Pepsi question

Boy, they're rude to you on the soda side... I'm with Frito Lay and we have only 6 trucks on the yard that are older than 2014... the rest are 15/16 Volvo's and every last one has AC that works, even the 2007's that are pushing 1.5 million miles. We don't get weekends off per se, we work off a bid system and lower-seniority guys sometimes have difficulty not working weekends.

 

Yeah everyone at Pepsi said Frito Lay was the place to be, there and Coke. haha.

 

Yeah usually the city hopper side loader trucks are not always going to be the newest that's for sure. They pretty much run those trucks for a very long time. The beer company I worked at for a while did get new side loader tractors while I was working there, but that's usually not the norm, the Miller Lite distributor good gravy they have nothing brand new, but they have some stuff that's mid 1990's and some stuff that's really early 2000s, I think they pretty much run the stuff till the wheels fall off.

Pepsi and Coke here in Cleveland is the same bag some new trucks, but mostly a hodge podge of everything new and old and older.

 

Pretty much all the trucks were early to mid 90's Internationals. Because its Florida they are not rusted up or anything just old. The miles are not even as much as you would expect as it was rare to put 100 miles a day on. They were just beat on pretty good and all the cab corners dented as U-turns are legal in Florida.

 

Apart from the physical side of the job, these soda runs are sounding quite appealing to me again. So far, no openings where I'm at right now. So it looks like an out-of-town, U-Haul move might be the only way to score any sort of gig with the soda haulers, or food haulers for that matter. As far as moving up in seniority, at least the soda and food haulers have that.

 

There was not advantage to seniority where I worked. Everyone worked M-F. The routes were assigned daily w little rhyme or reason. It was hard to spot if seniority made a difference. One day the senior guy would get a great route and the next day he wouldn't. One of the most junior guys did "full service" which is the vending machines and in my opinion the best gig there. Some argue it doesn't pay as much, but with the law changing Dec. 1 about the overtime laws this may all change as well.

 

Teamsters in so cal. So seniority ruled

 

That is the odd thing w Pepsi and Coke, it is run differently depending on where you are in the U.S. Can be a totally different job.

 

Are you in really good shape at 44 or just average? Most beverage drivers I have seen are under 40 years of age.

Side-loading into stores is for young men and at 44, you are in a great position to harm your back doing that kind of work, IMO.

My .02 cents.