed some serious rest so I didn't bother to contact you. One of these days we will get together again.

That job sounds ideal for you, and the fact that very few people above you are quitting is really a testament that other drivers are happy there also.

That would be great. It really works out pretty good for the family. Now that I have a little seniority I have more options for when I want to start my day. Talked It over with wife and kids if they'd rather me keep taking the early midnight runs so im home when boys get home from school but going to bed around dinner time, or take a 2 or 3am run so we can have family dinner and put them to bed . I'll still juggle my schedule a little bit and take a midnight or earlier if we have something going on or it has the amount of hours i want. It usually happens on Saturday, ill take a short 250 or so mile run with a couple stops and make it home just after breakfast. My current schedule is Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday with Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesdays off. I could have done Sunday - Wednesday but chose not to because I'd only have maybe 5 routes to choose from Tuesday and Wednesday and being winter time figured having atleast 20 routes to pick from would be better. Still have 1 family day (sunday) so I'm happy. Towards the end of the school year I'll try to get onto a different schedule that has me working 4 days in a row regardless of days. Everyone will rebid in October so I can get back onto having a weekend day off.

The lack of people leaving is crazy given that trucking in general has an astronomical turn over rate. 2 of those that left passed away (1 on the clock was found in the truck at a rest stop, the other at his cabin with family of natural causes), another lost his medical card but he was in his 70s. Another is currently pulling cases in the warehouse after losing his license for a year for doing 30 mph over in his car. A guy below me lost his license for a year and also pulling cases in the WH for doing 95 in a 55. Dummy was already late for work and went that fast to pass 4 cars at once on a 2 lane road. Not sure if it was one of them he passed, or a car in oncoming traffic but the sheriffs office had the luxury of pulling him over in his car. Another kid got fired for failed drug test supposedly from CBD oil and not knowing that it's still a dumb choice. I'd say the total drivers leaving the company completely whether quit or fired in my 3 years is easily under 15 of what's now close to 185. Funniest reason I heard someone getting fired? Some younger guy walked into the store a couple weeks ago either still in training or just out training and store manager asks how he's doing. His response? Young, dumb and full of *** (hint...it rhythms with dumb). It also didn't help his cause for giving 4 wheelers the finger and throwing trash out the window. Between the 2 guys that lost their license, and that a different driver was kept on after needing to get a tow due to parking on a soft shoulder to take a leak, then fell asleep and rolled a truck a couple weeks later (ultimately fired couple weeks later when he hit another truck in the yard) makes me feel good that if I run into issues they'll have my back. That of course is an addition to what I seen when it came to my serious citation I received within my first year with them.

They put up a job posting the other day for a driver supervisor 7p-5A Thursday-Sunday. I have no interest in it due to paycut from lack of hours since OT is where the money really adds up. It's likely I'd end up making closer to $60k. Besides, I have no interest in sitting in an office after having the freedom of the road. I also have a tendency to not be politically correct which would likely get me in trouble.

In the past many people considering a career have mentioned how they enjoy diaries that show what a driver deals with on a daily basis.  Although I'm not OTR I'll still share my latest adventures.  I may not post every day due to other obligations but I'll still keep track of those events and share when im able.

A couple weeks ago we did our annual bid to determine what our work schedules will be until next October unless I choose to change it to something they post.  I ended up getting a Monday thru Friday schedule but it required me to switch to mile/stop pay so company could save on OT pay.  Most drivers only want to work 4 days, others only want hourly pay which is why this came down to me.  After a couple weeks I'm overall happy with it since I was always trying to pickup an extra route on a weekday then taking a real short 200 mile run Saturday to get home to the family.  After 2 weeks, my paychecks are within $50 of what it had been if I was hourly with OT pay which is something I figured when deciding how to get paid.  However, I would've been able to take 1 hour paid break daily which would give me a bigger paycheck.  I'm paid $0.573 per mile, $31.97 per stop, and $28.50 per hour for other things like breakdowns, meetings, or any time spent at the terminal if I'm running multiple trailers that day.  They also pay 15 minutes my hourly rate for pre/post trip each. This has caused me to bid my route differently than I have in the past.   I set a personal goal of hitting about $400 daily at a minimum.

I can't recall what exactly I ran last week so I'll just share the details on my paysheet.  I ran 2178 miles, 25 stops, and paid 2:30 at my hourly rate for pre/post trip, plus an additional 6:35 detention time between our warehouse getting me loaded late or a backhaul holding me up more than 1:30, and 0:27 spent in the shop getting a license plate light swapped out that needed some rewiring.   My gross paycheck just shy of $2300 with 6 hours remaining on my 70.

