Do you have any respect for managers who never did delivery driving?

[hellfire]

We have a new DM,and after asking around it seems he was a pkg car driver for TWO WEEKS before being promoted to onroad,, then center manager, than DM. It DISGUSTS ME that the current system doesnt recognize long term ability and achievement, Do we as drivers really want someone telling us how to the job that never has done it? What has happened to earning a position based on ability, long term.?

 

[brownman15]

nope

 

[hurricanegunner]

No.

 

[Catatonic]

1) We have a new DM,and after asking around it seems he was a pkg car driver for TWO WEEKS before being promoted to onroad,, then center manager, than DM.
2) It DISGUSTS ME that the current system doesnt recognize long term ability and achievement,
3) Do we as drivers really want someone telling us how to the job that never has done it?
4) What has happened to earning a position based on ability, long term.?

1) That does seem a bit unusual but the responsibilities and ability to be a good DM has little to do with the ability to be a good driver.
2) If the DM does a good job at the job he/she is in now then the system worked as it should. Keep in mind that keeping you or other drivers happy is a very small part of a DMs job - that is the CMs job.
3) Really? Who cares what you want? Put it in the contract if you want it.
4) What do you know about the DM job? or the abilities of this DM? or whether he/she is doing a good job or not? You or the other drivers will not be evaluating the DM on his/her job performance.

Your post struck me as being funny and disconcertingly self-centered ... it really is not all about you, you know.

 

[Re-Raise]

No one is going to go from a full-time driver position into management anymore.

We have seen too many of them fired or quit over the years. We have seen the hours they are required to put in with no overtime pay. We have seen how often they are forced to uproot their families and move to a new location.

We have a number of drivers at my center who would be great supervisors , but after putting years in to get a bid route there is nothing that will get them to make the jump to management.

That leaves you with two week wonders as managers.

 

[Johney]

Sorry, but I can't have any true respect for someone who has not walked in my shoes, but yet wants to tell me how to do my job. I wouldn't want to tell them how to do their job unless I did it.

 

[Johney]

No one is going to go from a full-time driver position into management anymore.

We have seen too many of them fired or quit over the years. We have seen the hours they are required to put in with no overtime pay. We have seen how often they are forced to uproot their families and move to a new location.

We have a number of drivers at my center who would be great supervisors , but after putting years in to get a bid route there is nothing that will get them to make the jump to management.

That leaves you with two week wonders as managers.

Your absolutely right re-raise I haven't seen a full-time driver with more than 2 years seniority go into management.

 

[Catatonic]

Sorry, but I can't have any true respect for someone who has not walked in my shoes, but yet wants to tell me how to do my job. I wouldn't want to tell them how to do their job unless I did it.

I don't think DM is interested in telling you how to do your job. That is the sups responsibility.
The DM will only be interested in how well you perform your job in ways that can be measured. His job is to make sure the numbers are good - 1) operational productivity, safety, service, etc. and 2) generating additional revenue, packages, miles, costs 3) a whole bunch of other stuff.

 

[UPSGUY72]

NO

 

[bottomups]

My current center manager started driving a few years after I did. From what I can remember, he was one of the biggest cry babies there was in our center. Always bitching about the route or the workload! He drove for a good amount of years before he went into management. Even though he has graduated from management brainwashing school we still get along OK.

 

[Catatonic]

No one is going to go from a full-time driver position into management anymore.

We have seen too many of them fired or quit over the years. We have seen the hours they are required to put in with no overtime pay. We have seen how often they are forced to uproot their families and move to a new location.

We have a number of drivers at my center who would be great supervisors , but after putting years in to get a bid route there is nothing that will get them to make the jump to management.

That leaves you with two week wonders as managers.

No doubt that is happening in some locations. UPS still tries to hire from within but they will not promote people with non-applicable abilities.
It seems very probable that this DM in question was selected as a high potential person that was hired at the DM level but was being run through the weeds to get a feel for the UPS Pickup and delivery operations. Don't be surprised if this new DM is not in Corporate in a couple of years or "resigns" before that. Most companies today fast track high potential people and they either make it or they're gone from the company.
I recognize that the DMs (level 18) and up need an entirely skill set than the old-timers like me. Its a new world with a different set of responsibilities that very few drivers will have.

 

[Johney]

I don't think DM is interested in telling you how to do your job. That is the sups responsibility.
The DM will only be interested in how well you perform your job in ways that can be measured. His job is to make sure the numbers are good - 1) operational productivity, safety, service, etc. and 2) generating additional revenue, packages, miles, costs 3) a whole bunch of other stuff.

I hear ya Hoaxter, but crap flows downhill and I'm in the valley right?

 

[Catatonic]

I hear ya Hoaxter, but crap flows downhill and I'm in the valley right?

Aren't we all. LOL

I can certainly relate!

 

[iruhnman630]

No one is going to go from a full-time driver position into management anymore.

.

Our center lost a driver to management this summer. I thought he was nuts.

 

[iruhnman630]

The last center manager I worked for who lacked significant on-road experience was over dependent on the numbers spit out by his computer. He just couldn't understand why his 10 hour (on computer) dispatches took well over 11 hours.

 

[brownelf]

Wonder who the last (if ever) CEO who actually drove a truck for more than a few weeks was? Jim Casey wouldn't recognize the UPS that his dream has become now..In regards to the manager's question I'm going to have to say no.

 

[Catatonic]

Wonder who the last (if ever) CEO who actually drove a truck for more than a few weeks was? Jim Casey wouldn't recognize the UPS that his dream has become now..

Jim Casey did not drive one.

 

[brownelf]

but I'm sure there was someone along the way that actually did.

 

[Catatonic]

but I'm sure there was someone along the way that actually did.

Jack Rogers
Oz Nelson
Jim Kelley
Mike Eskew

 

[brownelf]

and then we went public...Believe I met every one of those guys thru the years, they actually got out in the trenches once in awhile.