truck driver

order picker

driver

forklift operator

warehouse specialist

McLane Company

I sincerely appreciated the opportunity to work at McLane. Unfortunately it was proving to not be a perfect fit for me in that it would have ultimately interfered with other things I have going on in my life. Additionally, the work itself may have been more physically demanding than what I am willing to take on at my age and I did not see myself ever being able to reach the productivity goal that was set for us individually. The quality of my work was never in question and mis-picks and short-losses were nonexistent. My scan percentage was also as high as it could be, given the distribution of my assignments, and I was always among the higher bracket in that area as well. I was repeatedly complimented on the quality level of my pallets in terms of stacking, weight distribution, and wrapping, by the loaders, other selectors, and management. I take quality and customer service extremely seriously and I believe my work there reflected exactly the kinds of principles that McLane demands we strive for toward our customers. That being said, the productivity goal was more important than anything else to management. They stress the service aspect because they have to, but at the end of the day, if you're not picking 170 cases or more per hour, nothing else really matters. 
As far as the topic of management is concerned, that is where the most work needs to happen, from my standpoint. As a selector, one is basically at the bottom rung of the proverbial ladder. Generally speaking, those of us who occupy positions at that level are given the impression that it would be wise to leave the managers alone, keep our mouths shut, do our job, and be grateful that we are employed. That is an attitude that does not work with me. I have too much in the way of experience, knowledge, dignity and pride, to punch the clock, do the work, and go home, without allowing things like that to eat away at me. 
While I was at McLane, management carried a vibe which made them seem unapproachable and completely disinterested. I never had a 60 or 90 day review. I never had the opportunity to sit down with anyone and go over anything related to the work I was doing or how I felt things were going. I was always left with the feeling that they didn't want to be bothered or inconvenienced with the goings-on out on the floor, where they rarely set foot. There could be no more glaring example of this attitude than that which concerned the area of safety. This company touts safety as much as they are required to do so, but when it comes to actually practicing it in the real world, management does not participate, other than to remind people of its importance. That, in and of itself, is not enough. Management can practice what it preaches by affecting the safety within the building from the decisions it makes from behind the desk. When a safety issue surrounds a problem with the building itself, the equipment we use, the processes we follow, etc., management must step in and make decisions that can have a meaningful effect on improving the situation. The problem is, sometimes correcting a safety issue must be expedited, resulting in a costlier decision. At the Newnan location, I watched management create such an inherently unsafe situation simply due to the fact that they did not want to take on more of an expense. This resulted in prolonging a dangerous scenario involving the amount of internal traffic through a very tight area, while they haggled with a manufacturer about a warranty issue with an access door that had been broken and had sat unrepaired for three months at the time of my exit. One serious accident is all it would take and now you're looking at something that would cost a dozen times more than whatever it would have come to for the repair on that access door. I spoke with many other selectors in the building and then voluntarily generated an email to management, outlining my concerns on behalf of every teammate in the building. We were told that the necessary action would be taken and the issue would be fixed in less than a week. Three weeks then went by and nothing happened. Money is, in fact, more important than safety. That is exactly what the prevailing attitude is, without question, and every person doing the grunt work out on the floor knows intrinsically that this is where management and the company's priorities lie. They would rather roll the dice and risk an accident that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the severity. I won't work for a company that disregards it's employees safety like that. 
The above notwithstanding, I also requested to be scheduled for four days down from five in order to be able to operate my weekend concessions business. There were other selectors there who had permanent four day schedules so I figured I would at least make the request. Unfortunately, this was ignored and swept under the rug so as to force me to make a decision as it was obvious that they had no intention of allowing me to work a shorter schedule. So I did what I had to do and chose my business over theirs. 
In all honesty, though, even if they had been willing to do that for me, it was likely inevitable that I would have left anyway. I simply could not keep up with the physical demands of the job itself, and with the summer heat arriving, could foresee myself physically breaking down and incapable of continuing. This kind of position is definitely more suitable for an individual who is young, in very good physical condition, capable of virtually non-stop lifting for 8 to 10 hours every day, and willing to put the demands of the job above everything else they have going on their life. The pay is good and the exercise is such that there is no need to join a health club. Those that are able to make the commitment, will have a great job until the emerging technology makes these kinds of positions obsolete. The safety issue is a separate consideration and one that will always be a constant presence in these types of environments, so there is always a certain level of risk involved. I managed to make it work for four months but felt that the best option for me, was to leave.