Monday and Tuesday of this week I had a trainee, which was quite an interesting experience that I posted about elsewhere here on TT.  We ran a 3 stop load out to Fremont, Columbus, and West Point NE.  We were scheduled to be out at 130am but due to the load being late we didn't hit the road til 351am.

Fremont 645-708

Columbus 808- 925

West Point 1045-11

Backhaul in Urbandale IA 156-232

Back at yard 255. Total miles 474

Tuesday we had a 3am departure time.  Load was ready at 2am but trainee didn't show up at 230 as told, instead it was around 340 if i recall correctly.  We finally hit the road to Shakopee and Glencoe MN after we arrived and got everything hooked up and beginning day paperwork at 410am. 

At Shakopee 826-930. Trainee did nearly all the unloading then wanted to take their hour break before heading to 2nd store so it was probably closer to 1030 before we actually left the property for the next store.

Got to Glencoe 1130 and left at 1150.  Should've taken alot less time but their scissor lift was broken so we had to use an outside dock across the parking lot and move them across the parking lot to get in the store.  Made it back to the terminal at 405pm. 

GPS wanted me to take a bunch of 2 lane roads to get down towards I90 before meeting up with I35.  Instead I added a couple miles to go back the same way we came.  Total miles 528

Wednesday I was on my own again.  Load was ready at 224 right on time as scheduled but my 10 hour break wasn't up until 252 which is when I started my day.  This load was a frozen load with most stops only getting 2 to 3 pallets.  Being paid $31.97 frozen loads are great to get in and out of stores quick as long as nobody else is in the loading dock.  Left the terminal at 318AM for my route that stayed in Iowa.

Coralville 503-518

Iowa City #1 537-625 (held up by 2 other trucks ahead of me)

Cedar rapids #1 710-726

Cedar rapids #4 737-807 (held up by 1 truck)

Backhaul of eggs in Hampton IA 1015-1255 (1:10 hourly detention)

At terminal 218pm. Total miles 358.  Usually I'll check to see if there's another truck going to the same stores as me so I can change the way I run my route.  This day i was just so busy i forgot to.  Had I known another one of our drivers was going to the 1st store I had to wait at I'd have hit that store first since we were both fueling reefer at same time then he went back in the office for paperwork, plus it wouldn't have really been out of the way for me.

Thursday my load was ready nearly an hour early.  I clocked in just before 1am.  Left the terminal at 120am

Cedar Rapids #6 325-4

Cedar Rapids #3 415-420 (1 pallet of dry goods)

Moline Illinois 549-634

Geneseo 703-725

Backhaul in Iowa City 851-1017

Back at terminal 1222PM. Total miles 447.  This load literally everything went nearly perfect.  The only negative was the backhaul taking so long but I used that time to get the previous days activity documented on my end of week paysheet and a quick nap otherwise everything went perfectly.

Friday was far from perfect.  I came in 30 minutes early because i had a big day.  I always pretrip my truck and trailer at the same time and this time it bit me in the butt.  After I hooked up while inspecting my 5th wheel my drive tire looked low.  Kicked it, sure enough flat.  Thankfully I didn't raise landing gear or hook airlines yet so I went over to the shop and had them swap it out.  Had i pretripped the truck first i would've saved a few minutes.  Got paid hourly for the 22 minutes it took to swap out. I had a mixed load, one that is loaded on a dual evap (2 reefer units) so I can have fresh product on the rear with frozen in the front.  With mixed loads the warehouse is SUPPOSED to load your first stop down one side so you can minimize other stops you need to move to get to their frozen.  After you're done you move pallets around so all your weight isn't on one side.  Problem is the warehouse loaded pallets side by side.  I needed to move all my other pallets to one side to get to their frozen.  Well because the loader scanned all my pallets to show that they're scanned on the right side of my trailer rather than the actual location it turns out the frozen was on the left side requiring me to move all the pallets again since I took a guess their frozen was on the right side which was incorrect.  This store also has a small backroom that has a scissor lift (take one pallet down at a time) and needed to take 5 pallets of other stores off to move stuff around.  I ended up spending nearly an hour longer here than I have in the past which irritated me.  When I seen the loadmap screwed up I called the warehouse just after I left the yard and the only info I was able to get out of them about load was my last store is the only one (of 5) to not have frozen.  I could have demanded they reload it so paperwork was accurate but I didn't want to wait an hour for that to happen.  There was a drivers meeting I hoped to make at 330pm so I was in a hurry.  Had I known pallets were loaded the way they were I would've had it reloaded so my first store would be down one side.  My first stop was scheduled to be one of our gas stations that we pull the pallet to the back and they take it down with a forklift.  They also had 1 case on 1 pallet in the nose.  When I have that gas station I always do the store first to make sure I can get pallet all the way to the rear of the trailer, plus the store it's usually routed with is alot easier to hit the dock from the direction I enter town. Most of the drive from Waterloo to LaCrosse is 2 lane roads. I left the yard at 214.

