Just wanted to drop in and say hello from a recent seasonal hire. Orientation for driver's helpers started the day after the election, and it was pretty much a joke - sitting in a portable building for a few hours, watching really old VHS videos (half of which did not apply to the job at all). Repeated calls to the center after that each morning, to see if work was available - they told us to keep pestering, but nothing was opening up near my zip code. The first actual day on the job came a couple weeks later, way off on the other side of town, just two hours with a driver who was not informed that he was assigned a helper for the day, so he didn't have a second DIAD. There was absolutely zero training on the DIAD (just four xeroxed pages from orientation), so most of the two hours was spent picking up the basics of delivering packages on the driver's DIAD.
Then nothing for a week, but I kept calling in until they assigned me to another driver away from my zip code (there still wasn't enough volume near where I lived to justify adding helpers at that point). And that driver must've liked me, because I've been working on the same route every single day since then. (He's been on the same route now for about a decade, and has quite a bit of seniority, somewhere in the top ten out of eighty drivers). First two hours, then three, then four, then six - and for the past seven work days, between 8-9 hours (the full route, minus the pre-1030 stops).
The route is pretty mixed, with a circuit of polyglot commercial stops at first, then a bunch of semi-rural/semi-suburban residentials, then a big daily pickup (usually one or two shelves worth), lunch, more residentials, a circuit of daily commercial pickups, then more residentials, break off for a UPS store pickup, and more residentials in the evening. The residential deliveries earlier in the day are closer together (most of the houses are on 1/2-acre or 1-acre lots), so we can crank those out 50 stops in the first hour. But as the day goes on, the houses get progressively larger, with plenty of mansions or million-dollar estates on multiple acres and front access gates, and those can be pretty slow going. For this particular route, 160 stops would be considered a moderately heavy day most of the year, and right now we're running at 200+ stops a day, and that's only going to increase over the next two weeks.
It can get pretty tiring, especially for a 38-year-old, 230-pound noob like me. But my previous job for ten years was in a wholesale book warehouse, so moving lots of heavy boxes around is not a problem. And I'm also used to daily hikes of 5, 10, 15 miles as well, so that's not a problem either (I just don't like the running part, from the truck to the front door - some of those yards are pretty big). Took a week or so to get back into shape, still got all the aches and pains one would expect, but nothing major. Haven't lost any weight interestingly enough, though certainly better toned than before.
Right now I'm a driver's helper that was hired for the season, which means that in two weeks I'll once again be out of a job. My ultimate goal is to have a long-term career with UPS, starting out at the very bottom (like where I am now) and slowly paying my dues and working up through the ranks. There's plenty of possibilities, just have to figure out what to do next.
I have no illusions of "staying on" with UPS after the holidays - I fully understand the job ends after Christmas and the chances of being offered a permanent part-time position immediately after that are virtually nil. But what I can do is, do the best job I can, be persistent and perhaps I can get a call-back sometime in early 2009 when something opens up (the earlier the better, natch). And not as a driver's helper (of course), but possibly as a package handler/loader in the warehouse.
I am optimistic - apparently I *am* doing a good job, and getting good reviews, at least from what I can glean from my driver. Ran into the area supervisor on the route one day (checking up on drivers, most likely), and he knew exactly who I was and said good things, so that was a ego-boost. Today my driver handed me one of the newer DIADs (as opposed to the older rectangular ones I've been using to date) to get used to it, and a side-clip to hold it (as opposed to nothing). And he started teaching/adjusting some of my routine to better conform with the correct UPS methods, as well as a broader range of DIAD uses and commands that I wasn't using before. My driver knows that I'm aiming towards long-term employment, so maybe he's trying to begin training me in more-than-just-seasonal-help level stuff. Or maybe I'm reading too much into that, but like I said before, I'm optimistic.
Anyway, it should be a solid eight-plus-hour days for the next eight business days - and all I can do is just do the best and fastest job that I can. We'll see what happens after that - if anyone has any suggestions as to what I could do to increasing my chances of getting a call back from UPS as early as possible in 2009, I'm all ears! (And yes, I have been lurking on these message boards for a couple of weeks and have read through the relevant messages on that topic. But it never hurts to ask.)
Then nothing for a week, but I kept calling in until they assigned me to another driver away from my zip code (there still wasn't enough volume near where I lived to justify adding helpers at that point). And that driver must've liked me, because I've been working on the same route every single day since then. (He's been on the same route now for about a decade, and has quite a bit of seniority, somewhere in the top ten out of eighty drivers). First two hours, then three, then four, then six - and for the past seven work days, between 8-9 hours (the full route, minus the pre-1030 stops).
The route is pretty mixed, with a circuit of polyglot commercial stops at first, then a bunch of semi-rural/semi-suburban residentials, then a big daily pickup (usually one or two shelves worth), lunch, more residentials, a circuit of daily commercial pickups, then more residentials, break off for a UPS store pickup, and more residentials in the evening. The residential deliveries earlier in the day are closer together (most of the houses are on 1/2-acre or 1-acre lots), so we can crank those out 50 stops in the first hour. But as the day goes on, the houses get progressively larger, with plenty of mansions or million-dollar estates on multiple acres and front access gates, and those can be pretty slow going. For this particular route, 160 stops would be considered a moderately heavy day most of the year, and right now we're running at 200+ stops a day, and that's only going to increase over the next two weeks.
It can get pretty tiring, especially for a 38-year-old, 230-pound noob like me. But my previous job for ten years was in a wholesale book warehouse, so moving lots of heavy boxes around is not a problem. And I'm also used to daily hikes of 5, 10, 15 miles as well, so that's not a problem either (I just don't like the running part, from the truck to the front door - some of those yards are pretty big). Took a week or so to get back into shape, still got all the aches and pains one would expect, but nothing major. Haven't lost any weight interestingly enough, though certainly better toned than before.
Right now I'm a driver's helper that was hired for the season, which means that in two weeks I'll once again be out of a job. My ultimate goal is to have a long-term career with UPS, starting out at the very bottom (like where I am now) and slowly paying my dues and working up through the ranks. There's plenty of possibilities, just have to figure out what to do next.
I have no illusions of "staying on" with UPS after the holidays - I fully understand the job ends after Christmas and the chances of being offered a permanent part-time position immediately after that are virtually nil. But what I can do is, do the best job I can, be persistent and perhaps I can get a call-back sometime in early 2009 when something opens up (the earlier the better, natch). And not as a driver's helper (of course), but possibly as a package handler/loader in the warehouse.
I am optimistic - apparently I *am* doing a good job, and getting good reviews, at least from what I can glean from my driver. Ran into the area supervisor on the route one day (checking up on drivers, most likely), and he knew exactly who I was and said good things, so that was a ego-boost. Today my driver handed me one of the newer DIADs (as opposed to the older rectangular ones I've been using to date) to get used to it, and a side-clip to hold it (as opposed to nothing). And he started teaching/adjusting some of my routine to better conform with the correct UPS methods, as well as a broader range of DIAD uses and commands that I wasn't using before. My driver knows that I'm aiming towards long-term employment, so maybe he's trying to begin training me in more-than-just-seasonal-help level stuff. Or maybe I'm reading too much into that, but like I said before, I'm optimistic.
Anyway, it should be a solid eight-plus-hour days for the next eight business days - and all I can do is just do the best and fastest job that I can. We'll see what happens after that - if anyone has any suggestions as to what I could do to increasing my chances of getting a call back from UPS as early as possible in 2009, I'm all ears! (And yes, I have been lurking on these message boards for a couple of weeks and have read through the relevant messages on that topic. But it never hurts to ask.)
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