menotyou
bella amicizia
You read my mind!!
Lunch Break Question
- Thread starter BrownTruck
- Start date
Backlasher
Stronger, Faster, Browner
Dude,your not clocking out any earlier by doing this,If your actually stopped and taking a real lunch break. 5o min between 12-3 is just as long as 50 min at end of day. Are you putting down your 50 min and during that time, drive back to center, unload your air and then your hazmats and pulling your group 3's off? That's the only way u gonna clock out earlier but it's a move that screws us all!!
That will get you clocked out earlier BUT, that will screw u out of $$ and screwing us that get on that route after u cause the time allowance will b screwed and you will have more commercial or pick ups added cause u arn't breaking in that time slot.
I'm stuck in a route were the past driver, not the curent bid driver but the one before him screwed things up for this route cause of that "end of day" fake break.
C
chuchu
Guest
O.P., I agree with backlasher. You're not explaining why you want to take your lunch break AGAINST THE CONTRACT LANGUAGE. I used to split up my lunch when I was a new driver, covering up the work I actually was doing off the clock (and enabling the loader to continue to give me crappy loads because I sorted the truck during MY LUNCH every day) but I found out that sitting down and taking my lunch for the 30 minutes we are allowed in CS I actually got done FASTER because I took that mental and physical break. That is why we have a lunch, NOT early SUPPER. There is a driver in our center that takes his lunch at the end of the day and he is too freaking ignorant to realize that if you can't get the businesses serviced without skipping lunch maybe try doing it the right way and after "missing" a few business stops for a day or two the management will reduce your dispatch to something intelligent (after a ride a long of course). A quart only holds 32 ounces......the rest is called "MISSED"! Only you can prevent forest fires.
browniehound
Well-Known Member
You just said it all when you said it. What other worker in the entire US does not take a lunch break around noon (that would be your 3-6 hour window)? Its only at UPS that workers (mostly rookies) are so pressured that they feel they can't stop for even 5 minutes to swallow a doughnut or inhale a sandwich. What makes it worse is that management from corporate down to your on-road sup want it this way because they know many people will run their lunch making their numbers look better than they should.
Here the contract says lunch between the 4th and 5th hour which is not enforced except during OJS rides and there is an important reason for this. If a route is 80-100% house calls it really doesn't matter when you take your lunch. However if a route is 60% and up business it really makes a difference in the driver's favor to take lunch between the 4th and 5th hour. Just 60% business means you have to shut it down when you could be doing house calls before pick-ups and saving miles driving back to the house call area that would be completed if your took your hour lunch at the end.
It gets more profound if the route is 90-100% business. It means if you start at 845 and pickups start at 1430 you need to start lunch no later than 1344 but pick-ups start at 1430 so you need to be clean by 1330 and start lunch at that time. If you can't clean its not your problem (just be prepared to be under the microscope for performance) its your center team's and no matter how hard you work or even how hard two people on car work hypothetically we all know there are going to be many days in a month that you can't clean by 1330.
The problem is many drivers don't have the baseballs to call and say they can't clean or don't want someone sent from a house call route 2 towns away (this would make me feel very guilty) that is dispatched with 200 stops to finish his business for him and punch out at 1830 when the poor soul that helped is punching out at 2030. I guess management looks at it as punishment for both drivers for following the contract.
The sad part about these 95% business routes is that they are always under 8 on paper and management starts playing with his route and making him do very inefficient things to make him 8 hours on paper. Delivering an apartment complex out of a 24-footer on his way back to the center is just one of the brilliant ideas they have come up with.
Why can't they just accept the fact that the route will never equal 8 hours and eat that? Why do they have to send him to do 15 house calls in a 24 footer making his paid day close to 10 hours when they could have paid him 8.5 and someone in a p700 .5 to do the 15 stops on route and save all the miles costs?
It simply doesn't make any sense to me unless the center manager doesn't have an actual cost sheet/breakdown. If he actually has to manage the costs and is shown these costs monthly then the under 8 on paper should be left to be. If he doesn't see these costs and only has to manage the routes as stops/car, under 8, over 9.5, and over 10's then I can see his logic. However, this begs the question: how can UPS operate this way on purpose with such large inefficiencies?
Catatonic
Nine Lives
Hey, I don't usually get my lunch between the 3-6 hour window!
Oh yeah, I work for UPS.
Never mind.
MC4YOU2
Wherever I see Trump, it smells like he's Putin.
I regularly call to speak to my center manager around noon to 2 or so and I'm informed he's "out to lunch".
BrownArmy
Well-Known Member
Amen.
It turns out, it's surprisingly easy. There's a large window in which to take your lunch, depending on the route, etc. etc...just take it.
The mental and physical 'break' are priceless.
As drivers, we don't control the (over) dispatch, the endless add/cuts, the kamikaze missions we're sent on daily.
Just take your full lunch when you're supposed to, and let the chips fall where they may. As far as I know, no one has ever been fired for following the rules. Harassed, maybe, but when your management team gives you a set of guidelines to follow (at the same time they set you up for failure because they are themselves trying to fit 8lbs of s&%T in a 5lb bucket), just follow the guidelines.
It really is that easy: just take your lunch when you're supposed to.
Half the time my management team is running around like headless chickens because there are so, so many fires to put out (none of which have anything to do with you taking your lunch).
Forget about the 'numbers' and just work as quickly and efficiently and safely as you can.
brownmonster
Man of Great Wisdom
Taking it between the 3rd and 5th might be a good idea if you get done at a normal hour like 5 or 6. For guys working until 8 or 9 maybe taking it at 3 isn't a bad plan. Don't want to be starving while delivering in the dark.
MC4YOU2
Wherever I see Trump, it smells like he's Putin.
Most drivers have tried variations of when is best. Whenever I have taken mine later to accommodate either businesses deliveries or pickups, I find that more commercial work is added or more slow resis or anything that would encourage me to eat later. What I usually do now is to eat around 1 and carry snacks for longer days so I don't go into diabetic shock.
stevetheupsguy
sʇǝʌǝʇɥǝndsƃnʎ
I agree with everyone that disagreed, with the OP.
brownmonster
Man of Great Wisdom
No none sits in an office and tries to find you slow resis or commercial work just to aggravate you. My boss has no idea when I eat nor does he care. Just wants 30 minutes takin. This is not a Widget factory where the bell rings at noon and we file into the lunch room. I take lunch when it fits. 9 out of 10 days its around the noon hour and once in a while I break it up just to survive the carnage that results from too many broken areas. If I eat at 10 or 2:30 it has no effect on my dispatch or geographic area.
stevetheupsguy
sʇǝʌǝʇɥǝndsƃnʎ
It does when you have that "carnage". Just sayin.......If you took a "normal lunch" when it was like that, you'd be surprised at how much they'll complain.
Bubblehead
My Senior Picture
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Bubblehead
My Senior Picture
Anonymous 10
Guest
So you are calling him a *??
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Bubblehead
My Senior Picture
That very well may be the case in your limited instance, but where I work, that's exactly what's happening.
Micro-managing is the flavor of the week (Telematics).
Unfortunately for us, we don't work on an assembly line, nor do we deliver a newspaper route.
For many of us, every day brings different circumstances and challenges.
I'm not the one pushing the envelope, nor will I be the one making the concessions.
I guess it's just me?
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Bubblehead
My Senior Picture
That's what she said...
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Anonymous 10
Guest
Who menotyou???
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