A/C in package cars

[upsman68]

Good luck. UPS was forced by the DOT to install A/C in the tractors. You are in and out of a Pkg car so much that A/C wouldn't do you any good. I like saving the money, and putting it towards our health and welfare plans.

How do you know it wouldn't do any good without trying it. I keep people saying that but working down here in Texas heat is horrible.
Anything to cut the temp back in the cab or package area would make a big difference.

 

[whiskers]

How do you know it wouldn't do any good without trying it. I keep people saying that but working down here in Texas heat is horrible.
Anything to cut the temp back in the cab or package area would make a big difference.

I heard from a few drivers in my center that package cars in Houston do have A/C, not sure how true that is though.

 

[brown_trousers]

I heard from a few drivers in my center that package cars in Houston do have A/C, not sure how true that is though.

I don't see how the a/c would help all that much. If you're in and out of your car every few minutes delivering packages the a/c would never have time to cool down. It's like when turning on a/c in your personal rig, the first few minutes are always uncomfortably stuffy and hot and it really only gets cool if you roll your windows up, but as soon as you open your door all that cold air goes away and you have to go through the process all over again

 

[hellfire]

if you are a full time pkg car driver than you know why a/c is not practical

 

[upsgrunt]

Try wearing the long pants for a few days like we used to have to wear year round. The day you go back to shorts it will feel like you have a/c.

 

[Scuderia]

Jeez, put an AC vent that can fit in the feeders for the loaders and unloaders. Especially the translucent ones that have been baking in the sun for days; those are killer.

 

[FracusBrown]

I think it should be handled the way Fedex ground does it.

 

[John19841]

Personally, I think you're all crazy lol. Anyone who can not see the advantage of having AC in the package cars has really lost it. Just because it wouldn't have time to cool down the entire car every single stop, there would certainly be times when it did, and that would at least make me feel much better during those times. Besides, I don't care if it's still 100 degrees in the truck, If there's cold air blowing on ME, I'd be thrilled. Think of when you take a sharp corner and all of a sudden a rush of air hits you...It feels damn good, does it not? I admit, I'd still leave the doors open, and run the AC full blast blowing directly at me.

I think it would be more advantageous to have it running to the back of the car as well. It will DEFINITELY cool the back down a lot. Even a small outlet will. Most of the packages cars are already vented above the cab into the back anyway. A perfect place to put the AC going into, that would be. Run the cold air up, and you have an extra blower motor forcing the cold air in. Just the change in your day that would make is unbelievable.

I honestly don't believe that on a 100+ (hell, even 80+) day, that a single one of you, given a truck with AC, would NOT turn the AC on. Not a single one of you

 

[Thebrownstreak]

I think they could do something using solar power. Also u wouldn't have to cool the whole cab. Just run a duct over the drivers head and down behind the driver. To have it blow on the back of the neck would be glorious

 

[Catatonic]

Personally, I think you're all crazy lol. Anyone who can not see the advantage of having AC in the package cars has really lost it. Just because it wouldn't have time to cool down the entire car every single stop, there would certainly be times when it did, and that would at least make me feel much better during those times. Besides, I don't care if it's still 100 degrees in the truck, If there's cold air blowing on ME, I'd be thrilled. Think of when you take a sharp corner and all of a sudden a rush of air hits you...It feels damn good, does it not? I admit, I'd still leave the doors open, and run the AC full blast blowing directly at me.

I think it would be more advantageous to have it running to the back of the car as well. It will DEFINITELY cool the back down a lot. Even a small outlet will. Most of the packages cars are already vented above the cab into the back anyway. A perfect place to put the AC going into, that would be. Run the cold air up, and you have an extra blower motor forcing the cold air in. Just the change in your day that would make is unbelievable.

I honestly don't believe that on a 100+ (hell, even 80+) day, that a single one of you, given a truck with AC, would NOT turn the AC on. Not a single one of you

How much of a wage cut would you take in order to get A/C?

 

[Just Numbers]

How much of a wage cut would you take in order to get A/C?

Hoax, good luck on getting an honest answer.

 

[soberups]

What are you talking about? The piping is already there for the heat. Same with the blower motor. All you need is the compressor and condenser in the engine compartment. A pully, a few pipes and a switch to turn it on and off. I would say that telematics was more costly to install.

When the factory A/C compressor failed in my minivan it was over $700 to replace it.

Retrofitting an entire system into a vehicle that never had it to begin with would be considerably more than that, and in some cases it could require the vehicles cooling system to be upgraded as well to handle the additional load. The extra hardware under the hood also increases the labor associated with routine maintainence.

Even if you could convince the company to spend the money, you arent realistically going to reduce the temperature inside of an open cab by a significant degree....unless you drove for long distances with the doors shut which sort of defeats the purpose of having a delivery vehicle that does 15 stops per hour. And trying to equip the package compartment with AC would pretty much require some heavy duty refrigeration equipment.

A more realistic demand would be for improved ventilation plus a reduction in our work hours on days that exceed 100 degrees.

 

[DS]

I'm with sober and upstate,it's impractical.
Oh yea and hoax too.

 

[Just Numbers]

Sober, I agree with the ventilation but speaking of realistic lets look at the obvious. UPS will never run things like variable stops per hour or overallowed for weather conditions. As for work hours, if a driver is using the methods and giving average effort, that driver should get a lighter load but lets face it, it will never be dispatched under 8.0.
It is those drivers whose methods and effort are suspect who work 10.0 with an 8.5 dispatch and constantly b....h, I have no sympathy for. I've read many of your posts and can see you do not belong in that group.

 

[iowa boy]

How much of a wage cut would you take in order to get A/C?

Hoax,

While I agree with your line of thinking, how many millions have been and will be spent on Telematics when that has absolutely no benefit the drivers? The point is we as a company will spend any amount of money to monitor every driver because they "could" be a thief, but yet we don't care about their safety because it costs too much money.

 

[40 and out]

I don't know how practical A/C would be,but I volunteer to be the test driver to find out. 2nd hottest July in 140 years of weather records here.

 

[soberups]

I don't know how practical A/C would be,but I volunteer to be the test driver to find out. 2nd hottest July in 140 years of weather records here.

I sort of feel guilty....it has yet to reach 90 degrees here this year, and there have only been 15 days so far where it has even gotten to 80. This has been one of the coldest summers on record in the Pacific NW.

 

[40 and out]

I sort of feel guilty....it has yet to reach 90 degrees here this year, and there have only been 15 days so far where it has even gotten to 80. This has been one of the coldest summers on record in the Pacific NW.

I hear that people out on the west coast are complaining that there has been no summer.

 

[soberups]

I hear that people out on the west coast are complaining that there has been no summer.

I'm not complaining at all!

 

[upsgrunt]

How much of a wage cut would you take in order to get A/C?

I agree with Hoke and the impractical argument of others.
To add a twist to the argument- Hoke, how much of a wage cut would you take to KEEP a/c?