OrionsBitch
Not...
With the way everything is going I have to say I feel relatively comfortable with job security at UPS. But I wasn't around in 2008 so I wanted to hear from people who were. Was there a lot of layoffs? Was business slow?
Life at Brown during the 08 market crash
- Thread starter OrionsBitch
- Start date
rod
Retired 22 years
Brownslave688
You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
Business certainly slowed. I didn't see layoffs so much as we didn't replace anyone that left. At one point we had lost 14 drivers. About 25% of the workforce before we hired anyone.
That peak season after the crash was pretty freaking awesome. Barely worked 8 most days.
That peak season after the crash was pretty freaking awesome. Barely worked 8 most days.
N
Nothing by 1030 anymore
Guest
Nothing changed at my giant center..10 to 12 hour days as usual with same number of routes
brown67
Well-Known Member
I was going between packages and feeders at the time. I was a classified as a package car driver, but would cover vacations for the three feeder drivers at our center. I'm a a full time feeder driver now.
The package driver side wasn't bad. The center would need to layoff 2 or 3 drivers a week, and would ask for volunteers first. Most weeks they got enough volunteers. We had about 70 to 75 drivers then. We didnt hire any new drivers for several years.
Feeders was another story. The hub laid off about 20% of the feeder drivers and cut eveyone else to 8 hours a day. A few guys lost their houses without the extra over time pay. Most feeder drivers work 50 to 60 hours a week, so only 40 hours was a bite.
The package driver side wasn't bad. The center would need to layoff 2 or 3 drivers a week, and would ask for volunteers first. Most weeks they got enough volunteers. We had about 70 to 75 drivers then. We didnt hire any new drivers for several years.
Feeders was another story. The hub laid off about 20% of the feeder drivers and cut eveyone else to 8 hours a day. A few guys lost their houses without the extra over time pay. Most feeder drivers work 50 to 60 hours a week, so only 40 hours was a bite.
MyTripisCut
Never bought my own handtruck
I remember management being escpecially nervous and generally doushy during this period. That's where most cuts were made by UPS, "specialists" and those mid level jobs.
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Brownslave688
You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
This is when I realized ups wasn't going anywhere for a long time.
Our center manager gives some big speech one day about how we had the largest year over year drop in profits ever. "Our worst quarter ever" he then says if we have 8 more quarters like this ups won't be making money anymore.
It was gonna take 2 years of progressively worse quarters before we didn't make money. Knew at that point ups would be just fine.
oldngray
nowhere special
MyTripisCut
Never bought my own handtruck
We started running lean at this point. Used to have 3 AM air trips, and 3 bulk vans, every trip ran almost everyday. Now we only have on bulk van, no morning air help, and trips are cut all the time. It's how I came up with my awesome user name!
Brownslave688
You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
Yeah the best part was every route was in every day.
Management didn't like us because they didn't get a raise and no 401k match but we still got our raises.
TearsInRain
IE boogeyman
the support functions didn't get gutted until the 2012 transformation
you can still see the effects of it on iGate, where basically all knowledge and passed-down experience stopped dead in its tracks because there aren't enough people to keep it updated
it also led to a centralization in decision-making under Corporate, so instead of your local division staff giving advice to your management, now they have no advice at all or vague instructions from Corp
i guess you guys can chuckle at the support guys losing their jobs, but a lot of the
you also complain about is directly linked to them not being there anymoreedit: just to clear it up, i actually think we have the right number of support staff now, but the way they gutted it and didn't intelligently reassign the work that needed to be done has led to a lot of chaos and wasted effort that is no where close to being fixed even 5 years later
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Indecisi0n
Well-Known Member
barnyard
KTM rider
The route that I was covering at the time lost so much volume that it went from being 100% in town to 30% rural. That peak and 2009, I worked less than 9 hours every day. Both peaks were horrible Januarys. Lots of cuts and long days. I made more in January and February those years than I did in December, by a significant amount.
Brownslave688
You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
He "prefers" the couch. Or so he says.
oldngray
nowhere special
Is that why his couch is wrapped in plastic?
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