Things have become increasingly worse at my center. UPS clearly has too many systems that compete with each other, and as a driver, you cannot please all of them. You must pick which "goal" you are trying to obtain each day, and be prepared to be called on your failures in other areas that suffer because you tried to meet one of the other goals.
-Orion sucks. It is yet another system that doesn't work, but the only people that must answer to it are the drivers. It comes from the top that you must follow it, or else. However, UPS refuses to make it mandatory, probably because they know what the consequences are. they are content to implement a failure and blame the poor results on the drivers. Just this week, we had a driver run in 60% range, but beat his miles by 22. He was told by the supervisor that they didn't give a damn if he was 100 miles over, he needed to be above 85%. Just think about that for a second... If Orion worked, then why not make it mandatory? You run it, or you get canned. If the system works, why won't UPS shoulder the blame of the results?
-The Union (at least in my area) is a total joke. This past contract, there was supposed to be a 9.5 "list" you could get on. Management will not even acknowledge such a list when drivers have asked to be put on it. The union does nothing, and the company continues to raise stop counts and work driver 11+ hours a day. IMHO, there is no longer a need for a union when the company intimidates them and ultimately does what it wants to anyway. That is an extra $20 a week I could put in my pocket.
-This is not a job where one can be expected to work at this level for 35 years before retirement. At this point in time, if your body, and or your family is able to withstand 20-25 years of this, you should be rewarded with a nice retirement.
-We are losing all of our business to the post office. We are delivering half a truck to most local post offices now. UPS has been able to shift volume to the USPS and it has allowed them to run a skeleton crew of drivers. I have noticed that the push for sales leads has disappeared, probably because UPS can no longer pull off the lie of what they claim will happen if we get more business. The more business they get, the more that will go to the USPS and the more work the remaining drivers will be left to do.
-Since most of our smaller and medium sized boxes have gone to the USPS, we are left with nothing but large,heavy boxes. I believe within a few years, a p1000 will not be big enough to hold all the daily deliveries for the average route. Couple that fact with Orion telling you your fist stop is on a shelf you can't see, let alone get to, and you have a big problem.
-Moving forward, UPS will need to greatly improve how they work and treat their employees. This is no longer a desirable job. The current generation has no desire to be worked this hard or treated like a criminal that just hasn't been caught yet. We have seen in the past two peak seasons that the pool of people capable and willing to do this job even for a month is EXTREMELY small. No one signs the driver intent sheet at our building anymore. Once UPS loses the current generation of drivers through attrition, retirement, or firings, they are going to have a hard time replacing these workers.
-Orion sucks. It is yet another system that doesn't work, but the only people that must answer to it are the drivers. It comes from the top that you must follow it, or else. However, UPS refuses to make it mandatory, probably because they know what the consequences are. they are content to implement a failure and blame the poor results on the drivers. Just this week, we had a driver run in 60% range, but beat his miles by 22. He was told by the supervisor that they didn't give a damn if he was 100 miles over, he needed to be above 85%. Just think about that for a second... If Orion worked, then why not make it mandatory? You run it, or you get canned. If the system works, why won't UPS shoulder the blame of the results?
-The Union (at least in my area) is a total joke. This past contract, there was supposed to be a 9.5 "list" you could get on. Management will not even acknowledge such a list when drivers have asked to be put on it. The union does nothing, and the company continues to raise stop counts and work driver 11+ hours a day. IMHO, there is no longer a need for a union when the company intimidates them and ultimately does what it wants to anyway. That is an extra $20 a week I could put in my pocket.
-This is not a job where one can be expected to work at this level for 35 years before retirement. At this point in time, if your body, and or your family is able to withstand 20-25 years of this, you should be rewarded with a nice retirement.
-We are losing all of our business to the post office. We are delivering half a truck to most local post offices now. UPS has been able to shift volume to the USPS and it has allowed them to run a skeleton crew of drivers. I have noticed that the push for sales leads has disappeared, probably because UPS can no longer pull off the lie of what they claim will happen if we get more business. The more business they get, the more that will go to the USPS and the more work the remaining drivers will be left to do.
-Since most of our smaller and medium sized boxes have gone to the USPS, we are left with nothing but large,heavy boxes. I believe within a few years, a p1000 will not be big enough to hold all the daily deliveries for the average route. Couple that fact with Orion telling you your fist stop is on a shelf you can't see, let alone get to, and you have a big problem.
-Moving forward, UPS will need to greatly improve how they work and treat their employees. This is no longer a desirable job. The current generation has no desire to be worked this hard or treated like a criminal that just hasn't been caught yet. We have seen in the past two peak seasons that the pool of people capable and willing to do this job even for a month is EXTREMELY small. No one signs the driver intent sheet at our building anymore. Once UPS loses the current generation of drivers through attrition, retirement, or firings, they are going to have a hard time replacing these workers.
on from corporate, harassed and fired for their employees not being able to maintain unattainable metrics. Thanks for making sense of all this . I can see clearly now.
