Any Pepsi drivers out there?

Discussion in 'Motor Carrier Questions - The Inside Scoop' started by Sentinel, Mar 8, 2007.

  1. Sentinel

    Sentinel Bobtail Member

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    I have been asked some good questions about Pepsi Bay Drivers (also called "Customer Delivery" drivers) and was hoping we had a Pepsi driver on the board? If so, can you PM me?
     
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  3. notarps4me

    notarps4me Road Train Member

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    I am not a pepsi driver, but have pulled a lot of their freight. Every pepsi load I had was ate up. Took forever to load, had the wrong load on it, overloaded or something was wrong. I knew a lot of their route drivers. They all quit. They told me it was the most ate up outfit they ever worked for. Always having their pay messed up. Billed for products when they had to go back and take pepsi back from a customer. I was offered a route job from a local pepsi plant. They gave me the choice of bulk or route. I declined. When asked by the manager I told him what I said here. He told me we used to have problems like that, but we took care of it. Yeah, right.

    My wife is a manager at walmart. She said their worst vendor is pepsi. Something is always screwed up. I don't doubt that one bit. Good luck if you go that route. I know several Coke drivers and they all say coke is a good place to work. I know 2 RC drivers one likes it 1 hates it. I never knew a pepsi driver that stayed long.
     
  4. Sentinel

    Sentinel Bobtail Member

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    Thanks for the input but I'm definitely not going that route. What little I know of that type position they really don't pay well enough and there are to many variables that can decrease your pay. OTR is actually a better way to go. There are local delivery positions that do pay well but this does not appear to be one.

    I have a young man asking me questions as he is mulling over a job offer. He is under 21 so can not get a CDL for interstate transport yet. From what I am told the position is base salary and commission. The base salary is small and the commission is pennies for each case unloaded from the truck. There is a minimum number of cases unloaded each day as a performance requirement. The stops are all at Mom & Pops, 7/11's, bodega's, etc. As you can see these are all low volume customers as compared to the Wal-Marts, etc. In addition the position would also require setting up promo displays, etc.

    I ran through some scenarios with him to get an idea of what the expected take home would be. It appears that the pay would be fairly low depending on many variables. Some of the unknowns were either not explained well or not covered.

    1. How large of a service area does one driver generally cover or do they do it by customer count instead of a square mile basis?

    2. They do use those short trailers so how many cases generally fit on each trailer? This would provide an indication of how many times the driver has to return to the plant for newly loaded trailer.

    3. On average (rough estimate) how many cases do these small stores generally order at a time and how many stops each week at the same store? This adds to the number of stops and cuts down on the number of cases unloaded each day.

    For a young person under 21 trying to get their foot in the door it could lead to a position with Pepsi's (or Frito Lays as Pepsi owns them) larger distribution operation with full tractors and trailers. Either way he can play on a Tonka Toy and get the feel for the basic driving requirements. Unfortunately Pepsi has gone to automatics in their fleet.
     
  5. mattyk

    mattyk Bobtail Member

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    Sentinel...
    I briefly worked for Pepsi out here in the Phoenix metro market. Although I was not a driver but rather a sales/merchandiser I am pretty familiar with how they run things. If this is the Pepsi Bottling Group, which is who they are out here he needs to run, run, run away as fast as he can. They are the biggest bunch of slave drivers I have ever seen. The pay may sound lucrative at the outset, but the amount of hours and physical work will eat a man up pretty quick. I left Pepsi about a year ago to return to a beer wholesaler and pursue my CDL through their in house program. I am much happier now than when I worked for them. As far as the specific question's you asked I'll try to answer them based on my knowledge from working both with Pepsi and as a beer driver.

    1. How large of a service area does one driver generally cover or do they do it by customer count instead of a square mile basis?
    Every day there will be a set list of customers to deliver to. This will probably be somewhere in between 20 to 30 accounts. Typically they try to route them in the same area to minimize drive time, but this doesn't always happen.

    2. They do use those short trailers so how many cases generally fit on each trailer? This would provide an indication of how many times the driver has to return to the plant for newly loaded trailer.
    If they are like Pepsi out here they use 16 bay trailers. Based on what I know about how many of what kind of case fit on pepsi's pallets, a full load can vary between 750 to 1750 cases. An average full load for soda would probably be around 800 to 1100 in a 16 bay. I have never heard of a sideloader having to come back to the plant for a re-load. It does happen in their bulk trucks constantly, sometimes 3 reloads a day!

