not taking lunch and getting paid

[Hangingon]

It used to be you were paid bonus on a code 05, but only if you worked over 6 hours. If you were on the clock less then 6, the daily report would show your bonus, but you wouldn't receive it on your paycheck.

 

[Forty6and2]

wow i must be doing something wrong. it doesn't matter if i take my lunch or don't take my lunch ....i've never got bonus.

 

[Tony31yrs]

We didn't have bonus in our center, so skipping lunch was like handing UPS 45 minutes of time and a half-which I wasn't about to do.

 

[UPS Lifer]

A Bonus center is sort of like a carnival midway. The games are all rigged, and most are impossible to win; but every once in awhile some lucky stiff has to get a big stuffed rabbit so that the carnies can hoot and holler and point out the "big winner" to everyone. That way, the suckers will think they can win too, and will keep playing.
Bonus centers have a handful of "bonus" routes with good allowances. Management uses these "bonus" drivers as an example to new drivers of what is possible if they, too, just work hard enough. Unfortunately, most routes wind up being just like the carnival games; the allowances are rigged to be at least an hour or two behind reality, and are thus dispatched so heavily that the driver must run and skip lunch and breaks simply in order to "make standard". Its all part of UPS's plan to maximize productivity while minimizing paid hours. Just a scam, nothing more.

I have heard it all now LOL!!! So now management folks are a bunch of carnies or con men and women. I managed 7 package centers and your characterization of bonus routes is a flat out fabrication. You should run for Congress!

Also, if a center is a bonus center, the majority of the drivers have to be making bonus. A handful of routes won't make up the difference unless the rest of the drivers are scratch drivers.

Allowances and TMUs are based on hundreds/thousands of studies. It is the action of the driver that causes bonus. Each route would have to have a variance to produce the "carnie" effect you describe. A variance is hard to get and there has to be an extremely good reason for one. Oh! on the study it would stand out like a sore thumb!

The center management team does not control the allowances.

The District IE manager controls this. Most IE managers want the allowances tight.

Here is an example of why.... If a route is worth 9 hours - you are expected to do it in 9 hours. If the same route was worth 10 hours, there would be a driver that would want an hour of work off so that he had only 9 hours of work or less.

Bottom line ... human nature will come into play. If UPS gives you an additional hour to get the job done you will take an additional hour. No different for management - if your boss says I need the report by 10 am tomorrow you will get it done by 10 am. If he/she says to have it on their desk by 4 pm tomorrow you will have it on their desk by 4 pm.

 

[SteveOUPS]

I was shocked to see that some areas of the country have an hour lunch. I'm done eating in twenty minutes! What do you do for the next forty? All it would mean for me is that I would get home a half hour later than I do now. Brutal! Don't bring that stuff around here!

That's exactly what it means. Welcome to my world ...for the past 20 years .

 

[brownmonster]

Lifer, wrong. I get paid 10 plus but I only work 9. Not everyone milks it out to the allowed time. It does backfire now and then because if you do more you always get more.

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

I think that the best way to do the job is to walk "at a brisk pace" (which for me is slightly faster than I'd walk if I were walking through the mall while shopping) at each stop and take the full hour lunch somewhere between 11:00am-1:00pm and to just pretend that there is no such thing as bonus. I have been doing that for a couple of years now and my days go by so much smoother. I usually get between 15-20 minutes of bonus and occasionally run about that much over if the route is bulked out or if I'm on a route I'm not familiar with. I will never run to get bonus.

 

[soberups]

...Allowances and TMUs are based on hundreds/thousands of studies. It is the action of the driver that causes bonus....
{quote]
Sorry, I have to call bull on this one. On most routes it doesnt matter who runs it, either the route has a fair allowance (rare) or it is a screw job (common). When 6 different cut drivers run the same route and they are ALL 2 hours behind....dont say its the driver.

 

[soberups]

The center management team does not control the allowances.
The District IE manager controls this. Most IE managers want the allowances tight.

