*********** warning letters

[Cementups]

You know, I run scratch with in 15 minutes either way everyday. If I am 30 minutes or more over my immediate boss will pull me aside and ask me what happened. I just give him the "Are you friend-in' serious?" look, shrug my shoulders and walk away. Now I can see if I was an hour over, but damn.....an extra fifteen minutes.

 

[tieguy]

Re: ******* warning letters

We have the exact same termination going on right now. 2nd low level on Monday, Panel on Thursday. Will keep everyone informed.

what defense are you using here if you can say. Its an interesting issue that probably has the labor guys salivating. to summarize this with Sobers issue:

going to the bathroom should be considered break time.

then again past practice may dictate otherwise.

However there has always been questions as to whether driving to the bathroom would be considered part of break. DOT requirements may dictate that the driver is not on break until he has parked and secured his vehicle.

I'm surprised this one has not been heard and argued somewhere yet.

 

[whiskey]

You know, I run scratch with in 15 minutes either way everyday. If I am 30 minutes or more over my immediate boss will pull me aside and ask me what happened. I just give him the "Are you friend-in' serious?" look, shrug my shoulders and walk away. Now I can see if I was an hour over, but damn.....an extra fifteen minutes.

Consider yourself blessed. Your are among a very small percentage of package car drivers that run scratch. Your boss has probably bragged about you several times and would love to clone you. But when his superstar lets him down, it hurts. And that 15 minutes can make or break him by the end of the week. Keep up the good work.

 

[MobileBA]

Soberups I have inquired with with Oregon's BOLI Division on the issue of restroom breaks. (e-mail). Will investigate in T-Town on Monday. Will not let the issue rest until we have a definitive answer.

 

[wolfman]

Re: ******* warning letters

what defense are you using here if you can say. Its an interesting issue that probably has the labor guys salivating. to summarize this with Sobers issue:

going to the bathroom should be considered break time.

then again past practice may dictate otherwise.

However there has always been questions as to whether driving to the bathroom would be considered part of break. DOT requirements may dictate that the driver is not on break until he has parked and secured his vehicle.

I'm surprised this one has not been heard and argued somewhere yet.

are you serious?!! why should ANYONE have to "go on break" to use a bathroom? do we work in indonesian sweatshops making sneakers?!! if you have to drive offroute to go to lunch or god forbid, use a restroom, doesn't those miles count towards the the timed day? and that ties into the whole "not being in your truck when not on company time". i would not drive any truck five feet on my time. like i have said before TYPICAL MANAGER!

 

[wolfman]

The beatings will continue until morale improves!

 

[DS]

Wolfman,I'd like to introduce you to tieguy.One of the very few members of the ups management team that has the intestinal fortitude to commiserate with the people here in the browncafe .

 

[Jim Kemp]

If a driver takes his lunch HOUR from 12-1 and he is forced to work until 8pm(which happens at lot here). By these rules he cannot take another bathroom brake for seven hours, I don't think so. I am sure there are labor laws that cover this. But i am guessing UPS makes their own laws.

 

[Mike23]

If a driver takes his lunch HOUR from 12-1 and he is forced to work until 8pm(which happens at lot here). By these rules he cannot take another bathroom brake for seven hours, I don't think so. I am sure there are labor laws that cover this. But i am guessing UPS makes their own laws.

I was about to say the same thing. I think too it's likely to go against human right laws as well.

 

[soberups]

Re: ******* warning letters

going to the bathroom should be considered break time.

then again past practice may dictate otherwise.

.

Here is the problem in a nutshell;

I have no problem with requiring break time to be used for going to the bathroom. I dont expect the company to pay me $28 an hour to take a dump.

However...when you gotta go you gotta go and that isnt always going to happen during the contractually agreed upon windows of time that breaks and lunch are supposed to be taken in.

The solution that I have always used....is to "save" about 5 minutes of one of my breaks as "floating time" to compensate for the times when I use the bathroom...or make a 2 minute cell phone call....or buy a soda from a convenience store I'm delivering at. I'm being fair to UPS, I'm not stealing time, and I'm meeting my personal needs while remaining productive.

Unfortunately this is no longer acceptable. Management now insists upon using Telematics to micromanage me down to the last minute. I am now being required to enter both of my breaks and my lunch in uninterrupted 10, 15 and 60 minute intervals, with no exceptions. Unfortunately, human beings cannot always force their bowels and bladders to conform to the schedule spelled out in a labor contract.

This puts the driver in a siutuation where, if being observed on area, he can be accused of stealing time or falsifying his timecard even when that was not his intent.

 

[Cementups]

Re: ******* warning letters

what defense are you using here if you can say. Its an interesting issue that probably has the labor guys salivating. to summarize this with Sobers issue:

1. going to the bathroom should be considered break time.

then again past practice may dictate otherwise.

However there has always been questions as to whether driving to the bathroom would be considered part of break. DOT requirements may dictate that the driver is not on break until he has parked and secured his vehicle.

I'm surprised this one has not been heard and argued somewhere yet.

1. I've heard this before and i call total BS on this everytime. When my boss tried to tell me this I asked him if when he goes to the bathroom during the day if he makes up for it by staying an extra 5 minutes at the end to make up for it.

and 2. I've also argued the fact that they want me to take my lunch/break from the time I hit stop complete to the end of said lunch/break. If I were to wreck the vehicle while on my "lunch/break" then they would try to punish me in some way. My lunch starts when i take the key out of the ignition and ends when I put the key back in. No more, no less.
and they told me I can't break trace to go eat lunch. I have one place to eat lunch on my area and i only take my lunch if I am either near it before or will be near it after in my trace. they told me to pack my lunch and pull over adn eat in the truck. i don't think so. that one hour is my time and I choose to spend my time away from my truck. I even park it out of my site at my lunch stop so i don't have to think about work during that hour.

