The thing to remember about UPS is that you'll start out part time at the bottom of the seniority list. You might get lucky, retirements etc might move you up fast. Then again you may be at the bottom for a very long time.Can't blame you for trying.I know a girl whose fiance got in with ups quickly made it in to line haul school in just a few years with UPS. He was the lucky one. Last year he made $ 116,000 along with full health benefits and a second to none defined benefit pension plan. Most guys who work for contractors don't make half that and nothing in the way of pension or health care.And given the way X is disemboweling contractor settlements it's not likely to get much better. If you keep killing yourself out there you'll end up just like me. I was an RPS/FXG single route contractor for 23 years. During that time I took a grand sum of 5 days off. Taking every stop possible servicing an area measured in terms of multiple counties. What did I get out of it? Had to have both hip joints replaced. Needing to get a worst case scenario in place and under the advice of professionals in the field I make a first application for SS Disability despite the fact that 74% of all first time SSD applications are denied. Mine was approved in just a little over 3 months. That job will age you way before your time.
Owning and Operating a FedEx Ground ISP
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Logistics_lifer
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I know what your saying but I gotta go somewhere else fedex isnt an option anymore. Whos gonna pay my healthcare costs in the future or help me retire. I have put in almost a decade of my life with fedex and it was a great help to me when the economy tanked in 08 when I got the job. Its my fault thou if I let my self become complacent and comfortable. I am very good at logistics, I have a really dense route I am talking 20-30 stops an hour every hour. I live on route so Im close to home all the time, but I need the benefits and time off more now than ever. I wanna start a future, get married and retire. I do my own 401k with fedex and I thank god trump got rid of the cripling healthcare penalty, but I gotta try to see if I can get in with ups. I have talked to all my guys on my areas, I have talked to 3 managers who live on my area and they all say jump ship your too good for them. I know the game and ive played harder than most ups guys for the past 5 yrs already. I asked the guys on my areas and I had more stops then them over christmas consistently. I know what Im getting myself into, and wont quit like alot of these new guys do when they dont realize what they got themselves into, I know alot of service areas as well because of my tenure. My ultimate goal is to do exactly the story you just said move up to linehaul asap. I have No interest in slinging packages for another 8 years.
if you have a chance to get in do it even if it does mean starting over. You will never get any younger. As for healthcare with or without the ACA healthcare costs will continue to out pace inflation and will continue to be beyond the means of an ever growing segment of the population The FXG contractor format was never designed to create equity for contractors. It's entire purpose is to acquire trucking and labor at the lowest cost possible. When X saw that some guys were selling their routes for many, many times their book value X knew that the price was driven by high operating margins and believed that a correction needed to be made and have set out to shrink contractor settlements. Driving for a contractor is nothing more than transitional employment. The job between jobs. If you don't get in with UPS try getting into one of the skilled trades union. IBEW, Plumbers and Pipe Fitters , Operating Engineers etc. Good Luck
Logistics_lifer
Member
Thank you, looks like ill need it!
Healthcare penalty should be the least of your worries. If the cost of healthcare is a financial hardship, or more than 10% of your monthly income, there is no penalty, If the premium is less than 10% of your income, unless you waste a lot of money, you should be able to afford it. At a minimum, you can afford a bronze plan. And if you are like me, and had so many write-offs that made your AGI really low, you should be eligible for a subsidy. Even my best year at fedex I would have been eligible for a silver plan at less than $100 per month. And most of the healthcare under the ACA has no deductible, so office visits, labs, x-rays, etc cost you nothing more out of pocket, except the copay. A lot of people have been scared off of getting healthcare by some of the misinformation out there. But I know that some states actively fought the ACA, and that has made it expensive in those areas.
And if you can't afford to hire someone to give you a reasonable number of days off, you are either not managing your income well, or you are grossly underpaid. Same goes for being able to plan for retirement. Those need to be included in the calculations for everyone as to whether fedex ground ISP makes any sense at all. I think many ignore the issues you have, and just look at gross cash flow. Leaving because you are underpaid makes sense, but you shouldn't need to use healthcare as a reason. For me, a bad health insurance plan before the ACA was more expensive than the good plan I got through the ACA, mostly due to my age at the time.
But of course UPS is a better choice- especially long-term.
The ACA will be voted out of existence and nothing will replace it. The small community hospitals in my region are already preparing to go back to the time when the only patients that paid were the ones with insurance making it impossible to survive without raising fees and charges high enough to cover the non payers. As i mentioned earlier what happened to the ACA was that it was allowed to be gamed for both economic and political gain.
Logistics_lifer
Member
Healthcare is unacceptably high last time I paid for it which was in 2013 to 2014. I was paying 140 a month and it jumped to 220 dollars a month over that period (which i never used it once), but I went to Obamacare's website and I didnt qualify for any rebates. So I am playing risky game but 200 a month or a 500 dollar penalty, is where i am at. I usually go to urgent care and pay outta pocket and both times it was 200 with medication. I do know now that I am not in my 20's anymore and if I dont take care of myself I wont be able to deliver anymore and workmans comp is a paycut. Also I made just under 50k last yr. Sooo Assumptions you have are just that assumptions.
Also I agree it would be nice to be treated like an employee and not an investment tool, contractors need to realize we are people and this is a business along with an investment. Employees need to be treated well for your business to ultimately thrive not just survive.