The District IE manager's only concern is to reduce the number of routes that are dispatched. The more people that he can coerce into skipping their lunches and working off the clock in order to beat his impossible "standard"...the more profits UPS stands to make. The math is simple; 9 skipped lunches equals one route eliminated equals one less truck on the road equals one less full time benefit package to pay for. Reality, fairness, and legitimate work measurements are the LAST thing that any IE guy wants to have.

 

[UPS Lifer]

...Allowances and TMUs are based on hundreds/thousands of studies. It is the action of the driver that causes bonus....
{quote]

Sorry, I have to call bull on this one. On most routes it doesnt matter who runs it, either the route has a fair allowance (rare) or it is a screw job (common). When 6 different cut drivers run the same route and they are ALL 2 hours behind....dont say its the driver.

It sounds like a route like that may need a new study and possibly a variance.

Here is an example of what can go either way for a driver. I actually had it happen to me as a driver.

The whole center had to use a freeway (expressway) to get out to our areas. When the next round of studies came out there was an inaccurate allowance for the freeway travel. On area mile allowance instead of To/From. The reduction was 1/2 hour for every driver in the center. Try to get back 1/2 hour from every driver. It took a couple of years before that center's numbers came back!

 

[UPS Lifer]

The District IE manager's only concern is to reduce the number of routes that are dispatched. The more people that he can coerce into skipping their lunches and working off the clock in order to beat his impossible "standard"...the more profits UPS stands to make. The math is simple; 9 skipped lunches equals one route eliminated equals one less truck on the road equals one less full time benefit package to pay for. Reality, fairness, and legitimate work measurements are the LAST thing that any IE guy wants to have.

It is true that a 1 hour reduction from 9 drivers could eliminate 1 route BUT the part about coercing drivers to skip lunches and work off the clock is again not even close to fact!! LOL! Ever since a lawsuit was started about that subject, the company has taken the exact opposite approach. At least I can say that for California. Some sups may look the other way which is wrong but you won't find any smart ones trying to coerce a driver to do that.

The higher up you go on the ladder, the more you watch your back for potential lawsuits. A District IE Manager is not going to jeopardize his/her job or a major lawsuit to coerce you not to take a lunch!

I really don't know where you get your information?????? I am beginning to think that you lace your comments with some facts and then throw an untruth in there so it won't be seen....to create a perception of truth to discredit a particular point! Again - You should think about going into politics. I think you may be quite successful at it! LOL!

 

[rocket man]

dont you get it the more drivers who dont take lunch theguy in the next car might be going home it will get to you. you want to go home early go to dhl give your job to a guy who wishes they had a job were they get lunch. look at some of the people you del to, im not impressed you dont take lunch THE UNION NOW DAY AND IN THE PAST FOUGHT TO GET IT ,TAKE IT. IF your any good you wil be able to do your route and do lunch and get home. you dont make enough already.take a onroad out with your big xtra moey.

 

[helenofcalifornia]

I am from California (obviously) and have learned to take the mandated lunch. I didn't like it at first, but you have to take it now or they will write you up. At least we have got it down to where we only have to take 1/2 hour instead of the full hour. But, didn't we all know when we decided to drive for UPS that it wasn't going to be an 8 hour job? The only thing about working over 9 hours each day I object to (because I was aware of the long hours before I went driving) is when they added on those 20 extra stops about 4-5 years ago because of paper vs. DIAD time studies. That was BS. (But also a stroke of genius on the part of UPS.)

 

[Anonymous in sacto]

In cali the board shuts down, but you can pre record. You can also input the labels later by 1z from the pal. you can also cut off the tracking label. You can also get a second board and run that through lunch then have the OMS add the two.
Im a steward Ive seen it all. We HAVE to take a lunch made by THE UNION. Our feeders get 1/2 hr. I filed against this and it is never addressed. The UNION feels we will get more drivers if we have to take an HOUR vs. the 1/2 hr.

