Hours, Food Service.

Hey guys,

I've just been reading this forum for like 2 years it's been useful. I need help or to vent. I work food service and the job is burning me out. I've done this about the entire 2 years I have been driving, the same company. It goes up and down. Maybe it's just down but when I get a route done in 12 hours, they just add more work until it is impossible.

No one ever says anything about running over the clock. I ask them all the time to remove the added work from the routes and they will not. They have scheduled me backhauls 3 hours from base after 12 hours of work. I did this route for months once a week until they had us bid and I got out of there. My new route was doable in 13 hours but I feel like someone just wanted to squeeze that last hour and added additional stops. I work four 14-hour days (sometimes, usually, one turns into 16.) Nobody is telling me I have to work that long but they are also refusing to fix it and just send me out week after week and if I say it takes 16 they tell me you're only allowed to work 14. If I refuse to go they ask me if I want to quit. The icing is that after four 14's every week, once or twice a month they tell me I am on call for a potential 5th 14-hour shift. We get no holidays and 1 week a year off.

There you have my story. I would like to get fired to collect that juicy unemployment. I would also just like to work 50 hours a week doing food service. I really distrust our government and our regulating agencies so I don't want to complain and honestly, I don't think I have a complaint because nobody is forcing me to do anything. I have tried bringing back the extra stops, they just whine about it and there they are again next week and I miss out on some money leaving them. Any advice? Are all the foodservice jobs like this? I am looking for other work but I insist on food service or a pepsi truck or something where I don't drive all day. Thank you

Why don't you try flatbed? You're insisting on one type of work, but you're also burning yourself out with that type of work. That makes no sense on any level. Everything you've described is everything we've heard and teach about food service. It's rough. The money is good. The pressure is always increasing. The satisfaction with the job is usually not there.

The reason I mentioned flatbed is because you'll get a little physical work mixed in with the job. The combination may be much more to your liking at this point.

Now, if you're gonna say, "I want to be home everyday." I'm going to ask, "How's that working out for ya now? How much time do you actually spend with your family?" There are plenty of flatbed opportunities out there that get you home every weekend, and the pay is very decent.

You are in a truck driving job that pays hourly. That gives every incentive to the company to insist you get more done all the time. Sounds familiar doesn't it? As an OTR driver, paid mileage pay, all the incentive is yours. That's a beautiful thing!

I spent about a year at a half working for PFG (performance food group) home terminal in Rock Island ill. What you described in many ways brought back many memories. Between my time as a delivery driver or the 2 years I worked at sysco warehouse I was constantly told they dont care how things get done as long as they get done. In foodservice it's a double edged sword. You work harder to get done earlier or make more $$ if you're on incentive pay (sysco) and they continue to add more stops and cases because you've demonstrated you can do it. I delivered a pup trailer 5 days a week and I had 7 to 800 cases, close to 20,000 pounds most days. There was one day they had given me 24 or 25 stops and when I ended up sending back 4 stops they gave me grief about it. They told me that I was only scheduled 13 hours and I need to hurry up. They got quiet pretty quickly after I showed them several stops had me arriving and leaving at the same time to make it look possible. The reason they kept piling stuff on me was because I showed I could do it. When I quit one of the guys I worked with came with me. In our yard we had 3 trucks always loaded to the tail. Since we left they now have 5 trucks with only 10,000 pounds on each. Have you considered doing P&D? You wouldn't be driving most of the day, instead youd be sitting in loading docks. Some members here have said they make about 70k.

Welcome, Bobby.

My new route was doable in 13 hours but I feel like someone just wanted to squeeze that last hour and added additional stops.

You're right. They want to add additional stops to use your full 14 hours of availability. That's their job - to move as much freight as possible with as few drivers and trucks as possible.

if I say it takes 16 they tell me you're only allowed to work 14. If I refuse to go they ask me if I want to quit.

I believe you're allowed to work one 16 hr shift per week. It's the 16 hr exception:

16-Hour Short-Haul Exception

Used if you normally come back to your work location and go home every day. It allows you to extend your 14-hour clock to 16 hours, but only once every 7 consecutive days. You must:

• Return to your work location that day, and for the previous 5 "workdays".
• Be released from duty within 16 hours after coming on duty.
• Only use this exception once every 7 consecutive days, unless you have taken a 34-hour restart.

It doesn't sound like they're doing anything illegal or immoral. It's just a very demanding job. I can totally understand why it's burning you out. You're far from unique in that regard, as you know.

I would also just like to work 50 hours a week doing food service.