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You're telling me that you pulled in almost 50K last year. If it's just yourself I'm like Dmac. Even without help from the ACA there should still be enough left over to buy yourself a decent healthcare policy. After all you can't rest your health insurance needs on the wishful thinking that UPS is going to hire you. Despite it's non-discrimination policy if you're 30 or above they will pick up on that right away. They want grunts who are just starting their working lifetime and can go the full 30 years. By the way, the cost of my first hip joint replacement? $ 52,000 but I had insurance. Did I enjoy paying $ 565 a month? No, but it was sure better than the alternative.
Logistics_lifer
Member
I have a interview with ups coming up already. I filled out their initial application and in it they definitely wanted to prescreen me. They asked my age and my gender then approved me for an interview from the ups website. I also have talked to ups managers who told me if I wanted they can get me in as a package handler. They even told me another great option is to get my cdl and come back in sept and they will talk to people to get me in line haul. I just feel my best course of action is to get into the union any way possible. I dont wanna incur more debt paying for cdl school and worry about driving a big rig for a month while working for fedex on top of that. I have money left over for the health plan but i hate paying for something that i never use that costs that much. Now that i just turned 30 Is when i realized i gotta make moves towards a career.
If you are going to start out as a part time package grunt at age 30 then you are really squeezing the timeline . Those UPS managers are giving you a best case scenario but seldom the truth. By the way just a few hours ago at the other end of the state they had a whiteout . The result? A 20 vehicle pileup nearly all vehicles 18 wheelers and at least 1 killed. You don't know what stress is until you're out there pulling fully loaded doubles with a single axle after dark and in bad weather with a deadline to meet because even if you do get in the easiest routes will go to the highest seniority drivers.
Logistics_lifer
Member
Just like you said thou, it can happen and even just getting into package driver for the time being is gonna pay dividends back in a few short years. Either way this topic is a mute point, its better for me to go after something better than to dwell on the negative reasons on why its not possible. At Fedex I am a expendable commodity and I chose to leave before I am totally consumed and discarded. Hopefully I can show Ups what i am worth and they choose to utilize my already developed skill set then let me grow with the company. Ill keep you posted. Also I live next to a huge ups facility so the wait is not long here from what I hear its a yr to a yr and a half.
Logistics_lifer
Member
no degree and I never asked for advice I commented on the op's topic.
Ah no degree. So you're a self proclaimed logistics expert but with no degree to back it up you have nothing more than a layman's perspective.
Logistics_lifer
Member
Did you want me to reply with a myriad of points to counter that statement like,
1. College bubble and how college is too expensive. Return on Investment
2. How many prominent business figures in our lifetime didnt go to college and some didn't finish highschool.
3. How my username could also mean I am an expert at the physical aspect of driving, finding, and deliverying goods efficently.
4. How I ran a business for many years before fedex
or finally that I know exactly what to do with an income ups offers me with the benefits to help secure my variables like healthcare cost and paid time off to recoup both physically and mentally.
I could post alot of hyperlinks to prove these points but you know what Im just layman so they probably would go to a website like Ebaums world or funny or die. Cause you know Im a layman.
1. College bubble and how college is too expensive. Return on Investment
2. How many prominent business figures in our lifetime didnt go to college and some didn't finish highschool.
3. How my username could also mean I am an expert at the physical aspect of driving, finding, and deliverying goods efficently.
4. How I ran a business for many years before fedex
or finally that I know exactly what to do with an income ups offers me with the benefits to help secure my variables like healthcare cost and paid time off to recoup both physically and mentally.
I could post alot of hyperlinks to prove these points but you know what Im just layman so they probably would go to a website like Ebaums world or funny or die. Cause you know Im a layman.
You just POed because I called you out regarding your claim of being a "logistics expert". You try to expound on that claim in front of a HR interviewer , he'll look up your resume and know that you're full of
and willfully trying to create a false impression. Just be honest and tell them what you are and are not qualified to do. It's that simple.
Logistics_lifer
Member
I appreciate your input and will try to use it towards the interview process. I will try and convey my abilities without coming across as arrogant. I am just saying I have alot of experience with no downside. I have delivered alot of packages with alot of miles in alot of different delivery vehicles. I am very competent in manual transmissions and I have a clean and safe driving record.
Do you have any experience with a 13 speed Road Ranger or those RPM controlled auto trans.? Would certainly help.
Logistics_lifer
Member
Now your just being antagonistic don't you think? I stated I needed to get my cdl and this is why the way I chose to go is the way it is. I can go get my cdl and then tell you yes if youd like. Whats your credentials by the way? Where you in with UPS? Or just bitter because I made more than you and now Im trying to better myself by stemming the tide.
Look you're not my family and your not my friend. All you represent to me is well just so many people. In fact your bare existence is of no consequence to me. So I'm not going get into a spitting contest with you. All I was trying to get at was whether or not you've even been in a road tractor even driven one around a yard. Learning about how machines work especially road tractors in advance of going to cdl school is of up most importance because you'll be in a class with people who have been around the damn things and understand how they work and drive because they have no similarity with the stuff you've driven thus far. They will have a huge advantage over you. What makes you think you made more money than I did? Let's put it this way. Unlike yourself I never had any problem finding enough money to buy a good health insurance policy.
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