Aug Frontline

Star B

White Lightening
I don't.

I understand the balance between wanting to know where your assets as and making sure that you're not getting taken by somebody who's milking it. But all it takes is one overzealous manager that really wants you gone because you wear your hat the wrong way to make you wish that you never supported this thing. That's what I'm afraid of. unlike UPS we don't have a union to protect our ass when mgmt gets a hard on for harassing us for whatever reason.

Because all it takes is 3 keystrokes and DRA is now saying that you have a gap at every stop. Or you're overloaded every single day and 'DRA would neeeeeever overload a courier. You must be doing something wrong.'.


One way to look at it it is like our constant erosion of rights in the United States. Since 9/11 a lot of our freedoms have gone away and it's just continuing to happen. Even though people sit and cry and whine and moan they're not willing to fight for them because 'omg terrorirismmmm'.

It just happens little by little. First we got dra to start giving them a reason to harass us. Now they have GPS to Keep tabs on us but they didn't have it in real time. Now they're going to have real-time where they can harass us further.

Now don't get me wrong. Deep down I just want them to use this as a tool to protect their assets and get rid of the people who are absolutely useless dead weight. Like "Mr. Minimum 3 minute gaps"... But I don't see that scope w this mgmnt.
 
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vantexan

Well-Known Member
I don't.

I understand the balance between wanting to know where your assets as and making sure that you're not getting taken by somebody who's milking it. But all it takes is one overzealous manager that really wants you gone because you wear your hat the wrong way to make you wish that you never supported this thing. That's what I'm afraid of. unlike UPS we don't have a union to protect our ass when mgmt gets a hard on for harassing us for whatever reason.

Because all it takes is 3 keystrokes and DRA is now saying that you have a gap at every stop. Or you're overloaded every single day and 'DRA would neeeeeever overload a courier. You must be doing something wrong.'.


One way to look at it it is like our constant erosion of rights in the United States. Since 9/11 a lot of our freedoms have gone away and it's just continuing to happen. Even though people sit and cry and whine and moan they're not willing to fight for them because 'omg terrorirismmmm'.

It just happens little by little. First we got dra to start giving them a reason to harass us. Now they have GPS to Keep tabs on us but they didn't have it in real time. Now they're going to have real-time where they can harass us further.

Now don't get me wrong. Deep down I just want them to use this as a tool to protect their assets and get rid of the people who are absolutely useless dead weight. Like "Mr. Minimum 3 minute gaps"... But I don't see that scope w this mgmnt.
What rights have been diminished since 9/11? FedEx is paying more now, and in return it's demanding accountability. Seems fair. Do your job right and you have nothing to worry about. If you want a job where you can go grab a soda and hang out for a few minutes, get another job. I knew too many over the years that wouldn't lift a finger to help, would tell dispatch lies, and I'd see them doing things like standing outside a convenience store eating ice cream. If making you earn your money is eroding your rights then the company should just stick to low pay so that your rights are insured.
 

MAKAVELI

Well-Known Member
What rights have been diminished since 9/11? FedEx is paying more now, and in return it's demanding accountability. Seems fair. Do your job right and you have nothing to worry about. If you want a job where you can go grab a soda and hang out for a few minutes, get another job. I knew too many over the years that wouldn't lift a finger to help, would tell dispatch lies, and I'd see them doing things like standing outside a convenience store eating ice cream. If making you earn your money is eroding your rights then the company should just stick to low pay so that your rights are insured.
With no union protection this can be abused by management to target older, slower topped out workers.
 

Express Courier

Well-Known Member
I knew about the powerpad GPS. Another courier told me they're going to install turn by turn GPS system
Any idea how that works? Are your stops downloaded to the GPS system and you just follow it? What happens if you break route because you are trying to avoid a certain area like a High School getting out of school etc? Probably get an olcc for breaking route lol.
 

Yomama11

Well-Known Member
This is suppose to cut back hours and miles on road but i think it will get worse before it gets better. Too many couriers have bad habits which will have to be broken. If you scan a bad address more than .3 of a mile your supposed to get a manager feed back. Maybe this gps can phase out couriers who insist on driving on their break and making deliveries.
 

