Dracula

Package Car is cake compared to this...
Here if you go in and load to get your 8 when you are on the bottom of the list they will throw you a bone and shift you for half the time in a tractor or take a trip the the rail yard or build some sets. It really allows the newest guys to get some production practice in without being under the gun.

When weekly bidding for shifting coverage jobs here I get the pick of the litter and time of day since no one else wants them and 8 hours or 14 if I want to stay.



Yeah when you have an established run it's easy to say that but if you are called in on a job and there is shifting and a yard bird its a sight to sore eyes.

I'm a hound for hours so I'll take 60 hours in a week with a bird than an 8'n'skate cpu or drop and hook meetpoint.

We don’t have that on-call crap. Here, you are either a full time feeder driver, or you are in a different job classification.
 

Rick Ross

I'm into distribution!!
We don’t have that on-call crap. Here, you are either a full time feeder driver, or you are in a different job classification.

How do they cover vacations and call outs over and above the coverage list? We don't have any part-time people in feeders but have a bunch on the Q list, which is 100% on call a good portion of the year.
 

retiredTxfeeder

cap'n crunch
We also only had only FT feeder drivers in my department. A certain % of the seniority list was coverage. The cover board was actually a bid job. (Cover#1, cover#2, etc.) Some senior guys actually liked changing jobs every week. The coverage board had everything from 30 year guys to newbies. If there were more guys on the coverage board than the number of vacations, the lower guys were on call and cover for call ins.
How do they cover vacations and call outs over and above the coverage list? We don't have any part-time people in feeders but have a bunch on the Q list, which is 100% on call a good portion of the year.
 

Dracula

Package Car is cake compared to this...
We also only had only FT feeder drivers in my department. A certain % of the seniority list was coverage. The cover board was actually a bid job. (Cover#1, cover#2, etc.) Some senior guys actually liked changing jobs every week. The coverage board had everything from 30 year guys to newbies. If there were more guys on the coverage board than the number of vacations, the lower guys were on call and cover for call ins.

We're similar. We have bid cover jobs (that cover time slots, everyday), variable cover jobs (cover weekly jobs, vacations, comp, disability) and if they have too many drivers, they get laid off or go into the hub. This doesn't happen very often around here. I think it's been a few years since that's happened. I don't know how a person could rely on work for an on-call list. I've talked to guys that were lucky to get called once a week. How are you supposed to make a living like that?
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
How do they cover vacations and call outs over and above the coverage list? We don't have any part-time people in feeders but have a bunch on the Q list, which is 100% on call a good portion of the year.
Q list drivers are still in package and have bid routes in their respective delivery centers so even when they are "on call" they can go back and run their route if feeders doesn't have work for them that day but in my experience the majority of them are happy to take a day or two off rather than go back to delivery.
 

Coldworld

60 months and counting
When I first came into feeders, I didn't adjust well initially from going from a day job straight into nights. There was a shifter job available that everybody passed on at bid time. (start at 11 AM, work till 4pm, take meal, then jump into a tractor, make a CPU, come back, get back into the shifter and do the rest of your job. It was rough in the summer in the Texas heat, but I was a young buck. I sure learned to back and build sets on this job. I think it should be mandatory that new feeder drivers do some kind of shifting job for at least a small amount of time.
I bet now that 11am job would go to a higher seniority driver...
 

Coldworld

60 months and counting
I was thinking about this last night... what is the little d ring for right above the light cord and gladhands on the front of the trailer. I thought it might have something to do with the light cord but on some of the trailers this little d ring is to the side of the light plug....anyone know what that is for????
 

Rick Ross

I'm into distribution!!
Q list drivers are still in package and have bid routes in their respective delivery centers so even when they are "on call" they can go back and run their route if feeders doesn't have work for them that day but in my experience the majority of them are happy to take a day or two off rather than go back to delivery.

