Why I Avoid Grocery Warehouses

LOL!!!

 

I pull tanks, I would never again pull a dry van or reefer. Every time I pass US Foods, or any other number of cold customers in OKC off of I-35 or anywhere between Texas and Fargo all I can do is think "better you than me driver."

My time is valuable and won't be wasted.

 

I'm blessed with being with a reefer fleet that stays away from the taint of grocery warehouses and scumbags that waste our time .
On the very rare occasion im held up im on the clock .
Most of what I haul in my reefer isn't into anyone's stomach.

 

Back in the mid 90's i used to go to the Grand Union grocery warehouse in Mt Kisko, NY a lot. The lumpers there were all pretty much family members and even back then the prices they charged were on the high side. If you asked for a receipt, you got a torn piece of paper with illegible writing on it.
Then all of the sudden, they started giving printed form receipts that were very neat and complete. And the prices they charged seemed lower. I asked the lumper foreman about the new paperwork and he told me the IRS showed up and went through the delivery records and with the percentage of loads that the family had unloaded through the years, they got hit with an enormous tax bill.
He said the agents told him several people had complained about the lack of paper work and suggested the IRS take a look. None of the "Lumper's" had filed taxes in previous few years. Some times it pays to inform to get a little payback.

 

Don't a lot of companies require a TIN to issue lumper payment?

 

In the two years that I drove OTR, I've learned to absolutely loath grocery store warehouses. It has to be on the top three reasons of why I hate OTR.

 

Americold here in Charlotte jerked me around and made me late for the delivery, couple yrs ago.
they had a big problem after that. it was our over flow stuff from our warehouse across town. lol
we were an actual customer picking up our own freight.lol
didn't happen again.

 

Post # 1 is why i got a dry van. i did refer ltl for years,as a drive and in the office. these places are just as bad to deal with from a desk. try to schedule a 1 pallet delivery,they will not give an appt on any day request. always "booked up". you are a piece of #### to these places,and treated accordingly.

no thanks.

 

i had a cusomer with a large order going to one of the warehouses in Atalanta a few years back. it was big enough to go on one of their 2-3 stop truckloads they shipped. i did all their ltl-smaller orders.

they wanted a wednesday delivery but the place was "booked up " till thursday. so they called me to see if i could take and deliver thursday. i took it and called them for the appt. but alas!!! they were "booked up " and could only take it wednesday. wednesday!! so i sent the email chain back to the customer who forwarded it to the buyer and he flipped out. i was caught in the email chain between this buyer and his receiving dept. kinda comical.

i think it was a costco dc.

just a typical scheduling scenario in the refer world.

 

Yea Costco was one of the few customers I never had an issue with. Usually no more than 15 minutes on the dock at their Dallas DC.

One of my final reefer loads was for the horrid US foods/Charlotte. Had a two stop load, first stop there and a second stop at another says foods just south in South Carolina off of I-77. Took six hours for those idiots that unload my trailer making me four hours late for my second US foods delivery. They were not friendly at the second stop and I wasn’t either.

I just can’t deal with those situations. Instead of losing my cool I just quit delivering reefer freight. You just really have to enjoy being in a pissy mood to deal with those places.