After training you’ll be on the extra board, you have to call in everyday or you will lose your guaranteed minimum pay, which at the end of the week they will put you on as a 3rd because they know they’ll have to pay you anyway. As a 3rd it’s really not that bad cause you don’t have to drive almost all of the time and don’t have to know how to pull into the stops or the nuances that come with each stop/customer. If you get picked up by another driver for a load package(won by a bidding system based on seniority) it will last 6 months if you get in at the start of the bid. Once you sign the sheet your stuck with that person for 6 month, unless you have some type of specific need where you can’t work with them anymore. So if you get a text to be picked up by someone you better be absolutely sure you’ll be able to be next to them for 60-70 hours per week for the next 6 months.

Once you get on a load package it’s nice because you get pretty much an estimated pay or near the same amount of pay every week, depending on your stop count, Weight you have to unload and miles travelled. The extra board can be hit or miss given the week but you can still make a good amount of money if you call in all the time and ask for work right after your 10 hours is up.  Running on a team for a package can pay well but if you’re not picked up by a senior employee be prepared to have tough, long and bad weeks, the best packages like all local loads are always won by the drivers with the most seniority, so if your picked up by a guy whose the lowest on the totem pull you can expect to work at least 70 hours a week, or have multiple out of state loads. Although the local load packages will have you on 4-5 loads per week they pay better and you will be home every night. Mclane does not pay you for your time spent at the yard or after you get back and have to unload all of the empty grocery totes that you picked up from your customers all day, it doesn’t take that long but it can be hard after a long load, and your pretrip and post trip can be as long as 2 hours total when you get to the yard and by the time you leave. If you do get picked up on a beginner package, expect to work more than what your logs will show. You will be on multiple state loads that can take a total of 30+ hours from the time you get to the yard to the time you get back into your personal vehicle. Mclane “expects you” to not work while in sleeper status, but most of management knows that most people will just work while they’re in sleeper which is absolutely not allowed. To correctly to the load one team member will have to stay in sleeper status for as long as possible to avoid both drivers running out of on-duty time and both be stuck in sleeper until you gain time again. If you do this the correct way, one person will be sleeping while the other is doing all the stops, unloading the whole back cases, all of the freezer and cooler items, as well as collecting the empty totes from the previous delivery which can get to 40+ from some stops, more if the previous drivers decide not to collect them. It takes a lot of time and physical labor for one person to deliver 1,500 + lbs by themselves. So naturally to get the load done faster, unless you’re experienced or with someone experienced and efficient, one person will stay on duty while the other stays in sleeper, trying to sleep in between stops but also getting up to help for each stop until the other runs out of time. This is when you both switch your statuses until you get done with the load. It takes a toll so be prepared to get minimal sleep and be up for 20+ hours. Even when you do get to try and sleep it’s not easy falling asleep in a cab going 65 mph on rough roads.

You will and can make decent money your first year though, and it’s not OTR but when you calculate the total time you’re not at home Mclane is totally saving money in the long run. I’d say maybe the average for a first year driver that has a beginner bid on a beginner package can make about 1800+ a week.  If you’re working 70 hours a week that ‘s close to 26 an hour, is it worth it to sacrifice you’re health and safety for that when you can make that hourly rate somewhere else that gets you home every night? 


It takes a certain will to deal with that and honestly at the end of the day I like the physical workout it provides and the daily/dynamic changes everyday I go in but I will constantly doubt if it’s worth it. 


You will hear that safety is number 1 but you will come to realize if you value your time and energy, that it’s lower on the totem pull than you think. 

Shift start at 2pm during the week and one hour earlier on weekends.
As soon you come in to work, you may work for 6-8-10-12-13 hours shift. Most likely you don't have weekends off, you days off will be during the week. After you work 12 hours and have to work the next day supervisors expect you to pick 100% of your job in 8 hours.

There is not HR in this company, Manager and supervisor do what they want to do. They apply rules to whatever people when they want. You complain about safety, MBM won't do anything. They just don't care.

Let's stretch, that's what the supervisor says every day after the meeting. 60 seconds stretch for a 2,000 times you have to bend your back in a complete shift. You back will totally kills you every day.

You see people working overtime in their days off if they want, they walk in and work. Some another people don't. If you don't call and come in to work, you go home.

If you are volunteer for one day to work in a different department, you are done. Supervisor will send you again and again to help out freezer or cooler because you already know how to rock and roll in those places.They are a lot of people who say no to supervisor and supervisor are cool about it, they wont send them because they don't want, let's send someone else.

