Depressing christmas party

[Thebrownstreak]

So I'll preface this by saying that this was the first peak that I didn't work. I am currently out on a work injury. Being on the outside looking in was quite depressing. We have a little "party" at a bar close to the center. Each and every driver that I talked to was like they were broken. They were informed this am that anyone with more than 3 hours left will be working.

It just amazes me that every effin year it's the same thing. They never have enough drivers. They never have enough package cars. They never have enough hours. Talked to our steward and he said the average pay week for the center was 58.8 hours per driver for the last 3 weeks. It is me and one other driver who is out on injury. Just amazes me.

Is it this bad everywhere. Guess that's logistics.

 

[wayfair]

the tittie bar fellows that wanted to hang at were charging 20 dollar cover... end of the world party..

 

[Covemastah]

I thought you couldn't punch in unless you had 8 hours available!

 

[over9five]

I thought you couldn't punch in unless you had 8 hours available!

Must be just us.

 

[leastbest]

You control your own fate. I used every resource in the book to survive the place. I took advantage of 8 hour requests (at least 3 a month). If I felt I was being abused with long hours I would call off and take a day to sit by the lake and play banjo. That is how I got to retirement time. Just because they didn't want to hire enough people didn't mean I had to suffer.

 

[oldupsman]

So I'll preface this by saying that this was the first peak that I didn't work. I am currently out on a work injury. Being on the outside looking in was quite depressing. We have a little "party" at a bar close to the center. Each and every driver that I talked to was like they were broken. They were informed this am that anyone with more than 3 hours left will be working.

It just amazes me that every effin year it's the same thing. They never have enough drivers. They never have enough package cars. They never have enough hours. Talked to our steward and he said the average pay week for the center was 58.8 hours per driver for the last 3 weeks. It is me and one other driver who is out on injury. Just amazes me.

Is it this bad everywhere. Guess that's logistics.

I don't know how much time you have in streak. But if you're a young guy, get used to it. It's been that way for 40 years and it's never going to change.
Everything got delivered didn't it? So they did have enough drivers. And cars. And hours. So everybody had 59 hours. That means they had an hour to spare.
You're looking at this and saying, "They don't know what they're doing." Sorry, it's the exact opposite. They know exactly what they're doing.
They minimized there cost and maximized their profits. It's also why you make 30 bucks an hour and have great health care. I know that's not the answer
you want to hear. It's a personal decision you have to make. I put in 32 years in package car, retired at 55.
It was worth it to me. Might not be the same to you. But it's not going to change.

 

[soberups]

If you are forced to come in and work you are guranteed your 8 hrs, even if you only jave 2 or 3 DOT hours left. You can still work once you hit 60, you just cant drive any more.

 

[gman042]

If you are forced to come in and work you are guranteed your 8 hrs, even if you only jave 2 or 3 DOT hours left. You can still work once you hit 60, you just cant drive any more.

Yup! A few years ago when Christmas was on a Sunday, they sent me with a utility driver. When I was out of hours for driving then she took over.

 

[bumped]

This peak has been one of if not the best I've seen. We've been staffed, and most drivers up until the last couple of days were getting in earlier than non peak. We don't get any food, or extra perks as its not in the budget(seems to be in the budget for management though), but who cares. I don't expect it.

Saturday air is volunteer only as language in our contract does not allow forceable work before a holiday week.

 

[packageguy]

Christmas party, 12/21/12, Some drank till they could not drink anymore, thinking the world would end.. lol

 

[Dracula]

Don't want to work, call in. Problem solved. This issue never really comes up in feeders much, but when I was in PC, I never called in sick much, for occasions just like this. If they pissed me off and buried me or friend$cked me over one day, especially close to the weekend, that's when I would drop a dime on them. I didn't have an attendance problem, so there was nothing they could say or do, except get pissy on the phone. But that was easy to deal with also...by the END CALL button on my phone. There was nothing sweeter than hitting that button when you could still here a supervisor yapping.

