truck driver

order picker

delivery driver

buyer

territory manager

US Foods

(4 months at the job...still striving to reach my first pay-raise...)
A typical day: Clock in, dawn scanner and printer from locker, find pallet jack and three pallets, attend "huddle" for daily stats and info in each department (dry/cooler/freezer), stretch! Assignments (aka: passes) are provided by your (very uncomfortable and constantly re-adjusted) wrist-mounted PDA. Each assignment time is calculated by the second (60m10s, for example, to complete this pass equals %100. If you finish in 90m20s your score will be %75 of what is expected.) The PDA tells you where to go, how many of each product to pick and on which pallet and zone to place the product. Picking order is always basically the same: starts with heavy items that tend to be compact  and ends with light items - chips and styrofoam containers - in large boxes.
Each pass is a puzzle - it all has to fit just right to be stable and to fit into the trucks. You get 8 minutes to wrap your pallets then deliver your masterpiece to  the loaders on the dock. 
Repeat. Skip break if your numbers are low, repeat repeat, go to "30 minute lunch" (which is ridiculous considering the travel time to the break room, undawning your pda and printer, finding a spot to park, eating, putting your gear back on and then travel time back to the slot you left...essentially, lunch breaks are really short.) Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Clean your aisle, park your jack, clock out. 
A new pay-scale has been implemented: at the end each week your personal score is averaged.  Once you reach efficiency of %80 (consistently) you get a pay raise. same with %100 You are expected to maintain that proficiency. If your numbers go down you will get written up.  (Note: This is NOT true for new people in the beginning...but you should improve a bit each week) Every percent over the expected %100 equals a bonus. The faster you go, the more you can make. 
You must have the patience to learn the products and the most effective ways to deal with difficult orders. Watch the "veteran" pickers, ask questions and take their advice when they give it! They're not too forthcoming with tips or advice but when I approached them they're always helpful. 
Supervisors are a JOKE, they're never ever out on the warehouse floor. They SAY they're gonna do this or that, and other things but they never get around to doing anything that actually helps improve  any situation. They harp and harp on safety - yet CONTINUALLY  ignore very obvious and CONSTANT  issues like the roller pallets getting stuck. They also have and USE the ability to assign specific assignments to people and they often punish people by giving them particularly difficult passes.
There is no moving UP in this company - unless you're moving to management. You can move laterally though...pickers can apply to be loaders and so on, but Pickers are pickers, loaders are loaders, drivers are drivers and there is no advancement.
Update: after months of my scanner not working properly they FINALLY gave me a better one and my numbers jumped from 70 percent to 92 percent. It was too late: THEY FIRED ME REGARDLESS FOR NOT MAKING QUOTA. 
(They did it right in the middle of the Corona Virus Pandemic too, so don't believe them when they say how much they care for employees!) 
In closing - it was an absolutely thankless job, and normal working conditions were extremely dangerous. Management is horrible; all they care about is numbers.

Extremely physical and unnecessarily brutal job. You can make great money, but you will have no life and be constantly frustrated with whats going on to make it. You can't have a life because all you can do when not working is physically recover FROM working, just to go back to work. Safety is a complete joke here. The drivers are blamed for everything regardless of circumstance. Transportation management were mostly ok. Unfortunately, they have no control over the issues that made this job unsafe and unreasonable. Reporting issues will get you blackballed and silently excommunicated. While my direct supervisors were great, management as a whole is garbage. Warehouse personnel is garbage. Sales reps are garbage. Everyone here an attitude and thinks the drivers are the scum of the earth. While sure, there are some bad driving apples, I personally watched great drivers with outstanding work ethic, interpersonal skills and driving ability get blamed for things that had nothing to do with them. If you don't mind going to work not knowing if you will make it home safely everyday and can avoid any and all things politically driven, you can make money here. But your physical and mental health will inevitably deteriorate. I believe it t is completely unavoidable. If health and wellness is a priority AT ALL, regardless of how important, stay clear of the Fort Mill location. They rank at the bottom for all locations using their DOT number (20+ locations) for things such as shrink, accidents, customer satisfaction, driver retention,  efficiency etc. We were stopped one morning as so many drivers had been getting hurt in such a short period, management felt we werent stretching in the morning and provided us with these orange US Foods branded rubber bands!!I The reality is, stretching had nothing to do with it. Our loads were sooo dangerous due to warehouse neglect and more often than not, we would open the trailer doors to have product falling out of the back before we even left the yard. Injuries were happening due to things drivers would have to do just to get the product off the truck. They knew this, but refused to be honest about it, which is why I left. I didnt want to get hurt. (Even though I was ALWAYS beat up and nursing some sort of small injury) I would not recommend at all unless you had no other choice. I did everything in my power to be fair and communicate openly and respectfully, but all I got back was canned garbage designed solely to get me back in the truck tomorrow. To be quite frank, I'd rather be homeless and live under a bridge than work for them for 1 more day. I assure you I'd be better off.

