BonusCenter Equals More Stops, Long Hours, Shrinking Bonus

[rushfan]

If you go to bonus center, make sure you take your lunch if it is taken from you. My feeling is the bonus system is not to make up for the lunch that you skip.

 

[trouble1903]

Watch out for bonus centers, they dont pay you 8 "regular" hours (that is if you worked 8 hours that day). They take out just shy of about 1/4 of an hour, pay you at your "regular" rate then make up for it in what they call "time bonus" also payed at regular rate. Try and get a mortgage with this new math is a nightmare!! Supervisors then have to write letters on your behalf to whom ever saying the the time bonus is really apart of your 40 hour work week. I don't know about you but I don't want then knowing my business.

 

[deliver_man]

Trouble, what the heck are you talking about? I'm in a bonus center and the things you said make no sense at all. My weekly paycheck ALWAYS shows 40 hours of straight time, any OT or bonus is listed separately. I had no problems getting getting approved for a home loan either.

 

[trouble1903]

Not in my center, I havent seen 40 hours shown on my pay stub in a year.

Here was what showed on todays:
...........Pay rate..Hours
Reg........24.73.....38.24
time bonus.24.73.....1.76 reg rate
time bonus.37.09.....0.17 ot rate

I was told by my supervisor to add the regular rate time with the "time bonus" time and you have your 40 hours.

 

[deliver_man]

Hmmm...that's odd. I can only assume that that "time bonus" refers to the times that you finished in under 8 hours,ie., if you had a 9 hour plan day and finished in 7.5, your time card would show the breakdown as:
7.5 x straight time
.5 x time bonus (regular rate)
1.0 x production bonus (overtime rate)
I have no clue as to why they are doing that, they don't it like that in here Virginia. Per the example above, our timecards break it down as:
8.0 x straight time
1.0 x production bonus (overtime rate)

 

[trouble1903]

Your right, it is strange. We (or the union) can't seam to get a straight answer and it's a pain like I said when you are trying to apply for a mortgage. This started when we became a bonus center. I think by law they have to show a straight 40 hours worked (if you worked 40), but UPS say's this is legal.

 

[ups_gal_710]

I'm out of Local 710 (Southern Illinois) and we as a center just took a vote on this bonus system and lost. My question is why was the Sups wanting this bonus to stay??? It looks like it would save the company money if they did away with it. Well after thinking about it I bet those hand full of drivers that make 1-2hrs bonus each day equals out the center on it's time as a whole. Our center is a main rural delv so my question is why cant all of the drivers have the same unit number??? Each unit pays each stop a different time. Oh well it's just never ending and I really think this will be one of the worst x-mas for all of us brown drivers.
Have a good week. !!!!!!!!!!}}

 

[proups]

ups gal 710: I can believe that the drivers in your center didn't want to lose bonus - it is a good thing for them!

 

[tieguy]

"My question is why was the Sups wanting this bonus to stay???"

UPS gal the question you have to ask is why did the "drivers" want bonus to stay. They can vote it in or out. You had to have a majority of drivers that voted to keep it.

 

[kidlogic]

UPS Gal the reason UPS wants them to stay is that they can put more work on each truck. With guys out there running and gunning,not taking lunches, and taking shortcuts they can put less drivers on the road and get the same work done.It costs far less to have a guy make 1 or 2 hours bonus then to put on extra routes.

 

[tieguy]

Again whatever evil intentions you may think the sups have is totally irrelavent. A majority of drivers voted to keep it. Why did they do so?

 

[kidlogic]

Tie I was answering her post which asked why sups would want it. Go find someone else to argue with.

 

[tieguy]

I don't believe I snapped my fingers or whistled. My question was directed towards her.

 

[ups_vette]

Bonus in UPS is exactly what the term implies. It has is roots from Jim Caseys desire to reward his empoyees.

A bonus is a way to reward ABOVE average performance. Not everyone is above average, if they were, there would be no average.

Jim realized he was locked in to what he could pay his employees due the contractual agreement on wages. He felt that the employee who performed better than the average employee should be rewarded, and established the Bonus Plan for these people.

There was no hidden agenda in Jims plan, and there is none today. The Bonus Plans' only agenda is to reward the above average performer by paying them more than the contractual agreement would allow. This can be accomplished by the employee either working less hours for the same amount of pay, or receiving more pay for the same number of hours worked.

 

[kidlogic]

The problem is how the bonus is gotten. I dont think that Mr. Casey would approve of a guy cutting his lunch or the mistakes caused by a employee looking to beat a standard rather then give the best service they can offer. Quality is what is going to carry this company to the future.
If a guy can please all of his customers and beat the standard then thats great, but any job that anyone tries to do better then the standard is not going to be done as well if you just did it the way it is supposed to be done. Dont be misguided by someone who looks at the O. R. and judges how good the day went by that. If you didnt please the customer ,but were scratch you had a poor day.

 

[ezrider]

Kid I couldn't have said it any better.I can't count how many times I've had to scramble at the end of a day to cover missed pickups from another route and encounter angry customers because some of these "bonus" guys tried to start a pickup line 1 to 2 hours before the regular driver starts it.To some of these drivers,it seems that making bonus money has become the only goal and I've seen a few who just seem to go to any means to make that end.It prevails mostly among the younger coverage guys in the building I work out of.So many of them think that "running early" somehow puts them above the peer group and yet seem blissfully ignorant to the complaints of customers and fellow drivers.Bonus is a nice theory and I'm all for it if the driver puts the customer and safety first,but it does seem that there are some that will stop at nothing to circumvent a system that was designed with good and rewarding intentions to loyal workers.Kid,I'm glad you won't let it compromise your ethics and and your loyalty to the customers.I'm willing to bet at least a few of those customers of yours are grateful too.

 

[tieguy]

curious. How is it your not bonus but making pickups to clean up what the bonus guys are doing?

 

[ups_vette]

kid:
I totaly agree wth you. If a driver has to skip lunch in order to be an hour under plan, that driver is NOT an above average performer.

Forgive me if I didn't mention the importance of maintaining customer satisfaction in the Bonus Plan. My mistake for assuming it was understood that performance ment all performance, service performance to the customer included.

 

[kidlogic]

Vette....Your last post which Mr. Casey wanted to reward those who PREFORM above average would be a perfect system if the bonus wasnt drawn off solely from the O. R. report. If they had a formula that wieghed service, saftey and preformance, it would be great. That would make it so a person who is far on one side of either preformance,saftey or service not getting the bonus. The ones who could balance all three would get the bonus.

 

[local804]

I have a good idea.How about I work safe,do the job the way UPS trained me to do it. DO NOT RUN, UPS does not want you to run......They want you to have a brisk walk,I will satisfy 99% of the customers(theres always that lower 1% that will find something on anybody, even you tiegirl) have all the pickup pieces back to the building, and have UPS stick that damn bonus up where the sun dont shine.I think the 24.58 hourly rate will keep me happy and I will never ever be bothered for production.