Gouge for FEDEX Poolies

[El Pobre]

Congrats to all the tadpoles growing legs and climbing out of the pool. If you live in Memphis....no need to read any further.

If you are planning on commuting to Memphis, I would highly encourage you to find a crashpad before arriving in Memphis. When I went through training last year, we were finishing class around 5PM and it made it very difficult to find a place, since most of the apartment complex type places closed around 5PM. There are plenty of crash pad locations listed on bulliten boards (you can have your sponsorer look for you) around the facilities, but with all the new faces coming out of the pool, those will go pretty fast.

Also, Memphis is not the safest of places, and you don't have alot of free time in training to get the lay of the land so to speak. The last thing you want to do is get a crash pad in a lousy section of town where your beautiful 1985 gremlin crashpad car will get broken into everynight.

Most crashpads rent for about 200-300 per month, so you can factor that into you first year pay.

If I had it to do all over again, I would have come down a couple of days early to get set up so that I wasn't running around like crazy the first few days after indoc. Just my 2 cents...take it or leave it. Congrats.

 

[animal house]

Good advice.

Thanks El Pobre.

 

[Falconjet]

Another option if you can't get to Memphis early (or even if you do) is to stay in a hotel for a couple of nights while you scope out the area and find a crash pad. A lot of folks stay at the Holiday Inn Select on Democrat and it is ok, they offer a fairly good rate for FedEx. (901) 332-1130.

I think that the Homestead Studio Suites on Corporate Ave (just off Democrat) is a little bit nicer, and they also have a very good rate for FedEx (about 40 per night I believe). It is smaller and tends to fill up quicker, but it may be one to try as well. (901) 344-0010.

Both are very close to the airport and convenient to the training centers. Of course, you need to be careful around that area, particularly at night. Got to get used to that anyway.

FJ

 

[andym]

You have to work at night at FedEx?

 

[JethroF15]

Another opinion

If you can't make a trip to Memphis prior to your class start date I would wait until you get here to find a crash pad. Stay the first week in one of the hotels that give FedEx guys a good rate and look for a crash pad. You can team up with someone in your new hire class (sim partner maybe) and look together. After looking for a place for the week you will have a better feeling for the Memphis area and the drive times to the AOC from different places. I just checked the crash pad board in the AOC and it is overflowing with crash pad advertisements. Lowest rate I saw was for a shared room at $135 going up to $500+ for a private. There was every rate available in between those rates. Looked like there was close to 100 or so crash pads advertised. I found a private in Germantown that I have had for the past year for $250. Just my opinion but that's how I would do it.

 

[CDub]

What about transportation? Any suggestions for finding cheap wheels?

Thanks,
CDub

 

[Rock]

What about transportation? Any suggestions for finding cheap wheels?

Just do what all the locals do...find a car you like and carjack it.

 

[CDub]

Just do what all the locals do...find a car you like and carjack it.

Life in Memphis is gonna be nice. Let me know if you see something that doesn't look half bad and gets good gas mileage.

 

[TheBaron]

I agree with staying in a hotel for your first week in training. You can use the weekend to find a place to live. The Homestead Suites and Holiday Inn near the airport both have descent FedEx crew rates but you can actually do better bidding on Priceline. I stayed at the Homestead for about a month and booked it, usually five nights at a time, through Priceline. The most I ever had to pay was $32/night and a couple of weeks I got a room for $20/night. Limit your search area so you don't get something 20 miles away...Memphis rush hour traffic is the pits. Congrats to all FNG's and enjoy your time in training.

 

[Hagar17]

The last thing you want to do is get a crash pad in a lousy section of town where your beautiful 1985 gremlin crashpad car will get broken into everynight.

AMC quit building the Gremlin in 1978. http://www.allpar.com/amc/gremlin.html

I get the point, though. See you in MEM.

Hag