I'm a backup feeder driver, haven't won a bid yet in that dept. and haven't been in package for about 3 months. This week I'm going back due to no vacations, no weather problems, etc.
What are your suggestons to help me cope with this horrible situation.
Sorry for your situation, help, but do you REALLY want to hear about mine? Probably not, and nobody else does either but I'll spout off anyway.
I was hired as a feeder driver off the street in the 70's. Well, not quite. I drove before, trucks and equipment and had a chauffeurs (sp? don't have time to check) license before the days of CDL. The company said, "Well, we don't have any openings right now. Would you be willing to do p/c til there is?" Dumbarse me said, "Sure!", thinking maybe a month or two or three, cuz it WAS Sept.
Once hired as p/c driver, I then found out you had to get a yr safe driving in just to qualify for feeders! Did somebody lie to me? Well, not technically! They just didn't TELL me!
After my requisite yr safe driving and feeder school list was up, nobody told me that all the senior people AHEAD of you got first chance to sign up, go to school, flunk out or quit for various reasons, leaving no time to qualify drivers for peak, meaning they could hire off the street for that time. Hmpf! It was a time of unusual growth here then so those drivers were brought back, having already been feeder drivers and hiring ratios were basically non-existant then. I lost count of how many times I had no-senior drivers pass me by from the street.
Shortening up this diatribe, I finally was called and passed to cover vacations in feeders but did not gain feeder seniority. Was still technically a "feeder-qualified package driver". Vacations over, thrown back to p/c every Jan. Called up in May, thrown away in Sept. Called up maybe in Oct, Nov, thrown back in Jan. Went on for 5 yrs.
Okay, finally got to stay in 6th yr. More runs coming, more feeder school, more senior drivers signing, passing and moving ahead of me. Went on for another 3 yrs, finally getting feeder seniority after almost 9 yrs of off-and-on feeders.
Finally got bid feeder job after about 14 yrs of same. Of course, you can imagine what kind of bid it was.
Also, after some district downsizing after 1997 and center closings, some more senior feeders were allowed to move here and bump me down some more. Are you crying yet? There was a time, after almost 20 yrs with the company, that I was in worse seniority position than when I started.
Am I complaining? Some will think so and I'm not and I will also be derided for this letter but I'm trying to show you that a few months of p/c is to be expected and if that's ALL you got to do, consider yourself lucky! Hang in there, it may get better but don't expect miracles.