Hourly Pay/Benefits - Differences Between Fedex Express and UPS

MassWineGuy

Well-Known Member
I worked three peaks with UPS as a runner as well as a driver. Granted, my experience is very limited, but here's what I took away:

UPS drivers are in the Teamsters Union and the top pay is around $34 an hour (maybe more now). Overall, their benefits package is the best in the known and unknown universe. UPS drivers work much, much (much) harder than FedEx couriers and corporate hounds the managers to push the sups to hammer the drivers about performance, etc. UPS counts every penny. You'll meet a ton of unhappy UPS drivers, despite the excellent money and benefits. Let me put it to you this way: Imagine during peak that your normal route, instead of having around 70 to 100 stops, has about 200.

My experience so far as a FedEx Express courier (part-time PM) is that the managers treat us like real human beings. They help and support me in what I need to do my job. No, I don't earn $34 an hour, but feeling good, thinking about the job and being glad to go to work, is of equal or greater value to me. I don't need to work fulltime and the money I bring in per month helps a lot. Couriers absolutely deserve to be paid more.
 

Slave101

Well-Known Member
I worked three peaks with UPS as a runner as well as a driver. Granted, my experience is very limited, but here's what I took away:

UPS drivers are in the Teamsters Union and the top pay is around $34 an hour (maybe more now). Overall, their benefits package is the best in the known and unknown universe. UPS drivers work much, much (much) harder than FedEx couriers and corporate hounds the managers to push the sups to hammer the drivers about performance, etc. UPS counts every penny. You'll meet a ton of unhappy UPS drivers, despite the excellent money and benefits. Let me put it to you this way: Imagine during peak that your normal route, instead of having around 70 to 100 stops, has about 200.

My experience so far as a FedEx Express courier (part-time PM) is that the managers treat us like real human beings. They help and support me in what I need to do my job. No, I don't earn $34 an hour, but feeling good, thinking about the job and being glad to go to work, is of equal or greater value to me. I don't need to work fulltime and the money I bring in per month helps a lot. Couriers absolutely deserve to be paid more.
Amen!
 

sandwich

The resident gearhead
Top pay is a little different everywhere. Here in so cal I think its 35 and some change. I'll have to look at my check.
 

UPS4Life

Well-Known Member
If you're young (ie in your 20's) you'd be a fool not to get a job at UPS. I say you need to be young because you're gonna hump for the first 10 yrs.
10 years!?!?!? I wasn't even there three years but was in within 2 months once I asked hr how to become a driver.


Sent using BrownCafe App
 

sandwich

The resident gearhead
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I've been at FedEx 17+ years my son-in-law has been with Brown just over 3 after a 4 year Military leave and he makes moe than me, 17 years with no break in service and still a few $ away from top out which I believe is about $9 or $10 lower than brown. But you know what I ain't mad at him during last peak I thought I was a hotshot with my bulked out sprinter and 200+ stops till he sent my a pic of this bulked out 1000 or whatever the largest UPS box truck is with 500+ stops. Them guys and gals earn their Benjis.
 

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
I worked three peaks with UPS as a runner as well as a driver. Granted, my experience is very limited, but here's what I took away:

UPS drivers are in the Teamsters Union and the top pay is around $34 an hour (maybe more now). Overall, their benefits package is the best in the known and unknown universe. UPS drivers work much, much (much) harder than FedEx couriers and corporate hounds the managers to push the sups to hammer the drivers about performance, etc. UPS counts every penny. You'll meet a ton of unhappy UPS drivers, despite the excellent money and benefits. Let me put it to you this way: Imagine during peak that your normal route, instead of having around 70 to 100 stops, has about 200.

My experience so far as a FedEx Express courier (part-time PM) is that the managers treat us like real human beings. They help and support me in what I need to do my job. No, I don't earn $34 an hour, but feeling good, thinking about the job and being glad to go to work, is of equal or greater value to me. I don't need to work fulltime and the money I bring in per month helps a lot. Couriers absolutely deserve to be paid more.


Under the current Master Agreement, I believe top UPS pay will be right around $37 per hour at the end of the contract. I also worked several Peaks for UPS, but as a Feeder Driver. As a long-term FedEx RTD, I can say with a lot of credibility that the jobs are equal. UPS Feeders do a few different things like picking up cans at the railyard, but otherwise, it's about the same. None of the Feeder drivers I worked with would even touch a package.

Your individual experience at FedEx sounds like an outlier. You're in your 60s, don't need the money, and it isn't a career. Let's say you're 25, and FedEx is your career. The benefits suck, there is no real retirement, and at $15-$17 per hour near the bottom, you're going nowhere fast. Also, if you consider the span of FedEx routes in comparison to UPS routes, the "work" discrepancy isn't as great. I've always said UPS drivers earn every penny, and that they take more of a physical pounding, but FedEx couriers are severely underpaid, especially when you consider our "benefits".
 

