Do all centers have 22.4 drivers?

just chillin'

Rest in peace wooba
You think this job is gonna be around in 30 years in even remotely the same fashion?
you think the job today resembles the job thirty years ago? zero communication from center to driver. zero electronics involved (no diad or scensors in trucks). no power stearing. no automatics. cash cod deliveries. preload had sort charts and load charts you needed to memorize and 120 not 180 stops was a 8 hour day
 
you think the job today resembles the job thirty years ago? zero communication from center to driver. zero electronics involved (no diad or scensors in trucks). no power stearing. no automatics. cash cod deliveries. preload had sort charts and load charts you needed to memorize and 120 not 180 stops was a 8 hour day
I did have a cool pager.
 

oldngray

nowhere special
you think the job today resembles the job thirty years ago? zero communication from center to driver. zero electronics involved (no diad or scensors in trucks). no power stearing. no automatics. cash cod deliveries. preload had sort charts and load charts you needed to memorize and 120 not 180 stops was a 8 hour day
And they had to get the dispatches pretty much right in the morning. Once you left what you had was what you delivered. Little of dispatch them and figure out who needs help later.

Another big thing was no on calls. Those can really mess up your day.
 

tourists24

Well-Known Member
And they had to get the dispatches pretty much right in the morning. Once you left what you had was what you delivered. Little of dispatch them and figure out who needs help later.

Another big thing was no on calls. Those can really mess up your day.
Or when a stop had 10 boxes but you only find 8, only to find the other 2 later in the day. Those boxes just got thrown on a shelf to be delivered the next day
 

oldngray

nowhere special
I did have a cool pager.

I really hated the pagers. Predictably UPS went for the super cheapo versions that didn't display a message. You just had to call in and ask what they wanted. Usually they had to find who sent the page to ask or the page should have gone to someone else or other such foolishness. Before the pagers they would call and leave a message at one of your pickups.
 
I really hated the pagers. Predictably UPS went for the super cheapo versions that didn't display a message. You just had to call in and ask what they wanted. Usually they had to find who sent the page to ask or the page should have gone to someone else or other such foolishness. Before the pagers they would call and leave a message at one of your pickups.
Unfortunately my battery seemed to die a lot......:devil3:
 

just chillin'

Rest in peace wooba
And they had to get the dispatches pretty much right in the morning
routes where pretty straight forward and each route got the same streets everyday regardless of volume. on car would come on the line at like 7 and start looking at stop count sheets hung on the back and have the preloader adjust 20 here or 20 there. we called it the beauty of the loop. where each route started and ended next to another route
 

sailfish

Master of Karate and Friendship for Everyone
@sailfish ?


What's the deal ?
Boy. Where to begin. I guess we can start by ruling out the because it sucks kind of thing. Everybody knows how much it sucks and why. That's obvious. So we'll delve into the more specific and thought out reasons, in no particular order.

I'll start by pointing out that I can vividly remember one big turning point of realization. Mind you, this was still several years before I finally quit. I was bringing stops for another driver that I had loaded with mine. He was an older guy, been doing this job quite a long time with his own route. I pulled up and as he came walking out of the truck with his knee brace on he takes one look at all the crap I brought and says to me, "Do you really want to do this the rest of your life?" I kinda laughed it off, but as I really thought to myself, the answer was no...

A few reasons were touched upon in this thread in fact. The writing's on the wall. Twenty to thirty years from now, UPS is going to be a very different place to work. There's absolutely no telling what exactly is in store, but I think we can all agree that it is headed downhill. Encroaching technology, more online commerce than the company can keep up with, a continually eroding union that gives more and more back every contract. Not to mention the absolute JOKE of air handling that was going on almost a year before I left and sounds like it has yet to be resolved. It's not looking bright.

So I'm not confident in the future of the job. Why else did I have to get out? Let's take a look at personal control, or lack thereof. As a UPS driver, you have virtually zero control over your workload, where you're going, how you're doing it, and when you're getting done. Yeah, 9.5, bid, the whole spiel. But let's be honest. That's not personal control. It's negotiating. And they couldn't give a stream of piss about what you have to say or what you might suggest to fix things.

On the flip side, at my current job, every morning we all sit down and have a meeting. We all discuss the jobs we have and the status of them. People give their plans, ask each other questions, and give their own suggestions or inputs. After that we are dispatched out and individually have the creative freedom to go about the job however we see best fit. We are problem solvers, and it's a very satisfying feeling. At UPS, my only option was to open wide and eat it, then ride the crazy train all the way to the scene of the crash.

So what else is there? Now let's talk about dependence. Driving for UPS pays well. That's a given. But why? Because of the union. Delivering is not a specialized skill or talent, thus UPS is the ONLY place where you will make that kind of money doing it. Go to another company and say you were a delivery driver for fifteen years and they're gonna say WDFD. Since I already had no confidence in UPS' future, I didn't want to also be dependent on them to earn a respectable income. I didn't want to be there for ten, fifteen, twenty years and have absolutely nothing to show for it skill-wise. I wanted to learn something and enter a field where I would be ever honing my skillset and knowledge base in something that's not only needed but very hard to come by and puts me in control in the job market. UPS wasn't that place.

On a similar note, there's the relocation thing. I don't mind living around here, but if I'm being honest it'll be mostly ghost towns in fifteen to twenty years. Then what? And maybe I'm not necessarily forced to relocate for reasons such as that, but maybe I just want to. To continue driving for UPS I would have to go through the "transfer" process and start at the bottom all over again. Being able to just take my skills and offer them elsewhere and negotiate my own wage right where I left off (or higher) just sounds much more appealing to me.

