Booze distributor job questions

nw88 · Oct 14, 2016

Mike2633 said: ↑

Hello everyone happy to be of some help. Sorry for the late response worked my arse off at work and the gym today more work 19,400lbs is what I pushed off today.

Any how
Well let's start off with the basics
What's the main product of this distributorship is it Budweiser, Miller or Coors?
Chances are if there a trailer outfit they have a major core brewery there attached with.

If there a straight truck outfit then they usually have like a million different varieties of wine and fancy beers from fancy land.

Now let's go through the normal day of a beer driver.
Get to work and wait 2-3 hours for your truck to be loaded (oh wait that was me, never mind you may work for a better run outfit then the company I worked for, which by the way after I left the operations manager and a lot of other people were fired. Of course I still would have left anyhow, but were not talking about me were talking about you!)

Um actually beer truck can best be described as it's not a beauty, but it's alright. There's some tricks that you have to learn, but I think for your situation it's probably your best option.

You'll make okay money you'll be able to eat Arby's for diner poor @tucker mentioned to us sometime ago that he couldn't afford Arby's and that made me very sad. Next time he's around Ohio I'll run out to Arby's and meet him with some Arby's.

Really it's not bad the trucks are automatics they drive just like car's, but there's a 28-30-36-40foot trailer behind you so don't drive it like a car because if you do you'll get in a wreck, but actually beer companies unless they changed don't have quite the same BS as other bigger outfits.

There's no log books, no Xata, no People net no you had 3 hard breaks this month kind of stuff.

Most beer distributors don't have the money or resources to waste on stuff like that.

Now the con's are depends on the outfit the place I worked at they weren't afraid to try new things and they wanted to be trend setters on the cutting edge. I still maintain to this day the beer distributor I worked at, at the core they 100% absolutely had the right idea I take nothing away from them on that end. Now when it came to execution they fell short, but at the core they wanted to be trend setters and industry leaders in our area and they very much were and it showed by how many breweries wanted to do business with them.

Now back to it, are they paying you per case, per hour, daily rate? Where I worked we actually weren't paid badly I was on an inner city route so I was paid per hour, per case and a daily flat rate after taxes I cleared like $600 a week compared to now a days where after taxes I clear like $900 a week sometimes, but money isn't everything.

Anyhow yes it's a fine job, yes other local outfits will take you on. Actually where I worked we had so much going on that you could get experience on other stuff. When I told them I was quitting they said "Please don't go and tried to talk me out of it and asked me if I wanted to work in the road division, where I work now road is hard to get and comes slowly through attrition and volume truck is almost a pay cut, doubles isn't but you've got to run run run to make the money and sometimes the work is there and sometimes it isn't, at the beer company if I wanted I could have been in the road division fairly quick pulling double side loaders and 53' with beer would have been good experience, pay was a little low, but all kinds of stuff.

The sideloaders the draw back is you get some not saying you do not get any, but you don't really get a lot of hard hard hard backing experience. The Volume trucks you'll get better backing because you do a lot more dock bumping.

Food company you'll go crazy stupid places that beer outfits typically do not go, however yes it is experience and yes it absolutely counts didn't deter my employer from hiring me and I work for one of the big name brand places.

Um anyhow your not going to drive a lot literally you can have 4 stops on the same 1/4 mile section of road and then have 4 stops where you do not move the truck at all. Lot's of excersize if your fat you'll walk the fat right off. Lot's of steers with beer kegs that weigh a lot. Sideloaders unload pretty easy when loaded properly. Where I worked it was nice we were loaded by customer so you could blow through a bay pretty quick.

Now some of the job is annoying 18-25 stops a day is a bit of a drag and you have to collect payment at 99% of those stops which also sucks. You'll be delivering to bars, restaurants, gas stations and C-stores and places you never thought a beer truck would go. Like one time I had a delivery to a Catholic High School.

Lot of walking and you know snap snap snap gotta keep rolling 1-2-3-4 you got 25 to go no time to talk in and out in and out.

You'll have two learning curves, the first one is learning to drive the truck. The second is the actual job of delivering and working the hand held and doing paper work and what not. Believe it or not the delivering, paper work, computer, money part of it has a way way way more bigger learning curve then the driving part.

The driving part sure there will be ugly awful moment's that will make you want to crawl in a hole and die, but you work through those moments.

The delivering part will also have those same moment's but those are actually learning opportunities and curves and once you work through the learning curve on both ends it gets better.
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Thank you for the info. Its a salary job, from what they've told me the drivers rarely work 8 hours and usually much less than that (start 4am done by 10 or noon at latest). Only over July 4th and certain winter holidays might I work free overtime, so they say. I got a tour of their warehouse and it seems like they handle ALL beer/wine; it didn't seem like they're big into one brand of beer. It's pretty rural around here so there aren't many games in town. Also they say trucks are loaded and ready by their overnight crew. All in all it seems like a good company to gain some experience with and I'm glad to have an opportunity.

As for Arby's yes I can afford it on what they're paying and against all common sense I have to have Arby's every once in a while; but I have to say Arby's should have seatbelts on their toilets.

Anyone work a 'salary' job like this? It seems logical with the way they do business, mostly beneficial but sometimes you get screwed, just wondering if I'll end up working free overtime a lot. I don't think so, but what do I know. Just have to see how it goes. Thanks.

Mike2633 · Oct 14, 2016

nw88 said: ↑

Thank you for the info. Its a salary job, from what they've told me the drivers rarely work 8 hours and usually much less than that (start 4am done by 10 or noon at latest). Only over July 4th and certain winter holidays might I work free overtime, so they say. I got a tour of their warehouse and it seems like they handle ALL beer/wine; it didn't seem like they're big into one brand of beer. It's pretty rural around here so there aren't many games in town. Also they say trucks are loaded and ready by their overnight crew. All in all it seems like a good company to gain some experience with and I'm glad to have an opportunity.

