Making UPS a career?

[cosmo1]

On*

Yeah, I know.

Too damned lazy to edit it.

 

[Lucidd]

lmao...forget everything I said...welcome aboard.

Thanks for having me!

 

[Box Ox]

That's fine. I'll move up to driver eventually lol. Does anyone think I'm making a mistake considering UPS for a career or is it seriously not that bad if you get used to it?

We'll probably be at least 2 contracts into the future by the time you have a shot at FT driving. Could make it a big mistake, depending on how those go.

 

[Holydriver]

Seeing your posts makes me honestly not want to work at UPS, but when i see other posts it makes me think it isn't so bad.

i may be laying the negativity on a little think, i wont lie. look man, UPS is a job that will work you. they will try and break you, they will give you a ton of work and watch you suffer, and then add more work the very next day. i mean there is tons of BS here. but, they do pay way. you get benefits that are good, and really the long hours do fly by. like seriously fly by. plus, the work is different and because of that its cool. you drive around all day and do whatever. no one is on your ass you just do your job. if you think its going to be all smiles and sunshine, it isnt. getting into a bricked out truck that you can barely fit your lunch cooler into isnt fun. its really how you look at it. me, personally, have dealt with it for a long time and at first i loved it. but its slowly starting to wear me out both physically and mentally. if you want a job where you dont have to think very much, get good benefits (that are better than UPS) and can retire earlier than UPS then join the air force. find the easiest job they offer, enlist and slowly build rank and retire in 20 years. hell, man, enlist in the air force band. go blow the trumpet at promotion ceremonies and never ever ever actually work. doing hard physical labor at your age is nothing. but when youre 30, 40 or 50 it gets tough. there are tons of guys that dont walk right anymore, they waddle everywhere. knee surgery, hip surgery. all that stuff. you asked if its a good career option, maybe you shoujld look further than just the actual work. look at how the contracts have changed over the years. look at how technology is changing the delivery world. ask yourself what a UPS driver will be doing in 15 years. youre a kid, you dont think with all your brain yet.

 

[Lucidd]

We'll probably be at least 2 contracts into the future by the time you have a shot at FT driving. Could make it a big mistake, depending on how those go.

I guess we'll see. Either way, UPS seems like the way i'm gonna be going. Also, apparently they rarely ever drug test drivers. I heard they only really drug test feeders and class a drivers unless they have suspicion that your using drugs.

 

[Lucidd]

Don't listen to most of the negativity. This is the internet where people notoriously complain. Yet none of these people would ever quit driving. That tells you everything you need to know. You simply cannot make more money/benefits legitimately and think less.

The hardest part is going through the usually long process of becoming a driver. You're in the perfect position at just 16 to start that journey assuming you can get hired part time to begin with. It usually takes 2-6 years to get the opportunity. Then qualifying for driving is a 30 day test of your abilities. After that, it's 4 years to get top rate. This sounds like a lot and it is. But there's a very good job at the end.

Consider yourself lucky if you get started at 18. Many of us, take me for example, started P/T at 28 and then it took 5.5 years to go driving. I'm now 37 and will just be reaching top rate in 6 weeks. If I could go back to high school and knew about this, I would have tried to get in. Instead, I went to college for 2 separate degrees at which point I no longer wanted to do what I went for.

Good luck

Your the reason i believe UPS isn't very bad lol. I don't care much for college honestly. Like if UPS will still be paying good in the long run, i honestly don't care, i'd start working at UPS when I'm 18. What bothers me most is when people tell me to think about how much the contracts would change in the next few years. Is that actually a bad thing? I have no idea what that means exactly.

 

[El Correcto]

I give free physicals. I even have a license from online. Who needs one?

