UPS or Cryo-Hauling/ Which Career Is Better?

@rollin coal can answer any questions about Walmart.

 

Cool, thanks! I'm with a decent company now, I was thinking of leaving after a year, but I think I'll try to stick it out for two years now lol.

 

There are no driver facing cameras at Walmart. It's forward facing and event triggered so jam on the brakes too hard and it triggers the camera. It happens several times a week on me but I never hear anything from them about it because I'm not doing anything wrong.

I'm a little over 2 years at the company and already have 23 days of PTO plus 4 saftey days. You'll start with earning 21 days off the first year and get 4 saftey days per year (1 per quarter) if you don't run over anything that's 5 weeks of PTO in year 1. You're not getting that anywhere else. 2 full days off per week, it'll be 60 hours off on a 2 day weekend. If you're one of them lazy drivers that gets 3 days off every other weekend that'll be 84 hours off. Schedules are set and no-one asks you to work outside of it. If they do politely decline and that's the end of it.

The work's consistent all year round never slows. Paychecks are consistent. I dont know anybody making under a $100k a year here in sleeper trucks. Lots of perks. Get some discounted company stock to supplement retirement. Get treated with respect. No out of pocket expenses for anything. First class shop mechanics that fix ####. Not really anything I don't like here. UPS pays a little better and the health insurance is free but they're offering buyouts to drivers as of 2 months ago because they don't have enough work. Good luck getting into a feeder job there.

 

Yeppers. You’re still at Bynum, correct? They are treating you good, giving you the miles. Stay put there for awhile few years. You’ll have MANY doors open to you then.

 

Louisville Ky had so many people take the buyout they are currently hiring off the street full time drivers. Getting hired off the street may be rare but it still is happening at select locations. I did 3 Months with Walmart in Seymour Indiana in between Carhaul jobs in 2013. It was a great job for most people, but I didn’t like being gone 5 days and sleeping in a truck. I have several friends who love it there but most would still like to get home some during the work week. When I was there if I lived in Indianapolis I would have been home often. Now my buddy leaves Seymour on his start day and sometimes doesn’t get back in there until his go home day.

 

Well if he's anywhere close to Louisville or somewhere similar he better jump on that ASAP. The pay, insurance and pension is as good as it gets in trucking. At his age I wouldn't piss away anymore years than I had to at an OTR outfit with subpar pay, retirement & bennies. I could go home 2 or 3 nights a week at Walmart running groceries but I choose not to for the small bump in pay sleeping in the truck 4 nights every week. We have good, clean facilities on the yard. It's not bad. I've always been a regional driver anyways so I'm used to that.

 

Generally they don’t have layoffs. The ones in recent times have been because they were temporarily closing Hubs to automate the sorting facilities. When they are retooled the feeder drivers all go back to work. Package Car drivers are still in short supply at many locations. My neighborhood Package Car driver is offered work on Saturday much of the year.

 

Still most people can’t handle the inconsistent work schedule. It sucks at the bottom at most places. I was told the bottom of the board at Walmart is going to be working nights soon.

 

Walmart's got schedules all over the place but the schedules are set in stone and will not be inconsistent once a driver has one. If you're a 12 noon gate at Walmart that's your schedule, none of that "can you start early or later?" stuff. A new driver at Walmart can work days if they want it. At least at my DC they can and we're grocery with plenty of night work. I'm surprised but there's actually a lot of drivers who prefer nights. The pay is higher and traffic headaches are less so there's that but I do like days best even so.

 

I agree many people will chase the dollars of the late nights like they do weekend work now. Not everyone wants to work nights especially when they haven’t at their current job. Maybe they won’t force anyone to work nights that doesn’t want to.