Any Pepsi drivers out there?

good luck dirtrobber its a good gig

 

Finished week 6... Have done routes that had 1400 cases and 5 miles of driving (mainly big box retailers), 600 cases and 300 miles driving (rural) and 300 cases 20 miles driving. Usually 6-10 stops a day, 12 or 14 bay side loader, auto and 9 speed manual.

Averaging 55 hours a week, due to the fact I'm still learning where to park, and which door the customer wants me to deliver. Great group of guys to work with, except one whiner. Can't wait to see if our $22/hr wage is bumped up to match the bigger market driver $25/hr + wage, then again the cost of living is a lot less here than a metro area.

So far so good... hope it continues.

By the way I have 11 months CDL experience so my options are limited to where I can apply to drive.

 

You guys driving for Pepsi,do they give you a list of places and you have to figure out the routing? The reason I'm asking my son worked for 4 months for a Beer distributer and had to pick his own load every day,walk the warehouse with an order sheet and put the cases on a pallet ,they would shrinkwrap it,put it on the truck,then he would have to figure out his route,every day was a different area,never the same,when it came time for him to get benies they fired him(said he didn't complete his routes fast enough)He never had the same route twice so he never got a chance to learn them.Is there a GPS that you use that will route you out for 10-15 stops?I think they turned the drivers over to keep them from paying benies.

 

no at my plant for instance the loads are sent to dispatch then he sends them to orlando and the people there build the truck on the computer and match it from there u go where u want in the bulk division the pallets r loaded in order so u have to go in order in transport u go to ur tractor punch in ur driver number and it will tell u trailer,load weight destination,etc but no u do not walk the warehouse pepsi has 400 diffrent products so to do that u would never get done

 

We get a list of our stops with a suggested order, but that order is not written in stone. Most drivers follow their own plan, with the exception of certain stops that have a set time. For example Wal-Mart has to be done by 10am, some other places their receiving closes at 1pm, and some others close at lunch, but are open again after 1pm. Some places don't care, as long as you get there before they close.

Our trucks are loaded for us the night before, we don't load ourselves. Pallets for big box retailers are loaded in the rear bays for dock access, and the rest in the forward bays. The town I work out of has a population of 15 000, so it's not to hard to find everything after the first visit. The rural stops are all easy to find by map.

The routes are usually rotated between the drivers, still you see some routes more than others. Some guys with seniority like certain routes etc. so unless they are on vacation or sick, the bottom guys don't see them that often.

Most drivers are helpful if you ask questions, as long it's not the same one over and over. They won't spoon feed you, or hold your hand.

 

Well this seems to be the main Pepsi thread and it's nice to see it's still active.


I'm getting a little tired of the longhaul trucking grind. I live roughly 45 minutes from a PBG location in Coldwater, MI. Every so often I see some openings posted but I haven't applied yet because of so many complaints I've read about the company over working people.

I don't know if it's really that bad or if it may just be equivalent to some of my crazy OTR experiences.

If anyone can comment on the Coldwater location that would be helpful. Also would it be a good idea to just visit them in person or just fill out the online form?


Also are most trucks automatics?

 

anyone work out of florida with pepsi I just had my face to face waiting to hear back if I get the job

 

just got my phone interview today with pbg here in las vegas,nv. starts at $19.50
phone interview wasnt much of an "interview".. just described the job, asked if i was still interested and said ok when would you like to come in for a face to face interview. so tomorrow i go in for the f-t-f. wish me luck! im really hoping i land this seeing as id love to live a "normal" (if there is one? ) life again.

 

Good luck with interview. I did an interview little over 2 weeks ago and still had no communication back yet. The status says I'm still being considered.It's for PT transport driver (seasonal)
They ask you 3 questions about different situations:
- How did you turn a negative situation to a positive outcome
- If you made a mistake how would you correct it
- explain long projects or tasks you have performed and outcome

 

Well, this is an old thread. I found it doing a google search just now. Anyway, in case someone ever finds this and is interested in how it works....

Pepsi started me off at $18.40 per hour. Seems like a reasonable rate for the amount of work you do and what other tasks you are required to perform each day. Once you're done training with another driver and when your boss deems you "trained," you'll be assigned to a route that is open, if there is one. If you are on that route for the whole week, you are paid in commission. It's something like $95 a day and $.19 per case and $.15 per bag in a box. You are not paid anything for delivering CO2 tanks or cups and lids. Yeah, it sucks. To make things worse, there's no mileage pay.

The other problems with commission is that there are so many things that can screw up your day: a customer could be 20 miles away from the rest of your route and after you take everything off the truck and bring it inside, they tell you they don't have a check or cash to pay you, the trucks break down and you often show up at the plant when the day is finally over and be 8th in line waiting to be checked in for an hour.

If you have 500 cases, and you are in a rural area, you might have 3 hours of total drive time. Even if you run all day, it's going to take you 11 or 12 hours. Overtime is not paid in a standard format. They have some horrible VROT (variable rate overtime) system that pays you depending on how long you are working and how many cases you do. It does not factor in how many miles you've driven and the more hours you work, the less the hours of overtime are worth.

So if you're on commission and you've got 500 cases, which is a normal day during the summer, and it takes 12 hours to complete it, you'll take home $95 from salary, $95 in commission, and your VROT is worth $10 per hour, you'll make $230. Switch that over to hourly where you're making $18.40 for 8 hours and $27.60 for 4 hours and you're making $285 for the day.

There are drivers who get hired, find the job too difficult and end up quitting soon after. There are others who like the pay and don't mind the job (like myself) who start looking for work once you get a nice surprise commission check that's $200 less than what you were expecting in an hourly check.

They advertise these jobs at the hourly rate and managers never once mention that you'll be switched to commission. The words salary and commission will never come out of their mouths with a new guy in the room.