DSD: The unspoken side of trucking

[TJGoSurf]

Yes, trucks deliver things. But how do they get from all those warehouses to your local grocery store? The answer is Direct-Store-Delivery, or DSD. When you think of a truck delivering to a store you may believe its Pepsi, or Budweiser. But there are quite a few DSD delivery companies, to name the major ones it would be Kelloggs/Keebler, Kraft, Nabisco, Pepsi, Budweiser, Coors, even Edy's Ice Cream plus a dozen other companies in your area. I know Kraft and Nabisco are the same company, but they deliver differently Kraft is alot of frozen, chilled items, while Nabisco is the equal to Kelloggs/Keebler.

Next thing you may ask is, where do I apply? Easiest way? Cruise over to a Walmart at 0450 and ask one of the drivers. You would be surprised how close they are to you. I've known Kelloggs/Keebler to even hire drivers out of school, the one case I saw didn't last very long due to accidents but they still hire nonetheless.

You may hear that you will have to start in the warehouse. I'm not sure what other companies pay, but in my area at my warehouse the pay rate is $16.85/hr.

Onto the advantages, there is a tie for the top reason. Home almost every night, and I mean almost. I go out of town once a week no more than 120 miles away. The other great reason is paid by the hour. I get almost 60 hours every week and home 6 nights a week. Its awesome. Damages? Go ahead and take those home with you. Damages are normally thrown away and usually given to employees.

And of course there are downsides. Lets begin with saying there are lumpers, YOU. Beverage delivery is normally given a power jack in their trailer to use. Others, you use a stores pallet jack, or you have your own hand truck or pallet jack. On a normal day you will deal with 2-13 receivers. Which are CEO's of their back room. It requires patience and being humble.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

 

[The New Yorker]

Hummm... the words of a recruiter. We should have a recruiters section. So they don't foil what the newbies think.

 

[Mike]

This isn't a recruiter. TJ has been a member here for a while, used to be an OTR driver, but came across a good local job and just explaining it as an option for those who want to drive, but might not want to be OTR.

 

[bigrig]

in my area the ADA (dairy) provides good local hauls. and they are union.

 

[patriciajnsn]

Yes, trucks deliver things. But how do they get from all those warehouses to your local grocery store? The answer is Direct-Store-Delivery, or DSD. When you think of a truck delivering to a store you may believe its Pepsi, or Budweiser. But there are quite a few DSD delivery companies, to name the major ones it would be Kelloggs/Keebler, Kraft, Nabisco, Pepsi, Budweiser, Coors, even Edy's Ice Cream plus a dozen other companies in your area. I know Kraft and Nabisco are the same company, but they deliver differently Kraft is alot of frozen, chilled items, while Nabisco is the equal to Kelloggs/Keebler.

Next thing you may ask is, where do I apply? Easiest way? Cruise over to a Walmart at 0450 and ask one of the drivers. You would be surprised how close they are to you. I've known Kelloggs/Keebler to even hire drivers out of school, the one case I saw didn't last very long due to accidents but they still hire nonetheless.

You may hear that you will have to start in the warehouse. I'm not sure what other companies pay, but in my area at my warehouse the pay rate is $16.85/hr.

Onto the advantages, there is a tie for the top reason. Home almost every night, and I mean almost. I go out of town once a week no more than 120 miles away. The other great reason is paid by the hour. I get almost 60 hours every week and home 6 nights a week. Its awesome. Damages? Go ahead and take those home with you. Damages are normally thrown away and usually given to employees.

And of course there are downsides. Lets begin with saying there are lumpers, YOU. Beverage delivery is normally given a power jack in their trailer to use. Others, you use a stores pallet jack, or you have your own hand truck or pallet jack. On a normal day you will deal with 2-13 receivers. Which are CEO's of their back room. It requires patience and being humble.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

That's what I don't understand is these customers that you the driver pays them to unload their stuff.Walmart is good for that and so is physco.They charge up to 300.00 to unload a full trailer.Then when I do hire a lumper and it's a mexican,they charge alot more to unload.The last load a mexican unloaded and they charged 30 dollars more for the same amt of freight and they took the longest to unload.Then a load be4 that a mexican unloaded they charged a $100.00 more then a white person and they took at least over an hr longer.Any of you who hires a lumper tell them they have an hr and a half to unload or you charge them for detention of $15.00 a minute.They get scared and unload u right away.

 

[2xR]

Store Door Delivery...

I've played that deal twice. Once was with Koch delivering for Dollar General and Best Buy. Dollar General was hard, but gratifying work. At the time we carried aluminum roller conveyors and built ramps from the trailer into the stockroom. Man, a case of bleach will shove a case light bulbs into the store, fast. Best Buy was just bump the dock and take a nap.

My most recent SDD was delivering automotive batteries from Johnson Controls to Sears, Wal-Mart, Army-Air Force Exchange, Advance Auto, Auto Zone, and Interstate Batteries. I loved that work. I delivered the new, and hauled off the junks. It was all palletized and shrink wrapped. I had a trailer with a lift, and, my very own motorized pallet jack. The only really hard work was when someone stupid stacked the junks wrong, and, I'd have to re-do the pallet before placing it on the trailer. I miss that job. Trouble was there wasn't enough going on to make a full week's work on a consistent basis. It was either feast, or, famine.

 

[oa_smallfry]

I started driving OTR in 96. I hated any time I ever had to go to a food whse, because I knew that I was going to have to work. lol. Fast forward two years, I moved from IA to TN. Got a job with The IJ Company (recently bought by Reinhart) and along with a co-driver/worker, we delivered 10-15 stops, on Mon, Wed, and Friday evenings. We'd leave at about 2 and get home from 2am-4 generally. I ended up doing it for almost 7 years. I loved the job (never thought I'd say that). One spring, I decided I was tired of being trucker fat, so since we delivered to the same Wendy's every night out, and one huge Texas Roadhouse stop on Wed nights, and every stop would feed us for free, that I would stop eating fried chicken, and start on the grilled. From April to August, I lost 90lbs just because I changed eating habits and had a job where I exercised alot. One of us would hand down the freezer to the other, then the other would hand down the cooler to me (side doors), then we'd roll them both. We'd both do the dry goods together. We got to where we could do a 100-130 piece stop in 15-20 min. I took a pedometer one night and figured out that I walked over 5.5 miles back and forth to the truck all night long. Anyway, how did I get there. Oh, it's all in mindset. If you go in hating it, you'll probably end up hating it.

BTW, they hired a new VP (years ago) that had worked as pres for another company, that just so happened to have had a law/court battle with Wendy's before; We ended up losing over 400 Wendy's, and the job turned to shit. I guess nothing lasts forever. Sorry to have gone off on a tangent. lol

 

[Johnny99]

Dollar General was hard, but gratifying work. At the time we carried aluminum roller conveyors and built ramps from the trailer into the stockroom. Man, a case of bleach will shove a case light bulbs into the store, fast.

When I worked for BoWevil Express I was on Family Dollar dedicated for two years. I ran out of the West Memphis DC. I remember those aluminum rollers well. I didn't mind lumping the freight off. I got paid for it, and I was forced to exercise every day. I was thirty pounds lighter then than I am today. Most of the stuff was light except for the bleach and 2 litre pop. Kitty litter and dry pet food was a pain because it wouldn't roll by itself. The comment about the bleach shoving the light bulbs made laugh because I remember doing the same thing.