Looking for the right company

Well otr and local dont really translate as far as experience is concerned. Some companies want otr experience to go local, but thats just a easy way to prove you can drive a truck. @Mike2633 is our resident food service guru

 

Not just food service, you could also consider beverage work.

 

With beverage work, you could even start out with a straight truck, if the combination vehicle experience is a issue for them.

 

Dont concern yourself about min experience requirements. Apply anyway. Most companies will ignore their own posted required lists..

 

When a company needs to fill trucks they will make "considerations" So apply anyway, they say year min, might mean 6 months if they have empty trucks......
second on Beverage trucks

 

Hi,
I live in Cleveland, Ohio far far away from you in the snow.
GFS has a huge warehouse in Springfield, Ohio and usually have chain driver positions open at the warehouse in Springfield. I haven't seen to many positions open for Columbus-office, but they might pop.

Superior Beverage Group has a warehouse in Columbus, you would get hired right away, however word on the street they have maybe 13-14 routes and they don't have the same kind of overturn the warehouse in Cleveland has so you would be swing driving for a while, but beer trucks are a piece of cake not much different then your school bus except the trailer. Beer trucks would be the same though Freightliner M2 with Alison 6 speed Automatic piece of cake drives like a car.

Now GFS if you go that route and go the chain driver route is a bit different, Volvo 10 speed manual shift (how are you at shifting?) 50' trailer.

Now I'm in the broad line division at GFS so I'm in the 28' division this past year I beat last year I made $74K last year and beat that number this year. I would imagine that's more up your ally.

However, that doesn't mean it was easy all the time or anything else, GFS has some nice benefits and stuff, but they also have some high requirements and there not giving that money away, the company has standards and you best meet those standards, GFS is pretty high performance they always have been. However they pay good and if you do a good job and are compitent they leave you alone.

The next question is, how are you at unloading? Superior Beverage, or Columbus Distributing or Delaware Distributing your going to be unloading and making deliveries. GFS a chain driver with a 50' trailer could have a 2-3 day route with 40,000lbs which would be close to 1400 cases all of that is hand unload out the side and back.


Superior Beverage has not totally, but they have been getting away from side loaders, some routes that were side loader are now 28' what they did was, they had some routes that were dock stops, but they would send a side loader to those routes. Well they have gotten away from that and say it was a side loader route, but had one grocery store on it, they have decided if it works they have it either on a bulk route or if they can they will assign a 28' to that route. Now why do you care?
Well 28' is easier in a way because you can drive the pallet right to the front door of the stop, your going to have a pallet jack in that truck and a lift gate beverage business really do not use ramps like food service they use lift gates.

Um, central Ohio your in a good location for everything. Have you considered MBM they have a warehouse in Columbus, there not as good of a company as GFS is from the stand point of management, but MBM Meadow Brook Meat is an 80K a year job. You would be doing Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Denny's, Del-Taco, Longhorn Steak House and Arby's.

MBM might be some S-word meaning (Sleepercab) and there fleet is a mess of leased equipment from Ryder, your going to have leased trailers from Ryder where every single refer unit is different every lift gate is different and pallet jack is different. Tractors are going to be the same thing Some are Volvo others International some Freightliner all leasers some day cabs some sleepers some manuals some automatics.
MBM does do some lift gating though, you might have 13 pallets just at one Red Lobster and be at that stop for 3-4 hours.
http://www.mbmfoodservice.com/content/mbm/en/home.html

Have you considered RDP Food Service? I would actually point you to RDP first if GFS doesn't have anything. One of our other forum members actually did call RDP and try to get on there he had a Class B and they wanted an A driver there fleet is single axle Freightliner Casscadia's with either 28' or 36' trailers you would want to have your doubles endorsement at both RDP and GFS, at GFS a doubles endorsement is pretty much a requirement it isn't an actual requirement but GFS does a ton with doubles and you'll need that endorsement. RDP is located in Columbus in Clintonville, nice little company they specialize in pizza shops and italian specialties, but they do, do a bit of everything, they are a small little company, however they have some very serious accounts like Zeppe's Pizza and Pizza Cottage and Midnight Slice.
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...dp-food-service-columbus-ohios-finest.327083/


You could try Northern Haserot, but I'll be honest you could probably walk into a job at RDP the quickets GFS is slow when it comes to hiring and Northern Haserot is kind of screwy on hiring too, like Haserot threw my application away would not hire me at all I tried 3 times. GFS which is a better company then NHB and way bigger hired me so who knows. RDP would probably be your best bet, they aren't going to jack you around, there to small for that, they train guys sometimes to get there CDL so they have dealt with inexperienced guys. I would start there if I was you.

Freight Sales Inc of Heath, Ohio is the "shell company" Englefield Oil has set up to supply gasoline to there chain of Duke/Dutchess Shop Gasoline Stations the only non-branded Duke/Dutchess Shop is in Lodi, Ohio (that's a little fun fact for you all.)
the black trucks with yellow cabs are Freight Sales trucks owned by Englefield, Oil doing Duke/Dutchess Stations. So if your looking for tanker they are in your area.


There's others, but my pick would be RDP they start out at about $18.00 and some change an hour.

 

Dart have a Ohio Short Hal you will most likely gonna have to take some refresher course I think

 

Nick Strimbu Inc. in Brookfield might hire you. It's worth a try anyway. From my understanding the reefer division gets some real long runs and make good paychecks. They hire new grads and used to sponsor new drivers through cdl school. Teamsters benefits.
Food service was mentioned; I've done that and it will ruin you back. Some drivers really like it though, so I'm not knocking it.
If you want weekends home, then try Veriha Trucking. They also have a refresher course.
Millis Transfer has a facility in Trenton,OH and probably get you started again.

 

Since you already have a cdl and only need a dot physical, Dutch Maid in Willard,OH might hire you.
Contact Danny Herman Trucking for dry van. They don't run northeast or New York City. They do run Southern California and have a couple of facilities there.
Roehl Tranports "national fleet" probably hire you.
You're way ahead of the game by still having a cdl. Can't use it though until you get a dot physical. Some of the companies already listed will use their own recommended doctor to do the physical. Some will do a hair follicle drug test and all will do a urine drug test.