From an accountants standpoint, (by the way I am just a 27 year safe driving feeder driver)If you define a senior employee as one who has six weeks vacation @ 45 hours plus 59 hours option. Subtract two weeks vacation from the that for a new hire. The company has a return on invested capital @ 13.1 %. Ten year cost to keep me is $150314.82. Now if the company was debt free that ROIC number would jump up around 30%. The ten year cost to keep me jumps to $453,385.11. From an employee benefit perspective, If my pension benefit reaches critical mass at 35 years, I should be able to draw that whether I am working or not. From a risk management perspective, the dilemma for the company is the risk that, I have a higher statistical probability of getting into an accident the more I drive. Also, I become a greater workers comp risk, due to the repetitive demands of the job. The company has a window of opportunity with a certain group of drivers who meet the above criterion. From what I see, they will be targeting these drivers because of the above cost data that they are well aware of. With the price of fuel increasing, they have to reign in pension costs further by the next contract. I predict a freeze of benefits at thirty years years. I predict a possible MSA type plan, concerning health coverages. They have to dig deep. If I were the CEO, that would just be the start.