I wouldn't expect the company to add many FT drivers in the future

[728ups]

About once a month I have a play a round of Golf with three of my college buddies. Two have been in Management for years,and now work in the Corporate office. We try not to talk shop but of course it comes up. We were all complaining over the hiring freezes that have been put in place due to the upcoming contract,and I mentioned we have had 3 drivers retire in the past year and none have been replaced.

My friends said this is the 'way of the future' and that in an average center of 50 people it more cost efficient work drivers over 9.5 every day than to hire new drivers. They told me the benefits costs,fuel costs,and the cost of adding another Package Car on the road FAR exceeded having employees work excessive over time. They told me management felt only a small fraction would get on the '9.5 list' and even then until the driver worked 58.5 hours it was still more cost efficient(even with the excessive OT grievance factored in) than putting another driver on the road.

I told them it got old working so many hours and not seeing the family,and neither had much sympathy as they said at least hourly get OT and can file for excessive OT and they work close to that many hours and get no OT............ oh well i DID shoot in the 80's today,and for ME that aint bad

 

[Jackburton]

Pile it on, lets me GTFO on my terms, not theirs.

 

[DS]

It makes sense to keep drivers under 9.5 to control costs.
What does not make sense is over dispatching,and fixing it later.
Why does preload have no clue?
It's light today adjust accordingly....hence half the drivers have 9.5 or under days,the rest are stuck with 11.5 hr days.
After 110 years you'd think they could get it right.

 

[brownmonster]

It makes sense to keep drivers under 9.5 to control costs.
What does not make sense is over dispatching,and fixing it later.
Why does preload have no clue?
It's light today adjust accordingly....hence half the drivers have 9.5 or under days,the rest are stuck with 11.5 hr days.
After 110 years you'd think they could get it right.

If you are going to use the word hence it needs to be in bold letters.

 

[TearsInRain]

its not so much the fuel + vehicles, but the benefits payout is the real deal killer

as long as the current system for how the company pays for benefits remains, the drivers will continue to work 10-11 hour days with ridiculous dispatches

 

[brett636]

What i find funny about this topic is that it really splits the drivers up into the groups who would prefer less overtime, those who don't care either way, and those who want every minute of overtime they can soak up. I realize I am in feeders, but I don't doubt this holds some truth in PC as well, but a few months ago a rumor was going around that management was ready to bring in a whole bunch of new drivers and cut everyone's day down to 8-9 hours. I didn't think that would really happen, and it didn't, but I am perfectly happy with an 11 hour day as I am with a 9.5 hour day. Other drivers were getting worried that they wouldn't be able to get their 60 hour paychecks each week. This thread only confirms what I believed to be true that our benefits are so expensive that adding an extra driver requires a lot more work to justify it. For better or worse this is the truth, and until our hourly rate gets significantly higher or our benefit costs become significantly lower I don't see this changing.

 

[SpoolEmUp]

And here I thought this thread was going to be about getting a flock of casuals to run and gun for 29days chasing the carrot and oh, what's that? Didn't make scratch on the 29th day? Ahhhh man, so close. See me after PCM...


Lol. In the future, casuals will be putting on that crisp new cintas uniform and it'll still be warm from the previous guy.

 

[Mr Shifter]

Its impossible to make scratch without breaking safety babble. Had my sup riding with me peeing in a water bottle and having me run to the door while being trained on route and still come in over 40mins. Only advice was to get at scratch or else back to the hub. Thanks! Dikwad!

 

[Johney]

I think your friends forget to factor in the amount of injuries from excess O/T is costing the company. We have a crap load of people out hurt the most I've ever seen and more every week. So now not only are you paying a driver not to work or paying them $31 an hour to do an $9.50 an hour job(TAW)and you are still paying their benefits too. Just what I'm seeing maybe it's not like this elsewhere.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Our BA told us that one of the contract proposals being discussed was having the company pay pension contributons for all hours worked, not just the first 8.

 

[CAFAL]

Our BA told us that one of the contract proposals being discussed was having the company pay pension contributons for all hours worked, not just the first 8.

Our BA said this is the biggest thing the union is going after. The amount of money this will cost makes me fear what the union would have to sacrifice to get this. I feel this would come at ptmers expense

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Our BA said this is the biggest thing the union is going after. The amount of money this will cost makes me fear what the union would have to sacrifice to get this. I feel this would come at ptmers expense

...or a two-tier wage structure for new FT hires...

 

[over9five]

I think your friends forget to factor in the amount of injuries from excess O/T is costing the company. We have a crap load of people out hurt the most I've ever seen and more every week. So now not only are you paying a driver not to work or paying them $31 an hour to do an $9.50 an hour job(TAW)and you are still paying their benefits too. Just what I'm seeing maybe it's not like this elsewhere.

That's exactly what I thought when I read the OP. And THAT'S a cost that will only go UP.

 

[menotyou]

I know for a fact I have not been cheap for the company.

 

[over9five]

I know for a fact I have not been cheap for the company.

A lot of people are going to go on comp just to rest up from the constant over-dispatch.

 

[Indecisi0n]

I think your friends forget to factor in the amount of injuries from excess O/T is costing the company. We have a crap load of people out hurt the most I've ever seen and more every week. So now not only are you paying a driver not to work or paying them $31 an hour to do an $9.50 an hour job(TAW)and you are still paying their benefits too. Just what I'm seeing maybe it's not like this elsewhere.

Our injuries have gone through the roof as well. When asked why in a safety meeting and we bring up excessive OT they always tell us injuries have nothing to do with OT. HAHAHA

 

[Brownslave688]

Our BA told us that one of the contract proposals being discussed was having the company pay pension contributons for all hours worked, not just the first 8.

The only problem I have with this is in the long run we will see very little of this money.

 

[over9five]

Our BA told us that one of the contract proposals being discussed was having the company pay pension contributons for all hours worked, not just the first 8.

Was this the same BA who gave you the "deer in the headlights look" last time you asked him how a proposal was going?

 

[menotyou]

Was this the same BA who gave you the "deer in the headlights look" last time you asked him how a proposal was going?

While he was shoving a hamburger in his mouth. The same one.

 

[Johney]

Our BA told us that one of the contract proposals being discussed was having the company pay pension contributons for all hours worked, not just the first 8.

Can you be more specific on this? Because as far as I know as long as we get 1801 hours for the year we are vested for that year. Anything short and they pro-rate it.