Star B

White Lightening
Any idea how that works? Are your stops downloaded to the GPS system and you just follow it?
Ground has it where it downloads to a Garmin. I doubt we'll ever get it because that would be an in-cab distraction.
I knew about the powerpad GPS. Another courier told me they're going to install turn by turn GPS system
I'm pretty sure they are just confused. This was meant to mirror what heavyweight has, stuff in the truck to just watch over it.

What rights have been diminished since 9/11?
PATRIOT act, warrantless wiretapping, the NSA snoops etc. I'm not talking exclusively FedEx stuff.


FedEx is paying more now, and in return it's demanding accountability. Seems fair. Do your job right and you have nothing to worry about.
Treat(harass) me like a UPS driver, then you better pay me like UPS driver and give me union protection like a UPS driver. With all this telematic crap we are no different than a dedicated air driver.

Do you think we did not have accountability in the past? Then what good have GAP reports been? The :censored2:ty ice cream couriers can be sniffed out with the current tools and if management really cared. Let's put it another way.... remember that route you've complained to us about regarding it being all blown out? The one that the manager did a checkride with you and then shrunk the route? Imagine if the manager decided "No, I see you stopped at 10:01 for 2 minutes at County friend & County U, you spent 4 minutes at N1111 Redbeard way after your delivery scan, and you pulled over at the side of the road on hwy 51 for 5 minutes? WHY????? You can do better if you don't have all those random times you parked."

They aren't going to spend the time to figure out it's because you are responding to dispatches and if you had such a heavy route with a bunch of dispatch messages, I would be surprised if you remembered every single time you put it in in park because you had to message them back or dig for a package. Then they will tell you why did you drive down county Z instead of county X? You may have to explain every single move to someone who spends 3 hours on a half-ass checkride and gets the area FO driver to bring them back to the station so they can push paperwork and run out the door as soon as they see the PM manager turn into the lot.

THIS is the crap I'm worried about.

Like I said earlier,
Now don't get me wrong. Deep down I just want them to use this as a tool to protect their assets and get rid of the people who are absolutely useless dead weight. Like "Mr. Minimum 3 minute gaps"... But I don't see that scope w this mgmnt.

If you want a job where you can go grab a soda and hang out for a few minutes, get another job.
What if I want to spend a few minutes talking to a customer about a shipping problem? How about if I'm trying to sell them on us so that LeadOn can get a solid lead? For every :censored2:ty courier there are at least 4 of them doing what's best for the company.

I knew too many over the years that wouldn't lift a finger to help, would tell dispatch lies, and I'd see them doing things like standing outside a convenience store eating ice cream.
and typically couriers that do that are the ones protected by a manager, because they know they are immune to most punishment.
 

Star B

White Lightening
(breaking this up as the other one was tl;dr worthy...)

This is suppose to cut back hours and miles on road but i think it will get worse before it gets better. Too many couriers have bad habits which will have to be broken. If you scan a bad address more than .3 of a mile your supposed to get a manager feed back. Maybe this gps can phase out couriers who insist on driving on their break and making deliveries.
What SHOULD happen is that everyone goes by the book, numbers plummet to where they should be and management starts screaming on why did productivity tank. Customers inconvenienced because of DEX1s... late packages... you name it. We need to stop with the crap that we do in violation of the methods to help the customer because management does not care about the customer or couriers as long as they get to keep the cash. Couriers need to stand strong and KEEP doing it by the book, no matter how much management screams. That is where union protection should help us.

Do you HONESTLY think that mgmt will use this for couriers that drive on their break? Fat chance, that helps their numbers! Well, unless you're on their radar for termination and then... of course... you will be dinged for it.
 

Yomama11

Well-Known Member
(breaking this up as the other one was tl;dr worthy...)


What SHOULD happen is that everyone goes by the book, numbers plummet to where they should be and management starts screaming on why did productivity tank. Customers inconvenienced because of DEX1s... late packages... you name it. We need to stop with the crap that we do in violation of the methods to help the customer because management does not care about the customer or couriers as long as they get to keep the cash. Couriers need to stand strong and KEEP doing it by the book, no matter how much management screams. That is where union protection should help us.

Do you HONESTLY think that mgmt will use this for couriers that drive on their break? Fat chance, that helps their numbers! Well, unless you're on their radar for termination and then... of course... you will be dinged for it.
Been saying this along, do it by the books and let the purple promise fail.
 

