The job of package delivery is easier today than it was 25 years ago.
Today you actually know what stops are in your package car when you get into it in the morning. Today (most of us at least) have package cars that are bigger and have basic ergonomic features such as powert steering and low steps that yesterdays vehicles lacked. Today there is a basic level of accountability and transparency regarding the workload that was totally lacking in the years when packages werent tracked.
25 years ago this month, I was dispatched in a P-500 with over 500 stops in it. Half were brickloaded in the car, half under the belt. The entire focus was on getting the packages out of the building, so I had to go out on route, find a garage to empty the car into, and come back to reload. At 11:30 that night I brought something like 150 missed stops back, and there were still more sitting in the garage that didnt get delivered for days. None were recorded as missed. There was no tracking, there was no planning, there were no cellphones or text messages or timely communication of any kind. My route was known as the "abortion car" and my only purpose as a driver in the grand scheme of things was to "get the belt clean" and allow my management team to maintain the illusion that their "plan" was working. You dont see that sort of thing anymore in todays UPS, simply by virtue of the fact that missed packages can no longer be hidden in such a manner. If you took a driver of today, transported him 25 yrs back in time and gave him a brickloaded P-5 or P-6 car along with a map and and a clipboard full of paper 50-liner delivery records...he/she would FAIL big time.
Thats a good way to put it. I'm will be the first to admit that its a different UPS today than it was 11 years ago when I retired. I will also say that as I had no trouble going from working on paper to entering UPS's DIAD era I would have no problem learning the gizzmos of today. I will say that with the E911 rural address system and GPS this and cell phones that, learning a rural delivery route today has to be a cake walk compared to back when the only help you had was to stop at a farmhouse and ask questions (such as "do you know so and so?" and "where the hell am I"). Upstate tries to come off as a "super UPSman" who knows eveything but in the end we all know what a D-bag he is. Long story short- I would have NO problem adapting to the "new" UPS ---- but they would have a problem adapting to me because I never was one to roll over and play dead.. I also believe that a driver of today would be able to adapt to the way it was done years ago - but the first thing they would have to learn is the way the guys stuck together back then and fought for their rights.
After 34 years, I can only say that the job is different. Yeah, we have DIADS, lower steps and automatic transmissions, but we have Big Brother looking over our shoulders all day, every day. Could Rod do it the way the job is now? Absolutely. Could the new guys do the way it used to be? Some of them.
