Feeder rules for Arizona

azforlife

Member
Just wanted to put this out there and see what other states or local union Feeder rules are. If you fail the CDL driving test twice that your not ever allowed to become a feeder driver the rest of your UPS career. Why would the union and the AZ Feeder drivers agree too this is beyond me. Are other States feeders rules the same? Why can't there be a 2-3 years waiting period before you can try again. If you you fail with in your 30 days in Package you have to wait 6 months to try again.
 
Maybe because Feeders are a serious piece of equipment and they want to make sure you don't kill anyone.

Package Cars..............hell, the guy selling ice cream in the neighborhood is essentially driving a package car.
 

azforlife

Member
No its not a state law you can take the CDL driving test three times before you have to pay again. I understand that it's a serious piece of equipment but what I don't understand is a guy can go 3 times or more take the class go 3 days into production week then back out and try again the next year. If someone takes the big leap takes the test fails twice then there gone for ever from feeder.
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
Seems a bit harsh given that UPS feeder training really isn't that great, 1 day of classroom and 4 days of driving during which you really don't spend any time working on the specific CDL test requirements.
 

barnyard

KTM rider
I spent the majority of my non-productive week doing only things that were needed to pass the CDL road test.

I totally understand not giving someone a chance after 2 attempts. The 2nd attempt would be after a person has had TWO non-productive weeks of 1 on 1 training.

As others have said, not everyone is cut out to be a feeder driver and I am glad that the union had made it so that some that are not cut out for it are eliminated from the pool.
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
I spent the majority of my non-productive week doing only things that were needed to pass the CDL road test.

I totally understand not giving someone a chance after 2 attempts. The 2nd attempt would be after a person has had TWO non-productive weeks of 1 on 1 training.

As others have said, not everyone is cut out to be a feeder driver and I am glad that the union had made it so that some that are not cut out for it are eliminated from the pool.
Very different than here, we basically didn't work on CDL stuff at all. For instance the CDL pretrip is different from the UPS pretrip, if you did the pretrip for the cdl test the way they taught us you would fail right there. The UPS instructors had no clue how the cdl backing test would be set up and we spent very little time working on backing anyway. We spent practically all of our driving time on the highway, whereas the cdl road test was a lot of going through intersections in town, making left and right turns in traffic, etc. Also we don't get two non-productive weeks, we got one.
In case I'm not being clear I thought the UPS school was a joke and really shortchanged a lot of the drivers who were trying to get into feeders. I saw guys get dq'ed because they didn't pick it up right away, when the reality is that a lot of them would have made perfectly good safe feeder drivers with a little more instruction.
 
No its not a state law you can take the CDL driving test three times before you have to pay again. I understand that it's a serious piece of equipment but what I don't understand is a guy can go 3 times or more take the class go 3 days into production week then back out and try again the next year. If someone takes the big leap takes the test fails twice then there gone for ever from feeder.

There's a difference between "backing out" and "failing a test".

If they see something, correction- If even a UPS feeder training sup see something that fails you twice, then maybe there's something there?

What specifically did you fail at?
 

azforlife

Member
There's a difference between "backing out" and "failing a test".

If they see something, correction- If even a UPS feeder training sup see something that fails you twice, then maybe there's something there?

What specifically did you fail at?
backing was my weakest link I needed more one on one backing practice with the sup which was not given to me. They knew I was struggling with the my backing during production week no help at all. I'm not looking to go back anytime soon but would like to finish my UPS career in feeder
 

azforlife

Member
I spent the majority of my non-productive week doing only things that were needed to pass the CDL road test.

I totally understand not giving someone a chance after 2 attempts. The 2nd attempt would be after a person has had TWO non-productive weeks of 1 on 1 training.

As others have said, not everyone is cut out to be a feeder driver and I am glad that the union had made it so that some that are not cut out for it are eliminated from the pool.
was never pulled off production week for more 1 on 1 training when they knew backing was my weakest link, which also is the most important part of feeder is backing.
 
backing was my weakest link I needed more one on one backing practice with the sup which was not given to me. They knew I was struggling with the my backing during production week no help at all. I'm not looking to go back anytime soon but would like to finish my UPS career in feeder

Backing? Unless you backed over the center manager's car you shouldn't fail just because you need a pull up.
Hell, the sups TRAINING guys here can't back for shiz.
If you had control problems that made you on the high risk side then at least here they stop you and try redoing that part specifically. They'll also grab some of us drivers to ride with a guy to see if we see the problem with a different set of eyes. Most rookies put in too much steering input and end up chasing the trailer.

If you have a problem then you need to stop and ask for advice. Better yet, have that sup demonstrate. He better pull it off exactly the way he's looking for you to.

Then one thing to try ,possibly, if your honest in what happened is go to HR and or the union and state that your were not trained correctly. Make them show their results.
 

superballs63

Well-Known Troll
Troll
backing was my weakest link I needed more one on one backing practice with the sup which was not given to me. They knew I was struggling with the my backing during production week no help at all. I'm not looking to go back anytime soon but would like to finish my UPS career in feeder

did you ask for more time to work on your backing with a sup and were denied, or should they have just known that you were having trouble backing? If you asked, more help should have been offered you. If you didn't, but they KNEW it was your weak point, then I put the blame on you.
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
was never pulled off production week for more 1 on 1 training when they knew backing was my weakest link, which also is the most important part of feeder is backing.
Backing was the weakest link for me too as I had never driven a combination vehicle at all, I noticed the guys who picked it up the quickest had usually grown up on a farm driving a tractor or had some experience pulling a boat trailer or something like that. I spent a lot of time on my own practicing in the yard with a pup before I felt comfortable with it.
 

azforlife

Member
did you ask for more time to work on your backing with a sup and were denied, or should they have just known that you were having trouble backing? If you asked, more help should have been offered you. If you didn't, but they KNEW it was your weak point, then I put the blame on you.
Yes I asked for more time to practice with a sup but was denied. In years passed I was told that if you were having trouble backing they pulled you from production week until you got the hang of backing.
 
Here you get your training but then unless you're knocking it out of the park you'll get saddled up for shifting where you'll definately get your backing practice.
 

Johney

Well-Known Member
the most important part of feeder is backing.
I have to disagree with this statement. While very important I don't think it's the most important. So what if it takes you a little extra time to put your trailer on a door maybe get a few jabs from the senior drivers for taking too long? Getting from point A to point B without hitting anything or worse case having an accident is the most important thing.
 
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