I wouldn't expect the company to add many FT drivers in the future

[Coldworld]

Our BA told us that one of the contract proposals being discussed was having the company pay pension contributons for all hours worked, not just the first 8.

Would this mean one could retire a bit earlier??

 

[menotyou]

Would this mean one could retire a bit earlier??

Not, unless, they change the rules back.

 

[packageguy]

Our BA told us that one of the contract proposals being discussed was having the company pay pension contributons for all hours worked, not just the first 8.

I doubt that will happen. But I hope it does. I know guys with 35 - 40 years of service, and still working.

 

[packageguy]

I think right now it's the first 40 hours. We have guys working 10 hours a day and not working friday.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I think right now it's the first 40 hours. We have guys working 10 hours a day and not working friday.

It is the first 8 hours so the guys working 10 hour days and taking Friday off are only getting 32 hours of pension contributions.

 

[104Feeder]

We have had all-compensible in the West for a while now. It means most can hit their 2080 by mid-October.

 

[Buck Fifty]

I know for a fact I have not been cheap for the company.

High Maintenance ???

 

[soberups]

I think right now it's the first 40 hours. We have guys working 10 hours a day and not working friday.

It is the first 8 hours so the guys working 10 hour days and taking Friday off are only getting 32 hours of pension contributions.

Out here in the West the company makrs pension contributions on our first 2080 hours per year.

 

[Dracula]

What i find funny about this topic is that it really splits the drivers up into the groups who would prefer less overtime, those who don't care either way, and those who want every minute of overtime they can soak up. I realize I am in feeders, but I don't doubt this holds some truth in PC as well, but a few months ago a rumor was going around that management was ready to bring in a whole bunch of new drivers and cut everyone's day down to 8-9 hours. I didn't think that would really happen, and it didn't, but I am perfectly happy with an 11 hour day as I am with a 9.5 hour day. Other drivers were getting worried that they wouldn't be able to get their 60 hour paychecks each week. This thread only confirms what I believed to be true that our benefits are so expensive that adding an extra driver requires a lot more work to justify it. For better or worse this is the truth, and until our hourly rate gets significantly higher or our benefit costs become significantly lower I don't see this changing.

It shouldn't, but it bothers me when these burners come back to feeders and drive 70MPH and get routes done in 9 hours. If you want to work 9 hours, stay in package car, If enough of you clowns come back to feeders, then it ruins it all for the rest of us. Where I work, management has reduced nearly 80% of the routes to 8 to 9 hours. And this is a hub with over 300 feeder drivers.

Some of you guys won't relax until you've scratched at every level this company offers. And that is simply pathetic.

 

[Dracula]

Its impossible to make scratch without breaking safety babble. Had my sup riding with me peeing in a water bottle and having me run to the door while being trained on route and still come in over 40mins. Only advice was to get at scratch or else back to the hub. Thanks! Dikwad!

Here we go. Is there no common sense left?

 

[Dracula]

A lot of people are going to go on comp just to rest up from the constant over-dispatch.

In my area, comp is almost a distant memory. Unless, of course, it's a broken bone, a hernia, or an incapacitating injury. A sore shoulder? A sore back? A sore knee? Where I work, they won't let you go on comp. They put you on TAW (Temporary Alternative Work) which just means you go to work every day dressed in browns, and work on a computer, fold small bags, or stand next to a supervisor, as he or she works union work. You punch in like you normally would, get your eight hours, and go home until you are ready to go back to work. They will always ask you if you want go home early, and a lot of people do, if out of nothing, if not sheer boredom.

This is what our union has allowed...

 

[menotyou]

In my area, comp is almost a distant memory. Unless, of course, it's a broken bone, a hernia, or an incapacitating injury. A sore shoulder? A sore back? A sore knee? Where I work, they won't let you go on comp. They put you on TAW (Temporary Alternative Work) which just means you go to work every day dressed in browns, and work on a computer, fold small bags, or stand next to a supervisor, as he or she works union work. You punch in like you normally would, get your eight hours, and go home until you are ready to go back to work. They will always ask you if you want go home early, and a lot of people do, if out of nothing, if not sheer boredom.

This is what our union has allowed...