This job is physically demanding with long hours.  My first 3 weeks i dropped 15 pounds and my body was constantly in pain, but after about a month and some experience you will get use to it.  Typical night starts at 6pm and will end no earlier than 3am on a good night, but typically expect to be there until 5am. There are nights especially Sundays and Thursadys you can expect to be home anywhere from 6am to 7am.  One benefit of this is the amount of over-time you will receive which helps when it comes to making good money.  Without the over time you would not make much money here.  The pay rate at this warehouse starts at $15.45/hr and after 6 months IF you make the union it goes up $2.00.  At this warehouse you hit top pay in 5 years which is around $24.00/hr.  Some of the senior selectors make up to $65,000 a year so there is potential for good money if your are up for the hard work.  Payday here is on Thursday and is biweekly with the option of direct deposit or check and benefits dont start until you make union.  Before you make union you will work Sunday through Friday, but friday is only a few hours and once you make union Fridays will no longer be mandatory. Your expected performance at this location in order to make union is 100% which in my opinion is not obtainable due to the size of the warehouse, the number of employees that crowd the aisles when you are picking and management and in order to make union you will be a probationary employee for 6 months before you can be considered.  On your 3rd week you are expected to maintain a 50% performance rate and then every week that percent goes up 5 until you reach 100%.  Lunch is at 9:30 to 10:15 and is not paid and you get two paid 15 minute breaks at 1 am and at 4am.  You will see the senior selectors not take lunch or breaks in order to maintain there 100% performance and in this specific warehouse its probably the only way to maintain this 100% performance. Management expects you to maintain your performance and you can be fired for consistently missing your performance which can be frustrating because only about 5 people are actually hitting these numbers.  If you want to make this place a career and make good money work as a night slector and get your Class A Commercial license and apply for the driver trainee position, drivers there start off at $215 a day amd get paid by the case, senior drivers can make up to six figures.  Some people choose to become a supervisor for night slectors but they are salary based and they work longer hours than the selectors and they make less than order selectors.

Pros:
Great pay! Paid Hourly! Time and a half, after 40 hours!

Once you leave the warehouse, the supervisors leave you alone for the most part.

CONS:
Disclaimer: I quit (after almost a year) to accept a lower paying job, in order to achieve a work/life balance, mainly being able to spend time with my son on a regular basis. I would go over a week without seeing him or my wife because of my work schedule. I discussed my work/life balance issues with management many times, without any improvement. Lots of promises that went unkept. Example: "It will get better once you're on an assigned route." It didn't. The route sheet was just a piece of paper that was loosely followed. Once I turned in my 2 week notice, they immediately wanted to fix all my issues. I didn't trust them to do it. 

You WILL work enough hours to make $90 - 110K+++, or you will get fired, they will not let you have a day off, even your scheduled days off. You can only count on Sunday off, which you might be scheduled to start at 10 pm that night, so it's not always a full day off. There is an extremely high turnover rate because of the schedule and working conditions. 

I recommend this job if you are young, single, have no life, and only want to put money in the bank. 

Extremely physically demanding, I have worked   for other beverage and grocery companies, this company makes the job extremely physically difficult. The pallets are not stacked by stop, at all, you will have to down stack and completely sort out every item, on every pallet. 

They don't stick to your assigned schedule, even after you have been there long enough to bid and receive a set route. You get a text everyday, between noon and 9pm, to tell you when you work the following day. (Start times are between 10pm - 6am, often you will get a text for a 10pm start at 3-4pm, 6 hour rest time.)

You will work days and nights, in the same week, they will give you a "day off", in order to switch you from nights to days and vice versa.
Plan on working 6 days, every week, don't ever plan anything, unless you have vacation requested. You will never get two days off in a row, even if it is scheduled that way on your bid sheet. 

All vacation has to be requested in the fall (October), for the following year.

Will not give you time off, outside scheduled vacation, even for serious family emergencies, even for employees that never missed a day and were never late for work. 

Trucks are in really bad condition.

Supervisors were really good, however have no authority beyond the route you are working that day.

Management was never around and would not return calls.






This place is not a "career" environment. The supervisors try to get over anyway they can. Your co-workers are all back stabbers and cry babies. They sit around watching what you're doing to find a way to create an angle for themselves.  For instance,  if you get a favorable assignment, they'll be asking questions and using what you say against you. 

