DG Specialist

[Maui]

We have four ops manager, only one is DG certified. While working on his belt today, he tried to force me to take a leaking DG package on road in a bag. I refused, brought to SM's attention. They let it ride the belt that way, too! It should never have even left the ramp in that condition, yet it was on the CTV, and loaded onto the belt. As for twenty minutes from station, all of our managers live minimum 45 minutes from the station.

Leaking DG should follow protocol for the hazard.

Please reread about the availability of a SCU. It has nothing to do with where one lives, but while the station has operations. It is rarely enforced, but the station needs to show someone available should a spill occur.

​

 

[whenIgetthere]

Leaking DG should follow protocol for the hazard.

Please reread about the availability of a SCU. It has nothing to do with where one lives, but while the station has operations. It is rarely enforced, but the station needs to show someone available should a spill occur.

​

My point exactly, leaking package shouldn't have been put on a moving belt, I a bag or not.

 

[FrndoftheFmly]

Ladies & Gentlemen,

When I was approached several years ago regarding the DG position at my
station, there was little information here or elsewhere that I could apply to
my decision. I was a new hire, so did not have the opportunity
to see the previous DG specialist in action, or speak with the veterans
about what life would be like in this role. Now that fate has
arranged my happening upon this thread, there are several points I would
like to share with not only the OP, but any other employee who may
be considering taking this on.

There is a lot of unhappiness with the way things are going at FedEx these
days, and this has been covered at length in numerous threads. The
first thing you should all know about me is that I no longer have a dog in that
fight - I am no longer with this company, and I there is absolutely
no chance I will ever return. I have not retained any form of
contact or social relationship with any past coworkers from FedEx,
nor is Federal Express any portion of my investment portfolio. That being
said, it is not my objective to disrupt the grand plans of an OPs
manager's operational needs - but rather to share information in a manner
which I believe will benefit all concerned parties. Many of the
problems with securing reliable DG service at stations could be resolved by the
willful elimination of "surprises" that a DG specialist is certain to
encounter along the way. Chalk it up to a philosophical difference, but I
disagree with the notion some may have that "what someone
doesn't know cannot hurt them."

The second thing you must know is that I was highly-regarded and well-respected
at FedEx - by management, DG admin/analysts, FAA field agents, and my
coworkers - to the greatest extent and capacity that they were capable
of. I was never late, never called in sick, came in on off
days, voluntarily shifted vacations, no letters, many
BZs/awards, always a 7 when the system was in place, etc, etc, ad infinitum.
A "good soldier." I left on my own accord,
and on good terms. I did everything I could to prepare
the station for my departure - no "format C:" on my way out
the door, no sandbagging in the final days, no games, no excuses.
I wish all of my coworkers the best, and bear no malice towards the
management. If I bumped in to any former coworker or
member of the management team tomorrow, I am 100% confident that our
exchange would be cordial and friendly - and all have been, thus
far. Romans 12:19.

"At least as a DG specialist you'll have some extra work when
express moves to a part time work force. Make yourself more valuable."

Express has already made great strides in converting to a part-time
workforce. At no point in my service as a DG specialist was I near
full-time, and I was a solo act in a large market station. A courier
taking on DG responsibilities MAY gain hours, but please disabuse
yourself from the notion that it is a guaranteed full-time fast track.
You will certainly become more "valuable," but if value is expressed
in dollar signs, then a DG specialist is only marginally more important that a
newly-hired handler for someone who currently resides in the latter
position. At my station, couriers of any stripe were paid more than the
DG specialist. Whether or not you will be paid courier rates while in a
code 20 is something to discuss - my guess is "no," especially if you
are being started in DG fresh.

"You could potentially even face personal fines and/or jail time
if you screwed up badly enough"

This is something that the older DG specialists were told on a regular
basis. It seems to have subsided in recent years, but it still reappears
from time to time. It needs to go away permanently, however. Any
employee who cannot understand the risks and responsibilities as they
pertain to FedEx, their coworkers, and shippers....is either unable
to conceptualize their own liabilities, or simply do not care. Ultimately,
it is the responsibility of the company to place competent, capable, and
responsible people in this position...and do what is necessary to allow
them to do their best work. If something goes awry
and the corporation successfully transfer a disproportionate
amount blame to a lowly DG specialist, after this
individual is left with hefty fines, a prison sentence, and with a
completely trashed career and reputation...that accomplishes little more
benefit to them than a cautionary tale. In the legal process, there
is simply not enough meat on a DG specialist's bones to quell the
insatiable hunger that follows a tragedy.

