Age when you decide to go Brown and how many years with the company

9BL

New Member
Geeezzzzz.....I can't say that I decided to go brown, I think I more fell into it when I was in my thirties. However, I'm more curious about how old people are when they decide or are forced to hang it up.

Personally, there is no way that I am going to make it to the standard retirement age of 65? (as a driver)
 

browniehound

Well-Known Member
I started at 21 yrs old (Sept. 1999) so I'm going on 9 years. Not driving. Everyone is told 3-4 years and after 9, I am still not at the top of the list. I'm high on the list and probably half of the people above me will not become drivers (they have 15+ years in), but yeah- 9 years. I loaded in the trailers for about 6 months, was in smalls for about a year or so, and have been loading on the air dock ever since.


This goes to show how varied things are at UPS from location to location. I started about the same time as you at age 25. 5 months later, I had a full-time job.

I like driving for UPS and really can't think of anything else I would want to do in the company or in the world for that matter!

I know there are better jobs, but for the money, I like where I am. Teaching would be great, as I do have a B.A. degree, but I wouldn't earn nearly as much as I do at UPS. This is why I stayed a driver. Every entry position I looked at offered a starting salary in the 39-45 grand range. After making 70+ at UPS there was no way I was leaving.

Yes, the job hurts physically, but once we punch out there are no worries for us! Do you think your center manager has this luxury? If you compared his salary to the highest earning driver (a driver that gets 56-59 hours) in the center, I'll bet there is not much of a difference! The difference is one is thinking about his center all weekend while the other could care less!

As for other jobs that pay as well as UPS that doesn't require an education? I can think of a few. Crab fishing in the Bering Sea? Manual labor for operations in Bahgdad? Roofing a coned part of a chuch 100 feet above the ground? Window washing the empire state building?

I think I want to stay at UPS. Even jobs that require a skill like auto mechanics, sheet metal, auto body, roofing, flooring, painting are not easy. I'd rather deliver packages than do any of the above jobs.

Then you get to the other jobs that many people have with just a high school diploma. Fast food clerks, receptionists, landscapers, shippers and recievers, postal workers, Fed-Ex and DHL couriers, waiters and waitresses, custodians, etc. I don't know how they get by. I know each and every one of them would jump at a UPS job.

How does a forklift drivers making $13/hour support a family?

I really can't complain about UPS when I think about many other's lot in life!
 

barrycold

Well-Known Member
Then you get to the other jobs that many people have with just a high school diploma. Fast food clerks, receptionists, landscapers, shippers and recievers, postal workers, Fed-Ex and DHL couriers, waiters and waitresses, custodians, etc. I don't know how they get by. I know each and every one of them would jump at a UPS job.

don't postal workers make good money? It's a government job.
 

browniehound

Well-Known Member
I'm sorry, but I need to continue my talk about UPS. We have drivers complaining everyday about their job and their dispatch. Its OK to complain about the dispatch in my opinion. If you are 40 stops over dispatched then I think you have a "beef". If you are complaining to me about how much "the job stinks" or "there has to be a better way", I don't want to hear it.

Now, if you are overdispatched on a daily basis then I think you have a legit reason to complain. In my center they have been overdispatching an entire town or 5 routes by 30-40 stops each day. Also, these are UPS' numbers not ours. 5 routes each at least 30 over what the dispatch computer says is our "max".

Sometimes we get help, sometimes not. This is where I think we have a "legit" beef about the job. Its very difficult to do a route, day after day, week after week, that is dispacthed with 10-11 hrs. of work each day!

There is two ways to approach this.

One is to get mad, yell at your sup. or center manager, and then speed in the package car, take shortcuts through the methods, and endanger yourself and the public. I would advise against this.

The 2nd way is to approach it a totally different way, which I think is the best and safest way. Don't rush, and at the same time never milk it. You are going to be working late and will be tired, don't jeopardize yourself and get into an accident or injury that could hurt you or an innocent party. Those last 30, follow the methods and get back in one piece. Just think of the money you will be making! Close to 43 bucks an hour for house calls! YOu hit 11 hours and now you made an extra 140 for the evening!