It's different everywhere. We have no part-time feeder drivers but have hired feeder drivers from part-time and off the street. Only Super Q drivers are guaranteed package work but they will usually take anyone with previous package experience.

Thats why giving feeder seniority to the bottom guy on the 3rd bid wouldn't work for us.
 

Rick Ross

I'm into distribution!!
I was thinking about this last night... what is the little d ring for right above the light cord and gladhands on the front of the trailer. I thought it might have something to do with the light cord but on some of the trailers this little d ring is to the side of the light plug....anyone know what that is for????

I put long zip ties on the old ones for a resuable light cord shim. :) but I'm sure that's not the intended use. :)
 

ManInBrown

Well-Known Member
How do they cover vacations and call outs over and above the coverage list? We don't have any part-time people in feeders but have a bunch on the Q list, which is 100% on call a good portion of the year.
Same here. You’re either a feeder driver or you aren’t. Guaranteed 8, no on call. There’s about 60 drivers on a spare list, that cover vacations.
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
It's different everywhere. We have no part-time feeder drivers but have hired feeder drivers from part-time and off the street. Only Super Q drivers are guaranteed package work but they will usually take anyone with previous package experience.

Thats why giving feeder seniority to the bottom guy on the 3rd bid wouldn't work for us.
Aren't you in the Atlantic Area? I'm curious how a Super Q driver could be guaranteed package work ahead of a Q list driver, given that Super Q drivers are in feeder classification and Q list drivers are in package classification.
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
Same here. We went through this a few years back, the company took the position that when a Q list driver was called up for the week they had no choice but to be on call and if the feeders didn't have work that day/ night then they just stayed home. We had a couple Q listers who grieved that and won, so now feeders has to let them know before their delivery center start time whether or not they have work for them that day so that they have the option of running their delivery route.
 

Rick Ross

I'm into distribution!!
Same here. We went through this a few years back, the company took the position that when a Q list driver was called up for the week they had no choice but to be on call and if the feeders didn't have work that day/ night then they just stayed home. We had a couple Q listers who grieved that and won, so now feeders has to let them know before their delivery center start time whether or not they have work for them that day so that they have the option of running their delivery route.

We don't have any drivers who are called up from package. In the past few years every time a package driver has come over it's been right before our bid and they've been fortunate enough to go right into a bid route. Package guys always says they're coming to feeders but rarely do.

We do have some Q list guys who want to only work mornings, if they aren't called in early, package will usually let them work. A few will also go into preload if they don't get early work, they want a set schedule and don't care about the loss of $$. Feeders doesn't care unless too many are scheduled off.

Going to meet points it amazes me how different the same company can be.
 

barnyard

KTM rider
This is one area that none of the recent contracts have addressed. This contract, there is all kinds of talk of adding feeder jobs. Those jobs will only be added at hubs. It is doubtful that I will ever be able to sign a bid for my own run. When I started, there were 10 feeder jobs in my building, now there are 4. How about instead of hiring feeder guys off the street, jobs are either moved to out-state buildings or let out-state guys bid on hub jobs.
 

Rick Ross

I'm into distribution!!
This is one area that none of the recent contracts have addressed. This contract, there is all kinds of talk of adding feeder jobs. Those jobs will only be added at hubs. It is doubtful that I will ever be able to sign a bid for my own run. When I started, there were 10 feeder jobs in my building, now there are 4. How about instead of hiring feeder guys off the street, jobs are either moved to out-state buildings or let out-state guys bid on hub jobs.

The Atlantic supplement is letting part-time employees put in letters for unfilled full-time jobs at other buildings. It's about the only bright spot in the supplement.

I have to believe something is up with Amazon. Maybe UPS is planning to lose some/most of the delivery side but is looking to add work on the sorting and feeder side of the business. I've heard of feeder runs taking full air loads directly to Amazon buildings. All of the added capacity added or in thetprocess of being added has to be used for something. Lots of huge buildings coming online.
 
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