Bonus?

[hr_guy]

How many forms of Bonus (pay) are there and how do you get it? My supervisor said I had to be off the clock by a certain time (no over 9.5, no over 10's, etc) and I told him I didn't get bonus, so he said he'd have to look into it because I should. I've been driving about 1 year now.

 

[wily_old_vet]

Bonus works like this-the computer figures out your planned day. Let's say it says the work should have taken 9 hours and you do it in 8 hours. You get paid for 1hour of bonus. If that same days takes you ten hours to complete and the computer says it's a 9 hour planned day you get paid for all the time you worked, 10 hours. Being over 9.5 or 10 has nothing to do with it. It depends on your planned day and actual hours worked. Hope this helps.

 

[ups_gal_710]

Bonus,

Whats that.... We voted this system out not to long ago and it was the best move us drivers have made. With the new time allowance only a few where making bonus.
Now we get paid for only the work done or I should say punch time to punch time.
It has worked really good for us.

 

[yeldarb]

Why would people vote away the bonus? Even though a small percentage might be getting the bonus, it is still taking money out of UPSers pockets...I cant imagine management puts any less an emphasis on production.

 

[speeddemon]

we have never been on bonus in my center. Everyone runs an hour over or netter so it wouldnt matter anyway.

 

[ups_gal_710]

The bonus system isnt a fair system for every driver with the new time allowance. In the past two years our center voted twice on the subject. The first time before the time cut it didnt pass but, now with everyone upset about their time we voted it out. If every driver had the same time allowances it might have turned out different but, the bonus system only benfits a small group of drivers.

I know what some of you are thinking that if a driver gets out and works fast that they should be paid the bonus. Thats all good but, how many of those bonus babies forget to use their methods? (close bulk head door, turn off engine, pull truck keys, walk dont run. etc...) If I wanted I could have made bonus on my route so the voted didnt really matter to me because the bonus was never enough to cover my FULL lunch hour. One of the biggest slap in the face is when you see a hand full of drivers that clock out around 4pm while the rest of us work till 7-8pm every night. All we asked for was to make the system fair for everyone.

If your on bonus I wish you much luck but look around and ask yourself is this system (time allowance) really fair for every driver? Because one day you might change routes and be one of those drivers that have no time.
Have a good weekend.

 

[ups_vette]

ups gal..Did you earn less money with the bonus system in place? I know for a fact that under the bonus system a driver will never be paid LESS than the hours he/she actually WORKED, regardless of the planned hours. If a driver works LESS hours than the planned hours, that driver will be paid the planned hours. That's why it's called bonus..DUH.

This may be hard for you to believe, but NOT EVERY DRIVER IS EQUAL. Not every driver has the physical and mental ability to earn bonus. I'm sure those "few" drivers who were making bonus are very apprecitive of making less money, or working longer hours, to support their family.

It's nice to know there are a few Centers in UPS where the Communist Doctrine of everyone receiving the same lives. The feeling of "since I can't make bonus, noone else should".
I'm glad you're happy with that decision.

 

[yeldarb]

I actually bid off a route which was a bonus route, for a route that is close to my home. The new allowances definately hurt my ability to bonus as much, but I had to bust it off to earn it. However, am I mistaken in understanding this.....There are routes in our center which basically take 10 hours to make an 8 hour day....taking away bonus wouldnt affect that route, and the driver would still be out for 10 hours. Does managment view planned days differently in a bonus center vs. a no bonus center? That driver will still be getting screwed, and the routes with the good time studies if the bonus was taken away, would not want more than what is needed to please management, so they would be taking off work of the bonus routes, so their planned day wouldnt be as long, and it would give them a bigger lunch, etc. That still doesnt seem fair, or am I just misunderstanding all of this? Not too mention, if I needed to get home for a family affair, had to skip my lunch, etc, it would be nice to know that I will be compensated somewhat for that.