It adds up and you must think of it this way. I do. UPS saves money because 2 routes don't go out. Thats fine with me as I gross an extra $750/ week with me. UPS saves money and I make money, its a great relationship!
 
Brothers and Sisters,


These are very interesting strings and it piqued my interest, so I posted this in both strings “first time hearing of UPS” and “date started at UPS”. I thought I could give all of you folks some insight into what made UPS great and contributed to their phenomenal growth, as well as management /hourly interaction, and type of operations and equipment. I knew about UPS from my pre-teen years because my Dad worked for UPS as a Package Car driver and then a full-time Positioner and router in the late 1950’s. Back in the day, UPS would put on a picnic for all workers in a Forest Preserve, providing all food drink, games, and entertainment in appreciation of the work done by ALL employees.

Believe it or not when my Dad was driving, I went along with him as a pre-teen running residential deliveries, and pushing the common carrier, which was 90% of the load, while common carrier made up only 5% of his load. I listed where I worked after quitting UPS to fill in the years I accrued pension credits for the sake of clarity. Back then the package cars DID NOT have heaters, so… in the winter the driver would prop up the engine cover to get heat. I believed then and still do believe it was a tactic to keep the drivers moving to keep warm? On top of that all the Feeder equipment in Metro Chicago had vacuum brakes, the pin was on the 5th wheel, not the trailer, and the trailers were only 19’. My first tractor in 1967 was a 1942 International.


Dad also took me with him to work most every Friday evening to unload the Feeders, then help load the package cars after the packages were set up in bins 3 shelves high in order of delivery, and then sheeted, and loaded in reverse order. Back then the full-time Positioner/routers, were paid by the hour and also earned bonus. So… my contribution increased the bonus of the 5 Positioner/routers, and Mack, Harry, Bob, and my Dad chipped in to pay me for the work I did, which gave me extra pocket money.


1959 through 1995

1959 to 1961 UPS Full-time Positioner/Router, I quit when a center manager lied to me about going to a driver position. I must also note that Dad had a stroke in 1960 and never was able to go back to work. There was no disability benefit or pension back then because they didn’t start making pension contributions until 1963. However that didn’t stop the top brass from coming to our home and giving my Mother a death benefit of $5,000.00 even though Dad was still alive and technically not entitled to the death benefit.

1961 to 1962 Peter Wheat Bakers Drove Home Delivery Bread Truck, IBT Local 734
1962 to 1967 Darling & Company, Tractor-trailer driver/spotter, then Route Driver.
1967-1995 UPS Feeder, Jefferson Hub to 1976, Bedford Park Hub 1976-1995. I went back to UPS because a great many Freight Companies were going out of business and UPS was still growing?

Activities in retirement 1995 to present
1995 to present retired with Reciprocal Pension’s from IBT Local 705 (Terminal Plan) and IBT Local 710.

Started PUPS. Inc. http://pupsinc.homestead.com/index.html with eight (8) friends that is a club of UPS retirees only and those qualified to retire with 25 years or more service in IBT Locals 705, 710, IAM Local 701.

Active with DOL/PWBA and the IRS Non-profit arm in Dallas, when Wanda Chapman would be denied five (5) years of my pension if I died within five (5) years of retiring. This was an illegal 10 Year certain pension reduction. (Prevailed)

Active in Federal Court with 92 C 7042, 95 C 0828 objecting to Settlement Agreement with 160 petitioners. Thirteen (13) million culled out of Settlement Agreement. (Prevailed)

Active with first of ten (10) retirees who retired before they were fifty-two (52) with twenty-five (25) to twenty-nine (29) years UPS service. This was age discrimination, violations of SPD, Plan Documents and CBA. (Prevailed in all cases)

Active with Paul Mounts an old friend who was forced by the Local 705 and UPS to take a disability pension that reduced the amount of workman’s compensation UPS was liable to pay him. When Paul finally settled many years later we appealed the collusion and coercion and got his pension increased to the twenty-five (25) and out he deserved, doubling his monthly pension. (Prevailed)

Active in Federal Court with 98 C 7944 with DOL/PWBA investigator Jim Johnson with John Fraschetti and Bob McGinnis two (2) retired Freight drivers returning twenty (20) million dollars back to the Local 705 Pension Fund illegally removed under an illegal 401h maneuver over 5 years under two separate groups of Officers/Trustees. (Prevailed)

