Are my UPS projections realistic?

[BrownTilly]

Hello everyone,

I started at UPS in early October of 2010 and I load 4 or 5 trucks Monday-Friday from 3:30am to 8:30am...

My intention is to become a driver and buy a house in 2 years.

These are the projections, please let me know if they are realistic/accurate:


Between Oct. 2010 and July of 2011 I will make $7,000 loading trucks ($9.50/hr)

Between July 2011 and July 2012 I will make $25,000 driving PT ($21/hr)

Start driving FT...
Between July 2012 and July 2014 I will make $80,000 driving FT ($21/hr and $40,000/yr)

By 2016 I hope to be working 60 hours a week making $100k


Anyone think I can be driving by July? Thanks for the input.

 

[22.34life]

i hate to bust your bubble but you will have at least a five year wait to get a full time driving job,unless you work in a very small building where most p/t people dont care about going friend/t.even after you go driving friend/t there is a 2 1/2 year progression to top rate pay,so your dollar amounts may be close but your time line is off by about 8 years.if you are here to work a full time job and support your family ups will prove to be dissapointing and frustrating.

 

[beentheredonethat]

A lot of it is based on what the conditions are like in your area. What is the current wait time to go into driving? In some areas there isn't a long wait. In other areas it could be 10 years. Also, planning to work 60 hours a week probably isn't realistice. The average pd day of FT SP is around 9.1 - 9.2 hours/day. Yes some drivers work a lot more. Every center probably has some that work 12. But you should plan at most on the average. And as other posters do, they plan on 40 and then anything after 40 is like "found" money but it is not what they plan to live on. Those are the smart ones and the guys that will have a great retirement. I think overall the odds of all this happening is 1 in 1000. Sorry to break it to you.

 

[UnconTROLLed]

Hello everyone,

I started at UPS in early October of 2010 and I load 4 or 5 trucks Monday-Friday from 3:30am to 8:30am...

My intention is to become a driver and buy a house in 2 years.

These are the projections, please let me know if they are realistic/accurate:


Between Oct. 2010 and July of 2011 I will make $7,000 loading trucks ($9.50/hr)

Between July 2011 and July 2012 I will make $25,000 driving PT ($21/hr)

Start driving FT...
Between July 2012 and July 2014 I will make $80,000 driving FT ($21/hr and $40,000/yr)

By 2016 I hope to be working 60 hours a week making $100k


Anyone think I can be driving by July? Thanks for the input.

Ask the union for seniority list and find out how many PT people are ahead of you. That may give you a ballpark idea.

As for driving PT at $21 an hour, where do you get those #s? As a PT air driver?? Fuggitaboutit! TWO years to top out @ 22-23/hr. You'll start at $13.50 and stay under or around $15 for two years.

Generally 2-5 years to go FT, then 3 years to "top out" in pay.

Realistically, I'd say by 2012 to 2014 you should have a shot to go FT driving. So that's 2015-2017 "top out", so 4-5 years AT LEAST away from the $30+/hr

......by then we will be under a new contract with possibly new rules....stay tuned

 

[UPSGUY72]

Hello everyone,

I started at UPS in early October of 2010 and I load 4 or 5 trucks Monday-Friday from 3:30am to 8:30am...

My intention is to become a driver and buy a house in 2 years.

Never going to happen unless alot of people decide to retire and you have enough money in the bank to pay for your house without a loan.

These are the projections, please let me know if they are realistic/accurate:

You need a does of reality

Between Oct. 2010 and July of 2011 I will make $7,000 loading trucks ($9.50/hr)

You have projected this correctly

Between July 2011 and July 2012 I will make $25,000 driving PT ($21/hr)

Who said you will driving PT in July of next year ? even if you did you don't get paid $21 hour to start.

Start driving FT...
Between July 2012 and July 2014 I will make $80,000 driving FT ($21/hr and $40,000/yr)

FT driver Pay is as follows

start $16.10
senority $17.25
1 years $18.45
2 years $20.75
3 years TOP RATE

By 2016 I hope to be working 60 hours a week making $100k

You are only guaranteed 40 hrs a week not 60. You will get some OT but not 20 hrs a week more like 3 to 6 hours if you are lucky.

Anyone think I can be driving by July? Thanks for the input.

You are not going to be driving by july you will be lucky if you get a opportunity to drive withing the next 5 years.

You said you got hired in OCT you are considered seasonal help meaning that you don't gain PT senority unless your still working after DEC 31. They can lay you off anytime before Jan 1 and not have to call you back to work.

How many people are there working in your building ? Better yet how many PT are there on the senority list before you?

Depending on your local you might need 1 yr of employment before you can be considered for a drivers job. Then you need to have a clean driving record for the last year and no more than 2 moving violation in the last 3 years. you also need to know how to drive a stick and pass a DOT physical. Than after all that you need to pass driving school and make your 30 days.

