Dollar general acc

Here's my advice....do something else. Put where you live in your profile...general area. These dollar accounts have tremendous turnover and new drivers are too ####y or stubborn to realize why.

Look at the trucks hauling a dollar trailer...it tells the story of what you are up against. Why start your career at a disadvantage?

 

It's the same as a lot of other dedicated accounts. You pick up a loaded trailer at the DC, sometimes it may be a live load, and then you're assigned one to three stops and you have to get all of the product for that particular store to the back of the trailer and then shove it down the rollers into the store.

I have never personally run on any of the fleets that pull for Dollar General, but out here, Werner has that account and they pull out of the DC in Ardmore, OK (I think). I know DG also has a DC in San Antonio, TX but I don't know if that DC runs into NM. I have, however, pulled for Wal-Mart (Swift had that account, they may still have it) out of the Los Lunas, NM DC which is maybe 8 miles up I-25 from me. With that account, we did all of NM, the Texas panhandle and El Paso, southern Colorado, and the eastern 1/3 of Arizona. It was fairly easy since the Wal-Mart employees unloaded the truck, all you had to do was take the pallet stickers off and paste them in a sheet that the store manager on duty signed.

The dollar store (Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Dollar General) accounts work a little differently since you have to fingerprint each box for that store. Granted, you're only responsible for getting it to the back of the trailer, but that can still be a lot of work. Since you don't list where you're at, I can just tell you this...if you live in a hotter climate like I do where it can hit 105+ in the summer, it sucks being in a dry van unloading product. If you're in a colder climate, then the same thing it winter...you can freeze your ### off.

Also, we have a lot of space out here in the desert of NM so most of our dollar stores, and almost everything else that requires a tractor-trailer on the property has a huge parking lot. There are two Dollar General stores here and I've seen as many as 3 Werner trucks at either location with plenty of room to spare. But I have also seen newer guys trying to get into small store lots in other parts of the country and it takes them 30 minutes to hit the door of the store because they can't back for ####. Again, it depends on what part of the country you live in.

 

Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree.......you haul a lot of Dollars but make none yourself.

 

So how long does it take regularly to dock with a very complicated and narrow entrance.

 

I think one of the major problems with this type of account out in this part of the country and elsewhere where it gets hot is that you're manually unloading boxes in the trailer and you sweat your balls off. Typically, dollar stores are put up in places that are "food deserts" (http://apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/fooddeserts.aspx) or other lower middle class and lower class areas. Most, but not all, areas that fit those descriptions are in more rural places which makes the availability of adequate shower facilities basically nonexistent. So you work up a nice sweat in your trailer at your first stop and you have to sit in your sopping wet clothes until you get to your next stop and then you get to do it all over again.

 

Dollar general is one of the worst places I dealt with. Horrid lumper charges that don't touch you until 4 hours after your appointment. No parking at the dc's.
Big pain in the ### in front royal virginia where its 40 minutes to the truck stop if you don't get lucky at 7/11


Dollar tree was half way decent before they got bought out.

 

Here's my advice,when you're with a trainer tell him you would like to do as much backing as possible.With the DG accounts you'll be delivering to a lot of stores and im sure you've seen those stores and how small their parking lot is.You'll be required many times to back from the street into their lot.With this piticular job you'll need to be a real good backer.So get in as much backing as you possibly can while in training.I would also ask the recruiter if you can be with a trainer who doe DG accounts.

 

1. Yes the DG accounts are rough.. they will eat drivers alive or dead and quickly if you do not take GREAT care in what you are doing.
2. DG uses lift gates and takes off freight using "rolltainers". Basically a loaded rolltainer is about the size and weight of a loaded soda machine. There are no rollers anymore as floor loading stopped around 2004- 2005
3. Dollar General does not make capital improvements to aid in the access to their delivery areas. The stores are generally in the older / poorer neighborhoods to give those who live near a better option to get stuff.
4. Dollar General has their own trailers and generally they are poorly maintained and beat up by the work they are forced to do and the drivers who beat the heck out of them.
5. Ops wants / demands drivers use all the hours available every day they are out there.
There is more... but that about covers it.. and P.S. the DC in San Antonio is not open yet.