Food Service Being A Difficult Job?

Seriously?? Well, I can only speak for myself and my experience at Sygma. First you run ramps all night long with handcarts fully loaded with product, no matter rain, sleet, ice, snow, whatever. We had Panera Bread as one of our customers. They had 40 lb boxes of frozen soup (among other things), we would put 12 on a cart and run down the ramp. Do the math, that's almost 500 lbs on a cart. Not to mention dealing with long sidewalks, hills, and god forbid, STEPS!!! Second, there is fitting tractor trailers in parking areas where they don't belong, like our Wendy's account. And not little pups like some pull we pulled 48' reefers. Trust me, on your time off you are 100% beat. And if you aren't then God Bless Ya, you are a superman. #### good money though.

 

I knew guys that delivered food to many places, SYSCO FOODS, the work, not sure if you have to still load your own truck, but you deliver to Hospitals, Restaurants, Ect. You will be using a ramp off the back of your truck. Inside delivery to the Kitchen, then possibly break down the skids, and stock the shelf in the kitchens. But let me tell you, the Pay is very good, you`ll get 60 hrs a week and you will make a very good living at it. AND you will be going home every AFTERNOON.

 

I was going to add, but you did, GREAT PAY. you earned it.

 

I would answer but I'm not the right person to ask. See, I'm nuts and I don't find this job difficult at all. I have been doing this job for over nine years now and have put trailers, 28' all the up to 48' pulled by a sleeper cab, into places that would make some cringe. Before that, I had four years of HHG/Commercial moving and have put trailers into places that they should not go. As for running products down a ramp with a dolly, I LOVE IT!!!!(see, told you I was nuts). So, I don't see were this is a difficult job. Now remember, I did say I was nuts

Now that that is out of the way. Why is this job difficult? Well, let's take a look:
-You will unload in all types of weather. There is no "it's to cold, hot, it's raining, snowing". That products has to come of the trailer and to the customer. That is YOUR job!
-You will have to put trailers into places that was never made for them WITHOUT HITTING ANYTHING!
-You will have to deal with irate customers. After all, YOU are the face of the company and possible the only person that the customer may see from the company. Sales people? Never saw one
-YOU will have to find the new stop that was put on your route and figure out how to get the truck there(I do not want to discuss my adventure to Viola,WV last week. Let's just say that I heard banjos and well.....dang that truck moves fast)

Got any other questions?

There are positives and negatives in every section of this industry. Above are the negatives.

 

Excellent post. Worked for a Wendy's distributor for a year. That is how I got into foodservice. Never used a ramp though until I started were I am at now. At the wendy's distributor we ran teams, although we were out and back in 15 hours or less.(normally 10 hours routes) This is before the HOS change. Now I ran anywhere from 8-18 stops, full trailer, 28' or 38'. And yes, 18 stops is very possible when you have routes that don't leave the same zipcode as your warehouse or your first stop Also ran the road routes that we had for many years. 48' trailer pulled by a sleeper. Always fun fitting that combination into places not made for it

 

One word...basements

 

You have to do work similar to what Werner drivers do at Dollar General stops but get paid twice as much with better benefits.

 

Werner drivers now have lift-gate trailers and the product is loaded on carts. Most of us don't enjoy that luxury