Pepsi MidAmerica - Marion IL

So, thinking of getting a daycab job? Want to be home every night? Yeah, I was in the same position about 18 months ago. If you are reading this, you are probably applying to be either a "Route Salesman" or a "Full Line Salesman" I'll try to address both as best I can.

"Route Salesman" is the job of driving the Class A truck around delivering product to their final destination. You'll be starting your day at 530 AM, and you won't go home until your truck is empty. You will consider a 10 hour day a very short day. You are paid on a commission system that you will never make any money on. The word "Salesman" is only there so Pepsi dosen't have to pay you overtime. In addition to not paying overtime, they don't pay you at all for any hours worked over 40. And you will be putting in at least 55 hours per week. Often more, especially on holiday weeks. PMA also operates within a radius of your depot that excuses them from running a logbook. So there is absolutely zero consideration for hours of service limitations.

The pay is hilariously bad for drivers. Starting pay for a driver is 400$ per week. That's 80$ per day, and since you'll be working 10 hours a day minimum, that's less than minimum wage. Over the first few months, you will get bumped up to 450-500$ and there you will stay for the duration of your employment most likely.

The human resources manager will tell you that this pay is just a "guarantee", and that your commission will always be significantly higher than this guarantee. To be clear - the 400-500$ number you get pitched is NOT a base pay. You get either your commission or your guarantee, whichever is higher. Another thing that they won't clarify until after you have signed up is that the commission rate is extremely inconsistent. For example, if they tell you that you will be making 20 cents per case, you will actually make something closer to 12 cents. That's because if Pepsi offers a customer a discount, they also discount your commission rate accordingly. And you have no control over this, no warning, and no real way of seeing if they are even "discounting" your paycheck correctly. The entire process of determining your final pay rate is completely opaque to you at all times. You just have to trust that pepsi is paying you properly. Pepsi recently "Reworked" the commission system. And after they did that, absolutely none of the route drivers have had a commission payout since.

You don't get paid for mileage either. It's all commisison based.

Now that we have covered all of the ways that PMA weasels out of paying you a fair wage in the first place, let's talk about how they constantly try to steal back what little they do pay you. Every day you are expected to fill out a stack of paperwork that will take you at least 30-45 minutes. Longer if the secretaries are busy. You have to do this because if you don't fill everything out perfectly, they will try to dock your pay for any one of the following reasons.

1) The warehouse forgot to load something. Since it's easier to blame the driver, PMA assumes you stole it.
2) You didn't log what you returned on the trailer correctly, so the warehouse didn't log it properly. See #1.
3) PMA has hundreds of Cash on Delivery accounts. You are responsible for these deposits. If you drop a 20$, let a check go thru the wash, or god forbid lose one, you are held accountable. While I understand the accountablity part, what I don't understand is why Pepsi forces us to deal with cash when NO OTHER DSD vendor allows COD accounts.
4) You processed customer returns without filing the correct paperwork.

Finally, when you do manage to find another job, Pepsi is notorious for either keeping, shorting, or simply delaying your last two paychecks for at least a month. Pepsi pays you on a 2 week stagger. Meaning you work week 1, week 2, and finally get paid on friday of week 3. So no matter when you quit, Pepsi is still holding 2 paychecks and they will take their time and make sure to make any little deduction they feel that they can before sending you what's left.

Furthermore, don't think that you can quit Pepsi and go work for Coke, or any other beverage company. They make you sign a 2 year non-compete agreement, and they WILL sue you. One of their former drivers is paying 500$ a month for the next 2 years.

And the worst part about it is that all of this is perfectly legal. Among all of the paperwork that you sign at the end of the day is a little part that says "I agree to allow pepsi to deduct from my wages to cover any shortages from this delivery." And I tried refusing to sign it. Pepsi's reconciliation department will still try to short your paycheck. Refuse enough times, and you'll be unemployed.

I'm sure that someone with more spare time and money will take PMA to court and win a huge settlement for their labor practices. But Harry L has some deep pockets and a team of lawyers on retainer for no other purpose than to fight former employees in court.

That about covers the pay. Now lets talk about your working conditions.

The trucks are not road legal in any way. If anything breaks, it won't get fixed unless it absolutely will not budge. The trailers are even worse. Often the turn signals and brake lights don't work. The liftgate motors burn out at least once per week. The overnight operations are constantly getting your trailers to the lot late. The pallets of soda on your truck are stacked for warehouse convenience, not to survive a trip down the road. So you will be cleaning up at least 1 dumped pallet per day. More if you drive on rough roads. The trailers are filthy to the point that I no longer drink PMA products. Mold, roaches, rotton soda that nobody could be bothered to clean up, dirt, and trash just to name the stuff I could recognize.

PMA has no concept of how things actually work in the transportation industry. Getting stuck behind other trucks at a customer, construction, breakdowns, late trailers... they don't account at all for any kind of delay. And there is no acceptable excuse for missing a stop.

If you are applying to be a "Full line salesman", then your job is to refill vending machines. In which case, all of what I said about route sales applies to you except for the late trailers, since you load your own truck. You also get paid 400$ per week maximum, and you too will never see a commission payout.

I could keep going, but I think that this is sufficient to explain why Pepsi is always hiring. The turnover rate is so high that HR will hire people simply to stand by as replacements when actual drivers quit. I personally went through 7 trainees trying to train someone for a specific route. That's 7 people that worked at PMA for a few weeks, and were lucky enough to run for the hills before they had any liability for anything.

Pepsi Midamerica has nothing to do with Pepsi Beverage Company. PMA is an independant bottler ran by a group of old men with the mentality of Al Capones spoiled kids. It's almost like they used to get beat up by truckers when they were kids, and now they are getting back at us. Because everything from the minute you pull onto the lot for your first interview, to the day you finally get mad enough to quit, is a complete joke.

The only good thing about this job was some of the people I worked with. The other drivers, and some of the customers were fun to hang out with.

I took this job because I wanted to get out of the over-the-road lifestyle. It just wasn't for me. I turned down a much better paying job with Ryder as a bread delivery guy because I thought "Well, Pepsi is a huge company. Surely things will get better after a few months!" I was dead wrong. I read the reviews warning me "DON'T WORK HERE". I saw red flags everywhere. I heard the stories. And I thought to myself, "there's no way it can be that bad". I'm here to tell you after a year and a half of putting up with PMA's bull, that accepting this job stands as the biggest mistake of my adult life. And that's stacked next to some pretty impressive screwups.

Don't make the same mistake that I and hudreds of other drivers before you have made. Take something, anything else. Stay on the road. Take 2 part time jobs. You'll be better off. Just when you see the permanent "How hiring!" sign in front of your local PMA depot - drive on by. Because I honestly wish that I did.

And if you aren't looking into working for this stain on the reputation of a real company (PepsiCo), and just read my little rant for fun, do me a favor. Next time you are in an area serviced by PMA (http://www.pepsimidamerica.com/consumer/media/service_area.png) - Grab a Coke instead . Remember what I said about those trailers.......

 

Vesp : I was based out of the Effingham IL terminal. But I worked in all of the Illinois locations at least once.

pattyj : Depends. Be sure that you are actually working for Coca Cola, and not an independent bottler. I don't think Coke has any of those left though.

TruckDuo : You're welcome. I hope that I can save at least one person from making a terrible, terrible mistake like I did!

 

I got a job with Klemm Tank Lines. I've only done orientation so far, and I can already tell that these guys understand how to run a company properly. I'm sure they aren't perfect, but at least my Pepsi nightmare is over