A day in the life of a NYC Coca-Cola delivery truck driver, who gets to work at 4 a.m. and spends his morning pushing 175-pound carts full of bottles through Penn Station

Oct 30, 2018, 02:04 IST

My day started at 3:15 a.m., when I took a Lyft from my apartment in Brooklyn all the way up to the Liberty Coca-Cola distribution center in the Bronx.

My first question for Santiago: Aren't you tired?

Santiago's truck changes every day, and his vehicle is already loaded by the time he gets in at 4 a.m. He just needs to load carts in the truck and do some final checks.

At 5 a.m., Santiago and his fellow drivers went inside the Liberty building to receive their routes.

Liberty Coca-Cola is where 8% of the US gets products like Smart Water, Dasani, and Fanta from, to name a few.

Santiago did another check on the truck and then he took off at 6 a.m.

It took just over 30 minutes to go the nine miles from Liberty Coca-Cola in the Bronx to Penn Station — impressively fast considering how crowded these streets usually are.

By 6:40 a.m., Santiago was parked outside of Penn Station and was unloading the truck to make his first delivery.

Santiago has to schedule his day around store hours. Jamba Juice, which is open for deliveries by 7 a.m., was his first stop of the day.

He usually grabs oatmeal and coffee at a bakery near Liberty Coca-Cola, but today he enjoyed a bagel and coffee at Penn Station's Au Bon Pain.

At this point, we were joined by Louis Gonzales, Santiago's helper in unloading the trucks.

From there, they headed to Jack's, a discount grocery chain a few blocks from Penn Station.

While they were unloading the truck, they got a parking ticket. The company will pay for it.

Jack's was the only store on their schedule where they needed to do 'pack out,' or loading the shelves themselves. They worked quickly and mostly in silence, stocking the shelves in about 20 minutes with fresh product.

Jack's was the only store on their schedule where they needed to do 'pack out,' or loading the shelves themselves. They worked quickly and mostly in silence, stocking the shelves in about 20 minutes with fresh product.

We headed back to Penn Station at 8 a.m. The sun was finally out.

Then, it was time for the big unload. Most Penn Station vendors don't start receiving deliveries until 11 a.m.

The carts started to pile up on the sidewalk.

I noticed that Gonzales and Santiago were constantly at odds with foot, bike, and vehicle traffic as they did their jobs. In a place like Manhattan, it's hard to carve out a space to make deliveries — even for products that consumers love.

I noticed that Gonzales and Santiago were constantly at odds with foot, bike, and vehicle traffic as they did their jobs. In a place like Manhattan, it's hard to carve out a space to make deliveries — even for products that consumers love.

It took just under an hour to empty the truck.

They brought the carts to the loading area. Each cart weighs a maximum of 175 pounds. The two men had to throw their weight against the carts to move to them to the entrance — it looked strenuous.

At 10:20, they checked to make sure they had all of their shipments for each customer, working through the lists together in Spanish.

By 11 a.m. they were pushing the super-heavy carts up a ramp and into a freight elevator that took us into the underbelly of Penn Station.

The area was full of safety signs like this.

Louis and Santiago deftly moved the thousands of bottles through the storage area and into the part of Penn Station I'm more familiar with.

We stopped at convenience stores ...

... bakeries ...

... and restaurants.

By slightly after noon, Santiago was finished with his deliveries for the day. Gonzales went to help one more driver before he headed home around 3 p.m.

Before heading back up to Liberty in the Bronx, Santiago noted in his neat handwriting the two missing Sprite cases.

Manhattan at 12:30 p.m. was suddenly much busier. While our morning ride took just over 30 minutes, the traffic getting from Penn Station back up to the Bronx made our trip an hour long.

We got back to Liberty Coca-Cola at 1:30 p.m. It looked totally different than it had when we left at 6 a.m.

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A day in the life of a NYC Coca-Cola delivery truck driver, who gets to work at 4 a.m. and spends his morning pushing 175-pound carts full of bottles through Penn Station

My day started at 3:15 a.m., when I took a Lyft from my apartment in Brooklyn all the way up to the Liberty Coca-Cola distribution center in the Bronx.

My first question for Santiago: Aren't you tired?

Santiago's truck changes every day, and his vehicle is already loaded by the time he gets in at 4 a.m. He just needs to load carts in the truck and do some final checks.

At 5 a.m., Santiago and his fellow drivers went inside the Liberty building to receive their routes.

Liberty Coca-Cola is where 8% of the US gets products like Smart Water, Dasani, and Fanta from, to name a few.

Santiago did another check on the truck and then he took off at 6 a.m.

It took just over 30 minutes to go the nine miles from Liberty Coca-Cola in the Bronx to Penn Station — impressively fast considering how crowded these streets usually are.

By 6:40 a.m., Santiago was parked outside of Penn Station and was unloading the truck to make his first delivery.

Santiago has to schedule his day around store hours. Jamba Juice, which is open for deliveries by 7 a.m., was his first stop of the day.

He usually grabs oatmeal and coffee at a bakery near Liberty Coca-Cola, but today he enjoyed a bagel and coffee at Penn Station's Au Bon Pain.

At this point, we were joined by Louis Gonzales, Santiago's helper in unloading the trucks.

From there, they headed to Jack's, a discount grocery chain a few blocks from Penn Station.

While they were unloading the truck, they got a parking ticket. The company will pay for it.

Jack's was the only store on their schedule where they needed to do 'pack out,' or loading the shelves themselves. They worked quickly and mostly in silence, stocking the shelves in about 20 minutes with fresh product.

We headed back to Penn Station at 8 a.m. The sun was finally out.

Then, it was time for the big unload. Most Penn Station vendors don't start receiving deliveries until 11 a.m.

The carts started to pile up on the sidewalk.

I noticed that Gonzales and Santiago were constantly at odds with foot, bike, and vehicle traffic as they did their jobs. In a place like Manhattan, it's hard to carve out a space to make deliveries — even for products that consumers love.

It took just under an hour to empty the truck.

They brought the carts to the loading area. Each cart weighs a maximum of 175 pounds. The two men had to throw their weight against the carts to move to them to the entrance — it looked strenuous.

At 10:20, they checked to make sure they had all of their shipments for each customer, working through the lists together in Spanish.

By 11 a.m. they were pushing the super-heavy carts up a ramp and into a freight elevator that took us into the underbelly of Penn Station.

The area was full of safety signs like this.

Louis and Santiago deftly moved the thousands of bottles through the storage area and into the part of Penn Station I'm more familiar with.

We stopped at convenience stores ...

... bakeries ...

... and restaurants.

By slightly after noon, Santiago was finished with his deliveries for the day. Gonzales went to help one more driver before he headed home around 3 p.m.

Before heading back up to Liberty in the Bronx, Santiago noted in his neat handwriting the two missing Sprite cases.

Manhattan at 12:30 p.m. was suddenly much busier. While our morning ride took just over 30 minutes, the traffic getting from Penn Station back up to the Bronx made our trip an hour long.

We got back to Liberty Coca-Cola at 1:30 p.m. It looked totally different than it had when we left at 6 a.m.

Santiago unloaded the carts from his truck ...

... and swept it up.

He checked the engine and made sure everything looked up to snuff.

By 2 p.m., Santiago headed back into the Liberty offices to wrap up his day.

Then, he headed home.