The money is good only if you can work in your days off if you want without making any stupid phone call to your supervisor. Just show up and work. 

Hardest day at my warehouse are Sunday, Monday and Thursday is the worst day. There is no enjoyable part of my job, I am being honest, none! I have seen a lot of people, new people start working in freezer, they don't last 1 month. Supervisor quit or even Warehouse assistant manager.

Let me explain you how this place work (different system is used in each warehouse).

Today Monday, 36 trucks to do. (36 in dry, 36 cooler and 36 freezer)
MBM gives you time for whatever truck. Maybe truck 5 is way easier than truck 7, so they will you less minutes. If you want to pick 100% today, the minutes will be 580 minutes, that maybe 5 truck (routes)
Each route can have 4 orders, 6 orders. The bigger, the best for you, more minutes, easier to hit your minutes.

Today Monday, we have 12 guys people picking in dry.
So, you must think 3 routes (truck or trailer) each one?
Nope! You can do 5 routes and someone else 3 routes.
So if 4 guys are not picking fast enough, more hours of work for them! So more money? Yes but is not good for you.
If management says, 36 routes, 8 hours of work.
If those people made those 8 hours of work in 12, that's bad. You are slow!

So why don't they change this system?
That's is the answer everyone wants to hear!

If you have a family or want to go to college, MBM is not for you.

The only thing I like about MBM is the cookout (sometimes), free soda and free ice scream (always), thats all.

What I have learned at MBM?
Pick really fast so you can go home as soon as possible.

What MBM should improve?
We should have 50% discount in any gym we want to workout.
Provide more gloves
Fix old pallet jacks and replaces the old ones for new ones.
Create a Associate group

If you think you can pick around 5,000 cases or more in 40 hours per week, you may like this type of job. 
BTW, be ready to loose weight!! Be ready!

McClane just like any other job is just that, a job! It does pay the bills and you will work for every penny you earn. However the business does not care about their employees, their only concern is the product. Prior to, the business was called Meadowbrook Meats (MBM) and it appears that the management from MBM is still in admin positions at McClane, which is bad news. No one knows what they are doing in the office and no one is consistent with anything they say. There have been instances where they could have cost some employees their actual CDL license for just running them to death and not actually keeping track of the hours previously worked. Not only is that dangerous and a liability but they do not care. 

DOT set forth new rules/regulations for a reason and here they are just running employees and product without keeping track of who worked how many hours and how long they have been home resting...very sloppy and messy and a great way to get the company shut down. 

Management was never on the same page, one would override the other leaving the employee confused as to what to do and who to listen to. They almost always have an attitude about something as well, just prepare yourself don’t take it personal. There is clearly a need for administration/office employees to get some training on employee relations. When you start you are only paid 85% of the loads, so don’t be surprised if they put a “trainee” with you...and NO you don’t get trainers pay for that. The employees of the business never understood why they put a new hire with a new hire, but that’s probably why they are still failing McClane as a business! 


My schedule changed day to day which is a given in the beginning, however even on my day off it was never a day off because they call you to give you your next route. That normally means you will have to be sleep by 4pm-7pm the night before you drive. If you have a true day off they will still call  you to work a route, you’ll explain you are finally able to rest and they will respond: “it’s just a day route”. So after working here for a while, I realized you never really get a day off. The work of course is hard labor and honestly after breaking your body down over and over and over again it NEEDS to rest. However once again admin at McClane do no care about you, just that product so make sure you are making the right decision when you sign up to work here. 


McClane does “advertise” a sign on bonus and of course there is fine print associated with it. When you get hired you will receive the first half $2500.00 after you’ve been working for 90 days and you will receive the remainder after another 90 days. However if you separate from the business before you make it to your one year you will be responsible with giving that money back. 

If you need a job asap and you need one that pays the bills for the moment this is a good “step”but you don’t want to stay here...well at least not the Rocky Mount location. Go, do the work, add it to your resume and keep pushing because you won’t even aspire to be in management here which is even scarier.

