Is food delivery (Sysco, US Foods,) a good start for a rookie?

What are you looking for to make money or have a big grand adventure? How hard do you want to work?

 

About food service, most ads say 1 yr. experience required, but in reality that's not true. Many of them need drivers and hire cdl permit holders to run as driver helpers and they give them 90 days to get the cdl. Seeing that "one yr. exp. required" deters many new cdl grads from applying.

 

We hire CDL grads, heck our warehouse in Aberdeen,MD has many many CDL grands one of the guys I worked with there only had is CDL for like 4 weeks when we went into Delaware that Friday. I should have taken more pictures from that day, but I didn't oh well.

 

Food service guys work pretty hard. I was delivering fuel to a gas station at 2AM close to San Francisco a few months ago. Food service guys came to the Starbucks next to me to do a delivery. The guys get out of the truck, sprint as fast as they can to open the trailer, throw the dolly ramp out...the driver helper loads the dolly up and the driver literally runs backwards down the dolly ramp with a fully-loaded dolly, running towards the door. Meanwhile, driver helper is unlocking the store door, so as to facilitate a seamless transition. A few more back-and-borth runs between the pair, and these guys literally did their delivery in about 7 minutes. The driver's calves looked rock-solid, like some Greek athlete from the original olympics. I told him, if you ever get tired of busting your ### you can come work for us at (company redacted), you can stand around and watch the tanker unload. The dude didn't even have time for mild ####-chat.

 

You're right, those guys legs look freaky. The paychecks are good, but not worth the stress.

 

I did 8 yrs with sysco and us foods.
Back in the day, we didn't even use a ramp. We just pulled out a 2X10 plank.
Drop the two wheeler wheels on each side and ski down.
Going back up you'd get a run and put one wheel on the plank and chase it back up.
So many guys got hurt they had to stop that insane practice.
It was really exciting in winter with a wheeler full of flour or eggs.
You'd better drive well, restaurant parking lots at noon take some skill.

 

I just left Sharp Transit after three years of delivering to Aldi stores. Loading and unloading store loads with motorized equipment. Hard work, 6 days a week, 10-12 hours a day. Glad to be back bumping docks and sitting in the truck waiting.

 

Sweet 'tar.
BtC 2016

 

OK, check Post #9 then for some good companies. Apply to all that interest you; the more the better. Apply now, don't wait until graduation. Good luck; trucking is a great career.

Ignore any "experience required" on the websites because all those on the list hire fresh grads right out of cdl school.