 

[soberups]

Re: ******* warning letters

However there has always been questions as to whether driving to the bathroom would be considered part of break. DOT requirements may dictate that the driver is not on break until he has parked and secured his vehicle.

I'm surprised this one has not been heard and argued somewhere yet.

In my area these questions have always been resolved on a "case-by-case" basis.

A driver on a mall route or in a crowded metro area with an ample supply of public restrooms and places to eat should not have the right to break trace and drive off area while on the clock.

A driver on a rural route, on the other hand, must be given some leeway in this regard. He needs to be able to use a bathroom and wash his hands, and this might entail driving a reasonable distance off trace depending upon the area and how far away a public restroom is. UPS made a business decision to provide delivery service to rural areas and paying for the time taken to drive to a bathroom is part of the cost of doing business there.

Unfortunately, under the rigid yoke of Telematics....there is no being "reasonable" or resolving these issues on a case-by-case basis any more. The company wants to micromanage every minute and every mile, with no flexibility whatsoever.

 

[soberups]

Re: ******* warning letters

....they told me I can't break trace to go eat lunch. I have one place to eat lunch on my area and i only take my lunch if I am either near it before or will be near it after in my trace. they told me to pack my lunch and pull over adn eat in the truck. i don't think so..

My truck is filthy, and after 4 hours of work my hands are filthy. Its company dirt on my hands and it will be washed off on company time. If UPS is so gung-ho on making you take your personal time in the truck without breaking trace, then they need to equip each vehicle with a portable toilet and some sort of hand-washing apparatus. Otherwise, they can pay us to drive a few blocks to find a public restroom and a clean place to sit and eat.

 

[brownrodster]

If a driver takes his lunch HOUR from 12-1 and he is forced to work until 8pm(which happens at lot here). By these rules he cannot take another bathroom brake for seven hours, I don't think so. I am sure there are labor laws that cover this. But i am guessing UPS makes their own laws.

Where the H3ll have you been. UPS has been making up laws for as long as any of us have worked here. And don't forget that our supervisors are doctors too.

I never imagined when I was a little kid that I would grow up to work for a company where the majority of the employees hate the company and people they work for.

 

[MonavieLeaker]

O95 sure likes editing posts

 

[toonertoo]

Re: ******* warning letters

My truck is filthy, and after 4 hours of work my hands are filthy. Its company dirt on my hands and it will be washed off on company time. If UPS is so gung-ho on making you take your personal time in the truck without breaking trace, then they need to equip each vehicle with a portable toilet and some sort of hand-washing apparatus. Otherwise, they can pay us to drive a few blocks to find a public restroom and a clean place to sit and eat.

I absolutely agree.
Im on vacation so actually this crap is a distant memory, until I read this. The new "surge" had just begun when I tuned out
MY last 3 day I was 13.8/14.2. And that was before 15 miles was added to my day to save gas and time through PAS?EDD and 3 different sections. I believe that math would dictate when you go more miles your sporh would definetely lower. But they dont seem to understand math either. Also 200 pieces vs 300 would take more time duh. And would lower it. But Ive been told pieces dont matter, heck I thought thats what we delivered. Wednesday before I went on vacation, after work for some reason I was in the office and the sup was watching everyone to see how many stops they had left and what they were doing. He thought I got in too late, and I told him satiracally that UPS should use that little bar that Nascar uses to show when the racer is in the red or green (non nascar people wont understand) so we could speed up or slow down.
He went to my days report to show me how I lost time and I did 24 stops in my last hour, and 18 in the hour before that. So then he told me how great I was. But the next day he sent a different sup to yell at me for being .74 late. I just listened to her idea of how I was losing time, even though my time study is 20 yrs old. The following day I was .39 late, and she told me how improved I was. I just Put the parking brake on, shut off the truck and said "well thank you, but I did nothing different" , she just smiled and shrugged her shoulders and told me to keep doing it. I just laughed and drove away.
They are just fighting to keep their jobs by beating us. They dont know what to do to fix it other than yell. While some people may need a refresher, if you cant tell me what Im doing wrong, then stop yelling. It does no good.
I dont know the answers, I just keep hoping things change. And I use the One day at a time method, and the serenity prayer.

 

[tieguy]

Re: ******* warning letters

are you serious?!! why should ANYONE have to "go on break" to use a bathroom? do we work in indonesian sweatshops making sneakers?!! if you have to drive offroute to go to lunch or god forbid, use a restroom, doesn't those miles count towards the the timed day? and that ties into the whole "not being in your truck when not on company time". i would not drive any truck five feet on my time. like i have said before TYPICAL MANAGER!

I always enjoy these kinds of posts where someone rants at me without actually reading my post for something they think I said. thanks for the chuckle.

 

[shrimpfire]

Anytime u get a warning letter; file on it, a chess game u have to make a move everytime they make a move to cover your but; file file file

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Anytime u get a warning letter; file on it, a chess game u have to make a move everytime they make a move to cover your but; file file file

What if the warning letter is 100% justified--you screwed up and got caught--do you still file?

 

[tieguy]

Anytime u get a warning letter; file on it, a chess game u have to make a move everytime they make a move to cover your but; file file file

filing on it does no good if you don't have a good reason for doing so.