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Hey hey, Marty T Hawkins with Warehouse and Operations as a Career here with you again! Let’s see, it’s been a busy week, where are we at now, so this is episode 126. Last week we only got to one question that’d been sent in, it was about the receiver position, I hope we covered it pretty well and all understood it’s possibilities or learned a little more than we knew already! I’ve received a couple of inquiries into the Driver Helper role, so I thought we’d talk about that position today. There’re a few positions that I’ve always thought of as great break through or get your foot in the door opportunities and the driver helper task would have to rank right up there as number 1 or 2. From there it’s so easy to move into the warehouse job’s and it’s a great door way into the transportation world too! Why do I feel it’s the perfect entry job, I’m so glad you asked! Think about it, it’s a general labor job to most people and most companies think of it that way too. All that’s really needed is a body to ride with the driver and help him stack down the load and maybe lend a hand with organizing the stops or gathering all the cases for the next stop. Maybe even perform a little security for the trailer if it’s a night route or a key drop route. Is everyone familiar with key drops? A key drop route would be where the driver has the keys to the customers establishment, and we deliver their product when no one is around and after hours. Key drops are a win win, the customer doesn’t have to pay someone to stop what their doing and receive the product or put it away, our company’s driver and driver helper does all that for them. And for us as drivers and helpers we’re able to make many more stops and get paid for a lot more cases because we’re not dealing with as much traffic or having to wait for the customer to have time for us to deliver their goods! Ok, I got off topic again. So, although most people consider the driver helper position as G/L, and a body to help out it’s just not that way for us. We have a plan right? We’re going to, or I hope we are, we’re going to just use this position as a stepping stone to our goals right? Let’s walk through the typical job description and talk about how we can turn a general labor mindset into an educational task for us.
Of course, we’re going to arrive at least 10 minutes early for our shift, every day, and we’ll be wearing any required PPE’s we’ve been assigned. Usually an ansi safety vest, maybe steel toe boots or shoes, possibly even some good gloves may be required. Next, we’re going to watch & learn what all our driver doe’s prior to pulling out of the yard. This could be things like heading over to dispatch and picking up our invoicing or manifest sheets and signing out our equipment. Your facility may require the driver and helper to load the staged product or organize the pallets and run them onto the trailer even. Next our driver may go perform a pre-trip on the trailer, if we’re running with a refer unit, he or she may have to pre-trip it as well. I’m talking about all these pre-work tasks because, and it’ll take a little bonding time with our driver, but we’ll want to eventually earn the trust and respect to do these things for our driver. We’ll immediately become an asset to our driver and not just a pair of hands for him to use!
So, we’ve left the yard and on the way to our first stop. I always liked to grab the clipboard and look over the order for my first stop. I’d know the piece counts, what items we’d be delivering, and I’d start thinking about how I’d want the boxes stacked on my dolly if I was going to be the one delivering it. When my driver got backed in and ready to unload I’d have the trailer door opened and already stacking all our 1st stop product down and have it ready for him or her to wheel it into the customer. If I ever got a head of the game a bit, I’d ask if I could help deliver and store the product with them! Remember we want to be an asset to them. I’d always try and do most of the stacking, I always liked having two or three stops separated and ready to help them load up their dollies! As a driver helper we just have to help out, do what’s asked, be that extra set of hands, but, using our position as a stepping stone, having a plan to reach our goal of another position we want to learn all these other tasks right?
So, after we’ve completed our route and returned to the yard, again watch and learn. We’ll want to learn the returns procedures. I always would have everything notated correctly on the bills and had the products stacked and ready for the return’s agents, again helping them out, keeping everything really organized for them. Again, become that asset for the company. Working closely with the warehouse guys, like the return agents, they’ll want to teach us and get us certified on the equipment so we can move product around for them and run it to its final destination. I never looked at it as doing anyone’s job for them, I always thought of it as learning to take their job from them!
I’ve always talked about how the driver helper position was a door way into transportation and/or warehousing because it can truly be whatever we want it to be. As we just spoke too, learning what all the driver has to do besides driving, it’s easy to learn to drive, it’s all the other components of the job that has to be taught & we’ll learn them all by doing them. Same for the warehouse side, we can get some equipment experience and start learning some of those procedures simply by hanging around the right people and making it known that we want to learn. Here at WAOC we’re always encouraging you to let your management team know that your wanting more, more knowledge and more responsibility. That’s what is going to get us noticed.
So, the question that was posed was “I have a friend who works in a warehouse, he likes it well enough I guess. The only position they have open is for a driver helper, I don’t want to ever have to drive a truck, do you think I could apply for it and ever get moved into the warehouse?
I answered him with a strong certainly, and making that transition will be really easy. I encouraged him to do his best for like 3 months and then start letting everyone know that he’d be interested in the next warehouse opening!
Again, and I guess we could approach any job as just a body or someone to perform the task at hand or we can be that person that’s going to get noticed and be a true asset to our team. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with approaching a job or task as just a job, we’ll get a check and after all we’re all working for the money right? But, I’ve always felt like we can have more, more enthusiasm, more money and more enjoyment from our jobs by being that employee, an asset to our teammates and the company if you will.
The way a driver helper is paid can vary between different industries too, anything from hourly, to by the route, I’ve heard a few places have developed a by the case pay system even. I personally can’t think of anywhere that is presently paying hourly for this position, it’s more by the route and loads typically I think.
We’ll that’s just about a wrap for the day, join us for more talk about positions using @whseandops on both Facebook and Twitter and stop in at the Warehouse Equipment Operators Community Group too, you can learn a lot about the different kinds of equipment used in our industry there on any given day. If you have a comment or topic suggestion, shoot even just a question shoot an email to host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com , I love getting mail!
Until next week, work safe and please remember your training and never get on or touch a piece of powered industrial equipment that you have not been trained to use!