Uhmm, no offense but, this is what you have allowed your union to allow. They have to allow therapy on the clock, if they want to play that game. And, pay mileage or provide the vehicle.

 

[SignificantOwner]

About once a month I have a play a round of Golf with three of my college buddies. Two have been in Management for years,and now work in the Corporate office. We try not to talk shop but of course it comes up. We were all complaining over the hiring freezes that have been put in place due to the upcoming contract,and I mentioned we have had 3 drivers retire in the past year and none have been replaced.

My friends said this is the 'way of the future' and that in an average center of 50 people it more cost efficient work drivers over 9.5 every day than to hire new drivers. They told me the benefits costs,fuel costs,and the cost of adding another Package Car on the road FAR exceeded having employees work excessive over time. They told me management felt only a small fraction would get on the '9.5 list' and even then until the driver worked 58.5 hours it was still more cost efficient(even with the excessive OT grievance factored in) than putting another driver on the road.

I told them it got old working so many hours and not seeing the family,and neither had much sympathy as they said at least hourly get OT and can file for excessive OT and they work close to that many hours and get no OT............ oh well i DID shoot in the 80's today,and for ME that aint bad

I don't know if I'm buying it. Corporate office employees complaining about hours? Are they counting the time in the gym downstairs?

 

[HULKAMANIA]

I would actually love to see the MATHEMATICS behind what they CLAIM saves the company money. Lets say you have 10 drivers working 2 hours OT a day. Thats roughly $1000 dollars A DAY in OT ALONE! How can anybody think thats logical? How many drivers do you think work OT a day company wide? There is NO WAY they are saving money with this IDIOTIC method! Dont give me this OH your saving FUEL mumbo jumbo either. You got 10 trucks on the road running 2 hours more than what they normally would? How would that not justify 1 more truck and be CHEAPER in fuel???? Then this talk of insuring vehicles...OK how many of you guys insure your vehicle daily? Last I checked its 6-12 month payments and Im SURE that UPS gets a corporate discount....OH wait a minute last I heard UPS is self insured..GEE sounds like a cooked up lie to me. Lets not forget the accidents that people brought up in this forum-which have gone through the roof company wide simply because of how they are running us. Im talking everything from accidents to bodily accidents. Now to say that ALL this difference is being made up in benefits alone is absolute stupidity. If someone "mangement" can show me actual figures that make sense that this makes sense and SAVES money Id love to see it.

Im sick to death of hearing every single mananger that I know saying "OH quit complaining where else can you go and make $31." We bust our *****ES everyday, to say we are overpaid is to NOT know what the job is like. Its easy to sit there and look at a computer screen and say OH thats easy. Try it, day in-day out, tell drivers how your knees feel after a 10 hour day and 400 packages delivered. Im not saying the pay isnt good, but we EARN ever single dime, and we sacrifice ALOT.

 

[What'dyabringmetoday???]

Our BA told us that one of the contract proposals being discussed was having the company pay pension contributons for all hours worked, not just the first 8.

Did your BA tell you that he got himself a three-hundred dollar per week raise when he was sworn in? Perhaps that would not bother you. It bothers me.

 

[What'dyabringmetoday???]

While he was shoving a hamburger in his mouth. The same one.

Pretty sure those boys are eatin' better food than that. Unfortunately, two or three members showing up to meetings will have no effect on their behavior. Oh well.

 

[What'dyabringmetoday???]

It shouldn't, but it bothers me when these burners come back to feeders and drive 70MPH and get routes done in 9 hours. If you want to work 9 hours, stay in package car, If enough of you clowns come back to feeders, then it ruins it all for the rest of us. Where I work, management has reduced nearly 80% of the routes to 8 to 9 hours. And this is a hub with over 300 feeder drivers.

Some of you guys won't relax until you've scratched at every level this company offers. And that is simply pathetic.

Not sure if I get your point, but I hope that you would agree that ALL jobs should be eight hours per day and then we would have MORE jobs?

