- Does the on-road sup who rides with you hate it as much as the driver?
Usually they do. Especially if they were threatened with termination due your "poor performance"
- How far over-allowed do you consistently have to be to get a OJS ride?
Here its 2hrs+
- Do they do it to cover drivers too or mostly guys with their own routes?
I've never seen it happen to a cover driver.
- Does it ever end up backfiring and they realize they need to take work off your route?
Yes. Or they just make adjustments somewhere and all of the sudden (despite them having always said it wasn't possible to make changes) the route plans better.
- Has a drivers gotten fired for poor performance during the 3-days?
Never in my center.
The first thing everyone needs to know about OJSs is that they don't mean a damn thing if you just follow as many methods as you can during those three days. Like you should be doing any day of the year. They should never happen but they do. They should be called Harassment Rides.
To me there are three types of OJSs. One is when the OCS already knows you're doing nothing wrong and is just getting on the car because they were told to. They have no intention of bothering you about anything.
Another is when the OCS is out to light a fire under your ass because they think you are a screw up. They will nitpick at your every move but they won't try and pursue any discipline over the infractions. Their whole purpose of the ride is to intimidate you into moving faster so that they can show the "improvement" to their boss the next day.
The worst is when the OCS has been threatened with termination by their manager (likely above them) and they are on a mission to make sure they ding you for anything and everything. They will burn you for not violating methods that no one in the center has ever heard of. But the major difference is that they will likely be extremely pissed off and will also likely not be good company while riding with you. It can get ugly if you are one thats not scared to verbally spar with a supervisor and can sometimes have trouble refraining from saying something that you might shouldn't say. Don't let it get that far. Pull over somewhere and cool off and call the steward immediately when that happens. Preferably before. Remember that its dangerous to be driving around in that big truck while pissed off. Even worse when the person that is riding with you is the problem. The good thing about this type of ride is that you'll know pretty early on if thats how they will be behaving. The best thing to do is tell them not to talk to you unless its absolutely necessary. And only while stopped.
One way to fight OJS rides is to try and stop them before they happen. File a grievance on over supervision. The contract clearly states that management can only ride with you a certain amount of times per year. I've filed that grievance and stopped a ride. It doesn't always work though. When it doesn't make sure you take a look at your load with your steward and if it looks amazing (and thats not normal) and/or has been cherry picked of lengthy stops (bulk stops, apartments, etc.) then take note of that too. That sometimes can be used to stop a ride or at least have that day's ride thrown out. But remember....even if they get on the car with you on a day when your load and dispatch are normal (not likely to happen) it still doesn't mean a damn thing. The worst that could happen is if you continuously demonstrate an unwillingness to follow the methods. They have to go through progressive discipline in order to even have a chance at that. But they've attempted it before. UPS can be pure evil at times. Its actually amazing just how far they will go. Just ask any business agent.
