we're down a little, but not overly so, I haven't heard of layoffs yet (and I would, I'm pretty good friends with more than a few drivers), but I do know they want to cut routes, so far our center teams have been able to fend it off...we'll see for how long. Most of our guys have 150 stops or more anyways....when I started that would have been unheard of...its not like the load quality is miraculously better under PAS so they can go faster.
They're squeezing the preloaders harder than they have since I've been with the company too (granted thats only been a little over 3.5 years haha). Its really frustrating me and many guys I know are looking for work elsewhere. These are promising employees with about 6 mos. to a near a year seniority but when they're being cut out before 3.5 (especially with gas the way it is now), they get paid more to call in and use sick time (4hrs) and no one can understand why our attendance has gone to crap.
While I was a loader I got 4.5 to almost 6 hours everyday, had rare misloads and my loads looked great, now we (and I don't mean me) want preloaders done in under 4 hrs with a perfect load and no misloads. Being set up to fail everyday doesn't build morale it crushes it and they're telling us to motivate our employees. Some of mine have lashed out at the manager and he seems to think they're kidding lol. Sometimes I wish I was still an hourly so I could more colorfully air my frustrations as well. Its pretty sad that a 15+ year veteran told me that if I hadn't come and helped him pull his cages that he was thinking about just walking out and quitting, granted I know he likely wouldn't have (not with 15 yrs in), but when this guy a big union guy and I'm not making fun of him in any way as he's a solid employee, not one those "goons" as tie would say, graciously accepted help from a supe...you know its getting really bad.