 

[soberups]

I guess I still have the old-school "game on" mentality for peak season. Every Monday morning in December when I get out of bed, I know I have a 60 hour week ahead of me. I expect it, I accept it, I'm OK with it. Peak seasons of today are far better than the custerflucks we had 20+ years ago when bringing 150 missed stops back at 11:00 at night was the norm and you were spending 60 hours a week fighting a brickloaded P-5 or P-6. Peak is still crazy, but having EDD and a DIAD and the ability to instantly communicate with the center has made the chaos much more manageable.

 

[Indecisi0n]

I guess I still have the old-school "game on" mentality for peak season. Every Monday morning in December when I get out of bed, I know I have a 60 hour week ahead of me. I expect it, I accept it, I'm OK with it. Peak seasons of today are far better than the custerflucks we had 20+ years ago when bringing 150 missed stops back at 11:00 at night was the norm and you were spending 60 hours a week fighting a brickloaded P-5 or P-6. Peak is still crazy, but having EDD and a DIAD and the ability to instantly communicate with the center has made the chaos much more manageable.

Sometimes I wish it wasn't so easy to communicate with the center.

 

[serenity now]

Sometimes I wish it wasn't so easy to communicate with the center.

i still remember thinking wtf the first time i got a wireless message on the diad (nothing had been announced beforehand)
me thinking out loud: well, this 'aint gonna be good

 

[soberups]

Sometimes I wish it wasn't so easy to communicate with the center.

That works both ways, you just need to have a pair.

About 3 weeks ago they cut out a route and buried me with a hopeless dispatch. Rather than get pissed about it, I simply took 25 stops that I knew I couldnt get off and unloaded them into a pup trailer out on route that all the area drivers use to drop their outgoing NDA volume into so that it can get pulled to the airport at 4:30. I messaged in to the center that they could either (A) dispatch someone to make service on the stops or (B) pull the stops out of the trailer when it got back to the building at 7:00 and set them aside for me to scan as "missed" when I got back even later.

Their failed plan, their problem. I'm just the messenger, and the DIAD allows me to communicate that fact to them in a manner that they cannot conveniently ignore.

 

[Indecisi0n]

That works both ways, you just need to have a pair.

About 3 weeks ago they cut out a route and buried me with a hopeless dispatch. Rather than get pissed about it, I simply took 25 stops that I knew I couldnt get off and unloaded them into a pup trailer out on route that all the area drivers use to drop their outgoing NDA volume into so that it can get pulled to the airport at 4:30. I messaged in to the center that they could either (A) dispatch someone to make service on the stops or (B) pull the stops out of the trailer when it got back to the building at 7:00 and set them aside for me to scan as "missed" when I got back even later.

Their failed plan, their problem. I'm just the messenger, and the DIAD allows me to communicate that fact to them in a manner that they cannot conveniently ignore.

I don't even do that. As long as the packages are in my car they are in my care. I will keep the packages on car and removed X amount needed to find my package and move on. There are days by lunch I have 35 stops done of 200+. I will give accurate ETA no matter what time it is whether it be 9:00PM or 1:00AM and keep moving. Two hours before my 14 hrs I send in a reminder to them I need to be off the street by XXX time. I no longer make decisions on my own. Their company, their dispatch, their problems.

 

[anonymous6]

I guess I still have the old-school "game on" mentality for peak season. Every Monday morning in December when I get out of bed, I know I have a 60 hour week ahead of me. I expect it, I accept it, I'm OK with it. Peak seasons of today are far better than the custerflucks we had 20+ years ago when bringing 150 missed stops back at 11:00 at night was the norm and you were spending 60 hours a week fighting a brickloaded P-5 or P-6. Peak is still crazy, but having EDD and a DIAD and the ability to instantly communicate with the center has made the chaos much more manageable.

this is how I feel. one day when you are long retired you can look back with pride how you gave it all you had to provide for your family and a job well done.

also it is fun to bore the grandchildren about the "good ol days " at UPS.

 

[Speedy Cerviche]

It's just as fun to tell new people what it's currently like at UPS.