Driver gets fired

mikeb

tnbrown
A while back we had a young driver in our center who was always getting under mgmt's skin. "Pushing the envelope" if u know what i mean. One day he gets a Driver Follow-Up form for an electronic device he driver released on the porch. After going to the home, the cust said he never received it. This infuriated the driver(we'll call him "Mark"), because it was a nice home in a huge subdivision. So UPS sent him a letter charging him for the cost of the item. Their reasoning was "porch visible from street". This angered "Mark" even more because in this huge subdivision every porch was visible from the street. You could take 4 steps and be at the front door at just about every house. So in retaliation, "Mark" decides he will get sigs at every single house and we're talkiing about 100+ stops a day. So now hes staying out really late, after 9pm usually. Our center manager warns him to stop it, but he continues. An On-Road Sup rides with him, he still continues even though they almost get in a fist fight. "Mark" says take away the charges and I'll stop. UPS refuses. He gets fired, but for something else. As we all know, there is a place in the DIAD to put in over 70's. Mgmt audits his truck one morning and notices about 2 over 70's. At the end of the day, "Mark" has recorded about 8. Apparently, putting over 70's in the DIAD gives u more time. So they fired him for "stealing time" and "falsifying documents". He never got his job back. So watch it fellas, if your a thorn in their side and UPS wants to fire u, they'll find a way. Just curious, what other drivers would have done in this situation.
 

Backlasher

Stronger, Faster, Browner
Ummm, Maybe DR back door/porch unless it's electronic. It's bad enough that you have 100+ stops and also have 2 and 3rd attempts from previous days for not getting a sig in a DR area.
I thought you can't DR electronics in any case?

Even if diad prompts me shipper release I won't if it's electronic.

1st incodent they should assume the res is either trying to get a freebee or it was stolen. He shouldn't of got charged but I'm not management.
 

browned_out

Well-Known Member
I'm sure the phrase "out of sight, out of weather" comes to mind. Be careful when DRing, any slight deviation from known policy will screw you in the end. Was this a brown box with elec equip inside or was it clearly a vcr/dvd, stereo pkg?
 
H

hseofpayne

Guest
A while back we had a young driver in our center who was always getting under mgmt's skin. "Pushing the envelope" if u know what i mean. One day he gets a Driver Follow-Up form for an electronic device he driver released on the porch. After going to the home, the cust said he never received it. This infuriated the driver(we'll call him "Mark"), because it was a nice home in a huge subdivision. So UPS sent him a letter charging him for the cost of the item. Their reasoning was "porch visible from street". This angered "Mark" even more because in this huge subdivision every porch was visible from the street. You could take 4 steps and be at the front door at just about every house. So in retaliation, "Mark" decides he will get sigs at every single house and we're talkiing about 100+ stops a day. So now hes staying out really late, after 9pm usually. Our center manager warns him to stop it, but he continues. An On-Road Sup rides with him, he still continues even though they almost get in a fist fight. "Mark" says take away the charges and I'll stop. UPS refuses. He gets fired, but for something else. As we all know, there is a place in the DIAD to put in over 70's. Mgmt audits his truck one morning and notices about 2 over 70's. At the end of the day, "Mark" has recorded about 8. Apparently, putting over 70's in the DIAD gives u more time. So they fired him for "stealing time" and "falsifying documents". He never got his job back. So watch it fellas, if your a thorn in their side and UPS wants to fire u, they'll find a way. Just curious, what other drivers would have done in this situation.
My preacher used to say "there's three sides to every story; your side, her side, and the truth!!!" Once it got to the point a supervisor instructed him to DR pkgs, he should have stopped and had supervisor give him something in writing, signed and dated, and kept for his protection. I have always been told you can't be fired for info in DIAD and I don't see how UPS could prove he didn't come across other over 70 pkgs that weren't properly marked. Sounds like he needed better union rep. Beyond that ,I always managed to get any money I felt I was cheated out of; skipped lunches or whatever; over a period of time, a work slowdown of sorts! We have a driver in our center who keeps a notepad with him to keep up with lost time, keeps a running account of how much time he is owed! Once you have da' man on your back its sometimes best to lay low, they always find someone else to screw with sooner or later , or better yet da' man moves on out of center. I do hate the man lost his job. He reminds me of some of the crazy ideas I used to have to get back at UPS. I drove a UPS car out of diesel once because manager wouldn't keep saturday air drivers from stealing our fuel cards! Got in a bit of trouble on that one. Our center had the same situation as this guy once I remember now. We did pretty much the same as he did except a majority of of did it together;strength in numbers. UPS rarely makes changes unless it cost them money, What we did differentwas work together as a group.
 

mikeb

tnbrown
I'm sure the phrase "out of sight, out of weather" comes to mind. Be careful when DRing, any slight deviation from known policy will screw you in the end. Was this a brown box with elec equip inside or was it clearly a vcr/dvd, stereo pkg?
I think the pkg was just a plain box with a DVD player inside. It shouldnt matter. If its a DR area(especially in a nice neighborhood), and it doesnt say "sig required", the driver should be able to DR the pkg. If something happens, then that's the shippers problem with UPS, not the driver. In this case mgmt didnt like this particular driver and was looking for anything to get rid of him.
 