The "take-away" is that it is dangerously unrealistic for a DG
specialist to expect any amount of support from the company should there be an
incident. That's something to think about.

"Please don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think he chose
you because he saw some higher intellect. He chose you because you are a new
employee who he hopes isn't yet wise to the ways of FedEx. He is looking for an
easy mark."

Well, he saw enough virtues to justify his decision in approaching, and with
any luck, hiring you into this position. Your being naïve -
"unwise to the ways," is also quite helpful to
him. As your love for the position waxes cold, time has
been bought for a replacement to be selected.

Go to the training. If you are lucky it will be out of town where you
get a per deim and purposely flunk the course. Those meals are all you can hope
to get out of being a DG specialist. If the training is local, you won't even
get that.

Tut-tut - mine was local. No meal or transportation comp's. Being
the swell guy that I was, I even drove over to the station after class to work
the PM sort. That was fine. I was quite pleased with some aspects
of the arrangement, though. I had no desire to spend any amount of time
in the crime-ridden, filthy metropolitan cities of my region,
eat processed GMO junk at some local restaurant, and sleep in some
dirty hotel. I never understood the desire of many of
my coworkers to travel for training. Folks, you'll be sleeping
in a Hampton Inn, not the Broadmoor. You'll be eating a sandwich
at Jimmy John's, not Saison. I suppose getting out of the
house and away from the daily routine may be good for some,
though.

This is just my opinion, but don't go to the training if you don't intend to
take it seriously. Why not just say "no?"

"In another case, a DG person worked with a large number of
Radioactive packages night after night for years. A few years ago, they
developed a rare form of cancer associated with exposure to radioactivity and
DIED. What did FedEx do? NOTHING."

Also remember that you are not only placing your faith and trust in FedEx, but
also the shippers. Did I trust the ones I was working with? In a
word, "no." With some of the oddballs coming out of clinics and
hospitals, "rads" were nowhere near the top of my "shipments to
worry about" list.

"yes, but who would want all that responsibility/risk if it's the
SAME RATE as a regular express courier?"

I'll wager that several would, considering the DG specialist pay is far
below a regular express courier in almost all cases.

"One thing to consider is if the offer letter stated a requirement
to become DG certified. If it did, then the OP must become certified or lose
his position."

The offer is contingent upon passing the class. If the employee does not
pass the class, they are demoted in the system on Monday morning.

"The one good thing about dg is even if the manager is breathing
down your neck to put something on the plane you can basically tell them to
stuff it, its not gonna happen."

I was seldom pressured to pass a shipment, but I remember hearing about
such pressures from specialists at other stations. DG Specialists: don't
put your sticker/stamp on anything unless it meets the criteria
on the checklist/DGnews, and you are prepared to justify your decision.
Enter every piece of DG into AutoDG. Ops Managers: If
the agent is not working quickly enough, it's ultimately YOUR
responsibility. If they are incapable of performing DG specialist duties,
then perhaps your gambit failed, but it is also YOUR
responsibility.

"I actually like doing it...cuz sometimes I get to be an
hehehe."

I have to admit that I gained a rather shrewd reputation among several of
the station's DG shippers. The tom-foolery and shifty antics by just
a few of the shippers was utterly astounding. I was cursed at over
the phone a couple of times, and this even occurred when
my manager and I were on conference call with the shipper. I
developed some unique ways of handling this, but I dare not expound upon them
here. Let's just put it this way - non-compliance paired with
petulance on behalf of a shipper was extremely well-documented.

I will add that you will likely grow weary of "being an
." After a couple years (nay, months) of casting pearls and
tilting at windmills, you will come to the stark realization that for all your
troubles, you are an hourly employee making exactly (see paycheck.)

"If you decide to do it, try to make your life easy and work with
couriers being aware of certain things, like looking for the candy striped
paperwork, labels look ok...the easy to spot things. You would be amazed
how many times stuff has been bumped for something that could have been fixed
at the shipper had the courier paid attention."

Its part of your responsibility to share relevant information with team members
(including couriers, of course) regarding safety, policy/regulatory changes,
etc. Remember, though, that they have their hands full and have rabbits
of their own to chase. They are also discouraged by management to make
determinations at the pickup as to whether or not the package is
compliant. Some couriers do become amazingly interested in these matters
once they've been chewed out by the shipper, or they've had to lug the package
back and forth a couple times because shipper didn't bother to read the
checklist comments.