 

['Lord Brown's bidding']

Hulk, when they cut a route and parcel it out to 5 other drivers, not all five will end up with excessive OT. Often times its the runners who get that work, and they will save some money. Once heard of a driver who did an 18 hr dispatch in 11 hrs. In my center-a bonus center-the sheet is filled with guys blowing their routes out of the water-and these aren't rookies. In my center at least, we get by. My sup pointed out to me the other day that in the year since he joined our center we've lost 10 drivers who haven't been replaced, but my center is no where close to melt down, and I.suspect it is like that in tue majority of centers in the majority of buildings, otherwise business would really suffer and the stock would take a hit. Oh, and our injuries are not spiking up, and we may have a couple injuries this year, and one of them involved someone blacking out behind their will and runnning into our driver.

As far as trucks, it is common knowledge that once a truck is up and running it burns fuel more efficiently. IOW, that extra truck you just put on the road will probably burn more gas in its first hour than two trucks doing their extra two hours of OT (if, again, it even amounts to that much OT). Not to mention the liability costs and so on and so forth.

 

[HULKAMANIA]

Hulk, when they cut a route and parcel it out to 5 other drivers, not all five will end up with excessive OT. Often times its the runners who get that work, and they will save some money. Once heard of a driver who did an 18 hr dispatch in 11 hrs. In my center-a bonus center-the sheet is filled with guys blowing their routes out of the water-and these aren't rookies. In my center at least, we get by. My sup pointed out to me the other day that in the year since he joined our center we've lost 10 drivers who haven't been replaced, but my center is no where close to melt down, and I.suspect it is like that in tue majority of centers in the majority of buildings, otherwise business would really suffer and the stock would take a hit. Oh, and our injuries are not spiking up, and we may have a couple injuries this year, and one of them involved someone blacking out behind their will and runnning into our driver.

As far as trucks, it is common knowledge that once a truck is up and running it burns fuel more efficiently. IOW, that extra truck you just put on the road will probably burn more gas in its first hour than two trucks doing their extra two hours of OT (if, again, it even amounts to that much OT). Not to mention the liability costs and so on and so forth.

No offense but I still dont buy any of it. A. Why would someone EVER be sent out DISPATCHED as an 18 hour day??? B. If that story is true, the time allowances on everything was so jacked up that those numbers mean absolutely nothing. There is NO WAY ANYBODY I dont care how fast and hard you run can shave off 7 hours worth of work.

You are looking to short sighted my friend. I did a mere comparison of 10 employees. How many drivers do you think are on the road a day for UPS? 10 was just a way to put it into perspective.

The trucks statement...all I gotta say is .... Im not tooting my own horn or anything but I am very educated when it comes to engines. Do me a favor, next time you get in your car and drive somewhere calculate your fuel mileage when your engine is cold, and then when its warm and see what you come up with.

Im not trying to argue with you at all, but I dont buy it at all. In a larger city cutting a route and putting more stops on 5 cars might work. In a rural area it doesnt work. Our center is most dominately rural, and this insane stops per car gimmick has us ALL running 9.5's all the time. As a center it would be cheaper to have 1 more guy on the road and less hours out. To me thats pretty simple math but then again UPS doesnt know the slogan "Keep it simple stupid"

On another note-putting more work on the "runners" is very contradictive on UPS' part. "Follow the methods" We are told NOT to run, we are told NOT to speed, we are told SAFETY FIRST....funny how every single one of those RULES hit a brick wall....The truth is Run but dont get caught, speed but dont get caught, and just dont get hurt if you do its all your fault.

 

['Lord Brown's bidding']

Hulk, regarding engines I've already seen the measurements. I drive a hybrid, and one of the things hybrids do is give you computer graphics showing your efficiency. I may exagerrate about how extreme the difference is, but it is there. Not to mention other factors, like idling. When I am running off a split (not literally "running", mind you), I am hardly idling, hardly sitting. It's why I love residentials. However, I run an industrial route, and I avg maybe 30-35 mins idle time. If my trip was broken up, those mins pretty much go away, as the drivers who'd replace me often run into the same waits I do,ANYWAY. I don't know if 10 drivers would equal my idle time in extra time.

They gave that driver the 18 hr dispatch because they knew he would do it. There are a couple drivers I know who are close to if not over 100 g's a year, and it is not by filing grievances. These drivers are not involved in a ton of accidents and injuries, and they definitely are not complaining of being overworked.