 

[dannyboy]

Vette

You are assuming that the time study that is done on each route, which is what the bonus is based on, was done correctly. Unfortunatly it is not.

As a cover driver, my work pace is pretty much the same on every route I work. So why in a 10 hour day on two different routes should I be under 2.3 hours on one but 1.9 hours over on the other? Day in and day out? Did I spend over four hours more screwing around on that one, even though I know both routes very well?

So while your comment is true to an extent, routes are not studied the same way. During the last time study here, my current route was timed and I lost almost 2 hours. The head IE guy did it again almost a month later and the route gained almost 30 minutes.

Maybe it was all the crap they took off my route the first time study, and then put back on with the second one. It is funny how that works, pull stuff off your route when the time study is done so you dont have it, then put it back on afterwards. Actually a full 20-25% of our area here has never been time studied because when they did the time studies on the routes that normally carry them, it was shuffled to other routes just for that day.

And this can either help or hurt a route, and that all depends on the management team. It is not some double blind test where the track is level and each athlete can compete on a level playing field and show how well they can excell.


Do you realize that means there are large portions of my route that have never had a time study done on that portion, because it was allways pulled off me when they did the time study, but yet it is allways on my route the rest of the time.

So why is that. IF we are to be totally honest, it is because the numbers game that Ups plays is just that, a game. The way you explain it the guy that makes 2 hours a day bonus is a faster delivery driver than one that gets beat 2 hours.

And that sir is just not so. And if you believe in that, then I have some other things I would love to discuss with you.

So it is not the envy you think, one driver not making bonus while others do. It is that due to UPS time study game and the way it is implimented that does not work. That is why more and more it is being voted out of the centers.

d

 

[speeddemon]

All they care about is to make it plan at least 8 on paper. I had a very important appt. to make with my wife last week at 7pm. I asked my boss to please dispatch me with no more than a 9 hour day so I could get in. WEll guess what. I worked that 10 hour day because thats what he says it takes to make it plan 8 hours. Thanks alot IE. Get your head out of your a** for once and understand your causing alot of problems.

 

[trickpony1]

IE doesn't care because they are all at home with the family at the dinner table at 5:30 PM. Could you have driven your pkg car to the appt. and met your wife?......and be sure to go on "meal", "break" or whatever it is called.

 

[ups_vette]

Danny..

Time Studies are performed on each DEFINED AREA, not on each ROUTE.

Each Defined Area has a stop allowance which is unique to that area. This is developed by studing all the stops in a defined area and calculating the average time for all the stops in that area, both signature required stops and driver release stops seperately. In a perfect world no defined area would have more than 100 or fewer than 25 stops to obtain the stop allowance.

If the stops were not on your "route" the day you were time studied it has no effect on the stop allowance as long as they were studied on a different driver that day or on another day, as long as ALL the stops are studied in that defined area. The person must verify that the entire geographic defined area was studied to develope the stop allowance.

There is a tool available called the Area Volume Summary. This tool calculates the number of stops and packages by day for each defined area in the center. I would suggest you use this tool to compare the current stops and packages in a defined area
compared to the number of stops time studied.

Remember, a defined area could be delivered by more than one driver, and in the majority of cases it is.

 

[ok2bclever]

The truth is the numbers are irratic and it really depends on who time studied the "defined area" and how he/she slept the night before and whether he/she got any or wanted any, what position the sun was in and whether the wind was blowing out of the north or west.

Then to base incentive money on a driver being willing to "beat" those numbers, normally by "cheating" safety, service and of course his fellow drivers, etc is counterproductive to the workforce, safety, service and many times because of this, even to UPS.

vette you sound like you were in IE.
Sorry, but IE is great at numbers, but not reality.

 

[speeddemon]

Besides the IE dept., some of our problem is that our management team has went into the loop detail, and have done away with alot of area numbers. Some stuff that used to be in a rural area number is now in a downtown number.

