my experience with Anheuser-Busch

They all suck to some extent. THe company I used to drive for did a lot out of the Newark, Williamsburg, Baldwinsville, and Cartersville breweries, and I also went to the Columbus and Jacksonville ones some as well.

I remember one time sitting for 2 or 3 hours waiting to get loaded, went to the scale, I was 76,970 pounds (they require you to be 77,000 to leave), in the past at this particular AB, a guard would come stand on the scale to make the weight right (the truck I had at the time was light and I could legally haul 47,500 on a regular basis). This time they would not do that, they made me go back to the dock, spent two more hours for some one to add like 3 cases to the last pallet, ridiculous. Drop and hook loads were hit and miss, sometimes I could spend 2 hours on property just trying to get checked in/out. Not my favorite choice of loads by any means. The distributors that they deliver to are always grumpy and rude. Bad situation for a driver no matter how you look at it.

 

Sounds to me like you had some bad circumstances...
1. Bad shipper.
2. Poor load planning.
3. Bad company.
4. Crappy training. (How the f@$# you completed entire training without ever putting a trailer in a door is beyond me.)
5. Lack of common simple knowledge of figuring out how a load lock works.

In summary: shipper, company, and driver all at fault.
And some of us drivers wonder why customers treat us like they do...

 

All I was getting at was if your company hadn't set you up to be late and if the shipper had their attitude and act together and if you had better training it probably would have been a much less stressful experience. You only can do what you can do.

 

omg , i have been throught the same, you know who else hurts my brain .. COORS MILLER ... god help us all

 

Houston is by far the worst, but I had a similar issue with Columbus.

I did dedicate Budweiser with the big blue screw, the extra pay wasn't worth the trouble.

Houston brewery is right next to a sewage treatment plant (I think anyways, it smells like it) there are usually 20-30 surplus trailers that drivers drop right in front of other loaded trailers. Yard dogs don't want to spend the time to help you move them so you're stuck doing it. These are the same yard guys who I've seen back into trucks. Twice.

They also had 1 of their 2 scales closed for repairs for the 6 months I was doing it, it typically led to 30min to 1hr waits to scale, and then if your weights are off you get to do it again. The guard house folks will criticize you and try to get you to accept the load with bad weights.

The "truck stop" across the street is dangerous and the bathroom is infested with insects. Not a place you want to sleep.

I never had any issues with Ft Collins, Jacksonville, or Virginia. St Louis held me for 15hrs because they couldn't get my truck loaded to the proper weight, Columbus did something similar. Most of the DCs are laid back, short wait times. Only exceptions I remember were OKC, West Memphis (they both want you to have a scheduled appointment) and Granite City (Guard shack lady hates truck drivers)

I'm getting annoyed just remembering the hassle!

EDIT:
In case you guys didn't know, you can check to see if your trailer has been loaded yet by calling 1 866 857 5749 and entering your pickup number.

 

i work for AB in St. Louis. cant say I have had these problems or issues...ever.

Ive been to Ft. Collins, St. Louis and OKC.

very simple account. cut and dry. get load info, pre-trip, call load hotline enter shippers number and get your trailer number, go find your trailer, back up, hook up lines, raise landing gear, pull your tandem arm, strap your load, close trlr doors, slide tandems all the way forward, then slide back a few holes, release arm, lock pin in place. go scale. if you are over gross tell the guard and they send you to get reworked. if you are heavy on an axle, you slide towards the problem. if you cant slide, and sliding your fifth wheel wont help the rework you. easy as that. scale, seal load, get paperwork. deliver. acquire currency.

working this account is so easy...its not even work. its almost like stealing money every week lol. easy money. weekends off but work every other saturday a half day.

and breaking into trailers to steal load locks??? wow. just wow. you're a real class act. if you need them, go buy your own and keep em in your cab. when you pull into the plant and security cuts your seal off...thats when you open your door and retrieve your load locks and put them in your cab before you back into a dock or drop a trailer. use your brain and some common sense.

 

you what?!?!?!?

you dont go to the shipping office. you take your issue up with the guards in the scalehouse.

the shipping office is busy filling orders and trailers..too busy to be dealing with a rookie driver fresh out of training and still wet behind the ears that obviously doesnt know what he is doing. (and its evident from your post that you dont have a clue how to slide tandems or fifth wheel or which way to slide).

you should never have a 14 hr violation....ever. no excuse. poor time management on your behalf.

been on this account since July and never had these issues, never once had an 11 hr or 14 hr violation. no one has ever yelled at me like this for these reasons.

sorry but you need to suck it up buttercup. or find another account.

got a pretty good idea which driver you are too...and all i can say is...I am not the least bit surprised at this post. no one on that account likes you. no one can stand you. everyone hopes you quit and asap.

you work for Werner on dedicated Budweiser. dont you?

 

No, he's pulling a tanker for Indian River. Put Indian River in "search" and you'll see his posts. He's still the same screwed up malcontent. When he's not complaining, he's whining.
I feel sorry for Indian River.

 

that doesnt make sense. why would he need load locks if he's hauling a tanker???