Breaking trace for lunch

[UPS29]

Lunch starts when you break trace. THINK ABOUT IT...Everyone would be driving a 15min to their favorite lunch spot and 15min back...You would be getting a 1.5 hour lunch break..Do you want me to take 1.5 hours off your paid day / 7.5 hrs out of your check every week.

 

[Catatonic]

these times you speak of are long gone.

True, true ... in many, many ways.

 

[TheBlack]

Lunch starts when you break trace. THINK ABOUT IT...Everyone would be driving a 15min to their favorite lunch spot and 15min back...You would be getting a 1.5 hour lunch break..Do you want me to take 1.5 hours off your paid day / 7.5 hrs out of your check every week.

What happens when you have punched out for lunch and are driving to your lunch spot and you T-bone somebody at an intersection...off the clock?

 

[Anonymous 10]

True, true ... in many, many ways.

I just try to make the best of it and laugh as much as I can. It's only a job we are all in the same boat.

 

[soberups]

Lunch starts when you break trace. THINK ABOUT IT...Everyone would be driving a 15min to their favorite lunch spot and 15min back...You would be getting a 1.5 hour lunch break..Do you want me to take 1.5 hours off your paid day / 7.5 hrs out of your check every week.

I will agree with you that driving 15 minutes and back to a "favorite lunch spot" when there are other options available on trace is not appropriate.

There are routes on my center, however, where a guy might have to drive 15 minutes simply to find a gas station restroom. If you want such employees to stay on a rigidly defined "trace", then as a company you had better be willing to rent Porta-Potties and position them at suitable intervals along that trace.

Your package cars are operated by human beings, and human beings have to pee and poop and wash their hands when they are done.

 

[soberups]

What happens when you have punched out for lunch and are driving to your lunch spot and you T-bone somebody at an intersection...off the clock?

I do not enter my lunch in the DIAD until after I am done taking it.

As far as liability for an accident goes, the truck is the property of UPS and UPS has insurance to cover whoever is operating it. Driving the vehicle is a work-related activity, so it wouldnt matter what time your entered your lunch in the DIAD.

 

[soberups]

I think I would have just taken the day off....Whether it's December or June, if I have to see a health care professional, that comes before the packages. I'm confident that Sober got permission in writing or in front of a witness before he took this liberty.
There was a day when I felt the kind of dedication Sober does, but those days are long gone and for good reason.

I had a temporary crown break off of one of my teeth....25 minutes before my start time on my way in to work.

It was peak and we were maxed out. My route doesnt exist in a vacuum....if I couldn't work, they would have had no alternative but to chop it up and divide it among the other routes in my loop who were already going out with 11-12 hr days . I didnt want to do that to my coworkers if there was any reasonable alternative. I called my dentist, made the appointment, and then informed my center manager that he could either let me drive the pkg car over there during my lunch break or I would have to call in sick. It was an easy decision.

 

[whiskey]

I never break trace for lunch. This gives me a full hour. On the down side, it's pretty boring locked inside a package car, curled up in the fetal position on a cold aluminum shelf, in 7 degree weather.

 

[TheBlack]

I will agree with you that driving 15 minutes and back to a "favorite lunch spot" when there are other options available on trace is not appropriate.

There are routes on my center, however, where a guy might have to drive 15 minutes simply to find a gas station restroom. If you want such employees to stay on a rigidly defined "trace", then as a company you had better be willing to rent Porta-Potties and position them at suitable intervals along that trace.

Your package cars are operated by human beings, and human beings have to pee and poop and wash their hands when they are done.

I do not advocate driving past five restaurants to get to "your" favorite one. On my rt. because of NDA, I will most likely will be five minutes from all the places to eat or five minutes from a very expensive golf course with a bar and grill (15.00 for a hamburger fries and coke). Management is telling me I have to spent part of my lunch hour driving back and forth to eat. I dont agree with that. They are forcing me to drive their truck off the clock and I believe that is wrong.

 

[Coldworld]

Oh...don't worry about it. Before you know it there will be some ie person outside the ups gate auditing the sups who go out to chain smoke all day...they will be held to a 2 cig a day quota or else pay will be subtracted...don't laugh its in the pipeline!

 

[DS]

If a manager says to drive while on lunch, I believe this is wrong. When a problem occurs (and it eventually will), there will be a knee jerk reaction in an opposite direction.

There seems to be no clear cut definition as far as ups policy goes.
This is off subject a bit but it shows how quickly things can change.
Remember the lunch fiasco in California?
Well,one of the drivers in our center,was not paid when he asked for and was approved
for a code 05.He got no help from either management or the union.
He called the labor board.Policy changed fast.
We now face disciplinary action if we do not show our whole break in the diad.
They HAVE to pay us whatever part of break we don't take.

 

[tourists24]

All I know this is what I have been told by a friend of mine who sits on many a panel..... You have every right to take your lunch "on area" even if you have to break trace. Once you leave your area you need to start your lunch..... Yes I know this doesnt address the liability issue, but this is how you can stay out of trouble if push comes to shove for the time being.

 

[Anonymous 10]

There seems to be no clear cut definition as far as ups policy goes.
This is off subject a bit but it shows how quickly things can change.
Remember the lunch fiasco in California?
Well,one of the drivers in our center,was not paid when he asked for and was approved
for a code 05.He got no help from either management or the union.
He called the labor board.Policy changed fast.
We now face disciplinary action if we do not show our whole break in the diad.
They HAVE to pay us whatever part of break we don't take.

We've got the same thing here too. If you take a twelve minute lunch you get paid for the other eighteen minutes.