Anybody pull beer out of Raleigh, NC?

Mims, is the Miller Distributor more or less, they have a fancy website and looks like a lot of straight bodies (doesn't say if they are hiring though, doesn't matter.)
Long Beverage is Coors Light, they have an absolute palace for a warehouse, a very very nice fleet of trucks, lots of refer keg side loaders with chrome rims and bumpers, because they are Coors they are probably non union, usually Coors distributors are non union. That Long Beverage has a lot of fancy equipment all blinged out I hope the company is well run just because companies have Buckingham Palace as the warehouse and a fleet of chromed out Freightliners and Kenworths and newer trailers from what I can tell, doesn't equate to them being a well operated company. After all this is beer once you get that license for that big brand well, you pretty much have a captive audience at that point and really just because they have all this fancy stuff doesn't mean anything because sometimes these big fancy place get money because of ties to the breweries or other things and what it, is, is future suppliers go there see these fancy places and go yeah will take it, even though the place is an operational nightmare. Now I don't know Long Beverage might be a great place to work. I've never worked there, but I can only draw from my experience.


R.A.Jeffreys is Budweiser they have plenty of job opportunities for CDL-A drivers there. They would be an easy target with all the opportunities open you could probably get right in. I don't know what to say, I never worked for a Budweiser distributor. I work for a Coors Light Distributor (a company very similar in size and scope to Long Beverage in fact the company I work for also has Beverage in the name)

You know it's a tough call, I don't know what to tell, you one of the question you could ask is who is union and what are the rules. I work for a non-union beer distributor and I am told on a daily basis what an awful company I work for as far as what the ground rules are.

I would almost be half tempted to go to the Budweiser distributor my self, it's tough no matter where you go in beverage who ever you work for is going to be screwed up somehow.

My whole thing is don't chase the money so much as what drivers at which of these companies have the best quality of life and work for a company that is the most organized meaning operations at the company actually has a clue.

 

You are not going to be the only one in that class..I will be there too..good.luck to you mate!

 

I read the reviews about Long Beverage on indeed.com and it is pretty much exactly what I thought it would be. Big fancy HQ, but run poorly and to much middle management, that's pretty much spot on.

R.A. Jefferies I read the reviews on glass door, low pay, long hours nobody in management is really any kind of leader, pretty standard most of that was from the warehouse which is also standard warehouse people come and go pretty quick. Where I work warehouse people are constantly being hired.

Mims only had one review and they said the pay was good and while managment was new and inexperienced the place was alright. I would give them a shot. Either way you'll have 10 months of struggle at first and then figure out how the place does business have a few good months followed by a few months of shaking you're head going "You know what do we need all these managers for either you fix the problem or you don't." Then after 10-12 months you'll get disgusted with the mediocrity that is the beverage business and seek something else.

Don't get me wrong beer isn't a bad job got me started and actually right now things are going pretty smooth, the thing about being a beer driver is once you get a route and all that and start getting the job done and don't complain or make silly mistakes everyday management pretty much leaves you alone.
I make sure to show up to work on time and I don't complain management isn't interested in fixing problems. It's why it was such a shocker to them last week when I gave my two weeks. I just went in a quit out of the blue they were kind of taken back by that. I've never worked at a company that didn't have a you don't like it there's the door policy. Meaning every place I worked right or wrong, I never brought concerns to I figured they know what they don't do well and most of the time they do, if I don't like it I never felt complaining or trying to get it fixed would work, because I have never seen management fix anything I just figure it's my job as a person to either A. Put up with it or B. Just go in and say yeah this isn't for me right now, sorry bye.

All these companies have a set way of doing business and either you roll with it or you don't. One thing you have to understand about delivering beer is you are dependent upon the sales rep and warehouse and other people all doing there job properly and this is something I said to my bosses I said you have a lot of people in the chain who need to do there job, right, well that's not going to happen, somewhere someway down the line a sales rep will enter the wrong thing the warehouse will miss load a truck (you ever talk to people who work at Sysco Foods? You want to talk about miss loaded trucks and atrociously built pallets.)

 

im going to JCC as well....our orientation is march 2nd. Its for the night/weekend class though. That starts march 30th.

 

Nope. But I'm pulling on a beer right now at home. Good to be a regional driver.

 

Good luck at JCC. Its a great school. You will leave there far ahead of most new CDL holders. I graduated in a Dec 2013