Update #3
6 months after Target
Warning: Wall of text coming up... tl;dr available at the bottom
Back when I hit my breaking point with Target, I realized that it was time to seriously get my life together and get into a good
career, not just another job. My favorite part about working at Target was when I got to work in receiving, and my interactions with all of the delivery people got me interested in truck driving. I was especially interested in the drivers who carried loads from our DC and FDC, because they were getting home every day or every other day, and sleeping in a truck doesn't sound very appealing to me. I reached out to that company, but they were not currently hiring for their Target account. I spent a lot of spare time finding out everything I could about truck driving.
Work was becoming more and more unbearable, so I kept researching the career field and ended up in a program at my local community college that would train me to get my commercial drivers license (CDL). They had an 8 week evening course available, but by this point I was so desperate to get out of Target that I signed up for the 5 week day course, and started only working weekends (while burning though my vacation and personal days). I had made up my mind that I was not going to be an over-the-road (OTR) trucker who was gone for a week+ at a time, and so I started applying to every job I could find that would hire new CDL holders and would have me home at least every other day, if not every day. By the time I had successfully earned my CDL, I had multiple recruiters reaching out for interviews and follow-ups.
Within a few weeks of obtaining my CDL, I accepted a job offer as a Delivery Driver for US Foods. Starting pay was $24.05/hr, but within a month they raised it to $26.26/hr to stay competitive. The job consists of driving a tractor-trailer to various customers and delivering food and food-related products. Basically anywhere that has a commercial kitchen (restaurants, schools, hospitals, hotels, etc). It's been anywhere from 10-18 stops in a day, pulling anywhere from 28' to 48' trailers, and 15,000 to 25,000 lbs. It's a very physically intense job, since most of it is hand unloaded by stacking products onto a two-wheel dolly and running it down the ramp and into the customer location. Once my trailer is unloaded, I drive back to the lot, unload my dolly and any returns, then get in my car and go home. No sleeping in the truck or staying at a hotel.
I've been on my own route since mid-July, working 4 days a week for about 45 hours, which is pretty mild compared to some other guys. I chose a route that's based out of a remote drop lot, so I rarely see my supervisors and I don't have to deal with being forced to come in on my day off like the lower seniority guys at the main warehouse. My route also has tons of hotels, which are generally awesome to deliver to because I just wheel it in through the automatically opening front doors and the heated/cooled lobby (some restaurants are not fun with their greasy floors, hot kitchens, tight corners, and weird bumps to go over or stairs to go down).
All said, I'm really happy with the way things worked out, and I'm extremely glad that I didn't have to endure another Christmas season at Target. I don't intend to work at US Foods as a delivery driver forever, but the pay is hard to argue with and the experience I'll take away is worth it for now. My ultimate goal is to land at a place like UPS Freight or FedEx Freight making palletized deliveries to businesses (like how the Starbucks order arrives). Places like those pay similarly starting off, but the work is much easier and the raises with seniority are significant enough to make it a job I'd want to work until I retire.
I mentioned it before and I'll say it again, the posts on here from people who left Target and found success are a big part of what pushed me to leave, and so I hope that this will do the same for others. Stop wishing about things getting better and go do something about it! If anyone has questions about truck driving or working for US Foods, feel free to pm me.
tl;dr
I left Target to become a truck driver.
spot’s lost.