Waterloo #1 403-522

Waterloo Gas Station 531-539

Cresco 7-725

Waukon 816-829

LaCrosse WI 940-1010 (sat an additional 4 minutes after unload to satisfy DOT break requirement on logs.  4 hour drive back and had 4:19 before needing a 30 minute break.  Stopped on way back for a cheeeeeeeseburger and sodie water from BK just into Iowa)

Terminal 233 PM total miles 565

  the only upside of my day was the fall foliage and very hilly terrain in Northeast Iowa.  This was my view leaving LaCrosse entering MN on I-90

   I planned to attend the drivers meeting scheduled for 330 but after addressing someone in management and felt that my complaint about the way my truck was loaded and the loadmap was done I went home instead.  While addressing my concern and how it negatively impacted me doing my job he interrupted me asking how the LaCrosse store was (they just opened a couple days prior).  I felt like he was being dismissive and given that he was just promoted to his position after nearly 2 decades running the warehouse he could've atleast taken the 30 seconds for me to explain how it makes more work for the driver (ya know, since now he runs transportation).  If he didn't care about feedback no point in attending a meeting, they'll make changes without taking our thoughts into consideration. 

I forgot to snag a pic of my weekly paysheet but I had a little less than 2400 miles with 21 stops.  Gross paycheck after factoring in detention and trainer pay should be about $2300 with 4 hours remaining on my 70.

After a very fun and busy weekend it was time to get back to work.  Today I took another run up to the new LaCrosse WI store with a contract delivery about halfway back just across the IA border, and a drop/hook at Smithfield in Mason City.  I clocked in at 149am and when I fired up my truck for the day the check engine light was on.  I went straight to the shop to see if the code was resolved but someone forgot to clear it.  After about 20 minutes it turns out it was for an issue with an antenna above the headliner.  Didn't impact safely operating the vehicle so I told the shop I'd write it up when I get back.  Waited another 20 minutes or so for them to finish loading my truck and finally hit the road around 253am. 

Made it to LaCrosse at 655 and didn't get finished unloading until 755.  Unfortunately another one of our trucks was also delivering, and because I had a full load I allowed pepsi to unload quick and move out of the dock before checking it in so he could continue on with his day.  This time I was greeted by a couple managers that told me just get it off the truck and they'll take care of the rest.  Just the way I like it!  Set sail and made my way to my contract delivery in Lake Mills IA. Got there at 1021. When I pulled in it was a small facility and the first door I seen said shipping.  Went to check in and the guy told me this is shipping, go around the corner and you'll find receiving.  I do as I'm told and I'm greeted by the same guy at that door.  He gets me unloaded super quick and by 1030 I'm back on the road. 

Next was head down about 25 minutes to Mason City for my drop and hook at Smithfield.  I had an issue previously here where the guard wouldn't allow me through the gate because my fuel level showed 3/4 despite topping it off before I left the yard.   In that instance I ran to the truck stop and managed to put 1 gallon or so in if my memory serves me correctly.  This time I explained I topped it off to the point I almost overfilled it to prevent the same issue again.  Well, turns out the guage in this trailer also showed 3/4 despite knowing it was full and when I tried to explain its full he refused me entry due to faulty guage.  Called dispatch informed them of the dilemma and was only onsite from 11 15 to 1125.  Still got paid for the stop even though I didn't pick anything up. 

Made it back to the terminal and was clocked out by 130.  Made roughly $460 for little less than 12 hours.  Logged 552 miles today.

  tomorrow I'm heading to 2 stores in the Minneapolis market with a drop/hook up there I've never been to.  I probably won't have time to post tomorrow as I have to take my oldest to his Cub Scout meeting tomorrow after dinner.