MrFedEx

Engorged Member
Not only do they stay in business, they make BILLIONS in profit every year.

For once, I agree with you. There's a very simple answer. UPS is well-managed and hires quality people. FedEx is managed by tools that only care about stock value, and they'll hire almost anything that walks in the door. Oh, and Fred S has a few advantages that don't make for a level playing field. It's more like there has been a 42 year Purple Bailout vs. the idiotic claim a few years ago that there was a "Brown Bailout".
 

vantexan

Well-Known Member
For once, I agree with you. There's a very simple answer. UPS is well-managed and hires quality people. FedEx is managed by tools that only care about stock value, and they'll hire almost anything that walks in the door. Oh, and Fred S has a few advantages that don't make for a level playing field. It's more like there has been a 42 year Purple Bailout vs. the idiotic claim a few years ago that there was a "Brown Bailout".
It's apples and oranges. It's not a matter of poor management techniques, it's strictly about transporting by air vs transporting by truck. Look at how quickly the profit has grown as FedEx Ground has grown. To make Express more profitable they've had to resort to austerity measures as well as hiring people who are thankful for $16hr as Express fixed costs i.e. aircraft, etc remain the same or go up. Not defending them because it's obvious it's all about pleasing Wall Street to cash in on stock options. They could do better by us but increasing profit leads to bigger dividends which drives the stock price higher. If anything they are managing Express as well as possible and Wall Street is rewarding them for it. We, the people they claim to care so much about, only matter in that we do our job as productively as possible for as little pay as they can pay us and still keep us clocking in every day. Go to Craigslist and look at all the $9hr jobs. I don't like that my pay won't increase to a level in a reasonable amount of time that'll provide some of the things I want in life. But I'd like it even less if I were spending every waking hr working two or three jobs just to stay afloat. Would be nice though when FedEx gets a windfall from lower fuel prices that they could pass some of it on in a profit sharing check. Would really help those of us at $16hr with the bills.
 

MassWineGuy

Well-Known Member
Outlier perhaps, but we all need to work. If I were 25 at FedEx, I'd certainly need a wife with a good career and benefits. UPS hires quality people? That must be something new, especially concerning management.
 

overflowed

Well-Known Member
It's apples and oranges. It's not a matter of poor management techniques, it's strictly about transporting by air vs transporting by truck. Look at how quickly the profit has grown as FedEx Ground has grown. To make Express more profitable they've had to resort to austerity measures as well as hiring people who are thankful for $16hr as Express fixed costs i.e. aircraft, etc remain the same or go up. Not defending them because it's obvious it's all about pleasing Wall Street to cash in on stock options. They could do better by us but increasing profit leads to bigger dividends which drives the stock price higher. If anything they are managing Express as well as possible and Wall Street is rewarding them for it. We, the people they claim to care so much about, only matter in that we do our job as productively as possible for as little pay as they can pay us and still keep us clocking in every day. Go to Craigslist and look at all the $9hr jobs. I don't like that my pay won't increase to a level in a reasonable amount of time that'll provide some of the things I want in life. But I'd like it even less if I were spending every waking hr working two or three jobs just to stay afloat. Would be nice though when FedEx gets a windfall from lower fuel prices that they could pass some of it on in a profit sharing check. Would really help those of us at $16hr with the bills.
Don't know where you at Van but the new people are quitting as soon as they're hired here.
 

vantexan

Well-Known Member
Don't know where you at Van but the new people are quitting as soon as they're hired here.
Was talking to former coworker today, 3 newhires just quit there. I'm not saying newhires are thrilled with the company. What I'm saying is FedEx offers high starting pay to lure people in. They think they've struck gold and will have a future. Looks better than the $9hr they just came from. Then they find out eventually that FedEx isn't interested in helping them have a future, only in wringing out as much work as possible from them for as little pay as possible. So the sharp ones wise up and quit, and many of the rest are the ones that are thankful for $16hr because they're unlikely to ever earn that elsewhere.
 

thinking

New Member
I'm 47 started late at FDX.... been there for 10 years and work as a swing driver still making less than 18 an hour... seriously considering switching.... I kill myself daily I'd rather do it for 34 an hour and not paying $120 a week in health benefits... some weeks are good when I get over 50hrs but weeks when I get just 35hrs in slower winter months it really sucks... chose wrong 10 years ago... for retirement when i started they promised 50% of an average of our 5 highest years... then changed it.... I'll be there till i'm 70 and still won't have half the retirements i've read here....
 

groundman

New Member
I currently work at ground. starting pay for a package handler is 11.66 and i also work at ups. Ups starts at 10.10. Fedex gets a pay increase after 3 months and will have a dollar raise by month 9. Compared to a dollar raise after one year at ups.
 

UPSmechanicinblue

Well-Known Member
can someone tell me what is top yearly pay for the FedEx freight driver? One the the FedEx freight guys is telling a package driver that they where making more than our package feeder drivers. They claim they get paid per mile and hourly.
 
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