Pros
For the most part, I enjoyed my customers and my set route. Other drivers were cool and its one of those experiences in life that you are glad you did a necessary deed for society, but more glad that its over when you quit, lol.
Cons
Firstly, the reason I left first and foremost is how the truck gets loaded. The job is darn hardwork in and of itself by its nature, but a bad loading job about doubles the work. I remember having to off stack many bags of flour, beans, rice, cans whatever just to get product loaded on the bottom, this happens all day long. The difference of a good load to a bad load is major, much more strain on your body and increases route time by at least an hour and a half or more. This has been hapening for years and I know why and so does PFG. They rush the warehouse guys and give them a time frame that they should load pallets or they lose their bonus or can get docked pay. So when they are pulling the orders they might see that they were routed in such a way that they put cans for stop 5-6 on the bottom but then come to cans or flour for stop 8 later because their wonky computer and warehouse layout. Now because they are rushed they dont take off the cans for stop 5-6 so they just stack stop 8 on top and later stops on top of that. Now when we as a driver have to take the time and use the precious little energy left to off stack stop 8 and more in very limited space, it doesnt affect PFG one bit because we arent paid hourly like the warehouse guys, so really when drivers complain PFG does not honestly care, because in order for them to really care and make a drivers life better, that means they will have to put money where their mouth is and to pay the selectors more for their extra time to make sure a pallet is stacked right. The equipment in general is decent to subpar. They have trucks in their fleet that will need to regen once to twice in a 10 hour day and are very weak. Unless you get a dedicated truck, you will be slip seating and happily expecting a new bag of tricks everyday. Trucks can be downright nasty inside by other drivers. This warehouse has a high rate of mispulled items and items not on trucks. Compared to the other warehouses for PFG, Denver, CO is at the bottom of the list. Like I said before, if PFG would put their money where their mouth is and make a darn good effort that trucks are loaded properly, there was a chance I might have stuck around. When I was investigating why everyones truck where loaded so poorly, one warehouse guy told me that he had worked in the food industry for 10 years and pFG pushes their selectors to nearly the point of slavery at the pace they want them to pick and stack pallets. So by PFG rushing them then the poor performance falls us on us to take up the slack. My back still hurts from this job, Im pretty sure I aged my back many years what it should be now. Doesnt matter the pay if you will be having major back issues later in life, no thanks. All you do is walk around hunched over in the trailer down stacking and digging through pallets instead of just loading and going. A driver at another company told me his truck just off loads itself. I watched as me and helper arrived at the same time as him and he had more cases of product but still beat us because we were looking and digging for our product. Also, another thing is PFG in Denver does a lot of mexican places and pizza places. Lots and lots of can, rice, beans and flour to move, 40-50 lbs a piece. In general the loads are very heavy. 400-800+ cases weighing in at 13,000 to 20,000 pounds, thats a darn lot of weight to lift, push, pull, down stack and restack. I moved 20,000 pounds of product a few times by myself and a 14+ hour day and from my head to my toes I ached, just way too much to expect one person to move in a single day, unless your doing roids or something which obviously you cant do any performance enhancing drugs as a CDL driver. My ultimate feeling is that I was underpaid for the effort I was putting in and the professional license I worked hard to obtain and work even harder to keep and be a clean and safe driver. I think that $18- $19 an hour average is not enough. As a cdl driver you can make $16-20hr just driving. I would say that a fair pay that might have kept me around is in the range of $27-$30 and hour with Overtime over 40 hours. I figure driving pay would be $17 and just strictly non driving helpers usually make $11-$15, so a delivery driver is doing in reality two jobs, but is not paid accordingly. If I were to recommend anyone to work here, I would say take a deep hard look at the stress of driving maneuvering all day along with the physical toll on the body this will take on you. Its not for everyone that is for sure, it really grinds you down. Im pretty sure with a little creative thinking and cash outlay the physical workload could be really cut down. Other companies have figured it out with shelved trailers or floor stacking with just scoop and go type loads. I wouldnt go back unless it was a dire situation for me or something. But being in Denver, CO there are a ton of driving jobs that pay as well and much better than PFG and you will have energy at the end of the day to actually live life and not just go home and pass out from exhaustion. This review has been some time coming just figured I start 2016 off right and put the past behind me.
