warehouse worker

delivery driver

truck driver

sales representative

route driver

Empire Distributors

I was out of work for nearly 2 years due to COVID and took this job more or less out of desperation. But during my interview process I was told things like "we pre and post trip our trucks to ensure we don't have guys breaking down on the side of the road". I was insured they serviced their truck regularly and that's why they enforce the pre and post trips on their phones. I was also told I'd temporarily be bounced around until routes came open but then I'd be settled into a route of my own and with it being a salary position they try not to keep guys on the road for long periods. I was told you'd work longer than 8 hrs on occasion but it was far and few in between. I was also told it was a very supportive work culture and during the on boarding process it very much seemed so.

 Now, move forward a few months. You rarely ever know what your route is going to be day to day. Even if they do tell you where you are the next day more often than not that's not where you'll be when you come in the next morning. This ultimately makes it difficult for someone to gauge their day to day. They'll toss you wherever on a route you've never been on and leave you be. Instead of placing you in areas they know you're familiar with and can operate on efficiently.

Then there's the trucks and the pre/post trip they talk up to keep trucks running. I'm here to tell you that is a lie and they only have the pre/post trip to see if you damage anything not so they can maintain their safety. I pulled one of the managers aside one morning while he had a big wig safety manager with him to tell him that one of the trucks tires had a nail, and the other tire had a huge gash in the tread. He said to take a picture and he'd have it fixed the next day. Fast forward 2-3 weeks later I'm in the same truck, and the tires aren't fixed. I brought it up to another manager telling him that the nail was still in the tire and his reply was "yeah, well it's still rolling". I ignored it kept on going. Then a few weeks later they send me 2 hours away in a truck with nearly 500 cases that has a work order on it for their fleet servicer. It read "truck constantly needing to be jumped off and rear running lights not working". They had to jump me off for me to even leave the warehouse. It was still dark out and they sent me out in a truck not holding a charge and no rear running lights in a freightliner. Now, at this point I was over it. Pretty much everything I was told during my interview was an out right lie. So when the truck died like it had been doing I left it at the account it died at and left. They weren't happy about it of course and that ultimately was the last day I worked there.

This doesn't include the "supportive management and team they have" because one of the managers will talk absolutely reckless about his drivers when they aren't around and I've heard him say some pretty nasty things about his leads. This isn't the first route job I've had but it definitely will be the last, and it was the worst experience. For a route job they don't route with sense and will have you bouncing all over town and if you've never ran the route you won't know until you pass the same thing 5 times. Nothing is grouped together. I gave them a chance and I didn't like anything they had to offer. 

Stops on the truck are never really in any order. You will have 20 cases of one product spread throughout the entire stop. You can tell management all day but it won’t get resolved. “That’s how the system works” is the only answer you will get. Even routing is done poorly. You will pass a stop 4 times before you get to it on your truck. Long time employees are certainly favored for promotions before looking outside to hire. 

Management is meh. It tends to be childish at times. The entire company has this weird cloud of “We better than everyone” mentality when in REALITY it’s not much better than anyone else. 

From a customer stand point, you can’t claim damages after the driver has left. It’s like pulling teeth to get a credit on bad labels or damages in anyway. They expect you to open every box to inspect before you leave a customer. Just a good way to treat customers who spend $100,000 a year on product. 

I personally wouldn’t recommend working for them. New hires really get the shaft end of the stick. The only routes open normally are ones no one else wants to run. 

Customers hate to see your truck show up because of how poorly it’s loaded. You really have to go above and beyond with each customer to win trust because the company really will not do that. You get the full brunt of frustration from customers being lied to about product being sent, not being able to get credits or pick ups, rude sales people, being sent product they never ordered, and even to the point of getting product they DID NOT know was even coming. 

It’s not a mess managerially speaking; the entire company has a customer service issue. 


My time here wasn’t all that bad, I personally just never felt like I had a place there. If you do decide to peruse a job here, just know that it is just that… a job. Not a career. 



You would think selling wine would yield itself to folks that are knowledgeable about wine or at least interested in wine but the managers are not. Many of the Area and District managers do not have any wine certifications, many have  tried but failed even after having access to a test bank that they all passed around for the CSW. In my 4 years with the company, the most difficult part of the position was fixing my managers poor salesmanship and general idiocy when they would ride along with me as they believed they knew better, merely because they had the title manager. Well, they didn’t and the customers certainly knew it, I constantly fixed their foolish and unethical business practices. The Managers are really bad at selling  with the  business acumen of a below a high school level, as many have little to no university level education. Their stupidity and arrogance that they knew better was astonishing and bewildering. It’s a cool industry that could attract excellent talent however there isn’t any talent, or even basic competence aside from of a rare exception at the management level. These are a bunch of goons that are providing a net negative result from their presence. Empire, if you cut your management team in half, especially on the North Side, your profits and sales would increase, I assure you. They aren’t doing anything out there., quit paying them to give you a negative result. 

Empire is a great company to work for and you will find some truly amazing and influential people within it's walls. They offer great benefits and opportunities for advancement or transfer to any of their locations. This particular facility was beautiful as well. Most everyone is respectful and kind and will genuinely helpnyou along your career path, but as with any work environment there are bad apples, and it seems those bad apples that have been employed for some time are protected by HR to a detrimental point. 