I was led to believe that this was a Monday through Friday job when I first signed up. Saturday air was bad enough but with Saturday ground on the horizon and Sunday delivery obviously following at some point, the appeal of a rigid schedule that I can plan around was lost.

So is there anything else? Yeah, actually. Quite a bit still. They probably don't necessitate getting as in-depth and more or less just put the nail in the coffin with the rest so I'll brush on them quick. I got tired of hating Christmas, really didn't want to spend the next thirty years doing that. I got tired of getting a knot in my stomach every time I saw snow in the forecast. I got tired of their double standards and appearance guideline bull:censored2:. I got tired of my C.M.'s ugly mug. I got tired being on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the back of a :censored2:ing package car. I got sick of being micromanaged. I got sick of their management tactics. My body was already starting to push back and I still had a long way to go. I just had enough. The bull:censored2: had reached it's threshold.

It was during Peak 2017 that I knew this was the end. I decided there would be no more questions or pondering. My mind was made up, and that perhaps served as the glimmer of hope or the cliched light at the end of the tunnel that helped pull me through and finish. There would be no more hollow threats of throwing in the towel. From there through the end of peak, when I said I was done I meant it. Just ask my driver helper. Peak ended and I gave my two weeks. I enjoyed a month off before taking a six-month technical training program and getting employed almost immediately after. I haven't looked back.
 
Boy. Where to begin. I guess we can start by ruling out the because it sucks kind of thing. Everybody knows how much it sucks and why. That's obvious. So we'll delve into the more specific and thought out reasons, in no particular order.

I'll start by pointing out that I can vividly remember one big turning point of realization. Mind you, this was still several years before I finally quit. I was bringing stops for another driver that I had loaded with mine. He was an older guy, been doing this job quite a long time with his own route. I pulled up and as he came walking out of the truck with his knee brace on he takes one look at all the crap I brought and says to me, "Do you really want to do this the rest of your life?" I kinda laughed it off, but as I really thought to myself, the answer was no...

A few reasons were touched upon in this thread in fact. The writing's on the wall. Twenty to thirty years from now, UPS is going to be a very different place to work. There's absolutely no telling what exactly is in store, but I think we can all agree that it is headed downhill. Encroaching technology, more online commerce than the company can keep up with, a continually eroding union that gives more and more back every contract. Not to mention the absolute JOKE of air handling that was going on almost a year before I left and sounds like it has yet to be resolved. It's not looking bright.

So I'm not confident in the future of the job. Why else did I have to get out? Let's take a look at personal control, or lack thereof. As a UPS driver, you have virtually zero control over your workload, where you're going, how you're doing it, and when you're getting done. Yeah, 9.5, bid, the whole spiel. But let's be honest. That's not personal control. It's negotiating. And they couldn't give a stream of piss about what you have to say or what you might suggest to fix things.

On the flip side, at my current job, every morning we all sit down and have a meeting. We all discuss the jobs we have and the status of them. People give their plans, ask each other questions, and give their own suggestions or inputs. After that we are dispatched out and individually have the creative freedom to go about the job however we see best fit. We are problem solvers, and it's a very satisfying feeling. At UPS, my only option was to open wide and eat it, then ride the crazy train all the way to the scene of the crash.

So what else is there? Now let's talk about dependence. Driving for UPS pays well. That's a given. But why? Because of the union. Delivering is not a specialized skill or talent, thus UPS is the ONLY place where you will make that kind of money doing it. Go to another company and say you were a delivery driver for fifteen years and they're gonna say WDFD. Since I already had no confidence in UPS' future, I didn't want to also be dependent on them to earn a respectable income. I didn't want to be there for ten, fifteen, twenty years and have absolutely nothing to show for it skill-wise. I wanted to learn something and enter a field where I would be ever honing my skillset and knowledge base in something that's not only needed but very hard to come by and puts me in control in the job market. UPS wasn't that place.

On a similar note, there's the relocation thing. I don't mind living around here, but if I'm being honest it'll be mostly ghost towns in fifteen to twenty years. Then what? And maybe I'm not necessarily forced to relocate for reasons such as that, but maybe I just want to. To continue driving for UPS I would have to go through the "transfer" process and start at the bottom all over again. Being able to just take my skills and offer them elsewhere and negotiate my own wage right where I left off (or higher) just sounds much more appealing to me.

I was led to believe that this was a Monday through Friday job when I first signed up. Saturday air was bad enough but with Saturday ground on the horizon and Sunday delivery obviously following at some point, the appeal of a rigid schedule that I can plan around was lost.

So is there anything else? Yeah, actually. Quite a bit still. They probably don't necessitate getting as in-depth and more or less just put the nail in the coffin with the rest so I'll brush on them quick. I got tired of hating Christmas, really didn't want to spend the next thirty years doing that. I got tired of getting a knot in my stomach every time I saw snow in the forecast. I got tired of their double standards and appearance guideline bull:censored2:. I got tired of my C.M.'s ugly mug. I got tired being on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the back of a :censored2:ing package car. I got sick of being micromanaged. I got sick of their management tactics. My body was already starting to push back and I still had a long way to go. I just had enough. The bull:censored2: had reached it's threshold.

It was during Peak 2017 that I knew this was the end. I decided there would be no more questions or pondering. My mind was made up, and that perhaps served as the glimmer of hope or the cliched light at the end of the tunnel that helped pull me through and finish. There would be no more hollow threats of throwing in the towel. From there through the end of peak, when I said I was done I meant it. Just ask my driver helper. Peak ended and I gave my two weeks. I enjoyed a month off before taking a six-month technical training program and getting employed almost immediately after. I haven't looked back.
TLDR
 
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