browniehound
Well-Known Member
Bike courier, read: loser who lives in his mom's basement.
Been a lurker for awhile and registered today to combat the...
- Thread starter VoiceOfReason
- Start date
VoiceOfReason
Telling it like it is
At least he is employed. Anyone that can hold a job is something above a loser in my book.
helenofcalifornia
Well-Known Member
Maybe bike courier is seniority-oriented and just a way to get to full-time position driving? I honestly would not mind riding around on a bike delivering letters if the pay was the same. I mean, just how much can they give you to carry? This could be a position that eases you into retirement. Your knees are thrashed, your shoulders are whack, and you can't handle with the same effieciency your truck load. You get on your bike and deliver envelopes. This is just too easy. There must be more to the job.
Rather than name calling, please, tell us, how much do things directly pertaining to YOUR job DELIVERING changed? I know there's a new DIAD with the shift button causing more people to get disgruntled....
Something more dangerous than being a UPS courier with no benefits and wage based on per-piece. No unions or P800s to hide behind and you make no money or WCB when you're injured. If you've ever been out of your town and in a real city, you would know who these guys are. It is great work because I didn't have to deal with lifers like you.
Uncle Rico
Well-Known Member
You work at UPS, your job is a driver.
You work at Fredex, you are a courier.
No such thing as a UPS courier or Fedex driver.
You work at Fredex, you are a courier.
No such thing as a UPS courier or Fedex driver.
I love it! You HATE UPS, but you're their top shill when you don't like something you hear.You're a FX courier!? LMAO. That says it all. I hate to break it to you but since you don't work for UPS, you really don't know jack squat. You are right though. Working for fredex for 6 months, you know all you have to know about delivering envelopes. You have probably mastered all the shortcuts to doing a professional job,, and have learned all the little tricks to keep you manager (who doesn't know his arse from a hole in the ground) off your back.
I'm a UPS package handler, guy. And yes FX was all envelopes. It was great. Master shortcuts of doing a professional job? That's not angsty one bit. How's their stock? More proof of taking shortcuts, I gather?
UPS doesn't employ bike couriers, as far as I know, although I know that was the business they were in when they were founded.helenofcalifornia said:
Bike couriers are owner operators who provide services to to a company, who provide services to companies that need their letters, boxes to get to their recipent NOW (not next day by noon). Bike messengers earn a commission on every piece they pick up and deliver, and dispatching is done on the fly; you have to be able to route and improvise in the downtown core in your head efficently, or else you're losing money. In the summer I'd be happy with $125 a day, in the winter I'd be unhappy with less than $175 a day.
I would ride and walk 65km (37.2m) in a day, with no formal lunch break (I eat whenever there's food at or within 20 paces of my stop), averaging 90 stops per day in the summer and 110 in the winter.
A lot of you will now go off about how tough it is to ride stick in a p500, and will argue to the death that UPS is harder. It is, in the sense that moving 20 computer servers from your truck to an office is a big itch, management is a bigger itch, and you can pull long days (bike messengers only work 0800-1700 at the very latest). But I would love to see the namecalling union apologists ride a track bike (read: one gear, no brakes) with a 25lb file box under one arm because hey, it pays $3.50 and it's only four blocks away.
Oh yeah, and did I mention there's no union or worker's comp to protect couriers when they get hit by cars?
And once again, for the people on this forum who seem to love to ignore facts and sensationalize sentences they disagree with: I AM A UPS EMPLOYEE AND I KNOW HOW RIDICULOUS OF AN ORGANIZATION IT IS.
rngri4
Well-Known Member
I don't know if this helps, but I saw a UPS Training Video the other day, and it showed a UPS Motorcycle, used today, since it was a newer model, in larger cities I presume for air drivers with envelopes, it had saddlebags with the emblem, the whole nine yards. I had never seen anything like it before, it may be used overseas, I don't know, just sort of cool though...where was that job when I was hourly?
OldUPSDriver
Well-Known Member
Does UPS still have the "Red Arrow Messenger Service" in the Los Angeles area?? I thought they rode motorcycles.
