New; advice please.

Guy Montag

New Member
I started loading trucks in the AM, then they moved me to SPA, said I was making too many mistakes. I have no idea what the mistakes were as no one was able to explain (wrong truck?, wrong shelf?, no idea).
I enjoy the SPA a lot. Fast paced, sort of boring though since I'm moving less, but easy as *****. I mentioned PT Sup to my Manager and before the shift was over I had filled out a TMS.
I don't know know that I want it now though. I heard a lot of bad things about it, but I could use the money and would like to make a career out of UPS. I just need to have some reassurance that it'll be a liveable wage. I make about $43,000-$45,000 a year with UPS and my full-time gig. Got a wife and baby to support.
How long will I wait on SPA before becoming a driver or making close to that money? How long as a PT Sup until I'm making that much money?
Please help?!?!
 

gorilla75jdw

Well-Known Member
it just depends on where your location is , how big your hub(facilty)is , how many employees are there , how much volume is ran per sort per day ?? and many more factors . If you could provide some of those answers , Im sure you could get some pretty decent answers to your question .
 

grgrcr88

No It's not green grocer!
Part time sup is generally a dead end job. Very few people ever move up from there. Never have I seen a part time sup move into driving and with the downsizing of management positions recently it would be very difficult to get into full time management.

The wait to become full time driver can be very long depending on you facility. It is based on openings and seniority of the people wanting them. In my building thay cant get people that want to drive so I think the wait is only a couple people.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
Look at it this way---as hourly you only have to take crap from one side but management gets it from both sides. Your call.
 

nystripe96

Well-Known Member
If you're in a smaller hub the wait for driver can be very long. PT supe....They began pushing me to do it after only 5 months. Just seeing the stress imposed upon them by management is enough for me to say no. There's a PT supe on my PD whose been doing it for 9 years without advancement. I say just wait it out
 

Indecisi0n

Well-Known Member
If you're in a smaller hub the wait for driver can be very long. PT supe....They began pushing me to do it after only 5 months. Just seeing the stress imposed upon them by management is enough for me to say no. There's a PT supe on my PD whose been doing it for 9 years without advancement. I say just wait it out

I agree 100% 5 months as a casual they told me "You can be a supervisor now or wait for a driver position but the chances of becoming a driver from a casual are slim to none." Like you, seeing all the BS they go through i said i'll take my chances with waiting for a driver position.
 

Guy Montag

New Member
If you didn't know how to load, how can you supervise a loader??

That's thing though, they were all about me going for the PT Sup. Which leads me to think there weren't as many issues with my loading as presented. I'm not an idiot and I know how to follow direction. I couldn't tell you what the mistakes were that I was making. Less then a week after they pulled me off of loading, they threw me, out of all the people there, back to loading to fill in for someone. I though maybe they want me to go for the PT Sup so then they can fire me without the Union involvement. But that seems like a stretch, I get along great with my co-workers, supervisors and Managers, so I doubt they'd be that manipulative, but once again, I'm new to UPS so I don't really know.

I can see dealing with crap from both sides will be annoying. But I'm getting close to 30 and would like to provide something more for my son and any future kids than I'm providing now. If dealing with crap from people gets me more money to provide more for my family, I'll talk it, after all it's just a job, right?

And gorilla75jdw, We send close to 50 trucks a day. Since I've started working Sort, I heard the numbers 3,500-4,000 get thrown around, not sure if that's units per shift or what (once again, I've only been there a few weeks, learning more everyday).
I heard someone say it's a 5-6 year wait for a driver position to open. A lot of the drivers look young, and I'm the 2nd to last on the seniority list. PT Sup should theoretically be a fast track alternative, but like nystripe96 said, 9 years with no mobility is not something I want to find myself stuck in.
 

DS

Fenderbender
I get along great with my co-workers, supervisors and Managers,
That will change quickly.It go's like this,upper management tells the center manager how many trucks he is allowed to send out.
This is usually never enough but becomes your problem.

I can see dealing with crap from both sides will be annoying.
Annoying is hardly the word,try these,stressful,frustrating and impossible.
You are in a great position to be a ups lifer.You are fairly young,over time you will get raises,and eventually get to drive if that's what you want.My opinion,stay hourly,get a part time job if you need to on weekends to up your income.
 

TearsInRain

IE boogeyman
Part time sup is generally a dead end job -the people are dead end, not the job. Very few people ever move up from there. -completely false. Never have I seen a part time sup move into driving and with the downsizing of management positions recently it would be very difficult to get into full time management. -happens all the time on the east coast brah.
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
Part time sup is generally a dead end job. Very few people ever move up from there. Never have I seen a part time sup move into driving and with the downsizing of management positions recently it would be very difficult to get into full time management.

The wait to become full time driver can be very long depending on you facility. It is based on openings and seniority of the people wanting them. In my building thay cant get people that want to drive so I think the wait is only a couple people.

I agree and would like to echo the sentiments of TearsInRain.

I've been with UPS for less than 2 years, and have gone from Preloader, to PT Sup, and am now being offered full-time positions by several people. Is that because "they" want to promote incompetent people? I doubt it.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are total morons in part-time/full-time management positions - maybe more often than some might like; however, to imply that "very few move up" or that "it would be very difficult to move into full-time" is, speaking for my geographical location, categorically false.

That being said, it is possible that this UPS "paradise" is limited to my little region. Then again, all the part-time supervisors who were my bosses when I was hired have now been made full-time.
 
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