Meh

 

[Rack em]

Ups isn't for everyone. Preload is and when you do go driving the days can be looooong. But once you are a driver things do get better. You get paid very well to deliver cardboard boxes to people. I've had people call me santa claus for adults lol. If you look at the positives it really is an awesome job. Plus you can think of it like this... Preload is like your college except you get paid to do it and once you go driving, you dont have 10's of thousands of dollars of student loans to pay off. Then when you become a driver you put in 4 short years (It will be longer for you with the current progression trends in the contracts) and you'll be making 90k-100k a year

 

[Lucidd]

Ups isn't for everyone. Preload is and when you do go driving the days can be looooong. But once you are a driver things do get better. You get paid very well to deliver cardboard boxes to people. I've had people call me santa claus for adults lol. If you look at the positives it really is an awesome job. Plus you can think of it like this... Preload is like your college except you get paid to do it and once you go driving, you dont have 10's of thousands of dollars of student loans to pay off. Then when you become a driver you put in 4 short years (It will be longer for you with the current progression trends in the contracts) and you'll be making 90k-100k a year

That's it! I'm sold. Ah, feels good not having to go to college to make good money LOL. I just want to get a good job at 18, move into an apartment, work, and do whatever on my time off. Perhaps go meet chicks or something at college universities that i do not attend haha. You guy's are pretty chill on this site. I hope there's people like you when i start working at UPS when i'm 18.

 

[olroadbeech]

i'll tell you what i told my son. everyone will give you advice. some good some not so good. everyone is different.

bottom line is that it is YOUR life and you have to make your own decisions. go with your gut feeling. your gut feelings are usually right. as you get older you will learn to trust those gut feelings more and more.

and once you have made a decision , don't have any regrets. just remember that at the time you made that decision you thought it was the right one at that time

 

[Box Ox]

What bothers me most is when people tell me to think about how much the contracts would change in the next few years. Is that actually a bad thing? I have no idea what that means exactly.

Means that by the time you become a driver there could be a 300 pound package weight limit, 10 year progression to $25 top rate and 40 years of service requirement to get a quarter of the pension you would get now.

But @JL 0513 is right about getting started early. Some of us spent a lot of time and money getting degrees we didn't end up using anyway. And we were older going in because of it.

 

[Indecisi0n]

Meh

Sorry next time I'll use gloves.

 

[JL 0513]

Means that by the time you become a driver there could be a 300 pound package weight limit, 10 year progression to $25 top rate and 40 years of service requirement to get a quarter of the pension you would get now.

But @JL 0513 is right about getting started early. Some of us spent a lot of time and money getting degrees we didn't end up using anyway. And we were older going in because of it.

While the next contract may not be as pretty as previous ones, surely these are exaggerations. We'll still have built in annual raises (many jobs don't even have this). My last job my starting wage remained until I quit 3 years later. The question is how much the raises will be. There's no evidence that they will be slashed. Pension cuts are the more likely future cut. Progression I think is a 50/50 shot this next contract that it goes from 4 to 5 years. I think it will will be one more cycle at 4 years though. Health care is another hot issue. Will we be required to contribute like most jobs? I think this is the most likely negative impact they impose on workers if any major change happens.

 

[Browndriver5]

While the next contract may not be as pretty as previous ones, surely these are exaggerations. We'll still have built in annual raises (many jobs don't even have this). My last job my starting wage remained until I quit 3 years later. The question is how much the raises will be. There's no evidence that they will be slashed. Pension cuts are the more likely future cut. Progression I think is a 50/50 shot this next contract that it goes from 4 to 5 years. I think it will will be one more cycle at 4 years though. Health care is another hot issue. Will we be required to contribute like most jobs? I think this is the most likely negative impact they impose on workers if any major change happens.

I think it is almost certain we will be paying for health care

 

[Rack em]

I think it is almost certain we will be paying for health care

Why do you think that? We now have Orion which saves the company soooooo much money, so ups should have no problem paying for our health care.

 

[Little Brownie Girl]

Consider the long term effects of a rigorous physical job that pushes the envelope - this why the pay is truly earned.

http://pupsinc.homestead.com/Univ_of_IL_study_on_UPS_Package_Car_Drivers.pdf

 

[Little Brownie Girl]

So wh

Sorry next time I'll use gloves.

at team do you play for since I was thrown under the bus on this one?....lol

 

[Orion inc.]

