City P&D VS Beverage Delivery

I've never done food service or beverage, but I've seen how they have to work to get it done. LTL P&D is way easier.

The P&D pace is quick, but there's a whole lot less "work" involved. The physical stuff varies, so there is "work" occasionally, but it is nowhere near as brutal.

Depending on the route, there could be, say, 20 stops or so. Deliveries are quicker than most pickups. I regularly have 3 or 4 minute deliveries where I just put it in a door, drag the skid off, have them sign, and go. Sometimes freight isn't ready at shippers, so you can get a little break if your company wants you to wait. Or you'll move on to the next one. I just stay in communication and let my dispatcher make the decision. After they bring me back, sometimes I go back out to do drop/hooks at volume shippers or whatever until the end of the day.

The bottom line is that it can be intense and you can't be dragging your feet, but it is way more laid back than food service or beverage work.

 

Personally I like food service best because you unload and your done p&d starts way later in the day usually and pickups at the end of your route sucks

 

I have never done food service delivery but it would seem as though food delivery is much more physical and would be riskier/ more injury prone, dealing with the ramps,hand carts etc alone as well as having to move a lot of pieces by hand..

ltl p&d will have some small packages but not every day and usually at most I'm wheeling a pallet to the rear of a trailer with a pallet jack (not down an icy ramp). preferably the customer is johnny on the spot with his hilo unloading it himself. the pace is still quick though, they want us to complete each delivery in 15 min to a max of 30 mins which can be easy or a scramble, or impossible.

 

I like having a nice ride back to enjoy to rather then a 10 minute ride back to the yard or having my first stop be literally across the street from the yard and we do have one of those.

 

do City, and then you get back to the yard 3 times, oh wait i got some more pickups for you, oh wait there is one more to deliver
Mack is right hope you get on a route that put some miles before the pickup deadlines comes up

 

I'm a P&D driver. Since March. Left linehaul after 5 yrs & took city job with same company. 9am start time M-F. No weekends. Love the lifestyle!!!! Lost at least 5k a year from lineh but I make 26/hr now. Living a better lifestyle. Off nights!!!...

 

i've done both. In my opinion the biggest thing with food and/or beverage is the customers----most if not a lot of them are A-holes!
a) Treating a driver with less than normal respect is a "crime" in my opinion.
b) Most aren't going to make it easy on the driver, such as making sure the pathway to the door is clear and smooth to get into. Which means they should not be in the business they are in.
c) Most don't want to help or touch ANYTHING! i mean, you are in the business to buy a box for a certain price and sell it for more. Simple right? Yet they don't want to touch any boxes. And that's another reason why they should not be in business.

i had one customer who would bring his crew and himself out and help unload. So, 5 people can literally unload 4 pallets of food product in less than 15 mins. AND he would have his returns and return paperwork ready. That's the way it should be unless it's a ma+pa store and only ma or pa is there at the counter and thus they can't leave it unattended.

Now i'm doing LTL and i can't speak for anyone else but i'm getting average at least 15-16-17 stops per day with a 10am start time. This means pressure, but i'm not rushing anymore. i will work at a steady pace, but if i can't get it done, then "they" (management) needs to start us earlier. (and they know this)

i would definitely agree with BD in that LTL is much less physical work than food or beverage. You get a lot of dock stops. i get quite a few inside type deliveries but it's usually something like one office chair, or a file cabinet, or several boxes of water or soda or stationary. We do get some office paper but it's no more than 10 boxes per stop and it's only maybe 2-3 times a week if that.