Is the grass greener?

[browniehound]

Some people love shifting. We have some old guys here too.

I HATE it!!! Alot!!!! Really !!!!! I can't stand driving ALL day......and not getting anywhere!

Remember also that shifters are not under the 14 hour rule....

When you say shifters are not under the 14 hour rule, does that mean they can keep you, 15 or more hours at a time? And does this happen often or at all? Sounds like you can make some serious COIN shifting!

I hear ya on driving around all day and not getting anywhere. This would bother me also, but not as much as driving somehwere. The stress would get to me the first day if the boss said "See those doubles, drive them to Bangor and be back before the end of your shift. I know its snowing an inch an hour up there, but just take it slow" Thats what I would HATE

Seems to me like shifting=no stress, feeders=heart attack special, lol.

 

[Covemastah]

Over,
Why is it as good as they say only if you have a minimum of 25 years?
Is it because if you have less you are constantly getting bumped and working nights or doing the worst runs?

I'm curious about feeders even though I think it might be too much truck for me. Thanks for any info you can give me.

shifting is not as easy as it looks, more likely to have accident in yard and gets very cold in the winter and hotter than a pkg car in summer,like said above it gets tiring very quick !!!!

 

[raceanoncr]

Some people love shifting. We have some old guys here too.

I HATE it!!! Alot!!!! Really !!!!! I can't stand driving ALL day......and not getting anywhere!

Remember also that shifters are not under the 14 hour rule....

I hate to put a possible Kabosh in this but shifters ARE under the 14 hour rule.

Do you have to possess a CDL? Then you are under DOT regs also. DOT regs state, in part, that once you are clocked in, you are under DOT regs.

Now, as far as shifting goes, those regs apply to hours, whether it be driving, on duty or off duty. The DOT book is the little green book that has regs numbered, for example: 395.25 etc.

In one of those sections, it states that all duty performed while on duty, whether you are driving or not, are to be counted as either on duty driving or on duty not driving.

You can only work one 14 hour day in a week and only if you return to your home domicile and only if you get a reset for the next week.

I don't have time to research the exact reg number right now but would be happy to do so within the next day or so.

Now, this may have been practiced in your hub or center the last few years and it has been tried here but has failed when DOT was brought into the picture. Remember, UPS cannot supercede Federal regulations. They can ADD rules and make em tougher, but they cannot TAKE AWAY DOT rules.

 

[diesel96]

I believe it's 34 hrs to reset for the next week Race.
Also, I don't think shifters need to posses a CDL liscense cause they never leave the yard. But they do need air brake certification and other training. Maybe a shifter can answer this.

There are two different seniority dates that will affect you. One is your full time seniority date which is how you pick your vacations and are affected by any layoffs. The second is your feeder seniority date which affects your start time bid position,route choice etc. Except for a few most of us have two seniority dates.


I not sure what region your in, but in the southern region there's only one senority date feeders go by for everything that includes vacations, layoffs, start times, bid position, route choice, etc...

 

[freeloader]

I was a PT shifter for about 5 years and I didn't need any special licenses or anything. Since you are on private property all the time you don't need a CDL. All I got was some basic training from someone in feeders and the rest comes to you over time.

What I liked about shifting:

I got more hours.
Independence (no sup breathing down your neck all the time).
Socializing.
Not being tied to one work area (the whole building was my work area).


What I didn't like about shifting:

Weather (rain sucks and dark sucks, but rain and dark REALLY suck)
Peak (ugh, all the extra loads and contract drivers).
Monotonous (over time the job got boring and routine)

 

[raceanoncr]

I believe it's 34 hrs to reset for the next week Race.
Also, I don't think shifters need to posses a CDL liscense cause they never leave the yard. But they do need air brake certification and other training. Maybe a shifter can answer this.

Yes, diesel, you are right. 34 hours for reset. The air brake certification and other training? Well, there are some endorsements on CDLs that do or donot require airbrake certification. I do know that you can get a class B CDL that, of course, is not doubles or triples or air brake endorsed, but it is a CDL, under DOT regs. I know, my wife had to have one to drive school bus. She also had to go through the same random drug testing that we do. As an another example:

You have to have a class B license to drive a straight truck across state lines that is gas powered, for example, and does not have air brakes. You are under the same DOT hours of service rules that ALL CDL drivers are.

I also realize that, at some locations, the shifters never leave the yard. Are they still required to possess a CDL? Here, they are. And if they are, they are required to follow DOT regs.

All I'm saying is this: If your job requires you to have a CDL, then you are under DOT regs, and that means DOT hours. No matter WHAT your job description is.

Another example:
A driver/trainer for another company jumped on a run with another driver on a lay-down run, a run that requires you to drive to a terminal or turn-a-round, for training purposes. He is paid by the hour by his company as a grunt, like us, to just be a driver/trainer. The driver goes to the motel. The driver/trainer hops on a return trip, back to home. On duty 22 hours, claiming he didn't have to keep log or it didn't apply to him. His buddy called the DOT and they came running! Long story short--they said he IS under normal DOT regs and one of those is that he is to also log off in the motel and have at least 10 hours off before he returns with ANYBODY!

Did he drive? NO! Did he perform any truck driving duties? NO! Did he get behind the wheel and do ANYTHING that required a CDL? NO! BUT! He posseses a CDL and was performing duties that were job related! That is, he clocked in, he suited up, he rode on the truck, he trained, all on company time. The DOT says that all CDL holders performing duties on the clock, on company premises or in company equipment or property are under DOT regs. From now on, he has to log all this time and take all required log time off also.

For all you that claim you don't need a CDL to shift, then, fine! If your job doesn't require that, then you ain't under DOT regs, evidently.

 

[raceanoncr]

As an addendum to my previous diatribe: Even OJS supes have to have and keep a log book and adhere to DOT regs. If they haven't rode along with anybody for some time, they still have to have 7-day recap in their possession. In other words, they can't be in the office for, say 5 hours, then ride along with a driver that's had an accident and needs a follow-up ride into the supes shift if that drivers run is such that it takes the supe past his legal DOT working hours.

 

[over9five]

Shifters here do not need a license at all! You do not leave the property, and they can work you till you drop.

Shifters who also drive (have a cdl) ARE under the 14 hour rule.

 

[Covemastah]

Shifters here do not need a license at all! You do not leave the property, and they can work you till you drop.

Shifters who also drive (have a cdl) ARE under the 14 hour rule.

meet me in the cornfield you stud!!!!!!!!!!!! you know who lol lol lol

 

[over9five]

meet me in the cornfield you stud!!!!!!!!!!!! you know who lol lol lol

I'm there, dude! Just make sure you bring ONJ.

 

[Covemastah]

I'm there, dude! Just make sure you bring ONJ.

onj ???

 

[over9five]

onj ???

LOL!! it'll come to you!

 

[Covemastah]

oh yah baby and i hope she wears that grease get up and sings hopelessly devoted to you mmmmmm yaa!!!!!

 

[MR_Vengeance]

"that sound more fair to me since it would be based on experience rather than senoirity."

I disagree. Seniority is everything at UPS. You are driving a big truck. You have experience after a week.....

if driving a commerical tractor is the same as drving a pkgcar then it's waste of money and pointless to get a CDL.