"Speaking as a DG specialist, do not do it if you can avoid it.
Once they see you are willing to do a little extra work for no extra pay, the
abuse cycle will begin full tilt. Believe me, I speak from experience. I was
once dewy eyed and bought the whole PSP we care for you line of crap. It wasn't
until after I had taken on WAY too much extra responsibility that I came to see
it for what it was. They roped me in one thing at a time, now I get paid just
over what a new hire makes for four times the work and many more ways to get
fired."

Hmm...this sounds strangely familiar!

There are two types of employees - race horses and mules. Do not be
fooled by the grandiose promises, or be unable to see the forest for the vast
trunks and branches of cognitive dissonance. Back on the farm, a young
stallion will run himself until he is shoeless, exhausted, and torn at the
sinew. He will then be quietly taken to a facility which grades and
processes him for French and Japanese dinner tables. The less glamorous
mule will stop the moment he becomes overly encumbered and burdened, but
perhaps he lives to plow another day.

As long as there are race horses (highly exploitable assets) in the stable
(a perceived "buyer's market" for labor,) the practice of
"turning and burning" will be viewed in corporate America as
sustainable. In fact, entire labor models will be (and verily, have
been) built around it. For those of us on the "outside,"
the "beasts of the field," we do have some influence over the type of
beast we will become.

"While working on his belt today, he tried to force me to take a
leaking DG package on road in a bag."

Per policy, leaking packages are to be immediately placed into a salvage
drum. If there are no DG specialists on hand, I believe the SM
is required to obtain coverage by certifying a Ops manager for DG/SCU.
Unless things have changed since I left, the practice of using doc (or any
other) bags is verboten, and rightly so.

"I've heard what they "say" to do when we encounter
a DG leaks/damaged/wet packages but see what they "Do". The
perception is, the managers are being pressured from people above their heads
to just get it out on the road and hopefully the customer will take it and it
becomes their problem."

In many cases, management has an egregious lack of cooperation with DG
Admin and DG policies. This is also something for a potential DG
specialist to consider, as carelessness and bad decisions puts you right in the
middle of it.

"Upon reading the pre-course manual today, it states that I have
to be clean shaven before class!??"

That's correct. Management may also insist that you remain clean shaven
due to the fact that the area's DG analyst will be periodically showing up
at your station to recertify you on the respirator mask. This almost
always happens unannounced.

"IIRC there are a few questions on some DG paperwork that would
immediately exclude you from spill clean up and possibly DG work.

It had something to do with the ability to smell"

While/while not donning the respirator mask, a "containment
shield" will be placed over your head. Through a small hole in the
front, several sprays of a chemical will fill in the area, and they will ask
you when you smell the chemical. If you are unable to smell it, then you
fail that portion of the exam.



Good luck with whatever direction you decide to take.

 

[STFXG]

Just scrolling through all that hurt my head...

 

[Maui]

"Upon reading the pre-course manual today, it states that I have
to be clean shaven before class!??"

That's correct. Management may also insist that you remain clean shaven
due to the fact that the area's DG analyst will be periodically showing up
at your station to recertify you on the respirator mask. This almost
always happens unannounced.

Not so much. I worked in two separate districts and DGA always announced when s/he would be doing the Fit test. It is annual and most try to have everyone at the station certified at the same time to keep the certification dates simple and T&E cost down. Your DGA and/or manager sucked if this was never communicated to you.

 

[FrndoftheFmly]

Not so much. I worked in two separate districts and DGA always announced when s/he would be doing the Fit test. It is annual and most try to have everyone at the station certified at the same time to keep the certification dates simple and T&E cost down. Your DGA and/or manager sucked if this was never communicated to you.

It certainly would have been nice to have the announcement forwarded to me by either the DGA or Ops, alas, it often wasn't.

 

[Mr. 7]

Just scrolling through all that hurt my head...

Don't worry Ground.
You'll never have to deal with any of that.
Let us professionals at Express handle the D.G., properly.

 

[Cactus]

Don't worry Ground.
You'll never have to deal with any of that.
Let us professionals at Express handle the D.G., properly.

Yep, even dry ice is pretty advanced for Ground.