Active with six widows and DOL/PWBA Investigator Jim Johnson to get hundreds of Freight Widows denied five (5) years of their deceased husbands pensions and one death benefit denied All widows received a total over one (1) million dollars. (Prevailed)

Active with two (2) friends in 2001, when two (2) UPS Corporate individuals flew to Chicago from Atlanta to meet me in the restaurant I chose, to attempt to intimidate and coerce me to stop helping my Brothers with their problems ascertaining their UPS Medical Benefits in retirement. (Prevailed)

Active with a Local 705 UPS Driver and an IAM UPS Maintenance man each having over thirty (30) years service, who were terminated then denied their earned medical benefits after jumping hoops to get their jobs back before retiring. Contacted the DOL/PWBA in Atlanta after exhausting all administrative remedies. (Prevailed)

Active with appeal of five (5) UPS retirees cheated out of bonuses instituted in June of 2003. Result was Twenty-three (23) retirees got $634,000.00 inside of six months of the appeal. (Prevailed)

Active with a friend whose idea it was to start NABER Inc. http://pupsinc.homestead.com/ACCOMPLISHMENTS.html in 2004, so we could communicate with UPSER’S nationally. Results thus far exceed expectations.
Active with UPS IAM Local 701 mechanic who decided to retire with Twenty-eight (28) years service June 01, 2006, because he was injured and on workman’s compensation for over a year (medical ran out) and wouldn’t be rehabilitated enough to return to work. Hewitt Associates who runs the UPS medical Claims center in Lincolnshire, IL. Lincolnshire told him he wasn’t entitled to medical coverage in retirement and "don’t call them again". Appealed to UPS Corporate. (Prevailed)

Active with two (2) retired UPSER’S suffering ADA, ADEA, and Retaliation against them by UPS Corporate in Atlanta with the EEOC filed in 2003. (Pending).

Hope you find my long-winded diatribe interesting and shows what was and what could be again, not to mention what can be accomplished by a small group of determined individuals?

It should be noted that Cheryl, who has put together an extremely informative site with an open forum and no bias isn’t given enough credit and accolades.


In Solidarity,


Douglas Page Chapman Sr
6619 Dralle Road
Monee, IL 60449-9431
708-534-0490-Home
708-359-9592-Cell
Advocate PUPS Inc. & NABER Inc. http://pupsinc.homestead.com/naber1.html
36-1/2 years member in good standing IBT Locals 705 & 710
Over 55 years experience UPS/BROWN 30 years an employee, and 18+ years when Dad was an employee. Retired 13 years.
 

upsdude

Well-Known Member
I thought I had 4 to go but the folks at Teamsters Joint Council 83 changed all that. We still have 25 and out but the Teamsters added a new twist. You now only qualify for 8 years of medical coverage upon retirement. The medical coverage you have to pay for anyway is limited to 8 years.

So, subtract 8 years from the date you're able to get on medicare and that's your retirement date. Now, also consider this, my wife is 4 years younger than me (If we had met when I was 18, dang that would have been bad. LOL) so I have to work out a date that allows her to have coverage too.

Thanks Teamsters! Hum, if UPS was doing this the Teamsters would want me to walk and carry a sign. Hoffa would be front and center on CNN talking about how evil UPS is. Oh well, I guess I feel better knowing the union got me.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
...Hope you find my long-winded diatribe interesting...

...and I hope to someday win the lottery and tell UPS where to go and how quickly to get there. I don't see either of those two things happening any time soon. I would like to present you with the following award:





Brown Cafe 2008 Thread Hijacking Award


Douglas Page Chapman, Sr.





Congratulations on receiving this presitigious award.
 
...Hope you find my long-winded diatribe interesting...

...and I hope to someday win the lottery and tell UPS where to go and how quickly to get there. I don't see either of those two things happening any time soon. I would like to present you with the following award:



2008 Thread Hijacking Award


Douglas Page Chapman, Sr.





Congratulations on receiving this presitigious award.
Now UpState , This was in no way a highjack post. He was answering the questions posed in the thread title with details.
 
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