Any drivers here been covering for over 10 years without a route?
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Indecisi0n
Well-Known Member
No
BrownArmy
Well-Known Member
Eight years in, and not a route I want enough to bid for it.
I'd rather drive cover than bid a crap route.
Different Centers handle things differently...cover drivers have posted on this forum that they 'bid' a route for a week, etc.
Nothing like that happens in my Center - I get sent where they send me.
There are weeks where I'm in three different towns, on four different routes.
Like I said before - for certain people, their disposition leads them to bid a route, no matter how crappy, because they want the same route every day.
I'd rather bump around all over the place - I'd rather be cover than sit for two years on a route I didn't like (here we bid routes for two years).
If we bid routes yearly, maybe my perspective would be different, I'm not sure.
Ask me again in five years, I may change my mind.
I'd rather drive cover than bid a crap route.
Different Centers handle things differently...cover drivers have posted on this forum that they 'bid' a route for a week, etc.
Nothing like that happens in my Center - I get sent where they send me.
There are weeks where I'm in three different towns, on four different routes.
Like I said before - for certain people, their disposition leads them to bid a route, no matter how crappy, because they want the same route every day.
I'd rather bump around all over the place - I'd rather be cover than sit for two years on a route I didn't like (here we bid routes for two years).
If we bid routes yearly, maybe my perspective would be different, I'm not sure.
Ask me again in five years, I may change my mind.
So you've pretty much done every route in your center to know if it's a crap route or not? Also, do you bid and turn it down (if you win) or you don't write your name down at all?
BrownArmy
Well-Known Member
There are over 100 routes in my Center...I know about forty.
As for bidding a route - seniority rules. Plenty of guys in my center with less juice than me bid right into a crap route, because no one else wanted it.
No matter what the situation is in anyone's Center, the common denominator is that seniority rules.
If you don't write your name down at all, then obviously nothing happens.
If you write your name down and someone with more seniority bids the same route, then, you lose.
As far as winning a bid on a route and then turning it down, I have no experience with that.
...BUG?...
542thruNthru
Well-Known Member
We have a guy that has a nice route. He puts his name on every route that comes up and turns it down when he wins it.
AKCoverMan
Well-Known Member
I've been a FT cover driver for 10 years. Our center does not have a weekly bid for covering vacant routes like some, if you don't have a route they use you where they want usually based on who they think knows each vacant route best.
I have enjoyed the variety of places I get to deliver to. We put about 50ish routes out per day including 8-10 from a satellite building about an hour from the main center. I know almost all of them to various degrees and often do multiple routes per week.
In our center if you are the senior bidder you are allowed to go out for a day on the new route before you accept it.
I have enjoyed the variety of places I get to deliver to. We put about 50ish routes out per day including 8-10 from a satellite building about an hour from the main center. I know almost all of them to various degrees and often do multiple routes per week.
In our center if you are the senior bidder you are allowed to go out for a day on the new route before you accept it.
ibleedbrown
Well-Known Member
even if its a crappy route would it be better once you know it inside out? i have also heard stories of people winning an "easy route" only to have several stops and pick ups added to it once they got on it.
slappyhappy
Well-Known Member
I have been cover driving for about 11 years by choice. Keeps the job more interesting I think. About 35 routes in our center, I know them all. There's about 3-4 I would take should the opportunity arise. Might be another 10 years though. Might just retire a cover driver.
Future
Victory Ride
I covered for many years.....i concur it did make the job more interesting at times ....just seeing old customers etc
9.5er
Well-Known Member
Been a cover driver for 10 years. Will probably be another 6-8 years before enough drivers retire for me to even get a chance to bid on my own route. I know over half the routes in my center and there are a few decent ones but I'll most likely not get a chance to bid on those until I'm close to retirement age. By then they will suck as bad as the rest.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
There are days when I wouldn't mind being a cover driver but for the most part I would much rather have my bid run.
gman042
Been around the block a few times
I have been with the company 15 years. 14 of those years were as a cover driver.
Last year I finally bid a route though I had run that route in various forms for the past 4 years before the bid went up. This past May, I bid onto a route that was my favorite. I was trained on it 20 years ago during my peak help days. I plan to stay on this current route until I retire.
Last year I finally bid a route though I had run that route in various forms for the past 4 years before the bid went up. This past May, I bid onto a route that was my favorite. I was trained on it 20 years ago during my peak help days. I plan to stay on this current route until I retire.
Brownslave688
You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
Each route is what you make it. I've seen guys bid
routes and by working the methods and filing 9.5 they make it a decent route. I have also seen guys take gravy routes and make them complete ball busters.
3 done 3 to go
In control of own destiny
They are for the most part. What you make them. I was a cover for 10 yrs (Casual -way back) Full time route since. I got sick of where am I today routine. Knew all 22 areas. Left a huge hole in their cover list. They hired 6 guys after I bid
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