Southern Supplement Changes (Eventually)

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
I was just going over the Southern Supplement that will go into affect once the hold outs settle theirs. The changes to the beginning of "Article 48 Section 6 Package Drivers Job Selection" are what I'm having trouble understanding.

It originally started with "Unassigned Delivery Routes" and was changed to "Bid Routes: All routes shall be bid." Then it's followed by stating that there shall be a minimum of two training routes and a maximum of 10% in each center and states what the purpose of a training route is. Then says that all drivers not holding a bid route will cover vacations, option days, sick days...yada yada yada... And the usual language for bid routes follows later.

So, what was the purpose of the changes? Bid routes have always been rebid every few years or so and unassigned routes have always (since I've been driving anyway) been picked on a day by day basis. I'm just not seeing the purpose of the change here.
 

govols019

You smell that?
It means all routes will be bid. There shouldn't be anymore unassigned routes. It should stop some of the daily bitching about who is running what.

My question is, will they have to bid routes that are only in during peak?
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
It means all routes will be bid. There shouldn't be anymore unassigned routes. It should stop some of the daily bitching about who is running what.

My question is, will they have to bid routes that are only in during peak?

That's kind of what I was thinking but it doesn't specify how the routes that aren't always in the lineup will be handled.
 

upschuck

Well-Known Member
If it is run for thirty days outside of Nov & Dec, I would guess, that it would have to be bid. They will probably turn that around somehow, and not bid anything. :dont_know:
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
If it is run for thirty days outside of Nov & Dec, I would guess, that it would have to be bid. They will probably turn that around somehow, and not bid anything. :dont_know:

Not necessarily. At least two of the routes, or 10%, will be designated as training routes. The rest that aren't already bid routes aren't always in the lineup every day of the week. I am sick of the daily fiasco that most of us unassigned drives have to go through every day. The cluster of people standing in front of the lineup board all staring at it likes its a complex advanced mathematical problem and the one driver that comes in at the last minute and throws a wrench into it after everyone else has been satisfied. On the other hand there are some days where I end up running a terrible route but land on a sweet route the following day.
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
Not necessarily. At least two of the routes, or 10%, will be designated as training routes. The rest that aren't already bid routes aren't always in the lineup every day of the week. I am sick of the daily fiasco that most of us unassigned drives have to go through every day. The cluster of people standing in front of the lineup board all staring at it likes its a complex advanced mathematical problem and the one driver that comes in at the last minute and throws a wrench into it after everyone else has been satisfied. On the other hand there are some days where I end up running a terrible route but land on a sweet route the following day.
Here designated training routes are still bid routes.
 

realbrown1

Annoy a liberal today. Hit them with facts.
Here designated training routes are still bid routes.
Yeah, people bid on training routes, and when the company needs to train a new driver, that bid driver goes back to covering for other bid drivers. Once the new driver is trained the bid driver gets his route back.
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
"Here designated training routes are still bid routes."



How is that possible? How can a newb train on a training route if they don't even have enough seniority to bid on it? I guess I'm a little confused because of how things work in my center. Here a bid route is a route that is part of the pool of routes that are rebid every two yours or so. Anything else is unassigned and the one training route we have is where unqualified newbs get to attempt to get their 30 days in.
 
Yeah, people bid on training routes, and when the company needs to train a new driver, that bid driver goes back to covering for other bid drivers. Once the new driver is trained the bid driver gets his route back.
Too bad the company doesnt see It,that way. we have guys that bid a training route and never ever move or get bumped off!
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
I guess what I'm really misunderstanding is why any effort was made to change the language if it doesn't really change anything. Here unassigned drivers select from unassigned routes and open bid routes due to vacations, call ins, etc.. This is done daily. I've heard that we are really supposed to bid on routes Mondays and stay on them for the whole week but that's never been done while I've been around. Plus, some routes aren't in every day so that wrecks things.
 

1989

Well-Known Member
I guess what I'm really misunderstanding is why any effort was made to change the language if it doesn't really change anything. Here unassigned drivers select from unassigned routes and open bid routes due to vacations, call ins, etc.. This is done daily. I've heard that we are really supposed to bid on routes Mondays and stay on them for the whole week but that's never been done while I've been around. Plus, some routes aren't in every day so that wrecks things.
If all your routes are bid then it eliminates the chaos you describe. Here, unassigned drivers are only fighting over vacation and sickness coverage. It's not rocket science.
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
If all your routes are bid then it eliminates the chaos you describe. Here, unassigned drivers are only fighting over vacation and sickness coverage. It's not rocket science.

The chaos will come from the routes being cut. Which is every Monday and Friday at least. Then those drivers bump others off the routes they had bid on. So what's the point? We will be right back where we started...bidding every day on unassigned routes.
 

Island

Well-Known Member
I suppose it means the same thing it always meant. It's up to the people in the center to fight management to make the training routes actually for training.
However making every morning a bidwar would probably add something new to the day. Unless there's language about bidding only every month or something?
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
"Here designated training routes are still bid routes."



How is that possible? How can a newb train on a training route if they don't even have enough seniority to bid on it? I guess I'm a little confused because of how things work in my center. Here a bid route is a route that is part of the pool of routes that are rebid every two yours or so. Anything else is unassigned and the one training route we have is where unqualified newbs get to attempt to get their 30 days in.
If you take a training route at bid time it's with the understanding that management can bump you off it in order to train someone for 30 days, once the trainee qualifies you go back on your route and they go into cover. During the time that you're displaced you work as a cover driver.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
If you take a training route at bid time it's with the understanding that management can bump you off it in order to train someone for 30 days, once the trainee qualifies you go back on your route and they go into cover. During the time that you're displaced you work as a cover driver.

It used to be that there was only one training route for our entire center. Now there is one route that is designated as a training route in each loop.
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
It used to be that there was only one training route for our entire center. Now there is one route that is designated as a training route in each loop.

Our language says minimum of two or maximum of 10% and that ALL routes shall be bid.
If you take a training route at bid time it's with the understanding that management can bump you off it in order to train someone for 30 days, once the trainee qualifies you go back on your route and they go into cover. During the time that you're displaced you work as a cover driver.

Yeah I get the part about the training routes but how are the bids in the new language supposed to be done? Every day? Weekly? Just seems like weak and uncertain language to me. I guess we won't know for sure until it's actually practiced. Many months from now.
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
When you say "unassigned routes" I assume you're talking about split routes that are only in for part of the week? Or do you guys actually have regular routes that don't get bid?
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
When you say "unassigned routes" I assume you're talking about split routes that are only in for part of the week? Or do you guys actually have regular routes that don't get bid?

We have the split routes in addition to the one training route but some of them are de facto permanent routes. The dispatching is sometimes quirky on them though. I'm thinking that maybe the new language is designed to establish that the training routes can be used to train new drivers without regard to the seniority of other drivers. Just seems kind of pointless to go through the effort of changing the wording of the rest of the article because I'm not seeing any real difference from how things are done now.
 

govols019

You smell that?
The chaos will come from the routes being cut. Which is every Monday and Friday at least. Then those drivers bump others off the routes they had bid on. So what's the point? We will be right back where we started...bidding every day on unassigned routes.

The driver of cut bid route can only bump lower seniority unassigned drivers. He can not bump a bid driver off his route.
 
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