Sorry next time I'll use gloves.

So wh

at team do you play for since I was thrown under the bus on this one?....lol

 

[sailfish]

Hello everyone. I am a 16 year old male, thinking about making UPS my future career. I'm not really big on college, and don't feel like spending another 2-4 years learning something i really just do not want to learn and in lots of student debt. However, i would consider going to a trade school since it's not as long as college and alot cheaper. I was thinking about making UPS a career. I could join right out of high school and what not, and work my way up until I'm a full time driver making $30 or so an hour. Sounds like a good deal to me. I get to drive around delivering packages, all whilst making good money. I hear it takes around five years of working with UPS to become a driver, is this correct? Would i be looked down upon in society if i decided to make UPS a career instead of something fancy like a doctor or some desk job lol? I mean i really don't see the need to go to college when i could make really good money doing a job i like.
I was interested in being an OTR trucker, but figured I'd just go along with UPS and become a feeder driver one day. Seems like a perfect job.

Woah, leave for a few days. Come back and this thread has exploded with replies. Just read all of them and i'm still interested in UPS. I don't want a career that requires me to think a crap ton. I just want to do a basic job, make good money and go home. I don't want to do anything special anymore like being a doctor, or an engineer or something. I feel like just settling down with UPS honestly... I don't mind working much anymore. A job is a job. I was planning on being a doctor, and the kind i wanted to be works 80+ hours a week and i was fine with it. I think i'll just make UPS my career since i'll make good money and have benefits. Like i honestly don't care what job i do as long as i make good money. I don't care if i'll have to work in crap conditions such as snow. I love snow. Like i just want to drive, deliver packages, make money and enjoy my life, not spend years in school after graduating high school lol. I understand that I'll have to work my way up to full time driver, and i'm fine with that. At 18 i'll be getting paid more then any 18 year old right off the back, and in a few years i'd be making good money all without needing to go to college.

Aside from where you said about making any worthwhile money here at 18, holy hell are you right about everything else. I used to be much more career oriented, and put a lot of my focus on a highly job-centric life. But from college, to one job, to the next, it was just one big disappointment after the other. I really felt like I was never going to be satisfied with my life for some reason. I was pissing away so much money on things like degrees and certificates and licenses and with each one I was even less motivated to look for something else.

Then, one day a huge sack of bricks burst through my window and smacked me in the side of the head so hard I was out for three days. When I finally came to, I realized I had it all wrong the whole time. Why the hell would I want my life to revolve around something as arbitrary as a job? Maybe that works for a lot of people, but I sure as sh* am not one of them.

I realized a job was only that. A job; nothing more than a means to fund an actual life that begins again as soon as you punch out. They all suck. And you can jump from job to job for years, fighting for "promotions" and "climbing the ladder", trying to be happy with your silly "career", but all you really can hope for is to find the one that sucks less.

Once I got into UPS and started driving, I eventually realized that this is probably the best possible spot I could be in. A high hourly-waged job where you only work from punch to punch with positively no personal involvement while off the clock. Now, people who say they love what they do, they're full of it. But here, I at least like it enough that I really see no point in looking elsewhere. It's not easy by any means, but it's simple.

Some days suck pretty bad but that's any job. And the days that are good (or at least decent) fly by so fast you're making your last pick up and driving home before you know it. And it's true you'd be hard pressed to find a comparatively compensating, more secure job that allows you to keep your nose so clean.

From what I can tell about your attitude towards jobs I think it will be a decision you'll be glad you made. Maybe get a CDL or something as a safety net, but other than that, just ride out the game like I do and enjoy your life.

 

[boxwayne]

Sounds like me 15 years ago. I quit school for this job. I hated school. All I wanted to do is go straight in the work force and start my life. I ended up quitting high school at 16 got my GED and I've been happy ever sense! Best decision I ever made!