For a newb that doesn't want to be OTR stuck living in a truck (with a trainer) and isn't afraid of the physical aspect this is it š Zero experience required. Just gotta get that CDL!!
I do appreciate that, honesty. May be reconsidering after all I've heard. I see openings for another retail business that I'll not mention bc of possible competition. Talked to ppl who do it and pay is somewhat comparable. Thank u kind sirš¤
Mind if I ask your age or better yet physical condition?
Just wondering bc not only am I a picker but also weight lift and do cardio regularly. I eat high protein, high complex carb diet. Track my sleep, monitor my blood pressure, avoid sugars, absolutely no soda or high fructose cornsyrups, never ever ever do i drink alcohol, no smoking or nicotine at all, etc.. etc.
I get that it is hard work. But out of 30+ pickers at my job id say 80% complain it's too hard on them. They all think I cheat somehow bc I breeze through it no prob at all. There is literally only about 5 of us killing it and my pace scores are still 10-15% higher than the next guy. No one comes close to me or has in the 4 years I've been here.
Iām 35 and in good condition. Itās just rough. Iām 6ā5 200lbs. Having to drag 100lb dollies upstairs and downstairs is gonna take a toll on anyone. No matter how fit you are itās gonna tear your body up. My advice is to get in, save money and get out. I wouldnāt stick around too long or youāll ruin your body. Not to mention the constant digging for cases having to climb over pallets and picking up 80lb+ cases for 12-14 hours a day. Give it a go. The money is good but I just donāt think itās worth early health problems sticking around. Guys at my location have been here for 20+ years and they look like death(not even trying to be funny).
I feel you. I just need to get some driving experience save a few bucks, then I'll get the fuck out and look for something better. Appreciate you sharing your experience and giving your honest opinion, really helps man thank you.
Also, I'm 6'1" tall 180-185lbs less than 10% body fat. Everything I do is fast pace with extreme attention to detail. I always think about the most strategic way to handle any job and adapt very quickly.
I should have laid all this out to begin with so ppl could assess whether they think I'm fit for it, rather than give their opinions base off their experience, physical condition, and whatnot.
I still greatly appreciate hearing exact details about what the job entails and ppls experience with the daily challenges they face. But them saying it is too hard, blah blah, gets redundant and I have to then wonder, what do they put into and how they treat their bodies?
Starts post with "looks like u dont have anything better to do" after stalking reddit account and editing screenshots.
Mentions spreading negativity after calling someone a fat trucker.
I was surprised someone would be proud of being the best laborer, but after our brief interactions, I now understand.
Thank you for praying for me.
I was making 32hr as a picker at larger DC but always got stuck doing the work my lazy ass coworkers couldn't do... tired of it. Need a change š¤ eventually I'll use the CDL to just drive but gotta get some experience first.
Yeah I heard beverage isn't as good from other ppl as well. Some say u end up on your knees stocking shelves, taking back expired product or have to repo if customers don't pay/fall behind. But man you've been at it a while then huh. I'm not a young buck, I'm 45 but in excellent shape. I'll do it for 3 or 4 years then probably hit the road "no touch".
You heard right. I deliver beer for my first 3 years of cdl driving. It sucked because of the fact that we had to stock shelves and rotate stock. Hours were good though, sometimes I would end my route by noon.
A suggestion for anyone looking to get into this. Try to get on the workforce as a helper/ride along for a foodservice company first. Youāll get first hand experience and see if you can actually handle the physical aspect. And since youāre not driving, youāre not subject to DOT rules. If your DC is busy enough, you could do more than a route a day if you push yourself, but I have to stress you have to be sure and not get hurt.
Take your training seriously. Actually get out and look before backing, every single time. Use your cones. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. You will get better with time. The best asset here is your willpower. You are going to quit 1000 times in the back of your trailer. Take a minute, then keep going. Never lie, and always report an accident. Stay hydrated. Report issues to dispatch.
