fuel management

UPSmeoff

Well-Known Member
I just found out i am going to lose my nice diesel pkg car with power steering that i literally waited 8 years to get.
The replacement will be a old P1000 without power steering. I dont drive very far on my route so i dont deserve a car that gets very good gas mileage. I dont know where my car will go.
I hear this is a nationwide thing.
I understand wanting to save money, but my moral has been down for awhile now and this may just be the straw that breaks the camels back.
Everybody in my center is getting a different car based on the gas mileage of said car. Some cars are being swapped out with the exact same make model and year.
How do they even determine the gas mileage on these things?

Shame on U.P.S.
 

Fredless

APWA Hater
I deliver to a "BFE" area and I got stuck with a P500 one day and literally used a tank of gas by the time I got back to the hub. Wrote "check engine maybe...truck gets horrible fuel mileage."

next day mechanic wrote "the gas powered P500's get 7mpg with a 20 gallon tank 140miles. Vech. ok for serv."

In our hub all of the gassers use a Chevy 4.3 V6, no p/s, etc.

Sorry about your luck. But what would you rather have? Layoffs or stuck with a gasser? It may be a small impact on you, but a large scale it can save some big money. In my eyes, anything to project jobs.
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
next day mechanic wrote "the gas powered P500's get 7mpg with a 20 gallon tank 140miles. Vech. ok for serv.".

The P500 I drive in the morning to run EAMs will get 20 MPG in city driving. Sometimes it is empty except for 4-6 EAMs, sometimes it will be a loaded split car. I will drive 20 miles on area starting with a topped off tank and have to force a gallon of gas in it when I get back. My 2006 P7 will get about 19 on the highway and 4-5 on area in the subdivisions.
They may not junk these P5s after all............:wink2:
 

browniehound

Well-Known Member
Now I happy I have one of the farthest routes from the center. It stinks when I'm finished and it takes me 35 minutes to get back, but if it helps me keep my car, I'll take that everyday of the week.
 

wornoutupser

Well-Known Member
I really hope that this is true!
I am one of the old drivers that always get a crappy car becaquse I stand up for myself. It would be super to get a decent car because I have a long run! YAHOO
 

Griff

Well-Known Member
Awful lot of old timers in my center are gonna be very unhappy with this. Low mileage routes with those brand new freightliner dreamboats. Couple of them have said they will retire if they have to go back to their old junker 800's.
 

reydluap

Well-Known Member
I drive the newest P-1000 in our building (1996 model diesel). I get around 12 to 13 MPG out of it. Drive 200 to 225 miles a day. It takes an hour and seventeen minutes to drive to my first stop (67 miles) and about the same time on the return trip. I have always wondered why the Company placed the better fuel mileage packages cars near the Center.
 

UPSmeoff

Well-Known Member
I just found out i am going to lose my nice diesel pkg car with power steering that i literally waited 8 years to get.
The replacement will be a old P1000 without power steering. I dont drive very far on my route so i dont deserve a car that gets very good gas mileage. I dont know where my car will go.
I hear this is a nationwide thing.
I understand wanting to save money, but my moral has been down for awhile now and this may just be the straw that breaks the camels back.
Everybody in my center is getting a different car based on the gas mileage of said car. Some cars are being swapped out with the exact same make model and year.
How do they even determine the gas mileage on these things?

Shame on U.P.S.


After rereading this i realize i was too harsh. Obviously UPS wants to save money and i dont blame them. I just wish i was not so directly affected.
My elbow hurts just thinking about the 3 point turns that i have to do in every cul de sac all day long.
I will miss my power steering.
 

brownrodster

Well-Known Member
After rereading this i realize i was too harsh. Obviously UPS wants to save money and i dont blame them. I just wish i was not so directly affected.
My elbow hurts just thinking about the 3 point turns that i have to do in every cul de sac all day long.
I will miss my power steering.

