My delivery area alone is grounds for higher pay

I have been thinking for a while that I would sit down and write out a typical day for me.  The thing is, one day to the next isn't typical.  I have a certain routine but hat routine gets interrupted quite often.  I'm going to be honest, this post is going to be very long, so quit now if you don't want to do some serious reading.

Let's start with my delivery area.  That alone is worth more money.  Why you ask?  Let's see...

River Hills Cir
River Hills Ct
River Hills Dr

Green Oaks Cir
Green Oaks Ct
Green Oaks Blvd

Trinity Oaks Ct
Trinity Oaks Dr

Brown Oaks
Summer Oaks
Sleepy Oaks
Canyon Oaks
River Oaks
Fair Oaks
Southern Oaks

Forest Oaks
Forest Dale
Forest Glade
Forest Brook
Forest Point
Forest Hollow

Here's a map.  Everything inside the red is where I deliver.  

And that's just the ones that I can think of off the top of my head.  There are many more confusing streets.  And then there's the fact that my area has 82 apartment complexes and 19 hotels.  And most of the apartments I go to are either second, third, or even fourth floor walk ups.  So there's that.


Now, let's talk about my day, shall we?

I get to work at 10 am.  I have to organize and take out the trash from the night before which usually involves a lot of breaking down boxes and at least two trips and sometimes four to the dumpster which is about a half a football field per trip.  And that, of course, is if the dumpster that is closest to the store isn't already full from the unbroken down boxes of the convenience store and the dry cleaners.

After that's done, I have to make sauce.  This works out to anywhere from 1 to 4 gallons of sauce.  Each bucket of sauce weighs about  30 pounds and that has to be carried all the way from one side of the store to the other to put it in the walk in.  And that's just the pizza sauce, that doesn't include the bread stick sauce.

All of this is SUPPOSED to get done by the time we open at 1030am.  But it rarely happens because it usually takes me about 20 minutes just to get the trash organized so I can take it out.  Then I have other things that have to be done.  I have to make sure that the cut table is completely stocked.  On Fridays I have to stock the 2 liter and 20 oz coolers so that I can order the Pepsi shipment.  You read that right.  I, a minimum wage, non management worker orders the Pepsi shipment.  On Mondays I have to make sure that the coolers are stocked before the shipment arrives so that the driver will take all the empty cases away.

And all of this has to be done while trying to take deliveries so if it's busy, which means I spend a majority of my time at driver pay rather than in store pay, then I can't really get anything done.  Does it matter that it's busy?  No, of course not.  If I can't get anything done during my scheduled shift than I usually end up having to stay after my shift to get it done because it's MY job and no one else's.

Is there a second day driver?  Why yes there is, when he bothers to show up.  Why do I say he?  Because I am the only female driver.  I am also the only driver that stays past their scheduled off time when needed which has resulted on many an occasion in me staying until close.  The day drivers that I usually have are kind of idiots and intent on doing only specific jobs so guess who gets to try to do all the in store stuff while having to answer the phone because no one else will? That's right, that would be me.

I have to fold literally hundreds of boxes a day.  Sometimes as many as a thousand in one day.  Not an exaggeration.  I have to take deliveries, make sure that the deliveries are correct before going out the door because who gets yelled at by the customer if something is forgotten?  Me.  Who gets yelled at by the customer if the cook made the order wrong?  Me.  I have even gotten yelled at because I have had to take manager calls and deal with angry customers on the phone because the manager couldn't be bothered to do his job.

At the end of the day I am the only driver that actually asks if I am allowed to go home rather than saying that I need to go home.  I actually ask if the manager needs anything else of me because that's how I was trained.  I don't know where these guys get this "I need to go home now because I'm scheduled off" attitude but it is EVERY SINGLE MALE DRIVER in the damn store.

When one driver shows up at 10am and one driver shows up at 11am and both are scheduled off at 5pm, the 10am driver should get to go home first.  That's usually me.  I never get to go home first because I don't demand to go home.  The 11am driver will almost always get to go home before me because he has to get off work on time regardless of how busy we are.  I've lost track of the number of times I've been kept late because all the men insist on leaving on time.

Then there's the fact that I spend about $250-$300 a MONTH on gasoline and that's even in my extremely fuel efficient vehicle.  And I have to get oil changes more often than most people.  I already need new tires that I can't afford even though my car only has 30000 miles on it, oh  and that car is only 15 months old by the way.  So yeah, that's about 2000 miles a month.  Most people put about 12000 miles a year on their cars.  Roughly.

So after all that I have to go through.  All that I put up with on a daily basis.  And I do all of that for $7.25 an hour when I'm in the store and $4.25 an hour when I'm on the road.  That averages out to about $5.25 an hour.  I had a 93 hour paycheck that totaled $468 after taxes.  That works out to $5.03 an hour.  INCLUDING OVERTIME.



Now, tell me again why I don't deserve $10 or more an hour?