how long did it take you to get a route?

[Logb17]

Im a fairly new driver, but not new with UPS. Just interested to see how long it took most of you to get your own route. Did the job get much better after you knew what to expect everyday? I believe im going to hate my job til I get my own route. I hate learning new routes all the time.

I talked to one cover driver that has been waiting 6 years for a route, hes close now. Lots of people retiring. Hopefully ill get one in 4..

 

[TheKid]

5 years

 

[old levi's]

23 years to get my first bid route

 

[cosmo1]

23 years to get my first bid route

Really? Wow!

I think 6 years for me, and that was before we bid routes. They were assigned back then. Yes, I've been around for a while.

 

[over9five]

I liked being cover at first. No real responsibility, my favorite line was "I'm just the dumb cover driver!"

Bid a route at 5 or 6 years after they ******** me one too many times.

 

[Anonymous 10]

14 years

 

[badpal.]

They still assign you your first route in our center. I was blessed with this 9.5-10 hr meat and potato (no gravy) train. Can't wait to bid off!

 

[Anonymous 10]

They still assign you your first route in our center. I was blessed with this 9.5-10 hr meat and potato (no gravy) train. Can't wait to bid off!

Just hang in there it will not get better.

 

[Brownslave688]

Under 5 years for me I actually preferred the cover driver gig something new everyday lots of days off. Wife went back to school though and I needed steady work. Somehow I lucked into a pretty gravy 200+ mile route.

 

[rod]

I worked about 2 and a half months p/t then went full time driving a shuttle truck (P-100 flat top Ford Econoline) to North Dakota when they started UPS service. I made many 165 mile trips one way with nothing on board except me (and sometimes my wife). It was a night job which I hated but it was a quick way to become full time.. I then bid onto a town delivery route. I worked the town route for about 2 years then a stupid 10 year driver quit to go sell bathtub liners so I bid onto his half rural and half small town route that I ran for the rest of my 30 years (same little town). When I retired I knew every grownup, kid, grandkid and dogs name in that town. I could deliver it blindfolded and there was a few time after a particularly rough night out that I pretty much did that. This was back in the golden age of UPS when we were expanding to the states west of the Mississippi. (not counting Ca.,Wa., and Or.--we were already there) The last state on board (other than Ak and HI.) was Texas if I remember right.

 

[DorkHead]

1.5 yrs. cover then bid last route available which of course was one no one wanted, but at least I knew where I was going everyday.

 

[tourists24]

we havent hired a full time driver in our center in over 4 years.... maybe its better where you are at

 

[Cementups]

Took me about 5 years of driving to get my own route. 8 years with the company.

 

[old brown shoe]

Worked the unload and car wash for about a year. One guy quit to go drive beer truck and the company was growing fast at that time. Few drivers were going into management (we called it battle field promotions) I hired as full time driver with about three guys right behind me and never looked back.

 

[cachsux]

4 years here. Look at it this way. The real drivers could cover routes and get the job done. The rest had routes assigned to them because they could barely cut it. Earn your wings, it will mean more down the road. Or get your name on the feeder list asap.

 

[UPSGUY72]

I got a route the first day I started driving and a get one everyday when I get to work.... Cover driving is great they don't expect to much out of you and pretty much could careless about your numbers... Maybe running scratch most of time has something to do with it also...

I could have gotten my own route last month but I not bidding a garbage route just to have a route. I know about 14 routes and most of then are all high seniority routes and the other ones are splits all house call routes....

 

[brownedout]

I liked being cover at first. No real responsibility, my favorite line was "I'm just the dumb cover driver!"

Bid a route at 5 or 6 years after they ******** me one too many times.

Yeah, I pretty much did the same thing. OP about learning new routes every day, once you know them they're not new anymore. Is your center on EDD/PAL?

 

[yeldarb]

3 years. Did a lot of cover though, and the more routes you know, you learn what type of route you want.

 

[robot]

I did 6 years in package car. I was number 44 out of 49 drivers in terms of seniority. We were all full time except the bottom two. We had 35 routes. Never got a bid route. Swing swing swing!

 

[Jones]

3 years part time followed by 3 years in cover before I took a bid route. I move around a lot though, the longest I've stayed on one route was 3 years and I've only done that once. I bid back into cover a couple times just because I didn't care for any of the routes that were available at bid. I've run 200+ mile country routes where you go out with an empty shelf and bricked out town routes where you didn't even know what housecall splits you had til you got your first couple bulk stops off (this was before edd). I like the route I'm on now, I run some business and a section of housecalls in town and then run a split out in the country so I get a little bit of both. Feeders would likely bore me to tears but if I end up staying here longer than I currently plan to I might put my name on the list cuz I'm not getting any younger and the boxes aren't getting any lighter.