BUT the big issue is YOU will get fired. It has happened in CA. It will happen all over in time. In addition your UNION will fine you, if needed, if you are in your car early. It happens in Sac. The no lunch taking issue led to an 82 million dollar settlement. This is CA law to take a lunch NOT the companies idea. Our managers are told THEY will be fired if they can not address this issue. I assure you that YOU as a driver will find yourself in deep if you get caught blowing through your lunch now.

I agree that we should be able to do what we wish, but it is the law and this is what we are dealing with.

Think of your families before you decide to blow off or buck the system. It does not catch all but it does catch some.

good luck

 

[soberups]

.
The higher up you go on the ladder, the more you watch your back for potential lawsuits. A District IE Manager is not going to jeopardize his/her job or a major lawsuit to coerce you not to take a lunch!

The IE manager isnt "coercing" anyone. He is simply rigging the allowances to be impossible to meet without working off of the clock.
The supervisor isn't "coercing" anyone. He is simply dispatching a route that cannot be done without working off of the clock.
Some drivers have enough backbone to withstand the production harrassment that results from these intentionally impossible expectations. Many more...particlularly the newer ones... do not. They yield to the harrassment and just give the company what it wanted all along; an hour a day of free labor.

 

[soberups]

It sounds like a route like that may need a new study and possibly a variance.

It will never happen. Once implemented, a timestudy is chiseled in stone. It will never be changed, it cannot be challenged, argued with or disputed. It is what it is. For the next 7 to 10 years, the route WILL be dispatched based upon that allowance, whether it has any basis in reality or not. UPS is a place where the square peg of the time standard meets the round hole of reality...and your management team's only tool is a hammer.

 

[DS]

UPS is a place where the square peg of the time standard meets the round hole of reality...and your management team's only tool is a hammer.

Well put, sober

 

[New Englander]

First...I'll register later tonight.

Time studies the old way are over, our center was scheduled for one in February. Never happened and was canceled as they will now be using GPS as the predominate tool for doing them.
A recent one (last couple years) in a localish area actually gained that center MORE time allowed to drivers and brought their numbers more inline with what we see daily.

Who knows what will happen now.

As for lunches? I'm one of the drivers given a warning letter for failure to work as directed for not taking a lunch.

My beef and defense was that you can not enforce the contract on us if you are not honestly enforcing it. My take was that if the center was allowing drivers to run all day and either take lunch parked at the local gas station or the center then I was going to run all day and go home and spend that time with my kids. Then I get to see them at night and for breakfast in the morning.

So we were being instructed that we HAD to take our lunch as the contract states but didn't have to take it when the contract also states.

I fought and fought, then it became you had to "post" something so we were not on the reports. Now it's become I have to work as directed regardless of my dispatch and other drivers were still only posting partial lunches or none at all.

It boiled over with me Friday......I was ripe and ready to start filing, they had a center meeting and the drivers who were not taking full lunches were now instructed to take them. I'll see how it turns out.

I STILL contend that they can't enforce one part of the lunch language on us and turn their back on another. Regarding taking and the times it needs be taken. I'm a fair person and fully understand we are not all able to stop the trucks at exactly the 4th hour for multiple reasons that are valid. Though within reason they need to be taken in the middle of the day not at the end when all the work is completed. That is exactly the same as not taking a lunch in my mind.

As it is - I'd rather have that hour with my kids - but do understand it's in the contract and will abide as long as it is followed by management as to the time's it's to be taken. Other wise we still are out on routes that were not written with a lunch hour figured in. Commercial del scheduled in your PM area, Apex routes who are over dispatched and pick up air etc....

Am I off my rocker or what? How far can I go since I've already been given my warning letter?

 

[trplnkl]

Unless you are wanting an unpaid vacation, take your lunch. The next step after a warning letter is either suspension or termination. The way I read the new rider for my area the times given for meal time are suggested or preferred not mandated.

 

[New Englander]

Oh...I am taking my lunch.

Though can the contract be enforced on me and not others? I didn't sign my letter and to date out of the 12 or so of us doing it myself and another were the only ones to recieve letters.