Channahon

Well-Known Member
A while back we had a young driver in our center who was always getting under mgmt's skin. "Pushing the envelope" if u know what i mean. One day he gets a Driver Follow-Up form for an electronic device he driver released on the porch. After going to the home, the cust said he never received it. This infuriated the driver(we'll call him "Mark"), because it was a nice home in a huge subdivision. So UPS sent him a letter charging him for the cost of the item. Their reasoning was "porch visible from street". This angered "Mark" even more because in this huge subdivision every porch was visible from the street. You could take 4 steps and be at the front door at just about every house. So in retaliation, "Mark" decides he will get sigs at every single house and we're talkiing about 100+ stops a day. So now hes staying out really late, after 9pm usually. Our center manager warns him to stop it, but he continues. An On-Road Sup rides with him, he still continues even though they almost get in a fist fight. "Mark" says take away the charges and I'll stop. UPS refuses. He gets fired, but for something else. As we all know, there is a place in the DIAD to put in over 70's. Mgmt audits his truck one morning and notices about 2 over 70's. At the end of the day, "Mark" has recorded about 8. Apparently, putting over 70's in the DIAD gives u more time. So they fired him for "stealing time" and "falsifying documents". He never got his job back. So watch it fellas, if your a thorn in their side and UPS wants to fire u, they'll find a way. Just curious, what other drivers would have done in this situation.

I'm not a driver, but will give my perspective on the situation.

Sounds like Mark has a problem with authority figures. Not sure why he thought he can continue to get signatures, when instructed not to by management.

Almost getting into a fist fight, is never a good thing, however, during an OJS the employee is to follow the supervisor's instruction, which he opted not to do.

Mark is the one whose own retaliation, bit him in the butt.

UPS didn't find a way to fire Mark, he did it all on his own.
 

trickpony1

Well-Known Member
This sounds like another classic "damned if you do and damned if you don't" scenario the company is so good about throwing its employees into and then expecting them to fend for themselves.
Without substantial proof and, apparently, without being allowed to face his accuser, Mark is being sent a bill for an item that disappeared despite him doing everything within his control.
It seems like Mark is simply protecting himself by getting sigs when in question. A reasonable person would understand Marks intent is only to protect himself, unfortunately his management team has a point to make and needed a sacrifical lamb.
.....and the company wonders why no one wants to go to pkg driving and those in pkg driving are going 22.3.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
Hmmm..... I've always been told getting a signature was "drivers discretion".

Of course, the spineless b*st**ds fired him for something else. Six extra over 70s! What did it gain him, 2 minutes? Ooooo, that's stealing time! What a crock of....!
 

DS

Fenderbender
Most of these young guys don't realize that losing thier job at ups over one small incident because they disagree is just not worth it.They are
a huge company that lets middle management run thier own show,and
very often (not always)these positions are filled my self serving bastards
that blacklist certain drivers if they talk back.He should have apologised
for his indiscression and agreed to follow proper procedure in the future.
He would still have a job and be able afford all the beer he needs to keep sane.
In my opinion he should have just paid for the goddam thing in the knowledge that this center manager or whatever,will be moved somewhere else
in the near future.BTW, as for the teamsters, they are just fricken useless.They are more self serving than the (occasional)management creep that pulls this crap ,and they just look the other way and take our money.
 

bad company

semi-pro
"I don't see how UPS could prove he didn't come across other over 70 pkgs that weren't properly marked..."

I think that's the kicker....I run into over 70 packages that are unmarked every day. I also get a lot of boxes that are conveniently just 69 pounds. And guess what; I count those as over 70 too... Guess I should turn in my letter of resignation now...

What a crock...
 

Griff

Well-Known Member
"I don't see how UPS could prove he didn't come across other over 70 pkgs that weren't properly marked..."

I think that's the kicker....I run into over 70 packages that are unmarked every day. I also get a lot of boxes that are conveniently just 69 pounds. And guess what; I count those as over 70 too... Guess I should turn in my letter of resignation now...

What a crock...

You're playing their game, they want you to do this. This is the same reason why most routes are dispatched with you skipping your lunch in mind. They want to dangle the carrot infront of you and see if you'll run for it.

I don't even take credit for 70lbers, only 71 and above. What do I care if I'm overallowed? They aren't my numbers and it certainly doesn't benchmark my performance.
 

brownmonster

Man of Great Wisdom
70 pounders have the big "H" on the world ship label. Big H equals over 70 to me. I would rather buy a DVD player than lose my job. The boss is like the wife. Just give in once in a while and your life goes alot smoother. I have yet to see a driver fired that I would have begged them to keep. Let em know how you feel but do the job the way they pay you to. BM
 

tieguy

Banned
Without substantial proof and, apparently, without being allowed to face his accuser, Mark is being sent a bill for an item that disappeared despite him doing everything within his control.

