I can't imagine why anyone would leave feeders: whisper, cough, cough...lol
I'm dying over here in package!
To be honest, I wouldn't mind package if I was dispactched under 9 everyday. In this scenario I like the exercise and the stop of the truck every couple or five minutes(I wouldn't like to drive 8-12 hours straight at night in a feeder). However, I don't like splits miles out of the way with small businesses or schools housed in them. On top of that challenge, getting dispatch 10-30 stops over you max. It happens every summer where I come from and we don't have a fighting chance to make 9.5.
It would be ok if my(our) stops were in range, but still, the extra miles and breaking for businesses is a waste of fuel and OT labor. It kills every driver I know.
UPS makes enough money, why not put in the other route and make our customers happy. I know our medium shippers do not appreciate getting their parcels at 1600.
Keep the base in, reduce OT hours, make our shippers happy and make hundreds of millions dollars and grow the volume.
Instead, we cut the base, increase the paid day and OT hours, pee off our customers, make hundreds of millions of dollars but live with flat or zero domestic volume growth. Fed-Ex ground is there at 930!
I would try it the former way at the risk of losing my job.
I just think we are better off with the extra driver in the plan and not adding the extra driver at the last second that wastes fuel and labor time meeting 6 other drivers (and their labor time transfering work). He showed up for work so you have to pay him in someway. If he is under 8 there is always somethinghe can do to keep the cost down of other drivers.
This is my uneducated observation at least.