If you would like to make UPS a career get your self a copy of the contract with your local rider info and read it. Then if you have question ask a steward. Your in the union everything is based on senority.

 

[Coldworld]

Something to keep in mind is ups has many thousasnd drivers who will be leaving the company,both in feeders and pkg, in the next few years...some of this has already started...this will be a good time for people to move into driving and feeder jobs. Every bldg is different...ymmv

 

[UnconTROLLed]

Something to keep in mind is ups has many thousasnd drivers who will be leaving the company,both in feeders and pkg, in the next few years...some of this has already started...this will be a good time for people to move into driving and feeder jobs. Every bldg is different...ymmv

Where do you get those #'s from? I would say less people would be retiring now than previous years. Even if thousands leave, tens of thousands would WANT to go FT driving, which is obviously a staggered number backing things up.

 

[UPSGUY72]

Where do you get those #'s from? I would say less people would be retiring now than previous years. Even if thousands leave, tens of thousands would WANT to go FT driving, which is obviously a staggered number backing things up.

He is wearing rose-colored glasses.

 

[UnconTROLLed]

He is wearing rose-colored glasses.

He may be right, I'm just asking where he got the numbers. I'd think otherwise just from casual obs.

 

[rod]

Don't give up!! UPS fires people every day. On the other hand be realistic. It might take awhile longer than you expect. We had a young p/t hired when I was there that was told all about the great money full time drivers make so this Einstein went out and bought a used Porsche thinking he had it made. Two years later with 17 moving violations and still p/t he sold his Porsche and quit UPS.

 

[UPSGUY72]

He may be right, I'm just asking where he got the numbers. I'd think otherwise just from casual obs.

Well in the last 2 1/2 years in my local (3 buildings) they have hired 1 driver and there are 180 + FT drivers. They are have problems keep us FT cover driver working everyday because of volume so I don't see them hiring FT drivers even if some retire untill volume picks up.

 

[Anonymous 10]

Very unrealistic

 

[Re-Raise]

I say buy that house... what could possibly go wrong?

 

[HEFFERNAN]

I give you kudos for planning your future and reaching for the stars BUT you are not even guaranteed a job after christmas. You have the same aspirations that my previous 10 seasonal driver helpers had.

At UPS, you are promised a future but that is at their pace not yours ! Good Luck

 

[Coldworld]

Where do you get those #'s from? I would say less people would be retiring now than previous years. Even if thousands leave, tens of thousands would WANT to go FT driving, which is obviously a staggered number backing things up.

I never meant half of the workforce will be leaving but even if you take only 10 % of the drivers leaving,which I believe is on the low side,this would still be many thousasnd leaving..I fully understand almost every single opening will go to a part timer. There would be more openings if they didn't work us all 11 or 12 hours a day.

 

[bumped]

To be young and naive again.

 

[Benben]

Between Oct. 2010 and July of 2011 I will make $7,000 loading trucks ($9.50/hr)

Q. Can you buy a house in 2 years?

A. Without a doubt, yes!

Don't listen to the idiots on this forum. You currently load. A P/T job. The assumption is you have a full time job you go to after pre-load. Do a great job and you will still be working after Jan.1. Live only on your full time job pay. Save your UPS checks and just keep dumping them into 60-90 day CD's or a money market account with limited access. When your benny's kick in drop current health insurance and apply that money to the 14K kitty.

That should have you around 15-16K and as long as your credit isn't shot to hell, that is easily enough for the down payment on a $150K house. NOBODY just out-right "buys" a house. We all have a mortgage! If a mortgage isn't what you are thinking then I'd have to guess you to be in the 18-24 year old range and not mature enough to be a home owner

As for the rest of your goals...

Look, keep a clean driving record so that you are eligable to go into driving when slots open up. Show up for work every morning for Pre-Load and demonstrate you are a reliable, hard worker and you'll see a Sat. Air slot open. 1 week driving course (paid!) and you'll make even more working Sat mornings as well as Mon-Fri. When a full time driving slot opens there you go.

First year drivers make about $44K, At least I did 5 years ago. It ramps up from there to about $80K-$88K at top rate. But understand, at the top it depends alot on what route you run and if you head in every time after that last package or you call in looking for more work because you still have 45 mins untill the 9.5 mark

 

[22.34life]

this is really a sad thread,i mean a fortune 500 company that profited nearly a billion dollars in the 3rd quarter and you cant even get hired in at a friend/t postion.a grown man with a family cant make it on what ups offers,thats sad.

 

[tarbar66]

There have been quite a few people here who have made a good life for themselves due to their employment at UPS.

That being said I have seen the ups and downs at UPS in the past 35 plus years. I think the unlimited opportunities are history so take a look at the following story on Yahoo.


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Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

 

[kmjs14]

To be young and naive again.

Agreed...you should have all your finances and credit in order along with a secured friend/t position before even considering buying a home. Not to mention the recommended 20% down payment.