Chronicles of Grocery Hauling

Don't be discouraged in reading the negative stuff posted here. Remember that each company is different. Shoot, it is even different within the same company, but out of different docks. ie; Shamrock in Denver may be a whole lot different than Shamrock in Phoenix.

I grew up in a "mom and pop supermarket," in SE Colorado. Back then, we got groceries in once a week, from Associated Grocers of Colorado. The drivers had several sets of rollers, and so did we. We'd hook them together and then the driver would start sending the freight, one case at a time down the rollers. It was all floor loaded, so there was a lot of physical work on both loading and unloading. Even with that, I thought it would be a neat job, to drive that truck!

Then in the late '60's I lived in Denver. I had nothing to do with either trucking, or groceries at the time, but I had a bud that worked for Safeway. Denver PD was writing their driver's tickets right and left, because they could not maintain the minimum speed on the freeways, going up some of the hills. Back then, the drivers did not get points on their license, and due to the union stepping in, Safeway paid all the fines. They finally replaced their ancient tractors with decent equipment, that could pull the loads. . .

My last stint in grocery stores was on the central coast in California in the 70's. By then, everything was palatalized, the trucks had lift gates, and all the drivers did was get the pallets onto the lift gates and drop them. We grabbed the pallets off the lift gates.

Today, most stores have docks that you back into, which eliminates a whole lot of work.

They have gone from "swinging meat" to everything in boxes. Produce has gone from being locally available on a seasonal basis, to available on the world wide market, 12 months a year.

What I'm saying is, that this industry, like any other, changes over the years. So if you don't like what you have going on today, it may be pretty much a different world tomorrow. OTOH, if you are one who hates change. . .

Good luck to you. The one thing for sure, is that the grocery industry is not going to "go away," no matter how much it changes.

When I first started trucking, I was doing LTL hauling produce east and meat west. Never did store delivery though.

 

roundys and supervalu in this area are a lot better then the place im at. Their Local is a lot more powerful when it comes to keeping the company in check when they try to pull this crap. Ours just bends over takes it up the ##### because everybody is so money hungry they act like they would starve if we went on strike, yet they brag about taking home 100k+ a year all the time.

I gave up 60 hours a week on my dedicated account at the pumpkin patch to be home and have a life. Not get a local and work 70-80 hours a week and work every weekend.

 

Congrats on the new gig, doesn't sound bad. I just left Mclane Grocery two days ago, not knowing what I was getting paid and ridiculously long hours running sleepy/tired/illegaly were the main reasons...oh and being on call with no schedule. Keep us posted!

 

Look for companies that have a preferred status with multiple grocers. Check out the Walmart driven consolidation program, RJW Transport out of Chicago is a good one. The main benefits are set delivery appointments, stable sailing schedule, pick-up all LTL at 1 location and delivery is usually no more than 2-3 Walmart DC's.

Another example is Tony's Fine Foods (weird name for a trucking company) but they have achieved preferred status with Safeway, Ralphs and many other medium to small grocery retailers.

 

We ran E logs too but trick was to complete all the paper work and load securement while logged off, then once logged in driver #2 would be in "sleeper berth" for a while or until driver 1 needs to take his break...which made no difference because both drivers would be working and unloading no matter what they were logged on as. Wish we ran legal, then the night breaking and hard work wouldn't seem so bad.

 

That's pathetic. Just cause you own a buisness doesn't mean you should. The guy will never figure it out.