- The work is physically demanding and socially isolating
- Pay structure
- Turnover rate
- Bit of a boys club with immature conduct, but it was tolerable
It's difficult to describe the inequity of the role from route to route, but I'll do my best to succinctly explain it. Each route has it's pros and cons, and your job happiness heavily depends on what sort of route you inherit and how well the previous route service representative managed their route. You can easily walk into a messy situation that costs your sanity and your paycheck.
Another huge flaw in the company's pay structure made it unappealing to stay here. It has nothing to do with the people I worked with or the job experience I had. It's a direct effect of the corporate decisions. READ THIS if you are thinking about working there. When you are given a route, you have a base pay (some minimum wage nonsense rate) and then there is a convoluted commission structure that takes time and luck to master. The key piece in this commission structure is that you are given a set percentage of your route volume as part of your pay; depending on the route, it was 3% or 4% when I worked in there in 2024. It’s that 3-4% up to a capped dollar amount (i.e. one type of route was 16,000 in weekly volume, so that’s 4% of 16k, for a weekly pre-tax commission of 640.) After 16k in route volume, it drops down to 1%!! If you are in a territory that frequently adds business, you get the short end of the stick with your time and the company wins financially. One of the primary reasons I left, was because you are constantly at odds with the company financially and it does not feel like a win-win as your route grows. The happiest drivers were the ones who had short routes and were okay with slightly lower pay than the guys who hustled for long days for barely more pay. It just wasn’t a winning scenario for me and that’s why I opted out.