Well, you're working 56 hours now. That's not much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.

Are all the food-service jobs like this? I am looking for other work but I insist on food service or a Pepsi truck or something where I don't drive all day.

I'm pretty sure almost all food-service and beverage delivery jobs are like that. You may hunt around and find some that put in fewer hours, but then again they might tell you it's only forty hours a week but a month after you begin you realize the guys putting in 50+ hours get the best runs and the rest get the scraps. Sometimes there are no genuine gravy train opportunities.

You're also working four days a week right now. There aren't many opportunities like that. So that's something to consider also.

My nephew delivers for FedEx Home Delivery. He's on salary, has no benefits, and had to work at least one day on the weekends for several years before they gave him a weekday run. During the holidays he puts in six days a week for about two months straight and works an ungodly number of hours without extra pay because he's on salary.

Local work is just very demanding. You can hunt around for an easier job, but that's almost certainly going to mean working 5 or 6 days a week, taking a lesser salary, or giving up some benefits. It's a supply and demand world. You're working a super tough job and the drivers for that type of work are in high demand so you make really good money and only work four days a week. Take a less demanding job and you're going to give up some of the better perks of the job you have now.

There's no easy answer.

Where do you live? LTL compaines for P&D work might be a good fit for you. At Old Dominion you generally would not work more than 50 to 55 hours in a week. most LTL would have you working about the same amount of hours as I understand it.

Pepsi is not the direction you want to go. "We train drivers for other companies" -previous driver manager (now delivers gas and smiles every day)

I spent about a year at a half working for PFG (performance food group) home terminal in Rock Island ill. What you described in many ways brought back many memories. Between my time as a delivery driver or the 2 years I worked at sysco warehouse I was constantly told they dont care how things get done as long as they get done. In foodservice it's a double edged sword. You work harder to get done earlier or make more $$ if you're on incentive pay (sysco) and they continue to add more stops and cases because you've demonstrated you can do it. I delivered a pup trailer 5 days a week and I had 7 to 800 cases, close to 20,000 pounds most days. There was one day they had given me 24 or 25 stops and when I ended up sending back 4 stops they gave me grief about it. They told me that I was only scheduled 13 hours and I need to hurry up. They got quiet pretty quickly after I showed them several stops had me arriving and leaving at the same time to make it look possible. The reason they kept piling stuff on me was because I showed I could do it. When I quit one of the guys I worked with came with me. In our yard we had 3 trucks always loaded to the tail. Since we left they now have 5 trucks with only 10,000 pounds on each. Have you considered doing P&D? You wouldn't be driving most of the day, instead youd be sitting in loading docks. Some members here have said they make about 70k.

A lot of the guys I work with clear 70 without a problem. I'm not anywhere near that because I came in with no experience and spent 3 or 4 months as a driver apprentice, but I should be able to clear 50. I think somebody with food service experience would have no trouble doing P&d. The only thing they may not like is the dock part of it.

Well shoot that settles that. I'm lucky by your standards. Thanks guys. I'll just keep driving this truck here I suppose.

Where do you live? LTL compaines for P&D work might be a good fit for you. At Old Dominion you generally would not work more than 50 to 55 hours in a week. most LTL would have you working about the same amount of hours as I understand it.

I'm in Ohio. Dayton. I know we've got Dayton Freight. I might ask them. While I've got some attention is 2 years about enough experience to bail? And will only driving a 48' trailer matter? Do I load and unload P&D? My ultimate goal is to make decent money, not get obese, and also not work 70, reset and do it again till I die.

Where do you live? LTL compaines for P&D work might be a good fit for you. At Old Dominion you generally would not work more than 50 to 55 hours in a week. most LTL would have you working about the same amount of hours as I understand it.

I'm in Ohio. Dayton. I know we've got Dayton Freight. I might ask them. While I've got some attention is 2 years about enough experience to bail? And will only driving a 48' trailer matter? Do I load and unload P&D? My ultimate goal is to make decent money, not get obese, and also not work 70, reset and do it again till I die.

You unload P&D you don't load. Although there are instances where it's in your best interest to arrange things in a manner that works for you. Most of the stops are docks or have forklifts, but sometimes you get the ones you do by hand (usually residential). You're looking at about 50 to 55 hours a week. At FedEx we use 48s for p&d majority of the time. You are restricted to one area, but there may be days when you get sent a little out of your way because the driver there can't make a pick up. Being at the bottom of the list may require some dock work, but you move up pretty fast. You might not be able to break the top 15 because those guys don't leave or move, but you'll be high enough where the dock is non existent to you.