I don't blame you for being upset. I'm a spoiled driver too. Most of my days I spend in newer trucks with power steering. I dread those days I have to drive older trucks.
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
After rereading this i realize i was too harsh. Obviously UPS wants to save money and i dont blame them. I just wish i was not so directly affected.
My elbow hurts just thinking about the 3 point turns that i have to do in every cul de sac all day long.
I will miss my power steering.
You were not too harsh. Power steering should be in every truck. Duh, it just helps us do our job faster, without tearing our elbows and wrists to shreds.
I will cry, as they will soon take mine, and I waited 15 yrs.
 

satellitedriver

Moderator
After rereading this i realize i was too harsh. Obviously UPS wants to save money and i dont blame them. I just wish i was not so directly affected.
My elbow hurts just thinking about the 3 point turns that i have to do in every cul de sac all day long.
I will miss my power steering.
I try and fool myself that my 1988 P5 ,stick shift, no power steering, provides me with a good upper body workout. The turning radius is horrible. Rarely, can I make a 3 point turn.
5 to 6 points on average.
I love my P5 now.
I drove a P7 international one day on my route.
I thought I would like it.
It beat the #@!! out of me.
I will stick with my old war pony.
10 mpg.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
I honestly don't think I would of made my last 5 years if I wouldn't have had my power steering and easy to operate clutch pedal. My prievious old 8 cube had just about beat my body to a pulp. (one trick I always did was disconnect the 2 clutch pedal return springs under the dash and lose them. It made the clutch a little bit easier to operate although the center mechanic didn't like it. It's hard on the throwout bearing they said. (take care of that throwout bearing and screw the drivers knees):peaceful:
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
After rereading this i realize i was too harsh. Obviously UPS wants to save money and i dont blame them. I just wish i was not so directly affected.
My elbow hurts just thinking about the 3 point turns that i have to do in every cul de sac all day long.
I will miss my power steering.
UPS made a business decision...that your life was not worth the extra $30 that it would have cost to equip your vehicle with a 3-point seat belt.
UPS made a business decision...that your health was not worth the extra $400-$600 it would have cost to equip your vehicle with power steering.
The "logic" behind this decision...is that a vehicle without power steering will get an extra 2000 miles of life out of a set of front tires. The reality is that the wear and tear on the tires is simply being transferred to the shoulders, elbows and wrists of the driver.
Given these facts...it is often a challenge for me to stop myself from telling our management team to kindly take their "10-point commentary" and stick it up their ass.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
Awful lot of old timers in my center are gonna be very unhappy with this. Low mileage routes with those brand new freightliner dreamboats. Couple of them have said they will retire if they have to go back to their old junker 800's.
That is probably part of the logic behind UPS's decision. What better way to save money than by forcing an aging employee out the door with equipment that has been intentionally designed to beat him up?
 
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Johney

Well-Known Member
I know how thhey could save fuel. Get better dispatchers or give them help. Drivers crisscrossing others,two drivers doing the same heighborhoods. I've actually seen three drivers in a 1/2 mile resi area at the same time. Now that can't be cost effective can it? How about a circle development with cul-du-sacs off of it, one driver had the circle and another got the cul-du-sacs.:biting:
 

JustTired

free at last.......
Nobody has even mentioned the higher step up into the old cars. That's a killer. I drive a deisel p-1000 and when it goes down and they stick me with an old one, man do I feel it the next day.

The best car ever made was the old Ford p-500. No power steering...but you really didn't need it. With the independent front suspension, that thing would fly down bumpy rural roads. It was replaced with the GM version and those things were (are) death traps.

I don't really care about automatic transmissions. I kind of enjoy shifting. Half the time I don't use the clutch when shifting, so that saves my leg some wear and tear.

Getting close to the end. So if they switch cars on me, I'll put up with it. The smile is starting to show and it will take more than that to wipe it off!
 

feeder53

ADKtrails
I feel for all those people who are getting equipment that they are not used to, but UPS probably tracks the gas mileage on all vehicles and they are cross leveling the field for the new increases in fuel prices. I have worked for a number of different union barns and I had my share of the vehicles that no one else would drive. Every time I moved to a new barn I had to start at the bottom with equipment. Just imagine what some of the new guys are driving...As far as UPS, they must conserve the fuel at all cost to stay in the game.
 
I know for a fact that UPS tracks mileage on Pcars. My first job at UPS was fuel and oil clerk (with other jobs thrown in), I did fuel and oil reconciliation including the MPGs of all cars. Sometimes getting it right was hard to do because of drivers getting outside fuel and not turning in reciepts or logging the gals. As far as I know, they never used the MPG info for determining what car was loaded to where, but they could have.
 
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