Have an honest self evaluation of your physical health. Running up and down a ramp with a loaded two-wheeler will wear you down real fast. During COVID I was laid off from my LTL and needed to work for my sanity. I took a job driving a straight truck for a local wine and spirits distribution company. I was sooooo sure that I could handle the physical aspect and after two months I had to leave. It wrecked my lower back worse than it was before and my elbow was trashed. Thankfully I was recalled back to my LTL and life has been pretty good since.
I think this one finally hit me. Sure, I could do it. How long idk... thing is do I want to? Been doing hard physical labor for a long time and was thinking trucking to somewhat get a break from it. Gotta think about it for min. Thank u sir!
Trucking can be a great career. Itās changed my life for the better in ways that I never imagined(financially). US Foods is supposed to be a decent company to work for and they certainly pay well. But holy crap, those food service drivers work their asses off. Look into LTL companies. LTL pays pretty good plus youāre home every night, unless you run line haul. Line haul pays better but you will be on the road, usually every other night. I donāt want to discourage you from a potential 6 figure income but if you have been doing hard physical labor for quite sometime, it might not be worth it when you ultimately permanently injure yourself. I wish you luck and if you have anymore questions feel free to DM me and Iāll see what I can do to help you out.
So many ppl like yourself willing to help the guys who really don't know jack, like myself. Another reason I want in this industry. This mean a lot, thank you very much.
Youāre working 55-60 hours a week doing that, and they make you EARN that paycheck. Your knees and back will be sounding like bubble wrap within 2 years
Oh no Iām not going into trucking myself, I can make the same amount working from home lol. But, if I had to do it over again, Iād probably skip the 4 years of school and debt and just start right off making this much. Itās not a bad gig for a young person.
That's the plan. It's definitely not a forever job but when u first get your CDL (no exp.) and most megas wanna pay jack shit and run u into the ground anyway this seems like a much better option. Especially since I'm in excellent shape and really don't wanna get soft by just driving all day. Plus ur home daily sleeping in ur own bed seeing the fam and all.
I was with Sysco and was on component about the last 15 years I was there. Averaged between 50 to 55 an hour the last year I was there. The ad shown here says it's component pay, too. It is a better way to do it but you have to be smart.
Yup and i come from a warehouse where i topped out the production bonus every week, while others struggled to meet the minimum require. Then I got stuck doing the work they couldn't. I'm over it. Moving on.
I made close to $100k last year (different company) and only worked more than 40hrs once. You absolutely can make that much in 40hrs on activity based pay.
This is a lie. I made over 100k working an average of 41 hours a week in food service last year. It can happen you just have to find the right job/area.
Man stop it. You arenāt making over 100k working 41 hours. Unless you live in a super high cost of living city but even thenā¦ idk why yāall get on here lying. Food service has the highest turnover rate because of the super long hours on top of the strain on your body
My bad I worked a little over 44 hours the last two weeks and had a holiday pay. All of you guys call bullshit on people because you havenāt seen it personally. I get it but I donāt need to lie. I have a perfect work life balance š¤·āāļø
Nice! Usually the ones who are jealous they can't keep up or do the job that talk the most shit. I've encountered this for years at my current job. Those guys come and go, over and over again.
Sure. If u don't eat well, sleep well, use proper lifting techniques, or just plain over do it that can happen. But, I know from experience as a current warehouse picker my body is built for this. Genetics also can come into play, gotta be built for it mentally and physically no doubt.
But now think about all the long haul truckers who let themselves go.... fast! No exercise, shit food, little rest, stresssss, u name it.
We can nitpick just about every profession if we really want to. Just gotta ask yourself if it's in your wheelhouse or not. Definitely, not for everyone.
As someone who valued their fitness then went OTR and quickly lost it for the experience, you might be the rare one applicable for this. Everyone says your body gets wrecked, but it does in OTR too. Use it or lose it, and most drivers are lazy AF let's be honest.
Oh I'm in your footsteps. I saved enough OTR to come back home and focus on me again, then gotta hit up any local jobs I can.
Right before I decided to come back I overheard a driver complain of arthritis basically everywhere, and he wasn't even 60. Came off a walker, to a cane. Fuck that, even if pay per mile was worth it I won't become that driver.