A typical work day sucks thoroughly.  Most customers are ignorant and attempt to take their hatred for the company out on you. Management stuffs your truck with literally as many cases as possible. On top of that,  it's loaded horribly.  Be prepared to waste a lot of time and energy to dig through and organize your load. The routes were recently changed up, totally screwing the most senior employees. Perhaps they can't seem to understand why they can't keep a driver. When you've only been working there for a short time and you see that a 20 year veteran can't even get two days in a row off, how does that make the 1 year guy feel about his future?? Don't even get me started on how the supervisors will LIE right to your face all day every day. 

I will say that the pay is good. You're gonna work for it tho,  every cent! The union does provide Very affordable health insurance, even for the jerks that don't support the union.  Which I don't blame them, because the union is largely a joke, but they will have your back when one of the super-liers try to d*@k you. So definitely worth the investment. Oh yeah, this is supposed to be the good part! Lol. So good pay, you'll probably have a job and plenty of hours if you're not lazy and understand that this company doesn't give a flying F about you or your family. It's a come to work,  do your job and I'll pay you for it kind of situation. Keep that expectation and you're good. 

I usually don't write reviews,  but I did this one for two reasons.  I'm looking for another job and I have to admit that these reviews have been very helpful to me.  And secondly,  this isn't to discourage new employees,  but rather educate them. Because the bottom quarter of the seniority list is a constant shuffle. Guys get hired, the company thinks they're good then guys quit and the rest of the guys are stuck picking up the slack. Happens all year! 

Lastly.. it's not what it is... it's how you perceive it. Good luck folks.

The company itself was what one would expect from a market leader. From management to culture the warehouse appeared to be average or above average in management capacities and situations. The pandemic caused their training programs and certain labor categories to drop below production expectations, but, I saw management at several levels adjust to the situation in a professional fashion, proactively listen, and make changes to improve the work situation for everyone, including trainees. A relatively drama free environment, with mostly good attitudes  and hard work was respected. I was trained as an order selector. The job was simple and very physical. I enjoyed how physical it was. The earning potential is high for those who are willing to work hard for it. However, there is an important note of caution. The risk of injury is high even when due care and good technique is applied. The faster you do the job the higher the pay. However, the faster you do the job the higher the risk of injury. Injury can happen without you even realizing it. Honestly, the question is not if but when with this job. But, you can prevent severe self-inflicted injuries. It's the small ones that can't be avoided and for the most part those are manageable, except for long term knee and back, which is unfortunately common for this kind of work. You basically have to decide whether that's something you want to live with or not if you want to do this as a career. If you want to be a high earner in this position, having a strong work ethic, a perseverant attitude, and being physically fit or willing to get physically fit is a must; youth and height help too. Great company, but, it is acknowledged by many of the veteran workers that the job is too hard on the body to be a smart long-term play. The high turnover speaks for itself.

I'll pass on the advice one trainer gave me -- order select for a year or two without getting yourself hurt, then pay for driving school and switch to driving for their freight division. Better pay for less work and less risk. 

Work-life balance
A lot of required overtime. Not a lot of home time with family or to rest, although the work is gruesome on your body. A lot of injuries (back problems) for being overworked.

Pay & benefits
The benefits are the best thing that US Foods offers. Great medical, dental, vision, and stock opportunities.

Job security and advancement
High turnover rate because the hours are grueling and the expectations for work pace are always high regardless how much overtime has increased. As long as your attendance isn’t an issue, job security is there because not many people want to work there. No opportunities for advancement at this location.

Management
Managers are inattentive. They have high expectations but do not hold themselves to the same standards. They’re always on their phone while we work grueling hours.

Culture
Colleagues are the glue to this facility. The colleagues stick together due to understanding that management isn’t there to help. They lean on each other for motivation.

Overall
High intensity and absolutely no work-life balance, but decent pay. I worked in two different US Foods locations. The first location was definitely better as far as management, inclusiveness, pay, and family oriented. It’s also important to notate that the first US Foods’ location that I worked at was also a Union, so maybe they felt obligated to have an upstanding work environment. The second US Foods’ location was non-Union and you could definitely tell. Even their lunch room isn’t up-to-par. At the second location, there was no teamwork, leadership, advancement opportunities, and no recognition to the hard workers or best performers of the day/week while the first US Foods’ location allowed company advancement, training for new positions, a better facility/equipment, provided tools and clothes to perform necessary jobs (especially in the freezer), and even provided free food to celebrate a great work week. 