As for Arby's yes I can afford it on what they're paying and against all common sense I have to have Arby's every once in a while; but I have to say Arby's should have seatbelts on their toilets.

Anyone work a 'salary' job like this? It seems logical with the way they do business, mostly beneficial but sometimes you get screwed, just wondering if I'll end up working free overtime a lot. I don't think so, but what do I know. Just have to see how it goes. Thanks.
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Salarie can be okay I guess, it's not going to hurt you let me put it that way. If I was you I would probably take them up on it. It's legit. Better then working for Uncle Cleat's Out Law Trucking where the loads are overweight the equipment is junk and the pay checks bounce.

Big Don · Oct 14, 2016

Mike2633 said: ↑

I don't like chick filet I think there expensive as well. Arby's and Wendy's are defiantly not really great values. I did start a thread on here sometime ago trying to figure out what exactly the roast beef at Arby's is I think someone nailed it, but I don't know because there's no place else out there that makes roast beef like Arby's I have no idea what there roastbeef really is, that roast beef they serve represents millions of dollars of research and development.
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It's called "Mystery Meat." I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out why...

nw88 said: ↑

Thank you for the info. Its a salary job, from what they've told me the drivers rarely work 8 hours and usually much less than that (start 4am done by 10 or noon at latest). Only over July 4th and certain winter holidays might I work free overtime, so they say. I got a tour of their warehouse and it seems like they handle ALL beer/wine; it didn't seem like they're big into one brand of beer. It's pretty rural around here so there aren't many games in town. Also they say trucks are loaded and ready by their overnight crew. All in all it seems like a good company to gain some experience with and I'm glad to have an opportunity.

As for Arby's yes I can afford it on what they're paying and against all common sense I have to have Arby's every once in a while; but I have to say Arby's should have seatbelts on their toilets.

Anyone work a 'salary' job like this? It seems logical with the way they do business, mostly beneficial but sometimes you get screwed, just wondering if I'll end up working free overtime a lot. I don't think so, but what do I know. Just have to see how it goes. Thanks.
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Well it may be a good way for you to gain experience. But most of us have found that working on salary, means you are slave labor.

nw88 · Oct 14, 2016

Big Don said: ↑

It's called "Mystery Meat." I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out why...

Well it may be a good way for you to gain experience. But most of us have found that working on salary, means you are slave labor.
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I know what you mean, but I hope you're wrong I guess. I won't know until I get some time in but I think it makes sense for them to pay salary. Most of the year is less than 8 hours per day by some or by far, and a slight part of the year could be free overtime. It could be nice though to be able to start at a different time if you need to and take breaks or time during the day as you need. The way they present it as long as you complete your route for the day then no problem.

tucker · Oct 14, 2016

Back in the late 80's and early 90's this one Budweiser delivery truck driver used to drink beer at most all his stops that I seen him, then he'd stop by his house in the afternoon and take a nap and then head back up to the warehouse and hop inhis pickup and drive home. When he got done early he was suppose to work in the warehouse, but he never got back early enough.
After years of this his boss was driving down the highway and saw the truck parked at his house.
He got fired.
They hired him back a few months later because they couldn't find anyone decent to do the job.

Mike2633 · Oct 14, 2016

Big Don said: ↑

It's called "Mystery Meat." I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out why...

Well it may be a good way for you to gain experience. But most of us have found that working on salary, means you are slave labor.
Click to expand...

Ditto I would be weary of beer truck driver salary pay to me that means they can cram the trucks full with cases of beer in the cab, and on the cat walk and tied to the roof of the trailer and you go out and have a fun 15 hour day, because it's no skin off there back.

At least like where I work and did work they paid you per case so at least you were getting paid for every case you touch.

However for this gentleman I think with his situation it's probably a good start.

Mike2633 · Oct 15, 2016

You know what's funny all this beer talk and I can't tell you the last time I had a beer, because I don't know it's been that long. Honestly I never really liked alcohol anyhow.

tucker · Oct 15, 2016

Mike2633 said: ↑

You know what's funny all this beer talk and I can't tell you the last time I had a beer, because I don't know it's been that long. Honestly I never really liked alcohol anyhow.
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I got a beer and a Wild Turkey on the rocks in front of me right now

MACK E-6 · Oct 15, 2016

Big Don said: ↑

Ditto!
I've never done beverage, but I have local P&D.
You will likely work your arse off. But it's a good way to get some windshield time while you're marking time, waiting for your record to drop back into the distance.
As for the experience counting with OTR trucking, this is problematic. The big bottom feeders probably will insist you go through a school, and won't give a right rip about this experience. BUT: you are much better off not getting on with one of them anyway. Refer to many threads on this forum about the megas.
Some small outfits might put you to work with a trainer. If you really want OTR this will likely be your best bet, in a few years.
But you should be in a fairly good position to step into an LTL outfit, doing local work, with this experience. It's still long hours and lots of physical work, but you might actually get with a company you can stay with, until retirement. (That's assuming that retirement will even be a possibility, the way things are going.)
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Of course not. They want the money from the years of contracted indentured servitude as you work off the bill for that "schooling".

Mike2633 · Oct 15, 2016

MACK E-6 said: ↑

Of course not. They want the money from the years of contracted indentured servitude as you work off the bill for that "schooling".
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The company I used to work for, did train people to get there CDL and no kidding if you left like before 2 years was up they would charge you for the CDL training.

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