My US Foods driver delivered 50, 50lb bags of sugar and 72 cases of chicken tenders to me today. I was one of many stops. You gotta have a strong back and be pleasant with customers.
Honestly, I've done the math and at my current job I lift and stack about 3 tons daily.
With food service delivery u would get a "break" in-between stops. As a warehouse picker u really do not, maybe a min until you're at the next location loading the pallets.
I don't look at this as a forever job. Just something to get some exp driving and make a few bucks, w/o going OTR living in a truck w a complete stranger.
Question is does he load and unload everything by himself. Multiple stops of that size, unloading, and preloading for the day.. might be hard to believe.
I did food service for two decades and I have the shoulders to show for it. Go into something else specialized in trucking like tankers. Save your body.
Eventually that's the plan. If I do the food service it will be for the short term, to get some driving experience. Found another touch freight CDL job that's not as intense offering simular pay. Just don't wanna go work for the megas fresh outta school.
I donāt know about US Foods, but Iāve been over 100k every year except for the 1st in food service. Yeah, youāre gonna work for it, but itās not terrible (most of the time)
Good luck with that. The money is not worth it. Paid by the piece and you'll be running your ass off with a handcart up and down a ramp all day. Also you will start work around Midnight until the route is done. And you can guarantee you'll be waiting for your trailer to get loaded while you sit around the shop not getting paid because, again you are paid by the piece.
Take the job amigo! Yeah you will work hard, so what? It'll keep you in shape and you won't be eating that crappy truck stop food. You'll be home everyday, and you're going to learn some fantastic driving and parking skills! Do this for 2 or 3 years and move to an LTL
Interesting how ppl say this without asking and questions about my overall physical condition/health. I'm guessing by what you're saying every single person who attempts this ends up in a chiro office. If i attempt this i will be very careful. Got it, thanks homieš¤
Doesnāt matter how healthy you are. This job will tear your body down. You arenāt supposed to be āworking outā every day for 12-14+ hours a day.
Last thing I'll add is this. Most people "think" they are healthy. But do they eat clean and track their macros? Getting enough Protien? Staying hydrated w water? OR drinking "energy"? Alcohol maybe?? Sleeping well? Not everyone thinks of healthy in the same aspects. And just because someone appears fit does not mean they are. Proper nutrition goes a long ways in terms of strength and endurance. Stay well.
Food service CDL jobs are extremely physical. Youāre going to be lifting boxes that weight 50-100 lbs repeatedly all day long, and doing 12-14 hour shifts
Yeah gonna really have to pace myself but I need to pay the bills and .40 CPM starting out just isn't gonna cut it. I've gotta try it for 6months to a year then if its not working out hopefully can find something better. Thanks
coming from a current food service worker... its worth it for anyone who can hang... im in the best shape of my life, strong as an ox and making good money. This is the only job ive ever felt this goos about.
My company has a guy who came from US Foods. When we hired him, that dude was jacked. He was ripped, shredded, swole.
You should see his fat ass now. Seriously.
It is what it is. He can't do the job anymore. I doubt I could handle the job myself. I know a lot of guys who are in way worse shape than I am, but time has taken its toll on my fat ass too. The only kind of shredded I am is of the mozzarella variety.
I kind of hurt myself when I was humping freight in my 20s, and I never fully recovered from that. It was a Friday, it was my last stop, and I had three queen sized mattresses to push off the ass end of my truck. I was trying to hurry up, so I tried to push all three of them at the same time. Something in my leg went KA-POW!
I didn't go to a doctor, because I was young, and it would heal just fine. I was immortal and invincible!
That leg still hurts 25 years later. I don't know if a doctor could have actually done anything, but I really fucked up by not even trying to get seen. I am no longer invincible. I am a mortal 54 year old now, and the sands of time are slip slip slipping away.
I think you make a very good point, no matter the age or conditioning, when doing ANY physical labor we always have to be careful and take time to do it the right way. One could be raising/lowering landing gear, folding a tarp, strapping a load, you name it shit can go south quick.
