"twenty-seven 8 by 10 color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back"
Package car side view mirrors.
- Thread starter floydfreak
- Start date
outta hours
Well-Known Member
It amazes me how those mirrors can break while being adjusted on area. 
browndevil
Well-Known Member
After nearly a quarter century working for this company, this attitude mgmt takes still makes me shake my head
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
Given that this is now the typical company-wide response to even the most trivial of incidents, the question becomes....when our so-called "management team" wants to lecture us about safety, why should we even bother listening? Why should we bother taking anything they have to say seriously? Only an idiot would choose to turn a $6 piece of glass into a $1500 orgy of investigations, OJS's, commentaries, warning letters and other assorted administrivia. Why should we give any consideration at all to the words of such idiots? These people would break their own legs trying to pole-vault over a mouse turd and then spend 6 hours thinking of new acronyms to prevent the injury from happening again. What is the point in us even caring any more about whether these idiots choose to "charge" us with an accident or not?
Re-Raise
Well-Known Member
I agree completely.
The people in the offices on the conference calls are so far removed from the reality out in the real world it is becoming harder and harder to take anything they say seriously.
I have 20 years safe driving, and I know if I knock a leaf off a tree branch I will probably be charged with an accident and be the biggest piece of crap the company has ever seen. Probably have my job threatened in the process.
old levi's
blank space
menotyou
bella amicizia
How about if that idiot is your own mechanic? He tried to get a 27 year driver in trouble over a mirror the driver didn't even break, just reported. It was broke the night before by someone moving trucks. Funny thing is, that person, at least in our tiny center, would be him.
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
The sad part of all of this is the fact that nothing gets accomplished except creating anger and hard feelings on the part of all involved.
No grievance panel would ever uphold a suspension or termination for a driver if one of the "accidents" involved in the progressive disciplinary process consisted of cracking a mirror on a tree branch. No labor manager would even bother wasting his time presenting such a case, lest he be laughed out of the room.
Safety is serious business. We need to take it seriously. But threatening discipline for cracking a piece of glass on a tree branch has nothing whatsoever to do with safety, and everything to do with petty, childish harassment on the part of the "management" people who apparently have nothing better to do with their time and our shareholders money than to piss it away on meaningless warning letters and OJS rides.
We are the drivers who generate the revenue that is being wasted here. Grow up, get a life, get a clue, and get off of our backs. Find something important to worry about, and if you cant do that then at least leave us alone and let us do our jobs!
wot_racing
Member
While I was trying to qualify, I was hurrying up a narrow drive in an 800... I smacked a tree with my mirror shattering it.. The PT sup and mechanic fixed it without a word.. A couple of days later, I did it again on another narrow drive.. Again, it was replaced without incident... About a week later, on the same drive as the first incident, I did it again.. I was pulled into the office the next morning, got a stern talking too, that I was OBVIOUSLY trying to hurry too fast, and to slow down because the next one would be an accident, and I would not qualify.. I have not broken a mirror since....
Looking back, I was a run and gunner, and the mirrors were a sign that the next one could be a small kid or another vehicle.. I have learned a lot since that time...
Looking back, I was a run and gunner, and the mirrors were a sign that the next one could be a small kid or another vehicle.. I have learned a lot since that time...
old levi's
blank space
C'mon buddy, your name says it all. Some of us know what wot means.
satellitedriver
Moderator
I cracked a mirror on a tree limb during a rain storm. I called the center and my center manager answered the phone-(the old days)- and I told him I had cracked a mirror and before I could say it happened hitting a tree limb he said "You did crack it while adjusting the mirror, didn't you?". I paused in thought and, instead of lying, I asked if I should write it up that way. Yes was the answer.
Once, bouncing down a washboard unpaved road I looked over at my mirror and the glass was gone.
What the heck? 5 seconds ago it was there and it had just fallen out. I called the center and they patched me over to the mechanic. I told him what happened and he sent me down a replace mirror the next day.
Never heard a word from anyone after these two incidents.
Once, bouncing down a washboard unpaved road I looked over at my mirror and the glass was gone.
What the heck? 5 seconds ago it was there and it had just fallen out. I called the center and they patched me over to the mechanic. I told him what happened and he sent me down a replace mirror the next day.
Never heard a word from anyone after these two incidents.
old levi's
blank space
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
The way it should be...is that we as drivers should strive to maintain a space cushion around our vehicle, we should strive to avoid damaging that vehicle in any way, and should make every effort possible to reduce or eliminate entirely the number of residential driveways we enter in the package car.
The way it should be...is that we as drivers should also be supervised by management people who have at least some grasp of reality, and who can accept the fact that if UPS chooses to make a business decision to provide delivery service to rural addresses, the occasional cracked mirror is a natural and unavoidable consequence of that choice and should be treated accordingly.
Logic and common sense. Is it too much to ask for from those who supposedly "manage" us?
Anonymous 10
Guest
The way it should be is that every package car should be equipped with a box of four mirrors. When one breaks we just switch it out. I bet if in the next contract we had contract language that stated we as drivers had the option to buy a four pack for like twenty bucks it would catch on like gang busters. Just imagine the stress taken off the backs of teamsters and management at the operations level. I bet your sup or manager would buy you a pack like it's a beer at the bar.
I'm from Wisconsin and with snow, branches are hanging low all the time. I bet there has been 10 accidents the last year of drivers breaking mirrors. My only accident 28 years ago was clipping and cracking the side mirror on the truck next to me. Never mind that the trucks were parked 2 inches apart, I should have asked a stupidvisor for help.
floydfreak
Member
same story, same harassment. I've been shop steward for 11 years and this has become a real challenge for our shop and the local union
In my Center, we have lots of accidents. So it doesn't take too long for them to focus in on another driver to harass.
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