For Shipping and Receiving Driver Mike Wilson, it was a no-brainer to choose this particular work at Wallside Windows for the past two years.
“It’s peaceful,” he said, of his long hours on the rode driving solo.
The one-time EMT started his career with Wallside at the company’s Taylor, Michigan, factory. Put simply, he said, “I love factory work.” After he worked on the production line making vinyl replacement windows for about a year, Mike got an opportunity to become a driver, and he jumped at it.
He said he likes to drive and that he gets to be out on his own.
And it’s a good thing he feels that way.
Shipping and Receiving Driver Mike Wilson, of Wallside Windows, spends most days on this truck on the road.
Mike’s job can keep him on the road for nine or 10 hours days, he said, as he transports a load of windows and materials from the Taylor factory to Wallside hubs in Grand Rapids, Saginaw and Lansing, where installers then pick them up. Usually, he delivers windows for the following day’s installs. But his day doesn’t end there. From a hub, Mike heads to Rockwood, where he picks up screens and takes them back to Taylor, where they are unloaded and installed in new windows.
“It’s a lot of back and forth,” he said.
For the most part, Mike’s on the road alone, unless he has an unusually large amount of material to drop off, in which case, he’ll partner with someone for the day.
He admits that the job isn’t for everyone. Podcasts help him pass the time. “You get used to it. If you don’t love driving, you shouldn’t have this job,” he said.
His biggest challenge isn’t the roadwork in Michigan — “You find new ways to get where you’ve gotta go,” he said — but rather meeting deadlines and getting to where he needs to be on time.
“Sometimes they’re waiting for you to give them that window,” he said, referring to windows he delivers as replacements for those initially sent for a job.
While someone who loves to drive as much as Mike does could work at a lot of places, he sticks with Wallside because of what it offers as a family-owned company. He said he’s worked at bigger corporations that can’t compare to the benefits that Wallside provides, like a week off around Christmas to spend with his wife and four kids.
“It’s just a good family company, and that’s the whole reason I stay.”
To replace your home’s windows with quality products that are locally made by workers who love what they do, contact Wallside Windows today online or at 1-800-521-7800 for a free estimate.