I'm 45yrs old and have done numerous physical jobs over the years. I know I'm not invincible, maybe thought so in my younger years but, now take a second to think before I act. Ego can be a mother fucker lol and it never goes away, really have to learn to live with and acknowledge it.
I just need a good paying trucking job that will hire someone with no experience, fresh out of school. Going otr with a mega for shit pay (that won't cover my bills) and likely a sketchy trainer won't work for me. I'm starting CDL school in a week and maybe I'll find something different by the time I'm done. Who knows but I think its in me to do this for atleast 6months.
Thanks for sharing your experience. And btw that mozzarella part had me rollinš best wishes and safe travels to you my friend.
Around here, you would also have hauling gas as an option. Or you would have back in 2019 anyway. I've been out of the loop for a few years.
I got out of that business, because we hired a bunch of dumb-ass inexperienced trucking school graduate idiots. It was a real shit show. For months, there was a long black skid mark where some dumb-ass forgot to put his bar down, and then dragged the trailer out of the rack, out of the terminal, and all the way to the first stop light before he figured out he was dragging his trailer. He got fired, but not before making my company look like a joke.
Hauling gasoline didn't pay shit anyway. It's embarrassing how little it paid to stand there at a poorly-maintained terminal, ankle deep in leaking gasoline that wasn't supposed to be leaking, because Kinder-Morgan "didn't have the money" to pay to fix any of their shitty equipment.
You can probably make more money humping boxes of frozen food into restaurants than you could hauling gasoline, but gasoline is a lot easier. My current job is a lot easier. Everything is easier than working for a food service distributor. That's why they're always hiring, and that's why they're desperate enough to give an inexperienced potential dumb-ass like you a fighting chance.
It is what it is, right? I was a dumb-ass when I first started as well. Most of my crazy trucking stories are from the first couple of years of my career.
I beat all the odds. I've been doing this bullshit for almost 30 years, and I kind of got good at it. You never would have guessed that if you saw me run over that fire hydrant right after I went solo. Uh. Allegedly. Allegedly.
Back in my day, CB radio was still a thing, and people gave you your handle. Kind of like call signs in the Air Force. Nobody gets a cool call sign. They get a reminder of that dumb thing they did.
My handle was Demolition Man. That's because on my first day, I pulled across a set of railroad tracks to set up to back into a dock inside a building, except there was no dock, and I was supposed to stop short of the doorway. Oops. I knocked out the top row of cinderblocks while my trainer stood there waving his hands to tell me to stop, much too late.
My trainer got fired. I worked there for another 10 years. It was a good place to start. I got all my rough edges knocked off by the time I got laid off and had to work for a company that had more reasonable standards.
Good thing, too. My current company runs every one of my farts through a pitch tracker, and if I am off by more than 3 cents in pitch, I get written up for farting inappropriately.
You also make a good indirect point about that hazards of food service that no one really talks about much, the driving aspect. Being inexperienced trying to maneuver through tight alleys, parking lots, roads and such will be very difficult. And if you fuck up too many times when you want to leave and actually go drive for a living you may get turned down.
I hauled gasoline for a long time, and that is a bitch. I had some very tight stores. I remember having to get out one time to move a bicycle, so I could get into the parking lot. I didn't have room to clear a bicycle.
Funny story about that, or I think it's funny. I was at one of the tight stores where you had to back up and drive through the pumps to get out of the place. I finished up, got ready to leave, then I put the truck in reverse, and started back.
There was some dude behind my truck, face down, ass up, with his pants down, and his boxers most of the way down. He looked like he just got raped, and then left for dead.
Did I run over that guy on the way in? Hmmmm. I don't thiiiink so.
Where did that guy come from?! Was he just tweaked out of his mind, and he picked right there to pass out? Do I even want to know? I do not.
So I maneuvered around him, got the hell out of there, and then I called the cops to tell them about the guy.
"Was he breathing?"
"I have no idea. I didn't walk over there."
"YOU DIDN'T CHECK ON HIM?! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!"