    3. On average (rough estimate) how many cases do these small stores generally order at a time and how many stops each week at the same store? This adds to the number of stops and cuts down on the number of cases unloaded each day.
    In the "small format" segment (as pepsi refers to it) things can really vary. I didn't ever have any experience in it when I was working for pepsi as I was dealing with grocery chains. But if my experience as a beer driver can be any indicator, average for most small c-stores is somewhere between 100 and 150 case's per week. This will most certainly almost double anytime there is a holiday, or if new ad programs happen at these stores and you have to bring in a mess of product to build new displays.

    If your friend wants to work as a driver for a vendor I would urge him (if allowable by law in your area) to try to get in with a beer company. If that doesn't work I would try someone like Frito Lay or a Dairy distributor. If soda was the only option I would most certainly go with Coke. At least I know that in this market they are union and pay pretty decent. I myself would rather starve than go back to work for Pepsi.
     
  6. Sentinel

    Sentinel Bobtail Member

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    mattyk,

    Yes it is the Pepsi Bottling Group her in Dallas. Thanks for the information. I have passed it along and now it is up to him to decide. I'll let him know about Coke, beer and dairy ideas ideas. I believe Frito Lay is owned by Pepsi and have seen their guys here not only unloading but stocking shelves as well. I would be interested to know if the Frito Lay people also have the same base/commission concept.

    That was very good info and better than some of the scenarios we ran. One item of interest was the number of daily stops. I've watched these guys before and it seems for a simple 50 case dropoff at one location was approximately 20 - 30 minutes from the time they pulled in to the time they pulled out. If the proprietor decided to delay them for any reason that could be a big factor. He was told that Pepsi does not run their people more than 60 hours a week (12 hours a day X 5 days). With drive time between stops I was calculating about 24 stops max a day with no lunch hour ( 2/Hr X 12 Hrs).

    I didn't realize those trucks could hold that many cases! At least that is one good point that it would eliminate the need to return for a new load.
     
  7. mattyk

    mattyk Bobtail Member

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    Sentinel,

    From what I have observed out here, if he can get on with Frito, do it! While the Pepsi Bottling Group (NYSE PBG) is now a completely separate, publicly traded company, Frito is not and is still under the direct ownership of Pepsi Cola. From what the Frito guys out here tell me, their benefits are a lot better, and they actually at different points in time get granted PepsiCo shares into their various investment portfolios. It also seems to me like they deal with a lot less hassle and BS. Oh yeah, a case of chips ways a bunch less than a case of soda!

    On the other end, if he's doing small format type routes with Frito, he's not going to be driving a truck that remotely resembles anything that requires a class A license. All their class A work is delivering bulk to grocery accounts. That pretty much means pulling up to the dock, rolling out their goofy carts they have their cases on, scanning them in with the receiver, and wheeling them to their put away area. He would never have to fill a shelf, ever.
     
  8. dstockwell

    dstockwell Light Load Member

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    The local Pepsi here started using log books, becuase their records of the hours the drivers were working was off the sheet. How many exactly, I do not know, but a Pepsi driver came out to the school to brush up on logs because they had to start using them.
     
  9. Sentinel

    Sentinel Bobtail Member

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    mattyk,

    I've heard Frito Lay was good. Am surprised how each division in companies are so different in pay and compensations. Had to laugh at the weight inference also of hauling the loads into stores.:biggrin_255:

    dstockwell,

    I can understand the logging issue. Seems their delivery quotas, organization of routes, etc. favor pushing the drivers hard. Would not surprise me if the drivers were working many free hours to meet quotas and just not logging in/out properly for the 100 mile rule.

    Thanks for the info guys and if you are aware of any other good or bad points please let me know. The youngster is only 20 and has his heart set on eventually driving a full size rig. He's a smart kid and can go in any direction he wants. Nothing wrong with a career in trucking but he is about to waste a lot of talent in other areas. Trying to talk him into getting a a local job in any company, doing anything, with educational benefits and pursuing a degree. Youngsters today don't seem to look far enough in the future. Wow, I can't even remember what it was like to be 20 years old, LOL!!
     
  10. Truckin Juggalo

    Truckin Juggalo Medium Load Member

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    Anyone here work for pepsi bottling group or coke or any other company that does customer delivers if you do please send me a PM i would like to ask you a few questions about working for them
     
  11. 4campbells1

    4campbells1 Bobtail Member

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    I have "tried" to correctly answer their questions online and everytime they post for an opening, I get a message back that they don't have anything listed for my qualifications???? Strange; is there right and wrong answers to their questions?
     
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