Uncle Rico
Well-Known Member
Hate is such a strong word, although it is used by me in my public profile regarding both UPS and Fedex since I have had the pleasure of working 10 years at both companies. In the context of adding a blurb to my profile, I thought it would be funny. But since we live in a world where no one can take a joke anymore, and misinterpratation of one's semantics can ruin one's career, reputaion and life these days, I'll go fix that phrase so that I don't give yacks such as yourself something to feel so high and mighty about.
Im my humble and experienced opinion, the comparisons between UPS and Fedex can and will go on to infinity. Stock prices show the instant snapshot of today, but the histories of both companies lead me to believe UPS is more fiscally stable than the upstart Fedex. Today's stock price doesn't mean much to me. I have been saying for at least a year that when Fedex has to assume the labor costs, the health costs, the vehicular costs of all of its independant contractors, when they are formally welcomed to the FDX family as "employees", that stock will plummet.
You wanna get into a p-ssing match over who is better in any possible category between Fedex and UPS go find someone else. I loved my time at UPS, it gave me the discipline and direction when I was 20 years old. I had a career path there but chose to take a fork in the road. Realizing I had experience in this business, and the propaganda Fedex spewed forth about being a great place to work, led me there--where the grass was going to be greener. HA. The most miserable 10 years of my life but I had the responsibility of new babies to provide for so I sucked it up and went to work.
What I "hate" is myself for wasting ten years at Fedex. But you gotta put food on the table. I "hate" the fact that I kept telling myself there is no time to get a different job.
So package handler guy, hoser, call me names, spew forth your "knowledge" people and the real world. If you don't learn something new everyday, you become stagnent in you life and thinking. So today's lesson to you is use your ears to listen to what people are saying and not just to get a cutesy snippet to use in your condescending replies.
You mean like this?
Uncle Rico said:You're a FX courier!? LMAO
Ah, the overconfidence of youth. It is refreshing.
Sounds pretty condescending to me
helenofcalifornia
Well-Known Member
Hey, Uncle, (I feel like I am in Hawaii now!), after 10 years at Fedex, what were you being paid? And how come you left UPS? Were you injured?
But you don't have to learn the lesson, right?
Was that you, or your avatar speaking?
Tooner, when you posted your real picture as your avatar before the current one, it inspired me to use a real one of myself! You should put it back up. In my case, I should probably use the one of "Freckles" my English Springer Spaniel I used to use!
dammor
Well-Known Member
I agree completely. It's nice to hear from those who have been there and done that. I've got over 26 years in this company as an hourly and am tired and a bit discouraged these days. Changes are not unusual, but some are harder to deal with than others. My main concern now is the shrinking pension and healthcare in the Central States area. Had I a crystal ball I would have seen this coming and done things a bit different. Anyway, my thanks to the older folks that have chimed in on this thread.
Hi I am very new to UPS. I am out of the Redmond WA Center. I am finishing up my Peak Driver training tomorrow. I just wanted to say I am really excited about my new job and gung ho but I really appreciate this site because I know from experience that all companies have good and bad things about them. And when reading the posts that are about the not so good things and the good I can go into this job with my eyes wide open and be prepared for anything!!!!!!! So glad for all the different opinions that are listed here. 
Go SEAHAWKS!!!!!!!
Go SEAHAWKS!!!!!!!
Braveheart
Well-Known Member
We are trying to fix things here and in no way quiters who just up and quit because of poor vindictive managers. We like our customers and with the right dispatch our jobs.Trolls. My god I can't believe the internet trolls that reside on this board. Check the definition Urban Dictionary: troll
Seems like a lot of people here like to incite the riot. Last time I checked there were like 300,000+ people working for UPS. On here you only hear the opinion from less than 1% of them. What about the other 99%?
If you don't like the company everyone is free to leave. We aren't indentured servants to the company, but you may be an indentured servant to poor finances and therefore your job and thats your own fault.
There are lots of good people, management included at UPS doing good things, lending a hand, soving problems, making you laugh. But face it folks, its work, we are paid to do it. If it was fun and easy then no one would get paid. Your hapiness/unhapiness starts and ends with YOU. Its what you make of whatever the situation is.
Bottom line from this post is "Lighten Up Francis" for those of you familiar with the movie "Stripes"