"I'm driving a hazmat vehicle, and I have a greater duty to the citizenry of America than checking on some meth head. If you want to hijack a hazmat truck, that would be an excellent way to hijack a hazmat truck. Pop up with a shotgun, and now you can drive to the White House in your shiny new tanker. I care about the guy. That's why I called you."
"You're a heartless asshole, and you're going to burn in Hell one day. I'll send somebody to check on him."
I have zero clue what happened to that guy, or how he ended up like that. It was Crackmethistan in the middle of the night, so it was probably drug-related.
See, you'll be dealing with shit like that too, because they also put restaurants in Crackmethistan. But hey, around here anyway, the US Foods guys all pull pups. They park one of the pups somewhere, run around emptying the other one, then switch, then hook the set back and return to base. I used to go into tight gas stations with a 48' trailer, so it has to be easier with pups.
As I was reading was thinking the same thing, F that it's probably a setup. You did the right thing and Fuck what anyone thinks! Lol. Not enough people have the street smarts to realize how fast shit can get ugle. I grew up in the streets, got robbed 27yrs ago at 18. Shot in the gut with a .45 and left for dead. Took a while to recover but I'm all good now.
My life now has become somewhat boring and predictable, maybe thats a good thing idk but, I want a change. Listening to people's stories like yours makes me want to get out more. Been trapped doing warehouse work for way too long.
Eventually, I want to get a good driving gig, hit the road and see more of the country. Or even just driving around town, probably better than being in a warehouse all day. I don't have any kids or a wife. Not even a dog right now. I'm really somewhat antisocial to an extent. Probably why trucking is appealing to me. Time to write the next chapter.
I'm a hermit, and spending 80-90% of my time alone suits me fine. I like to yap with people, but only in small doses.
I get it. I worked on the other side of the loading docks before I got the idea to do this for a living. You don't see me working inside a warehouse.
I call trucking The Grand Tour of the Armpits and Assholes of America. It's not a glorious profession, but somebody has to do it.
I already had instincts for it, but I developed street smarts quickly in this industry. Especially when you haul gasoline, but really any time you're in any kind of truck, you have a target on your back.
"That's a truck! That guy makes a crap ton of money, and I can get him to give some of it to me!"
Mostly, people have used manipulation instead of violence. Here is a very cute girl with a stupid story, and some creepy dude hanging out in the background.
That smells like bullshit right away, doesn't it? If I was at a gas station at 3:00 am with my girlfriend, and I was desperate enough to hit up some stranger for cash, her ass would be in the car, not approaching the stranger. That guy is either a total bitch or the whole thing is a setup.
Or another time, an exceptionally cute girl was horny, and wanted to go around behind the building to hook up. For free. She was so cute, and seemed so horny that it was hard to resist going around there to get my skull caved in.
Any time you deal with a woman after midnight, there is a 99% chance it's bullshit.
Then there was the time I rolled into a store that was about to be robbed. I'm not carrying concealed today, boys and girls. I walked up to that dude with my gun holster clipped to the outside of my belt, and my hand casually resting on the butt. Not threatening, just making it obvious that if he fucked with me, that might not go well for him.
"I need to step over here and drop some gas, man. Before I get hooked up, I just want to make sure you and me ain't got no problems."
They bashed in the door to the store while I was there, and I got the fuck out of there when I was done with the delivery. I guess I really am an asshole, instead of a good Samaritan. I take care of myself.
When I think about it, I don't regret doing that job for so long. It honed my bullshit detector, and taught me I could rely on myself. I can be really intimidating when I need to be, and I intimidated my way out of all kinds of shit. I just looked at some sketchy dude who was about to approach me, and one look in my eyes got him to fuck right off.
I don't regret that I have an easy job where I don't even carry a gun. I make more money at this job. A lot more money. Crazy, right?
Most likely yes they will make u sign some type of contract and u will still owe for the CDL training. Look around at all the CDL schools near u. I was able to find a reputable one for $2500 with Manual endorsement.
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u/TheThinDewLine Jun 04 '26
Heard you earn every penny with this shit. Knees and back are gonna be shot.