The Food Service Rant thread

I have two of those hats, I don't really wear them because you can't get them anymore. They were the official hat back in the GFS days for the transportation department they really set us apart from everyone else. When I first started working at GFS the old logo was still on the uniforms and everything and the first thing I said was OMG GFS has the sharpest uniforms they have these cool hat's with the truck embroidered on the bill way cool. The old GFS Logo looked really sharp. GFS by in large especially back in the GFS days had much much sharper uniforms then Sysco. Our dress code is also a lot stricter then Sysco. Sysco lets those guys pretty much wear whatever they want almost. Our dress code is much much stricter, but GFS back in the GFS days had by in large the sharpest uniforms around.

 

Today was a personal best 1,021 cases and a cube of 1095 which means my trailer was pretty much cubed out. Our trailers cube out at 1100 cube which trust me that's enough ha-ha!
I opened up my back doors today totally packed out couldn't even fit my dolly in the back of the trailer. My dry goods were so cubed out that the cooler section was pushed way to the back of the trailer. We have some really big cases because we do a lot of schools and schools buy Styrofoam lunch trays which come in a really big white box. There not heavy, but they are really big cube wise.

Actually the loader who loaded my trailer did a real good job to be honest and unfortunately one case got buried legitimately buried and I had no choice but to mark it as buried which dings the loader and I felt bad about that because the guy who loaded the truck really did not do a bad job, I've had cubed out trailers before (not that often thank goodness) but I've had them before, and the last one I had over the summer was a disaster, but things change and this person who ever he or she was packed that trailer actually really good and I'll tell you what a good loader can make all the difference in the world. You get a good loader who packs a trailer good like this guy did and suddenly 1,021 cases isn't as big of a deal and you can while I wouldn't say you'll cut through it like a knife through hot butter, you will get through it with only mild heart burn. Don't get me wrong I was still hunting for cases here and there, but it wasn't all that bad in scheme of things, I've had a lot worse I've had worse with a lot less actually, come to think of it. So if it helps sometimes it's not all gloom and doom when it comes to trucks being loaded.

 

Don't worry yesterday (Friday) the load I had was pretty much in the Sloppy Joe category. 640 cases loaded waste high they broke a jar of Olives and a case of Butter Nut Squash Soup. Crushed both of them, to the point of broken good times. Yesterday dragged out for a long time I got back to the yard about late 3 early 4 O'Clock there were still 5 trucks out on the road when I got back!

While I was hooking up a set of doubles another truck pulled in and I said to him "G I had a temp stops and they were trying a new experiment with the stop sequencing and I'm like a one trick pony I can run the route the way I know, but when it comes to doing it another way it gets hard because I only know what I know. Heck it took me 5 months to find a better way to go from one stop to another. I said plus my load wasn't very good."

He said "I had temp stops to and a load that was also sloppy as well."

 

Does anybody here have any info./advice on driving for Reinhart Foodservice?
Thanks in advance!

 

They have a terminal down the road from us (New Stanton, PA) and the word on the street is the typical food service line - HARD work, high pay. Supposedly 75-80k / yr to start.

 

You forgot LONG hours. One of their drivers is coming to us next week.

 

Here in Cleveland they pretty much are a one trick poney they do Subway 99% of there business and Big Boy and Pot Belly Sandwhich and Famous Daves that's about it I think. They have long hours like R said they will send and keep you out on the road for a while. We had a fella who worked with us he's quit since this happened, but he also worked there said it wasn't awful, but the hours were long and all that good stuff.

 

Thanks for the input on Reinhart, guys.
When you mention long hours, does that mean 12 hours a day or more? I've heard it mentioned that 60 hours a week was a typical work week.

 

Yes probably 14 hour days they can send you all over as well I wouldn't be totally surprised if they sent you on an overnight run here or there. I know here in Cleveland they have been known to send guys out over night.