What will you do on your last day driving?

themidnightoil

Well-Known Member
I will spend the whole week saying goodbye to everyone on my route and on the last day, for the fun of it, will duplicate stop all my stops and have gone only 1 mile to run my 125+ mile route. I just might "paperboy" deliver some resi stops. need a driver release driverway/front yard key. Just kidding.... Will be hoping for a light day or help from the others around me (but not counting on it) so I can get in early and have a very nice dinner with my family, unless UPS has a huge building cookout to celibrate my emplyment... hahhaha

what about you all? what will you do on your last day at UPS?

cheers, the oil
 

Cementups

Box Monkey
Around here when a driver retires they usually give him the day off paid when he comes in and bring his family in for a congratulatory presentation. Sometimes they even give a few parting gifts. No joke.
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
I have only seen one retirement celebration of any kind in my Center the last 27 years. A few months after the driver retired for medical reasons they gave him a cake one morning and some stuff out of the UPS catalog. Our Business Agent gave him a watch from the union. I don't know what I will do on my last day. I doubt I will be able to do somersaults out the door to the guard shack.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
Will run my route exactly the same as any other day, then punch out and go home.


That pretty much describes how my last day was. No fireworks, no gold watches from the company ---just another day. About a week after retiring I received a package from the Union that had a nice engraved billfold with "Retired Teamster" and Teamster logo tooled into it, a set of chrome "Retired Teamster' license plate covers for my pickup and a real nice pen set. My parting gift to UPS was all the trash and a pig carcuss left over from my pig roast retirement party that my wife threw for me. I heard later that they were super pissed because I had filled half of their dumpster with my trash. In fact they even locked up the dumpster for a long time after that.:happy2:
 

idrivethetruck

Slow & steady wins the race.
I may just have to save a sick day for the occasion. Management loves to bust out routes on Fridays and dispatch me with 11+ hours of work. It would give me great pleasure to leave them searching for ways to cover an over-dispatched route while I spend the day with my wife.
 
I will go out a class act. There are a lot of old-timers that I miss. I mean when they retired I was actually pissed e en though in my heart of hearts I was truly happy for them. All of them went out with class as will I. This place has it's trials and tribulations but it won't beat me as a man. God bless
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
I may just have to save a sick day for the occasion. Management loves to bust out routes on Fridays and dispatch me with 11+ hours of work. It would give me great pleasure to leave them searching for ways to cover an over-dispatched route while I spend the day with my wife.

Rather than ending a career by calling in sick, you might consider informing them the day before what time you will be clocking out in order to give them the opportunity to make the correct dispatch decisions for your route.

I plan on giving the company a fair days work for a fair days pay, per the contract, even on my last day as a UPS'er. But I have no intention whatsoever of staying out until 9:00 at night just because my management team was too incompetent to dispatch my route correctly on my last day. I will let them know that I plan on being off of the clock no later than 6:30 or so, and if they cant make arrangements for that to happen then they can certainly make arrangements to deliver my missed stops on the following day. Its not like they can fire me once I clock out for the last time....
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
My parting gift to UPS was all the trash and a pig carcuss left over from my pig roast retirement party that my wife threw for me. I heard later that they were super pissed because I had filled half of their dumpster with my trash. In fact they even locked up the dumpster for a long time after that.

A real class act.
 

kurtkampy

Member
I went from 30 years of driving to Porters. On my last day driving I had a 8 hour request and I took my time saying goodbye to customers I had for 24 years. There were a few hugs and tears. A few drivers wish me well but on the same day a supervisor retired that had 30 years. They had a speech and a breakfast for him but made no mention of my leaving. It was so typical UPS that it didn't even bother me. The next week I was a porter and a lot of drivers now ask what it is like and what a lucky guy I am.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
Our center does the obligatory cake with the way too sweet icing for 9 in the morning. Most of the retirees show up. The spouse (usually female) is given a present (usually a dozen roses) and the children (if any) are acknowledged. The center manager and BA usually say a few words. The driver usually has his day lightened so that he can say goodbye.

I will approach the last day the same way that I approached all of the previous days. I would not even think of calling in sick--is that really the impression you want to leave your co-workers with after spending 30 years by their side? I do not want a cake--I would much prefer bagels and muffins with OJ and coffee. I would like for my two children and their spouses (grandkids?) to be there to share in this moment with me. If I am in a relationship at the time I would like for her to be there as well. I could care less whether any retirees show up or not--I don't socialize with them now so why start on my last day. I do plan on inviting my current on-car, who reminds us on a daily basis that he has less than 15 months before he retires, as I consider him to be a friend. I will then go on road and take care of my customers, bring the pkg car back, park it, shake my center manager's hand and walk out the door for the last time.
 
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brownboxman

Well-Known Member
I have a couple of years to think about it, but I won't do anything that would cause my work group more work. But I will think of something for the region schmucks to decipher. The management in our area has been reduced to passing on whatever their bosses tell them they can do, which is nothing.
 

Babagounj

Strength through joy
I had to inform my center manager that I could no longer drive since I had failed my DOT medical, and it was so sweet.
 

20_years_in

Active Member
I will spend my last day praying that my pension is healthy. My uncle was a teamster (milkman) and retired in about 1985 to see his pension reduced down to 5% of what he was expecting. Basically, he had to survive on other sources of income. Our pension seems healthy at this point.
I plan to retire at age 58 which is as soon I can, even if it means having to have a really low standard of living. I have to do my route about 2000 more times, and I hope not to get injured doing it!
 
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