Thinking about leaving this bad place.

HEFFERNAN

Huge Member
Hey man, I really appreciate your response. You seem like a genuinely great person and I love your attitude. I have a bachelors in psychology but there isn't really anything that I want to do with the degree. I chose psychology because I found it to be interesting and that's it. I refuse to go into management because they seem to be more miserable than the drivers and our on roads seem to work even longer hours. when and if I do ever have a family, I want to be able to get off at 5-6 PM and be able to coach little league or cook wife and kids dinner but I realize that may be a pipe dream here.

Personally, You choosing a psych degree over something useful says it all for me.
It was an easy degree that translates to understanding how a shopper thinks at your checkout line !!!!!
If you're scared you might get hurt working here, then you shouldn't be here.
The longer you work here, the more days off you get to balance your homelife.
Miserable drivers haven't found that balance yet.
BTW, don't fall in love. You'll probably get your heart broken and it's not worth the journey. :rolleyes2:

You pretty much have nailed it. The company sees the money drivers make as giving them the right to pretty much disregard drivers as people with need of family and personal time. If you have to quit or take time off for being hurt badly they just get a hard-on cause they can pay some other poor sap half the money as a new hire. I had to quit after only a couple years in that horrid mess. Thank god I fought for and achieved getting back as an inside worker.

If I were you, I wouldn't quit but maybe just know that you got an early chance to realize just how craptastic life as a driver is. No amount of money is worth getting violated six ways to Sunday as a person. If you can hack it getting your pizza job back and being a preloader, you should be able to do ok for a while until you make more money down the line as a preloader. Just my two cents. But you are dead on about drivers. Bunch of miserable people but they have good reason to be. Good to see that younger people these days value quality of life over wage slavery. "Oh I can barely walk but look at my brand new truck and fat house (that I live in by myself because my wife and kids got sick of never seeing me and if I was there me being a miserable mess of stress and pain.)"

Eff that.


6 weeks vacation, 5 sick days, 3 personals, 9.5 list, 8 hour requests, Book off when ever you feel like it.
If you're miserable, It's your own fault.
 

Daf

Well-Known Member
Hello all, I have been working for the ups company for two whole months now and I am thinking about leaving. I wanted to be a ups driver after having a career of delivering pizzas but after loading trucks for the last 60+ days I am second guessing if I want to become a driver for the next 25+ years. Here is what I learned in my 60 days as a preloader.

The drivers who come in are insanely depressed and worn out physically and mentally. I don't know how many drivers that I load for complain to dispatch because they were given an extra split or that their back hurts. These drivers complain that they have 200+ stops and pick ups. These people just seem like they hate their life but they have worked for the company for too damn long to think about leaving to start a new career. They feel that if they left now, all the years spent to be a driver would be a waste.

There is also another driver that I load for who works 10-12 hours a day and he just recently told me that he got a divorce and his wife gets the majority of the custody because he's never around to go to their softball games or back to school nights. He told me how depressing it is to leave his house in the dark to go to work and doesn't return home until after dark as well. He said its heart breaking to see families huddled around the living room watching a movie or eating dinner while he's delivering pointless Amazon packages at 8:30-9:00 PM.

The money made as a driver is great but I feel that a lot of drivers are trapped or complacent and stop counts are only going to rise in the future because it seems like management would rather pay 4 drivers 12 hours of work then pay 6 drivers 8 hours each.

It's depressing to me to see in the 60 days that I have been there so many people complaining that their knees are shot, that their backs ache, or that they think they tore something in the shoulder. I have seen a lot of people go on disability to get surgerys.

sorry for the rant, I just feel like you drivers go through a lot of crap and your home life suffers because of it due to the constant increases of stops and expectations and it doesn't seem to look any better in the future now that we are offering Saturday ground now. Yes the money is great but money doesn't buy happiness.

In addition, I know a lot of you hard workers are going to say things like "bye rookie, stupid millennial, or this guy doesn't get it" but I'm just reporting what I have seen as a preloader in my 60 days working at UPS and talking to some senior drivers. I respect all of you for what you do.
You nailed it on the head with this post. A majority of us are burned out and jaded. Deep down I still have a little bit of hope that this company will see the light and put people first. Both customers and employees. Unfortunately I think it will take a lot of customers leaving and a lot of expensive work comp injuries for them to understand.
 

1989

Well-Known Member
That's do-able. It really depends on your experience as a driver and your willingness to get it done. I know a driver (was his helper) who took damn near 12 hours for a route that shouldn't have taken that much time to complete.

If you choose to stick with it, your spouse would need to be understanding, as they should be anyway. It isn't going to be easy for the first few years. You'll most likely be covering for other drivers or taking the crap routes. But in time you'll get your own route, and create systems that work for you in order to bust that route out.

It's cool you have a BA. I went to college but have no degree. I love criminal justice. In fact it's the only subject I got an A in. LOL. I just can't have a career in it because it would depress me. Our CJ system is horrid, I would be angry and drunk all the time.
Don't let the culture in your center make you believe THEIR numbers. their time studies vary widely. Over an hour from one route to the next. My guess it that you still have drivers working through lunch. Those who work through lunch, making 1 hour+ bonus, are who mgmt use as an example to other drivers. Working through lunch is so 1999.
 
W

What The Hawk?

Guest
Don't let the culture in your center make you believe THEIR numbers. their time studies vary widely. Over an hour from one route to the next. My guess it that you still have drivers working through lunch. Those who work through lunch, making 1 hour+ bonus, are who mgmt use as an example to other drivers. Working through lunch is so 1999.
Oh I wont work throught my lunch except to sort and organize.
 
W

What The Hawk?

Guest
That, IS in fact, working through lunch. Also a violation of state law. Perhaps UPS needs another lawsuit to fix this. I would tell Doug, but I doubt he would care.
Thats ok. I will only do it in my 30 days.
 
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