This place continues to drive itself into the ground. People are abandoning ship left and right because of the complicated working environment and terrible management. Every department is severely understaffed and the company keeps adding more business onto our shoulders, making people overwhelmed and leave, which management will then throw the responsibilities onto other departments while trying to balance their own, ultimately making every department fall behind because everyone is not doing the job they applied for. Even if you tell them you don't know how to work in a certain department, they expect you to just do it. They add more business and volume to our work load before refilling positions first because their eyes are too distracted by money, making dry dock loading and other departments work miserable hours. Horrible supervisors or managers will be hired and ruin the warehouse and leave, and management will disregard all of your criticisms about them until its too late and the damage is done. When COVID struck, McLane gave absolutely NO incentive to the workers who chose to stay and pick up the slack from those who chose to take the voluntary "Lay-off", making everyone feel unappreciated and wish they never stayed. Other things, the safety committee is a joke, they'll pretend to be impressed with your ideas and then you'll never hear about it again. Its just there to make you think they care. If you sign an inside bid to go to a different department, Odds are, you wont be moving to that department for another 2+ months. On another note, Upper management frequently uses cruel and unusual punishment on undeserving workers, often skipping the write up system entirely and putting teammates on a final for anything small, disregarding how understaffed the warehouse is. They don't care about their people and want to show their dominance. The only good things about this place is the pay is decent enough to trap you for a while and most of the co workers are great.
Overall, I cant recommend this place to anyone, no matter how much money they wave in my face to do so. The place was much better 2-3 years ago and It was a fun environment and full of people, now everyone is struggling to stay afloat and upper management is playing blind mice. They show no appreciation to its hard workers and now its costing them with people walking out the door nearly every day. Find something else.

I enjoyed learning the various skills such as:

●	Data Entry/Quality Assurance
●	Processes, sorts and distributes incoming mail 
●	Batches heavy loads of invoices as needed for processing 
●	Validates invoices through Perfect Match System
●	Completes spreadsheets through Excel via utilization of P.O. to verify correct check numbers /check dates and amounts
●	Processes rebills and Direct Requests as needed for backup inventory
●	Completes processing of invoices received by Purchase Orders provided to apply correct cash discounts 
●	Proficient with systems such as AS400, Citrix and Image Now
●	Data Entry Input/Processes data on all documentation to be approved for payment
●	Processes request for check payments
●	Completes processing on invoices received to apply correct cash discounts to remain in the company’s payment terms with vendors
●	Processes and Reviews Invoices via email and mail for payment approval
●	Completes research on statements received by the vendor to correct anything that may be discrepant within the scope of my profession
●	Provides assistance in closing upon month end
●	Assists with other various hands on assignments and projects
●	Processes invoices and statements by utilization of 3 way P.O. research (plus line items as well)
●	Applies correct GL coding after researching information needed.

I came into the job as temp to hire with more of a promise that the job would become a permanent position with stability and benefits that would eventually be offered. I worked here for 2  years and was then notified that their was uncertainty of career advancement, uncertainty of increased wage advancement, all the while the work load continued to grow. I was put on assignments in that employed me to learn new skills while working alongside AP Supervisor of Transportation/McLane. Who would have thought that I my assignment would have come to an end as one day I trained my replacement that came directly through the door with a permanent position and a permanent badge, while I trained her with a temporary one. Come to find out my replacements mother worked in the building.

Get your assignment and if your good at your job and finish your work early you get the wonderful privilege of doing other people's work and you get 0 recognition for it what you get is a worse pick rate or average and the people you get the privilege of doing there work get a better pick rate or average then they get praised while you get a lecture of why is your pick rate or average is lower than the person you got the wonderful privilege to help the they can't keep regular employees let alone supervisors and the supervisors they do hire the majority of them have never worked in a warehouse before so then you get the privilege of helping the supervisor to learn there job and on top of doing all that if you know how to do other things like forklifting or the other departments you get the pleasure of doing those jobs on top of your own but be sure any overtime you get they will make sure you don't have any by the end of the week and you never get any recognition or gratitude not even a simple thank you and when you finally take a break you can be sure more often than not they will come and bug you all in all you get the privilege of doing multiple job's if you're a good worker while the chosen few that are the brown nosers that should have been fired a long time ago get help and praise and get the promotion meanwhile you get one pay check and multiple job's and more responsibilities if you're a hard worker and they preacher about seniority but only go by that when it suits them and there human resource is a joke you ever have a question or concern about something you would always have end up calling corporate for answers and after you do that you can be sure that there is gonna be some sort of repercussions.

Ok, where to begin......