McFeely

Huge Member
I've been asking for a checkride for years...manager won't do it. Instead just prints out my reports and puts them in my mailbox. I think deep down inside they know I'm killing this route and the customers have no complaints. No lates, etc. so they don't want to face the reality on road with me.
 

vantexan

Well-Known Member
PATRIOT act, warrantless wiretapping, the NSA snoops etc. I'm not talking exclusively FedEx stuff.



Treat(harass) me like a UPS driver, then you better pay me like UPS driver and give me union protection like a UPS driver. With all this telematic crap we are no different than a dedicated air driver.

Do you think we did not have accountability in the past? Then what good have GAP reports been? The :censored2:ty ice cream couriers can be sniffed out with the current tools and if management really cared. Let's put it another way.... remember that route you've complained to us about regarding it being all blown out? The one that the manager did a checkride with you and then shrunk the route? Imagine if the manager decided "No, I see you stopped at 10:01 for 2 minutes at County friend & County U, you spent 4 minutes at N1111 Redbeard way after your delivery scan, and you pulled over at the side of the road on hwy 51 for 5 minutes? WHY????? You can do better if you don't have all those random times you parked."

They aren't going to spend the time to figure out it's because you are responding to dispatches and if you had such a heavy route with a bunch of dispatch messages, I would be surprised if you remembered every single time you put it in in park because you had to message them back or dig for a package. Then they will tell you why did you drive down county Z instead of county X? You may have to explain every single move to someone who spends 3 hours on a half-ass checkride and gets the area FO driver to bring them back to the station so they can push paperwork and run out the door as soon as they see the PM manager turn into the lot.

THIS is the crap I'm worried about.

Like I said earlier,



What if I want to spend a few minutes talking to a customer about a shipping problem? How about if I'm trying to sell them on us so that LeadOn can get a solid lead? For every :censored2:ty courier there are at least 4 of them doing what's best for the company.


and typically couriers that do that are the ones protected by a manager, because they know they are immune to most punishment.

Mgrs know that you are going to spend time checking oncalls on the side of the road. You're also going to take restroom breaks. This stuff is all built in. With GPS they can see you're parked at your house on the clock, that sort of thing. That you are outside of your route boundaries. There are a lot of ways couriers screw the company. I knew a part-timer getting 35 hrs a week. While in his P-1 cycle between P-1 deliveries he was dropping off P-2. He'd write down the tracking numbers, then go home after P-1 cycle. Would enter a P-2 tracking number every so often while watching tv. Of course took his break there too. About 1530 he'd clear and run over to the station, which was a half mile away. Senior mgr got in his face once and called him the worst courier in the world. If Sr mgr knew what he was really doing no doubt he would've fired him. He told me on phone after I transferred. Asked why didn't he just do it the right way, go fulltime if he needed hours. Said he'd been doing that for years and didn't want to give it up. It would've never entered my mind to even try such a thing, but there are a lot of clever people out there when it comes to avoiding work.

By the way, a company doesn't give it's workers a union. And seriously, how have any of the examples you cited harmed your personal freedom? Most likely they've stopped terror attacks we aren't even aware of.
 

vantexan

Well-Known Member
With no union protection this can be abused by management to target older, slower topped out workers.
I walked just as fast at 54 as I did at 24. I no longer ran windsprints though, which my 24 year old self shouldn't have done. Eventually with this new plan most couriers will be topped out. So if the ones who are being fired are primarily 50+ there's going to be a huge lawsuit. Highly unlikely if a courier is following the rules he'll ever have an issue.
 

Star B

White Lightening
And seriously, how have any of the examples you cited harmed your personal freedom? Most likely they've stopped terror attacks we aren't even aware of.
Just because it doesn't harm me doesn't mean it is harmless. This isn't a political thread, so stop grasping at the one side reference i made, kplzthx!~

With GPS they can see you're parked at your house on the clock, that sort of thing. That you are outside of your route boundaries. There are a lot of ways couriers screw the company. (etc)
1) if he had so much time between P1 stops to interline P2, he should have been given check rides. If magically his times during the check rides came in at what they were supposed to be... they should have been digging deeper (see next point)
2) they could have followed him
3) current gps solution would have caught it, because you know they are pulling our GPS if something starts stinking like a missed pkg of fish from thursday that shows up on Monday.

He didn't want to give it up because he had the flexibility of a part timer while getting paid like a full-timer. Managements failure to check him allowed him to get away with it.
 
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