Local driving for new cdl holder

If you need a part-time job, now is the hiring season for many of the beverage companies. Many of them will be adding people for summer merchandising positions due to the increased volume of sales. It would be a great way to get your foot in the door and learn more about the business and the products that they carry. Then after graduating and getting your CDL, you shouldn't have much problem getting a full-time driving position. Just do a good job and prove to them that you are a hard worker because companies love to "promote" from within.

 

The low pay is probably per hour, but you end up making more due to forced overtime.

The 21 hour run would be 3 times a week, which means at least 63 hours a week if everything goes well. The 21 hours would be split between 10 one day and 11 the next "day" after a 10 hour break.

So count on working 6 days a week, making a 2 day run three times back to back. You'll get plenty of overtime.

You can certainly make good money but it can be back-breaking work. Let me tell you, as one who did my fair share of manual labor years ago, and now have serious back issues at age 46, treat your back well, and if it hurts, stop doing it. Toughing it out is one reason my back is as bad as it is, had I known my discs were collapsing like deflating tires, I would have stopped doing physical work that put even more pressure on my back. I was told to keep moving, exercise is best, and some exercise would've been okay, but clearing 15 acres with a chainsaw, not a good idea. I grew up working for my father in a lumberyard, and when I think about all the sheetrock I humped to the 3rd floor, unloading trailers full of 100 lb. bags of grain, pallets of cement, roof shingles, cinderblocks, etc., I didn't do it beyond high school, so I can't imagine someone who has done that for 20 years. My family has a history of back problems which has a lot to do with my situation, but I am acutely aware now of what can happen to people when your back doesn't work anymore. Sorry if that is thread drift.

 

Most local work is horrible. Work 14 hours then 10 hrs. off then back for another 14 hrs. During your 10 off, not much sleep due to commute times to and from work, chores at home, family time, eat, shower. That doesn't leave much time for sleep. Then the extra children's stuff; sports, school plays, PTA meetings and on and on. One guy doing local for Florida Beauty; pickups for the OTR loads, says when you add in all that I've mentioned, sometimes he's up 21 hours. He's running legal as far as the trucking company, but a day only has 24 hours to do work plus family responsibilities.

A reefer outfit I worked for; many of their drivers were former local food service or beverage drivers. All fairly young and 100% of them had bad backs. Walked around like they were 90 years old.
When I pulled tankers, many of the drivers were former car haulers and their backs were in worse shape than the food service/beverage drivers.

 

I currently work for a retail chain as a retail clerk. Every week we receive soda, dairy and bakery deliveries from companies as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, 7-UP, RC Cola, Hiland Dairy, Kraft, Borden's, Bimbo, Earthgrains, Hostess, Wonderbread, Frito Lays, and various other companies. This is in Wichita KS and the surrounding areas.

These guys work VERY HARD and VERY FAST.
Their companies and their supervisors can be quite relentless if they are not making their "quotas" or "numbers".

Part of the problem is the lingering unemployment rate of 7% to 8%.
People are SCARED for their jobs. One CANNOT blame them. I myself am constantly "looking over my shoulder" always trying to "maintain" employment with my company.

Coca-Cola has one driver who is coming up to his 30 year mark delivering Coca-Cola products to the various retail stores.

The driver told me that he is "EXTREMELY LUCKY" to have lasted this long with all the hard physical labor he has done over the years. Also, the turnover rate at the Coca-Cola plant is "quite high". The most common reasons are slipped discs in one's back, torn ligaments throughout the body, carpal tunnel syndrome in one's hands, misaligned necks, and job induced arthritis.

NOTE:
Security companies as Brinks and Loomis also work quite hard and quite fast hauling sacks of cash and coins in and out of the stores they go to. They are armed and do NOT play.

Local LTL work is not always the panacea that people make it out to be. It can be and often is BRUTALLY HARD on ones body, along with one's mind, spirit, and soul.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

Chinatown, I walk and feel like I am 90 years old, too, leaning forward, constantly in pain. No wonder the #1 factor for ssdi is back pain.

Maybe when people didn't live so long it wasn't as much of a problem, they certainly did far more back-breaking work in years past than anyone on a beer truck does today. Even the concrete guys have pumps for everything, they used to have to haul concrete in wheelbarrows unless it was a big job. Roofers used to bring shingles up one bundle at a time. I don't know, I'm not old enough to go back that far, but I do remember my grandfather being in a lot of pain when he was older. I was told it was arthritis, which I also have, but just in my back, it hasn't hit my arms and legs yet.

It certainly seems like the long-term damage of physical labor is another cost employers get away with not paying, especially when considering these are typically the lowest paid people to begin with. After 20 years their back is shot and they have a wife, three kids and no way to pay for any of it. Fortunately, I don't have a wife or any kids (that I know about) so I don't have to worry about that.

When you consider the long-term health problems people have, it makes me think a single payer health care makes even more sense. None of the insurance companies I paid premiums to for the last 25 years have any liability for the health problems I have now, even though my back was falling apart slowly for the past 25 years, painfully for the last 10 years. Now that I finally need expensive care, I am off their insurance and somebody else is paying for it. That doesn't seem right, since those insurance companies booked profits on me, when really they should've set something aside for what I would need later. If it was single payer, it wouldn't matter.