 

[hr_guy]

While I did know about the bonus that everyone here is discussing, the bonus I was referring to is the one where you get 10 - 15 mins paid everyday (free time) on top of whatever you worked. I.E. if you work 9.50 hours and you get 10 min bonus everyday, your paid day is 9.67 hours. Does anyone know the rules on this?

 

[wily_old_vet]

HR-never heard of it and dont think there is any such thing. The closest thing i can think of is a paid 10 minute break but that's already figured into the standards. Think someone is pulling your leg.

 

[dannyboy]

Vette

And while I know well of which you speak, I am telling you that there are whole areas of our center's coverage area that were never timestudied. While one driver that was timed, it was placed on another driver. When the time study was done, it was back on either that driver or a third.

You stated that "The person must verify that the entire geographic defined area was studied to develope the stop allowance. " This is a joke. When the young lady that did my first time study came on the truck, I knew I had it made. There were 50 stops or so that I allways have that were not on my P1000. WE were done at 3 and had to run around making pickups everywhere. She even stoped by one customers business where the guys were playing basketball. She joined in for over 30 minutes. Now how would that figure in to my planed day?

Like I said, time studies can and have been used to great success. But unfortunately, the latest ones here were a joke, and many areas of some routes were not studied at all. USually the areas that contained the most "loser" stops for that loop or route. I guess who ever certified that all the stops in a defined area were studied maybe couldnt remember? Surely they didnt lie!

d

 

[swingdriver]

Now that we are on PAS bonus is a thing of the past. I never much relied on it but, you can't get it anymore. Most routes have lost over an hour. I ran a route last week with 153 stops and 112 miles.(9 pickups) It didn't even plan to 9 hours. My SPORH was 18.2, and yet I was an hour over. What a joke.

 

[pd109]

bonus - ot = bogus! you may me getting home early but look at your paycheck,that 5 hrs OT
costs you almost $200 in pay a week.I personally need that money...we have no such thing here,it would be redundant.It takes me 10 hrs to do a 9.5,when I`m on va ca its an 11 1/2 hr day...only because I know the area.the bonus sounds like a copout .

 

[ups_gal_710]

ups_vette....

I just wanted to thank you for explaining to me how the bonus system works. 15 yrs at UPS and you are the first one to explain it to me..."DUH"

I have a question for you since you were a company person. Why is it that UPS pulled out all the stops when it came close for us drives to vote on the bonus? UPS brought in the old center manager, the IE dept to go over the numbers with us. Promised a new time studied for the whole center (that never happened), division manager and many more just for one little vote. Please enlighten me as to what kind of bonus managers make off the backs of the UPS drivers? I dont want to hear any song and dance about how they wanted the pkgs in early for the sort and that the bonus helped to even out the score card. That is BS. What is the bottom line here?

I'm only one driver out of many that had the right to vote this system in or out. Our center decided to stand as a group and make our vote be heard about how unfair this system is. Here is an example of how UNFAIR it was: We have a driver that clocks out everyday at 4pm (the latest) but, UPS pulls a whole section off his truck for another driver that already has a full days work of his own. Why should we be forced to run this section when this driver is VERY capable and has the time to do the work himself. Or lets say you are overloaded due to the fact that managment placed this other drivers section on your truck. You call for help because you cant be in by curfew and ask for that driver to help with his own stops and UPS never makes him help another driver. Now that is UNFAIR work ethics.

As for a few of these drivers that has to stay out and do some work to support their family well, all I can say is welcome to my world. I would have loved to be at home eating dinner with my family but, guess what I couldnt because I had their section to run.

Last time I checked we still live in a free world and if this small group of drivers wanted to keep the bonus then why didnt they inform the rest of the drivers as to why? No they all kept to themselves because they knew the system wasnt fair and never would be. We had a few driver meetings before work and not many had much to say about keeping it.

AND YES I'M VERY HAPPY WITH THE DECISIONS I MADE ON THE BONUS VOTE. It's gone and will never be back. punch in - punch out - go home.