Delivering Food? anyone?

watch out, no doubt there is money to be made here,but at what cost to you? i had my 2nd cadaver acl threaded through my left knee last friday, and i doubt ill be able to do this after im all done with comp. im only 29 years old!! fwiw, its a 60k+ a year job, more if you want the ot.

but the hometime is realistically no better than having a regional job, as you will be up and gone before you see your family, you wont get home until after the kids have gone to bed, and you get to squeeze whatever life you have out of your 10 hour off duty time, so you are constantly running ragged. by the time you are halfway rested on sunday, you have to get up at 3am, if your lucky, and do it all over again.

6-8 tons a day, moved with nothing more than your back and a hand truck, handling everything at least 3 times because of the digging. im not really missin this miserable job, that pays no better than other easier jobs out there...

 

I'll DM when I get to my comp. it will overload my phone lol. But it's a small company you've proly never heard of

 

This. Had a bunch of friends that worked in the McDonalds distribution system. Knees, backs, shoulders, elbows. Unloading 40,000 pounds (frozen, refrigerated and dry compartments on one trailer) night after night, takes its toll. Lifting heavy things is a bad way to make a living.

 

pay in this industry should be on par with car haulers, but we barely get paid what the middle of the road freight guys get. but thats ok, im just going to find something else to do.

 

I interview with US foods Thursday. I'm burned out on the OTR. I did local meat deliveries in my 2nd year of driving. So I kind of know what to expect. Just never had to use the ramp or the different compartments. It also makes me nervous the way some of you talk about digging to find stuff. Also having slight knee pain, but I think its due to sitting for 11 plus hour a day. Along with my age almost 39. I look forward to the challenge. But for those who had knee issues. Was that caused by overloading your 2 wheeler? If I can manage I just plan to do it for a couple of years. Any tips on how to save your knees. I was thinking about getting a knee brace/sock type thing to take a little pressure off of them. Also even if I do not get the gig. I still plan on finding something local but can't wait to hit the gym on a regular basis but still worried about the knees. Seen something about truckers knee so seems you are destined to have bad knee's no matter what type of work you do. Any info or tips are appreciated.

 

Speaking just for myself, my knee problems go clear back to high school. However, years later, they were aggravated by the constant "in and out" of the truck and trailer. If you use a two wheeler right, about the only place it will hurt your knees is going up inclines. (ramp) OTOH, stairs if you have to negotiate them, are knee and back killers.

I didn't do food service, but I did local LTL for a number of years. My knees gave out. Along with a lot of other things. . .

 

My buddy does UPS parcel package car. Been there for 10-15yrs. He's barely 37 and he's having major back issues. This time he's been out 2 months. That job is waaaaayyyy easier and lighter stuff. Foodservice is a lot of heavy stuff and it will take a toll. Look at bodybuilding they don't lift weights 12hrs a day. Their done in 1-2 hrs and they have to rest to avoid ripping something. I would rather find a fueling gig or LTL linehaul. I make what most foodservice guys make or more without hurting my body. I hit the gym regularly to stay in shape and have time off at home. I get more sleep then when I did foodservice. I work nights. It's hard to go to bed early in foodservice and that's not good on the body when it try's to recoupe. You can't tell me your going to get 8 hrs of sleep and go to bed early when you have a family. Especially when you got to get up by 2am-3am, Most guys I worked with in foodservice got and average of 3-4 hrs a night of sleep. As a gym guy that's a recipe to rip something up. A lot of injuries happen at that job I got lucky after my first year of no big injuries. My wrist was jacked up though took a year of linehaul for it to go away but it's still weak.

 

Thats a good post man. Very good and accurate information. I'm a gym guy as well. I burnt myself out on the Arnold blueprint. 8 weeks of 2 hours in the gym 6 days a week on top of food service. I haven't been to the gym in a couple weeks now because of it. I'll take a different approach the next time around. It's so hard to go to bed early even when I'm dead tired because you have stuff you need and want to do. And adequate sleep is sooooo important in the physical world

 

Haha! Yeah the Arnold blueprint is a killer. I did 2 a days with weights and wore my butt out. I was pulling over every hour for a nap and took a week to recover.

Thing I like about foodservice is you can eat like a beast or you won't keep muscle too much cardio.


Yea it's hard to go to bed early, you really fight it cause you want to do things. There is money in foodservice but a price to pay. I worked at US Foods and a senior driver with a good route that took him 15yrs to get was taking in 1800 a week. Showed me his stub. 4 days a week. Now that's gone cause slave driving Sysco took over they work 5 days which is too much to me. Now with the lack of drivers 900-1000 cases are daily. That's a bee itch! If you can move on to linehaul I would but if nights aren't doable cause of family LTL city isn't as bad as foodservice. Or start at nights with fuel and eventually go days.

But foodservice as management and people are usually pretty east to get along with.

But foodservice doesn't care or study that drivers need to recoup from the routes so it's not hard to get hurt. Or don't care. Pay should be more and a 4 day work week with 3 connecting days off should how it be ran.

 

overloading your wheeler is company policy at any of the big shops. i hope you are hiring into a union shop if you plan on loading less on your wheeler to save your knees, as the companies dont care, they want high productivity at any cost!! it doesnt matter if its hourly or case pay, they want a LOT of product moved, and they dont care about customer service, either.

these places are already bad, and getting worse, if you are worried about your already iffy knees, i suggest another line of trucking.the ramps and stairs will kill your knees in a hurry.