Cover guys
- Thread starter TooTechie
- Start date
DS
Fenderbender
I have nothing but the utmost respect for cover drivers.I've been on the same run 23 years and have days that I have to come back later to do resi's that are "right there".I don't like it but grin and bear it.My lunch is sacred.I get all the business out of the way,regardless of trace and stop for an hour every day and eat/chill out.
There have been a few days that I did other routes or splits,and I hate being lost.
UPS just opened up out east here in Canada and I went there to help out for a week.
Scary stuff,St John Nfld...right downtown totally lost except for my map book.
I propose a toast to swing drivers everywhere!!!
There have been a few days that I did other routes or splits,and I hate being lost.
UPS just opened up out east here in Canada and I went there to help out for a week.
Scary stuff,St John Nfld...right downtown totally lost except for my map book.
I propose a toast to swing drivers everywhere!!!
Indecisi0n
Well-Known Member
Yes. Working us until 8-8:30 is now the new normal return time to the center.
Loved being a "swing driver" till guys with less seniority would cry because they didn't know routes. Since I knew 35 of 40 I'd get bounced around every day. So I bid a training rte (mall) and laugh all winter when they go out blind in a foot of snow, I'm in the mall waiting for the thaw and swing for the summer. Best of both worlds!
DS
Fenderbender
OK you asked...ha ha...
This discussion happened at a big "Michaels" store.
Me ~Hi,I have a pkg for you .
Reciever~ya know by' yer da turd ups goy ta show up inna lass dirty foi minits.
Me~I'm not surprised, they are just starting up here and they're still disorganized.
I won't forget that ever.
hurricanegunner
UPSPoop
I would much rather bid on a crappy route than never know what to expect. At least you know where you're going and you don't have to guess at delivery points. Moreover, the people on a crappy route will get to know and like you as long as you're nice to them. As a cover driver, the customers don't know you and treat you differently than if you were their regular driver.
Being a cover driver sucks for the first 4 or 5 years where I'm at. It's when you finally get some seniority and can pick which route you'll cover that it's not so bad. That being said, I'd rather know what I'm up against everyday so I can plan a life...or lack thereof.
AKCoverMan
Well-Known Member
I am the senior cover in a center where we put out about 35-38 routes a day from the building and another five from a "satellite" (a vacant lot next to a transmission center where we pay to park our package cars at night"). I know about 30ish of these well enough to get them done and have a good number of routes that I probably know nearly as well as the bid driver.
I have passed on a number of bids as I enjoy the variety..heavy city route one week and miles and miles of rural Alaska in a 4x4 the next. I once covered a city route in a warehouse district.. lots of bulk but lots of easy back up to the dock and hand packages to waiting hands stops.. for about six weeks straigt. I like this route and cover it a lot, it is held by our steward and he is pretty senior so between vacations and union time he is gone quite a bit and I enjoy covering it.. but after six weeks I was so anxious to do something else!
I average about 52-55 hours a week. I really want to keep it around 50 but it is what it is.. hey I'm getting paid! I am not a "runner". I do my best to get all the work done safely, make service, and get done as early as I can so I can go home.
In our center cover drivers are full time seniority drivers who just have not bid (or won a bid) on a route. I am guaranteed work everyday based on my seniority. We do not however get to bid on open routes, we are assigned by route knowledge. Obviously when you cover five routes in five days or get sent to help others after running a route close to scratch your over allowed is not on average what you would call "good". But oh, well. I get it done.
I have passed on a number of bids as I enjoy the variety..heavy city route one week and miles and miles of rural Alaska in a 4x4 the next. I once covered a city route in a warehouse district.. lots of bulk but lots of easy back up to the dock and hand packages to waiting hands stops.. for about six weeks straigt. I like this route and cover it a lot, it is held by our steward and he is pretty senior so between vacations and union time he is gone quite a bit and I enjoy covering it.. but after six weeks I was so anxious to do something else!
I average about 52-55 hours a week. I really want to keep it around 50 but it is what it is.. hey I'm getting paid! I am not a "runner". I do my best to get all the work done safely, make service, and get done as early as I can so I can go home.
In our center cover drivers are full time seniority drivers who just have not bid (or won a bid) on a route. I am guaranteed work everyday based on my seniority. We do not however get to bid on open routes, we are assigned by route knowledge. Obviously when you cover five routes in five days or get sent to help others after running a route close to scratch your over allowed is not on average what you would call "good". But oh, well. I get it done.
TooTechie
Geek in Brown
If you're a permanent full time driver who has made seniority why on earth would you not be allowed to bid on a route? If that were the case how would you ever get a route?
AKCoverMan
Well-Known Member
Sorry if I was unclear. I can bid on a route that is posted for a permanent bid. I choose not to.
But in some centers the full time cover drivers bid every week on the routes that are known vacant the next week due to vacations. The covers can bid to be assinged to one of these routes. If he/she does not bid or is not succsessful in bidding, then he/she is on the bench or extra board and will be assigned by management to cover a route vacated by a call in or to a split car that does not have a bid driver.
In our center, the covers do not bid on the open routes each week we are just assigned at will by management. The only thing they have to worry about seniority wise it that they don't send a cover out with less seniority than someone on the bench unless the senior driver wants the day off.
TooTechie
Geek in Brown
Gotcha. When you say on the bench do you mean involuntarily laid off for the day?
AKCoverMan
Well-Known Member
Yes, drivers with no route. Some days you arrive at the center on the bench but end up with a route by PCM time.
Sometimes the last few drivers in seniority will be listed as "call" on the start time sheet. Usually they just show up anyway and usually work (someone always wants the day off) but by not giving them a start time the company is not obligated to work them. I am far enough up that I am never listed as "call" so if they send me home it has to be by mutual agreement.
At 0845 I am almost always agreeable to going home.
kingOFchester
Well-Known Member
You were lucky, map flashlight was not provided to me. I was told on day 1, get a map. Flashlight was something I figured out that I needed to buy on day 2.
barnyard
KTM rider
At 0845 I am almost always agreeable to going home.
Me too. 1 of the best parts of being high up on the cover list.
Today I did a route that I have not done in 6 or 7 years. Decided to do it pretty close to 100% trace. What a cluster.
trace what the hell is trace... If I followed trace on some routes I cover I be out there 2 days...
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I have nothing but the utmost respect for cover drivers.I've been on the same run 23 years and have days that I have to come back later to do resi's that are "right there".I don't like it but grin and bear it.My lunch is sacred.I get all the business out of the way,regardless of trace and stop for an hour every day and eat/chill out.
There have been a few days that I did other routes or splits,and I hate being lost.
UPS just opened up out east here in Canada and I went there to help out for a week.
Scary stuff,St John Nfld...right downtown totally lost except for my map book.
I propose a toast to swing drivers everywhere!!!
There has been a store to ship out UPS in St Johns for a long while. I know this as my wife has some family up there. Spot on with the accent. I am still laughing.
brown bomber
brown bomber
You guys would S#%T your britches, if you could have witnessed some of the routes (split routes), that I delivered.....back in the mid -1980's...I had routes, that delivered in 4 counties.....I had routes, where the pkgs. were loaded on 4 piles on the floor of the pkg. car/ by city or area ( if you had a good loader)..it wasn't to bad...when Mgt. started to invent split-cars, that were impossible...I finally bid a route....management, had much more flexibility 25-30 yrs. ago
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