DOT Foods seeks dozens of qualified drivers for Burley center

Teya Vitu//May 21, 2018//

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DOT Foods in Burley delivers packaged foods across the western states. Photo courtesy of DOT Foods.

DOT Foods in Burley intends to add at least 25 more drivers in the next year. The only thing that’s holding the national food distributor back is finding enough qualified drivers, said general manager Chris Landrum.

The Mount Sterling, Illinois, company opened the Burley distribution center in 2008 and now has 125 drivers delivering food to 4,500 distribution points primarily in eight western states. Burley-based drivers often pick up cargo in Mount Sterling and anywhere west of Illinois, Landrum said.

In all, DOT has 324 full- and part-time employees in Burley with 285 of them full-time drivers or workers in the 140,000-square-foot warehouse that stores dry, frozen or refrigerated packaged food.

“There are plans out there (for expansion) but nothing pending,” Landrum said. “We have the ability to almost double the current footprint.”

DOT has 11 distribution centers; its Burley distribution center’s drivers log 19 million miles, the second-most in the company. DOT operates 145 trucks and 200 trailers out of Burley, Landrum said.

DOT’s three western distribution centers are in Modesto, California; Burley and a Lake Havasu City, Arizona center that opened in March.

The Arizona center allows DOT to better triangulate pickups and deliveries, Landrum said.

In the past, “we might have picked up product in Utah, brought it to Burley and shipped it to Arizona,” he said.