Thats the problem here Mark did not do everything within his control. Out of sight out of weather was only half done. Mark thought he had the right to decide it was ok to leave the pkg in plain view dependent on his opinion of what is and is not a good neighborhood. Mark was then made to pay for his poor dr and thought he would retaliate by getting signatures when the package is missing because he didn't do the delivery right the first time. So he is still not accepting any blame for his poor dr decision. So now he escalated his response and turned this event into a P___ing contest.

On another thought anyone ever ask to file a theft report with the police department when they were made to pay for a lost package? If I had to pay for one I think I'd be asking the police to meet me at that house and investigate the theft.
 

705red

Browncafe Steward
I'm not a driver, but will give my perspective on the situation.

Sounds like Mark has a problem with authority figures. Not sure why he thought he can continue to get signatures, when instructed not to by management.

Almost getting into a fist fight, is never a good thing, however, during an OJS the employee is to follow the supervisor's instruction, which he opted not to do.

Mark is the one whose own retaliation, bit him in the butt.

UPS didn't find a way to fire Mark, he did it all on his own.
If mark dred a package at a safe dr spot in a safe dr neighborhood and was charged with its loss, it is at marks discretion to dr. A sup cannot force you to dr packages that you feel is an unsafe dr as mark seems to have felt. We have drivers here who do the exact same thing and the only time i was put on notive of payment for a so called bad dr i did the same. On monday i brought back 40 n/ins, on tuesday i brought back 70 n/ins, on wed i brought back 90plus n/ins, on thursday i brought back 60 or so n/ins but more than 50 missed, and on friday they had to put in a half day route to clean my area. I was pulled in the office and i informed the company that i refuse to dr any package for the rest of my career if they plan to hold me accountable for a good d.r that they FELT was a bad dr. Needless to say they stopped pursuing the issue, because as an employee we have been trained to use good judgement, and if we do then we should not be held responsible for a freak theft or bogus customer claim.
 

Hangingon

Well-Known Member
Our residential run and gunner par excellance (avg 3 hours under ) has more DDFU's then any three drivers combined, but guess how many times he has ever had to pay a claim or even been talked to about it?
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
Our residential run and gunner par excellance (avg 3 hours under ) has more DDFU's then any three drivers combined, but guess how many times he has ever had to pay a claim or even been talked to about it?

Now that sounds familiar. We have a swingdriver that clocks out about 4:30 everyday. Runs all day, speeds, leaves car running, bulkhead door open, records his lunch hour 30 minutes to area, and thirty minutes back. I hated it when he ran my route if I was off. I would have to pick up mis-delivered packages and I always got a bunch of Driver Followups for weeks after. He has more claims than anybody else, but nothing has ever been done about it.
 

BigBrownSanta

Well-Known Member
Was this person running bonus? If not, then what did he steal? If he was running bonus, then ups was stealing from him.

Back in my "bonus" days, I too took the allowance for about 10 +70 pkgs. They didn't weigh 70 lbs, but the labels said 70 lbs. The next day, my center manager asked me about them, and I told him to pull the tracking numbers and contact the shipper to find out what the weight said on their end of day printout. He never mentioned it again.

As far as dr's, I don't dr to any empty porches. Some days I bring alot of pkgs back, so many so that my center manager drove around and actually photographed the porches of places that I hadn't dr'd to the previous day. He then called me into the office with a steward and told me to explain myself. All of the porches were clean porches without anything to hide a pkg behind. Only one was questionable, but the pkg was way too big to leave. I didn't get written up, and nothing else was said about it after that.

It's pathetic to hear ups fired someone over something so trivial. How much time can a +70 actually give you? 10/hundreths of a minute?
 

mikeb

tnbrown
A driver told me that one over 70 gives u 1 extra minute. So if u had 3 over 70's at a particular stop, then that should give u 3 extra minutes at that stop than u would ordinarily get with non over 70's. I guess it doesnt it matter if its it an apartment, house, etc. Can anyone verify this?
 

browned_out

Well-Known Member
:confused:1 In all reality is anybody really making that much time off coding over 70's? For the amount of over 70's you get everyday it can't be worth much, I for one don't even record them in the diad. As for the DR if you have a problem with a particular house, don't DR there anymore, I don't think you have to punish the whole neighborhood for one jerk.
 

plankton

Member
Address should have been put on level 4. Then the next time the guy orders a package he will have to call and whine about why UPS won't deliver to his house anymore.:laugh: As for the driver... it's always been my policy to try to stay under the radar of management. I mean how much could the DVD player cost? Now he doesn't have a job.
 
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