Hey hey, Marty T Hawkins with Warehouse and Operations as a Career here with you again! Let\u2019s see, it\u2019s been a busy week, where are we at now, so this is episode 126. Last week we only got to one question that\u2019d been sent in, it was about the receiver position, I hope we covered it pretty well and all understood it\u2019s possibilities or learned a little more than we knew already! I\u2019ve received a couple of inquiries into the Driver Helper role, so I thought we\u2019d talk about that position today. There\u2019re a few positions that I\u2019ve 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\u2019s so easy to move into the warehouse job\u2019s and it\u2019s a great door way into the transportation world too! Why do I feel it\u2019s the perfect entry job, I\u2019m so glad you asked! Think about it, it\u2019s a general labor job to most people and most companies think of it that way too. All that\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019t have to pay someone to stop what their doing and receive the product or put it away, our company\u2019s driver and driver helper does all that for them. And for us as drivers and helpers we\u2019re able to make many more stops and get paid for a lot more cases because we\u2019re 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\u2019s just not that way for us. We have a plan right? We\u2019re going to, or I hope we are, we\u2019re going to just use this position as a stepping stone to our goals right? Let\u2019s walk through the typical job description and talk about how we can turn a general labor mindset into an educational task for us.
\nOf course, we\u2019re going to arrive at least 10 minutes early for our shift, every day, and we\u2019ll be wearing any required PPE\u2019s we\u2019ve been assigned. Usually an ansi safety vest, maybe steel toe boots or shoes, possibly even some good gloves may be required. Next, we\u2019re going to watch & learn what all our driver doe\u2019s 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\u2019re running with a refer unit, he or she may have to pre-trip it as well. I\u2019m talking about all these pre-work tasks because, and it\u2019ll take a little bonding time with our driver, but we\u2019ll want to eventually earn the trust and respect to do these things for our driver. We\u2019ll immediately become an asset to our driver and not just a pair of hands for him to use!
\nSo, we\u2019ve 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\u2019d know the piece counts, what items we\u2019d be delivering, and I\u2019d start thinking about how I\u2019d 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\u2019d 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\u2019d ask if I could help deliver and store the product with them!