Lunch Break Question

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
I pull over and eat my lunch when I get hungry. I try to time it so that I avoid having to stand in line at wherever I happen to be eating. If I cant start eating by about 11:55, then I will keep on going until about 1:00 or so when the usual rush is over. I dont care how bad the route is or whether or not there will be any service failures, by about 1:15 at the very latest I am gonna shut it down for a 30 min lunch and a 15 minute break while I eat and read the paper.
 
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chuchu

Guest
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.
I know that if I (being a bid area driver) take my lunch in the window we have been given in the contract it keeps my route dispatched more consistantly on a daily basis. That is good for me (helps my safety picture) and my customers. I can't count the times the center manager got a call from a driver that was a victim of cut routes (normally mon & fri) who was going to have 20-30 businesses missed and they started looking for someone to go bail them out. If I have done my job by the book I normally have no time to fix their problem, usually a problem they inherited from IE at 730 AM.

Every "boss" is different too. Some are legit and some are vindictive head hunters. I have worked with both. When PAS came in and they took away time from us I was at a sales lead meeting when many drivers (and AEs) were angry about how we were treating our largest customers...the SSI accounts. We were now delivering some of them at 1600 (instead of their normal 930 am del) and picking them up at 1630! NO ONE in upper management cared. All they cared about was deleting 2 routes from the center. Period. When I was asked in that meeting what I thought by one of the AEs I showed him my delivery manifest and when he saw how pathetic our dispatch was in conjunction with SSI accounts he hit the roof. After that meeting I was loaded with 120+ business stops to deliver in 5.5 hrs for the next 5 months to punish me personally. I took my lunch within the window we were given in the contract every day and every day they had to send 2 other drivers to my truck to bail management out because I was going to have 30-40 missed businesses. If they showed up when I was eating lunch I tossed them the keys and told them to "have at it". After months of this treatment I reported it to corporate. The dispatcher was moved to another center and the center manager resigned. Was it stressfull? Sure. But sometime in your life you have to take a stand for the people who actually pay our bills and it is NOT the District Manager. Are there exceptions? There are rare circumstances where I will split up my lunch to help a driver whose truck broke down but it is the exception, not the rule.
 
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Bubblehead

My Senior Picture
I pull over and eat my lunch when I get hungry. I try to time it so that I avoid having to stand in line at wherever I happen to be eating. If I cant start eating by about 11:55, then I will keep on going until about 1:00 or so when the usual rush is over. I dont care how bad the route is or whether or not there will be any service failures, by about 1:15 at the very latest I am gonna shut it down for a 30 min lunch and a 15 minute break while I eat and read the paper.

I hear ya'.
I also eat my lunch at LUNCH TIME!
 

MC4YOU2

Wherever I see Trump, it smells like he's Putin.
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.
I wish that were true in all cases. In your center it sounds like you have a handle on what works best in your situation on any given day and I respect that. Everyone has to figure it out for themselves. My team, I believe tries to be ethical. Sometimes though for whatever reason someone is singled out for an example. I've been that driver and I've seen many others take their turn. It's one of ups's most beloved "tools for success" to coin a popular phrase. I wish it were not so, but history is a good teacher. Like I said before before, most drivers have tried variations and will always do so. I've found in my case that when you reach your limit, it's a no win to eat later, if it's done regularly, unless you want another route cut so you (or I) can have more slow work.
 
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.

One thing some of us have done in my center because we are not eligible to get on the 9.5 list and are forced to work ridiculous hours is to take our 30 minutes around the 4 hour mark and then take another 30 minutes around dinner time if we still have lots of work left. Management started questioning us on it and didn't do anything about it because they regularly force us to work past 7:30pm. If you are in the same boat, try it. You are allowed up to an hour for lunch. Why not split it up if you can?
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
...Was it stressfull? Sure. But sometime in your life you have to take a stand for the people who actually pay our bills and it is NOT the District Manager. Are there exceptions? There are rare circumstances where I will split up my lunch to help a driver whose truck broke down but it is the exception, not the rule.

The reality of todays UPS is that quality service is something we provide in spite of our management rather than because of them.
 
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chuchu

Guest
The reality of todays UPS is that quality service is something we provide in spite of our management rather than because of them.
You've got that RIGHT! (Don't forget to get a sales lead this week. "It's part of your job".) They figure we can keep on milking the cow even if we don't feed it. Duh.
 

cino321

Well-Known Member
If you decide to take lunch at the end of the day, you might as well just forget about it and call it a day. Why would you want to sit around and wait for an hour?
 

Coldworld

60 months and counting
I know that if I (being a bid area driver) take my lunch in the window we have been given in the contract it keeps my route dispatched more consistantly on a daily basis. That is good for me (helps my safety picture) and my customers. I can't count the times the center manager got a call from a driver that was a victim of cut routes (normally mon & fri) who was going to have 20-30 businesses missed and they started looking for someone to go bail them out. If I have done my job by the book I normally have no time to fix their problem, usually a problem they inherited from IE at 730 AM.

Every "boss" is different too. Some are legit and some are vindictive head hunters. I have worked with both. When PAS came in and they took away time from us I was at a sales lead meeting when many drivers (and AEs) were angry about how we were treating our largest customers...the SSI accounts. We were now delivering some of them at 1600 (instead of their normal 930 am del) and picking them up at 1630! NO ONE in upper management cared. All they cared about was deleting 2 routes from the center. Period. When I was asked in that meeting what I thought by one of the AEs I showed him my delivery manifest and when he saw how pathetic our dispatch was in conjunction with SSI accounts he hit the roof. After that meeting I was loaded with 120+ business stops to deliver in 5.5 hrs for the next 5 months to punish me personally. I took my lunch within the window we were given in the contract every day and every day they had to send 2 other drivers to my truck to bail management out because I was going to have 30-40 missed businesses. If they showed up when I was eating lunch I tossed them the keys and told them to "have at it". After months of this treatment I reported it to corporate. The dispatcher was moved to another center and the center manager resigned. Was it stressfull? Sure. But sometime in your life you have to take a stand for the people who actually pay our bills and it is NOT the District Manager. Are there exceptions? There are rare circumstances where I will split up my lunch to help a driver whose truck broke down but it is the exception, not the rule.

And ups wants to complain why customers are going with fedex....is it really that hard to understand. When would this ever be acceptable? Good for you chuchu for sticking up for yourself and customers.
 
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