New driver

Softconcrete

Well-Known Member
Hi I started driving last week.... and I suck. Today was my fourth day and they had to send a sup out to help me by 1230. I drove my personal car over the weekend in the area and it didn't seem too bad. Once I drove around in the package car everything is a lot harder. After driving half the day and then most of today I don't think I'm getting any better and was already debating dqing myself... feel like I'm wasting their time and I feel stupid. How much longer should I give myself without improvement?
 

El Correcto

god is dead
You do the job until they tell you not to come back, then you fight for the job. Like the others are saying you'll get better, it's not like you'll run scratch your first week. Probably even requiring help, try to find the full time for the route you are training on. Get advice.
 

FrigidFTSup

Resident Suit
Keep going until they say enough is enough. Nobody gets it right off the bat, no matter how great they think they are. At least if you don't qualify you know that you did everything you could. Otherwise you're going to regret it.
 
Repetition is your friend on a training route and ask the normal driver and cover drivers how they run the route and ignore the training supervisors instructions. Most likely the only time the training sup is on the route is when he is trying to train someone new. Be polite and listen but talk to the other drivers how they qualified on the same route. Training routes are almost always the same and lots of drivers qualified on the same route. Don't be surprised if the regular drivers give you conflicting information on doing the job then your trainer. The job is different everyday and you are expected to think on your feet and make adjustments on your own.
 

dookie stain

Cornfed whiteboy
Just get a little better everyday...despite what management and all your customers think nobody can step into these package cars day one and do the job
 

Wally

BrownCafe Innovator & King of Puns
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vvv

Well-Known Member
Hi I started driving last week.... and I suck. Today was my fourth day and they had to send a sup out to help me by 1230. I drove my personal car over the weekend in the area and it didn't seem too bad. Once I drove around in the package car everything is a lot harder. After driving half the day and then most of today I don't think I'm getting any better and was already debating dqing myself... feel like I'm wasting their time and I feel stupid. How much longer should I give myself without improvement?
I literally did the same myself and as others have said it comes to you. 30 years later and I am still here....keep plugging along.
Sucking at the job has it's benefits if you consistently suck all the time. :)
They won't be too much in a hurry to send you out blind in areas you have no clue where you are. Way back when drivers more senior then me always were sent blind before me because they knew if they sent myself it would be a total debacle in short time. They also won't expect a lot from you......and you'll get sent help. I have no shame accepting whatsoever and neither should you. Just the other day I told them I'd be in at 10pm and needed help with some over 70's. And they sent a chick driver to come bail me out. Got help with the resi heavies and dumped about 40 packages on her......laughed it off......and went merrily on my way.

Always apply this little quote a steward gave me many many years ago when you are knee deep in it out there. And that is "Don't sweat the petty things, but pet the sweaty things". :)

My own saying in general and that I apply whenever they bury me with too much work is "I have plenty of time.....and UPS has plenty of money".

Now pull up your pants and get out there and don't be a little bitch quitter. Do your job and flip the tables on them. Don't have the job make you too miserable, rather make them miserable in having to deal with you.

PEACE!!
 

Analbumcover

ControlPkgs
I felt the same way when I did my peak route. Imagine a dark and cold December night, 7pm, 30 stops left in a back-country route in the middle of nowhere and my sup has to bail me out 3 nights in a row. I also may or may not have ran over a "Santa stops here" sign. I was getting in the center between 9:30 and 10pm.

By the beginning of the second week, I was getting back in the center between 530 and 6. My sup actually called me to ask where I was on my route and if I needed help. He was shocked (and surprised) to discover I was already at home watching Deadliest Catch and eating Taco Bell. I believe the exact words were "holy :censored2: you're done already? nice." Things got better from there.

At some point you're going to have an "ah-ha" moment where suddenly things click.

I'm borderline retarded when it comes to memorization and directions and even I got it eventually. Hang in there


REMEMBER- there's always someone worse off than you. I remember coming back around 7pm one night and overheard dispatch talking to a veteran driver saying that one of the part-time drivers was still out with over 70 stops left on a split route and the guy who normally does the route refused to help him.
 

dookie stain

Cornfed whiteboy
I felt the same way when I did my peak route. Imagine a dark and cold December night, 7pm, 30 stops left in a back-country route in the middle of nowhere and my sup has to bail me out 3 nights in a row. I also may or may not have ran over a "Santa stops here" sign. I was getting in the center between 9:30 and 10pm.

By the beginning of the second week, I was getting back in the center between 530 and 6. My sup actually called me to ask where I was on my route and if I needed help. He was shocked (and surprised) to discover I was already at home watching Deadliest Catch and eating Taco Bell. I believe the exact words were "holy :censored2: you're done already? nice." Things got better from there.

At some point you're going to have an "ah-ha" moment where suddenly things click.

I'm borderline retarded when it comes to memorization and directions and even I got it eventually. Hang in there


REMEMBER- there's always someone worse off than you. I remember coming back around 7pm one night and overheard dispatch talking to a veteran driver saying that one of the part-time drivers was still out with over 70 stops left on a split route and the guy who normally does the route refused to help him.
Borderline retarded and Taco Bell both brought a smile to my face
 
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