If you are a young female, I don't suggest getting into customer service. I would try for any other department, genuinely. HR would rather label you as a problem and snub your hopes at a career than take care of a bad apple, regardless of your performance (and several statements reiterating your point)

Still, if you can bite the bullet and tolerate disrespect that you shouldn't have to from said bad apples, it's a great opportunity to get your foot in the door and build your network. Overall the company is a good one to work for and a reputable name in the industry, albeit a bit tarnished from former employees who were ousted for the benefit of others. I do think it's a company I could have retired from if that chance weren't taken from me by male ego. 

At this job you will travel alot daily.some routes are even 3 hours away. The pay is decent, but you will work long hard hours for it. I don't reccomend this place to anyone who has a family or spouse. It's long hours every day. The co-workers are nice. But the turn over rate is crazy. So they hire alot do to people quitting. Starting time is anywhere from 5 a.m to 7 a.m, depending on your route. You'll work 10+ hours each day, easily. It's not a terrible job. But you'll have to get use to the long hours. And try balancing your work and home life. They also have alot of rules that are strict and hard to follow all the time,due to normal daily issues.Mainly you can't be on your phone, at all.but with clients,salesmen,and others calling you,its hard to avoid.Not to mention your family calling.They don't allow hands free calls. Bottom line is, it's very corporate. You're salary pay, but you will work more than 40 hours a week. It is a manual labor job, so being an active person will help you with this job. It isn't all bad there, but isn't a dream job or a life long career to most people. Definently a young person's job, due to the long hours,physical demands,and decent pay. I wish anyone all the best there, and good luck. 

Benefits at Empire are decent at best. They offer High Deductible Health Plans so be prepared to pay out of pocket for all medical expenses if you’re young and healthy. Dental (Delta Dental) and Vision (VSP) were pretty good but the buck really stops there. The offer a 30 cent per box incentive to bring back empty wine boxes. What they don’t tell you is that when they have a surplus they’ll cut that off for months at a time. Kegs have a bonus too but you never have enough to make a big difference in your paycheck. The $48k yearly salary is grossly undervalued for the amount of work you do on a daily basis. Management plays favorites with family members, it’s 50/50 if sales rep will respect you as a driver, management forces you to drive vehicles that after doing your DOT pre-trip should be out of service until repaired. The favorites get the new trucks, half of the chill boxes don’t work so be prepared to burn up in the summer and not have staff care. Micromanaging is a huge problem here, staff is inadequately trained on how to handle workplace violence, workplace injuries, and workplace harassment. Get ready to embrace the suck if you apply for this company as a driver. 

I worked as a delivery driver for 5 years. Things got worse and worse as the years went on. The work itself is great. The company, not so much.
Trucks are loaded horribly. Routes are more often than not set up in a way that makes no sense. Nothing ever gets done to fix those issues. If you complain about it too much, you get threatened with your job. 
The company does pay well for a non-cdl delivery job. They offer decent bonuses, but they are tied to so many different metrics, that you probably won't see a bonus.
They stack stops on you to the point where you never have time to eat lunch, but then you get in trouble for not taking a lunch.
Every truck has a camera in it. They are always watching you. They claim it's in case of an accident. But, be prepared to be called to the office at the end of the day to see a video of yourself doing *insert company policy here and how you violated it*.
Ultimately, at least in the Nashville office, favoritism is key. If you suck up to the boss enough, it'll be smooth sailing. If not, every day will be a bad day.

Before everyday I made sure I did a pre-trip inspection of the truck I used that day and at the end of the day I would do a post-trip inspection.
  I learned how to properly strap down pallets to an open bed truck. At this job I learned how to drive different kinds of forklifts and shipping and receiving procedures. I was responsible of loading and unloading trucks at truck docks and at roll up doors. I also received orders and picked them off shelves. I also kept track of inventory and goals. 
  Management at this job was very helpful, the company was a small company so it was a lot easier to keep management of all activities at the warehouse. 
  Driver's at this company were very helpful and always willing to help with anything that u needed help with.
  Hardest part of the job was when there was heavy traffic on the roads.
  The most enjoyable part of the job would be when I have made all my stops on time and I am back at the warehouse early helping out with cleaning up and stocking inventory.

Worked 10 months here. I was so excited at first until I got in and seen how they are. Management sucks. Dispatch is rude will have you work the hardest way possible to get you off the phone. Route coordinating is terrible will have you ride by 3 stops and come back even when they are open unless you know the route. I never got a route in 10 plus months you have to be a favorite out of 80 drivers to get a route. And if someone wants you gone they will point you out the system for everything to get you out. Instead of them collecting short pays they hold the driver responsible and won’t send you back to the location to collect. Even if a liquor store writes a check wrong you get points.  I had repeated breakage repeated shorts and could never learn a route because I’m not ready they say.. Very corrupt system unless your a favorite don’t sign up for 401k they will take your money and when you leave give a majority back to the company when they only matched 6% of your contributions. Dirty dirty dirty and yes they stick together.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Since of helping and making the customers happy especially when they have been waiting on a order 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Pay! Driving to parts of not knowing the area!! GPS mess up !! Customers with racial or jacked up attitudes but you still do the job regardless!

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Ok I’m just the type to do the job .. I’m a happy go lucky person and I’m always on a good mood regardless 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
All depends on what day it is or if it’s holiday time.. No one explain so thru my personal experience it’s ok but nothing is like building team mates that listen to you and nit take things out of context because they having a bad day

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Warehouse worker 2 salaries reported	$20.50 per hour
Delivery driver 1 salary reported	$49,500 per year
Truck driver 1 salary reported	$50,000 per year
Sales representative 1 salary reported	$62,978 per year
Route driver 15 salaries reported	$48,600 per year

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