In my 4 years working there, I've seen and experienced it all. Extremely long days,  poor supervision, drama among workers, under appreciated. Management does not care about you or your home life. As a senior employee I would give suggestions on how to make life easier for the workers. It would fall on deaf ears.
Management changes rules on the fly. They rarely ever praise you but will always point out the little minute things.  
The days are long.  10 to 12 hours a day.  The overtime is great,  but by Thursday you are so physically tired, it's almost unsafe. 
You work every holiday.  Thanksgiving and Christmas you have the day off, but you have to come in that Saturday to make up the day. 
My Supervisors were very condescending and sarcastic. If you go to them with an issue, they make you feel bad for doing so.  They don't fix the issue,  they just let it get worse.  Supervisors have no backbone. They say they support the workers, but they don't stand up to Management. They don't enforce the rules. Workers cut corners and are very lazy.  There are a handful of people,  myself included, who did the things the right way.  I would point our the laziness of the workers.  Point out how people cut corners and just do whatever they want, Supervisors wouldn't do anything. 
The workers are miserable, Very unhappy, and fed up. That's why people who have worked there 10 plus years up and quit. I've seen people work a couple hours and quit. I've seen people work 2 days and quit. People are quitting on droves. 
Good things about working there...  they feed you a couple times a month. Overtime is endless. You will make good money,  but you won't have a life.  No dress code.  You can wear basically anything you want. HR is great.  Very friendly and helpful. 
Co workers are great.  I made some great friends there.  
Overall, not a good place to work.  You are overworked and under appreciated. I'm not a disgruntled former employee, I'm just saying how it is. Work there at your own discretion. 

Well my work day starts at 3am, although my particular job is very physically demanding that is one of the hardest things about my position. My job title is palletizer which means I handle a fair amount of product in my department. The pickers will scan a barcode on each tote and put the correct product in the tote then either pass it to the next person or if that particular tote is complete then they send it down the line. This is where my position comes in, I scan the label on the front of eace tote printed out by the selector. Then my scanner will tell me which pallet each tote goes to which then gets placed on the correct pallet. Relatively easy the hard part about my job is the lifting, I work on the heaviest floor and there is no weight limit any tote needs to stay under as long as the product fits. On average I lift between 55,000 and 65,000lbs a day and handle 1,300-1,5000 totes. When the pallet is complete I will rap it with tape to secure he totes do not move as some of them are over 6 feet high. Then using an electric pallet jack I move the complete pallet to a designated area to be taken to the correct trailer so it can be loaded. If there is no more room I will take the pallet to the trailer. That is my main job however, when I am not busy there is always something to do. Some of the  other tasks are to replenish the tots the pickers use which require an electric pallet jack or a stand up forklift. Also help the stockers cut and put product in the correct bay so it can be picked and I also help in the picking process to get the job done faster. The management at my company is awesome they are very approachable and if you have any concerns or problems they will address it as best they can. My co-workers are a lot of fun we like to joke around with each other but when the time comes to get the job done they can really move.

The bad:  It can be a struggle at most times working here. Firstly it is one of the lower paying Mclane centers (this center does not pay mileage like all other centers) the work is far from easy.  You have a lift gate trailer but still must hand unloaded 1,000 to 1,400 cases from the pallets each route. Some routes have overweight loads that require a different truck to bring you additional cases to unload. If you’re lucky some restaurants employees will help. Most of the time they expect you to do it all yourself. The restaurants are constantly understaffed so you almost never finish your stop in the allotted amount of time given then you are behind schedule going into next stop.  Most drivers don’t take lunch breaks because of that.  We eat while driving. We are never given a good amount of time to complete each stop per the appointment times. 
Work days are 12-14 hours and could be more if you’re doing team routes. On team routes you clock out before the 14 hour max time but still will work off clock to help team mate with a drop, if not then your team will not make it to next stop in time and that affects the rest of the route.  Management does not communicate within office or to the drivers and expect you to be very thorough with your duties, even communicating more info to them than they do to you.  And management play’s favoritism . Truckers are supposed to be limited to 14 hr days, of those 14 hours 11 hours can be driving, but with this place your typical schedule consists of driving 4-5 hours and physically unloading cases 6-9 hours a day.  Some routes vary. 
The good: The pay although not as good as other McLanes can be somewhat good if you stick around long enough to get a decent route. 
The company has good moral environment and most coworkers are friendly and helpful. The company encourages team morale and often has barbecues, employee appreciation events and giveaways. 
You can make decent pay but be prepared to work very hard, and not complain about much. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 280 salaries reported	$88,471 per year
Order picker 46 salaries reported	$21.02 per hour
Driver 72 salaries reported	$23.93 per hour
Forklift operator 18 salaries reported	$21.64 per hour
Warehouse specialist 25 salaries reported	$21.52 per hour

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