Fed EX Working Hours

[golfgod00]

I am new to this forum and I a driver who works for a contractor at FHD Anniston, AL for two years now and well our terminal has been going through some negative changes; one is that three drivers have quit since the beginning of the year and I do the longest route of the terminal in mileage; it takes me over 70 miles and 1 ½ to 2 hours of driving to get to my first stop; I do a 15 mile wide rural area with very small towns (Western DeKalb County, AL) and the I drive 30 miles and about a 45 minute drive (narrow mountain steep roads) to get to a large town with a 20 mile wide area (Guntersville, AL) with a huge lake (Lake Guntersville) and narrow mountain roads to contend with.

Well the problem is this takes a very long time to complete and it is tiresome; on Saturday I arrived at the terminal at 7:00 am and left around 9:00 am and did not come back to the terminal till around 11:00 pm; a 16 hour day with no breaks. And this has been going on for a long time now. I have lost business to UPS because I cannot get to the place in time and the area (DeKalb County) is too small for a Fed Ex Ground truck to service.

To get to the point I receive a little more than $400 a week to work 13-16 hours a day (a few times working as late as 1:00 am)with no breaks and I have had customers, government officials, police officers, and even other UPS and Fed Ex drivers who have said you are getting screwed. Some Government officials and customers and even the doctor that does our DOT physicals have contacted officials regarding going over our hours of service and have even been suspended the two days before Christmas because I did not have enough hours left. With being diagnosed with high blood pressure and given my chances of finding another job (I have a hard time finding a job since 2005 when the economy was good and filled out 30+ applications to find my first job); what is the best thing I should do and has any other Fed Ex drivers experienced similar problems.

First thing if your contractor is paying you $400 or a little over, your getting screwed............with DOT regulations you cannot work more than 14hrs so if you cannot get your route done, bring the packages back.........you get wrote up by fedex 6 times than your suspended for 36months and then that means your out of a job.............I would have a talk with your contractor about your route and the hrs, he needs to adjust your route because you are getting screwed and its unsafe to be out there esp at 1 in the morning.........you really shouldnt be working more than 12hrs.............I ran HD in kansas and run the longest rural route in our terminal and i had to talk to my contractor to adjust my route.........in our terminal our drivers on the average get paid $600 a week..........i got $700..........also your hrs are figured by the start time you punch in your handheld, so when you get your handheld and log in to load your truck juice up the time.....so if you leave the terminal at 830.....put your start time at 8. kind of sounds like you dont have a job there anymore........there are tricks to beating the system........and fedex wont tell you any of them, all they care is the packages get delivered. most of the fedex managers are jerks, especially in wichita kansas.........they can care less when you get done or how many hrs you work........they know their leaving by 4pm no matter what but could care less what time you get done........they just want the packages delivered. and they may act like their your friend but soon as you do something they dont like they are all over you........and you dont get paid by them, no benefits from fedex but you got to go by their rules............it is complete BS!..........it would be so much better if we had our stuff in a warehouse load up and go and only one in the warehouse was drivers and contractors..........if there was no fedex employees in the building the morale would be so much better!!!!