Altogether, I think it depends on which US Foods you work at, and most importantly whether it’s unionized. That matters from my experience. Good luck.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Good hourly pay and company paid insurance.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management does not care about you. They will work you as much and as hard as they legally can and always expect more. Be prepared for a lack of sleep and physical exhaustion. You are nothing but a number on a page that is easily replaceable.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Most trucks are newer models. Some trailers not so much. Be prepared to unload entire trailer by hand with a 2 wheel dolly. Multiple stops a day, as few as 7 and as many as 15 or more. Anywhere from 500 to 1200 cases on the truck. Management does not care about you and will not help you if you are having issues with the load or the route. They expect you to be 100% on time for every delivery just because it works on paper, they do not factor in any real life scenario such as traffic weather or Obstacles at a delivery site . Usually fabled drivers are pleasant and helpful as they all understand what each other is going through.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Show up for work at your assigned time. Usually anywhere between 2 AM and 4 AM. You are then given 20 minutes to prepare your paperwork load your stuff into the truck and get out of the yard. Any more than 20 minutes and it counts against you. Once you arrive at your first delivery it is usually dark outside. You are expected to park, put out safety cones, open your trailer and drop the ramp before you start your delivery. Some businesses will be closed and you will have a key and an alarm code to get in. If the delivery is small, for example, 20 to 30 cases you may be expected to do all this in his little as 15 minutes before they expect you back on the road to your next delivery. You do this until your day is over, delivering to locations, such as restaurants, schools, hotels, hospitals, and nursing homes. Also sometimes places like rehabilitation centers and work release centers.

When onboarding, I was fully optimistic that I made a good choice. The degree of classroom training and peer training was something I never got from any other company. The teamwork, culture, and continual learning experiences were reasons I enjoyed coming in to work each day. Although the markets were tough to work with, my manager never threw the team the bus and would help us with solutions to support our customers and maintain other KPIs. I originally felt autonomous in my role and although it was stressful, I felt a sense of satisfaction coming home each day. The office is located in a nice area near public transportation and O'Hare Airport. Salary is generous (with yearly merit increase) and holidays are paid.

Career wise: Lately I feel it's become a more micromanaging environment. Metrics are extremely rigorous and contradictory of one another. Unreliable carriers, issues adding product onto purchase orders, overselling/underselling a forecast, getting shorted by a supplier. ordering based on high supplier minimums, or having product spoil (due to lost sales or suppliers shipping below shelf life guarantee) all falls on your shoulders. With the high volume, you simply cannot control every variable and are spending time explaining what contributed to poor performance in a given period.

Overall company wise: Changes are rampant and sometimes it's hard to proceed when the direction is vague. You're often forced to use your best judgement and down the road you could get complaints from the market that you ordered wrong. The buyer role also requires support from logistics team, costing team, and warehouse operations to ensure orders are processed accurately so if something slips up on their end, it funnels down to you. On a positive note, some of the reporting tools at our disposal have been helpful in making our work tasks manageable. Having a career like this long term may not be worth the stress and pressure (unless you thrive on that), so be cautious when accepting the offer.

A typical day was 9-12 hours of work. depending on the department I was a part of at the time, I would do a number of different tasks. From the beginning position to the position I was in when I left, I worked almost every part of the Operations side of the business. I moved to Sales once mastering all that I could in Operations. This is when it became obvious to me that Sales was a good fit for me and I found great success in it as well. Among other, smaller awards, I won the Business Excellence Award the final two years I was in Sales. 
I learned almost all there is to know about the Operations side of a distribution company. I also learned a lot in Sales. From the incoming of product to the delivery of product to the customers door, there is not a lot about that business I did not understand. In Sales, I learned so much about customer interaction, scheduling, the dynamics of a sales call and product knowledge required to be successful.
I was also a part of a Safety Committee who spent a portion of their time focused on making a safe work environment for all. We met once a month where we evaluated accidents and future safety hazards. We also developed programs and events to promote safety. My crew that I worked with went two years without an accident.
My co-workers were a very hard working bunch of people which inspired a culture that was hard working and honest about goals. To this day, I still miss a great portion of the people I worked with there.
The hardest part of this job was when the economy changed in '08 and the company began the lay-off process. This company began with benefit cuts and then moved to retiring their longest tenured employees. I ended up being one of them. 
The most enjoyable part of the job was the company I worked for had always taken good care of me and my family and made it much easier to push myself to the next level to be the best I could be.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 303 salaries reported	$33.22 per hour
Order picker 40 salaries reported	$24.26 per hour
Delivery driver 105 salaries reported	$31.94 per hour
Buyer 8 salaries reported	$74,000 per year
Territory manager 11 salaries reported	$72,273 per year

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