Pros and Cons of going to Feeders.....????!!!!!!

2Slow

Well-Known Member
I like it.

I don't hate Christmas anymore.
I don't hate going to work. I work a lot of hours, I make a lot of money.

People have touched on the hours and nights thing, but no one seems to have addressed this issue.

Tractor trailer is a whole lot harder to drive than a package car. If you have any trouble whatsoever getting around in a package car without wrecking, you do not belong in feeders. If you are at all intimidated driving a package car in the snow, you do not belong in feeders.
Good luck. Btw, I'm typing this on the clock while I wait for my next move.
 

gray squirrel

Well-Known Member
I am going on 3 years in feeders after 20 years in package. I am out of an extended center with one feeder run. The only cons I can tell you is my body still fights sleeping during the day. I then try to sleep normally on weekends, then flip back to day sleeping on monday. I am tired all the time. Feeders is the best job at UPS in my opinion. If I could get a day run in feeders, I would work until I had to retire because of physical reasons. My only advice would be, melatonin to sleep, coffee, to stay awake, and eat a lot of fiber!!
 

Dracula

Package Car is cake compared to this...
I'm working on a year and a half after 21 years of package car. As cachsux says, the training is bare bones. They're not really training you to drive as much as they are trying to get you to pass the CDL test. Bottom line, that is what feeder school is about. You will learn the basics, and not a lot more. It was amazing to me how much you didn't learn during that week of school. Literally, they spent less than an hour showing us how to hook up doubles. That is pathetic, if you ask me. You will do a lot of different things during your five day ride, but the problem is you're worried about not wrecking, and trying to accept everything your sup tells you. And this job requires repetition to get a full grasp of everything. That just takes time.

In my building, I had a lot of drivers help out whenever I had a question. You should too, most likely. That's important, because the sups always make you feel stupid when you ask a question. All but one of our sups have come from DTS school, which is a very, very tough three weeks (their words, not mine) of training that gives sups nine years of driving experience.

Yeah, you heard that right. Despite not driving on the streets at night, during inclement weather, rush hour, at customer pickups or when you've got someone breathing down your neck about on-property or leave times, they seem to think that three weeks of training gives them nine years of real-world driving experience.

What a neat world they live in!!

As someone above said, you're best bet is to work in the yard for a while to get used to backing, hooking up and getting a feel for the equipment. It's probably the best thing you can do for yourself in feeders to start. That said, working the yard is tedious, tedious, tedious. The days (or more likely, the nights) DRAG on and on. Nothing at all like package car. I got lucky (maybe unlucky?) that my seniority got by a road job. I only did a five day ride and one week in the yard. It was nice that I didn't have to work that yard and got used to the highway and the weather, but I was definitely at a disadvantage when it came to learning how to back trailers and dollies hooked to trailers.

IMO, the biggest thing you must do, is to divorce yourself from the package car world. That mentality, and that kind of work pace can get you killed back here. And that is not hyperbole. If the weather gets bad, or if you're running late, there is no rush to make up. You keep running at your normal pace. If the weather throws you a loop, you take a deep breath and tell yourself, "I'll get there when I get there". PERIOD. You will have a flat tire on your pretrip that will put you behind. Too bad. That's the price of running this equipment. Don't take shortcuts. And when your sups start rumbling about how much quicker you should be, let it slide into one ear, and out the other. You don't ignore the things that keep you safe, even if it irritates management.

The nights? I don't have young kids, so I adjusted well to nights. I have black-out curtains, earplugs and a sleep mask. I normally get 6 to 8 hours sleep a day. And at first, you will be tired, and think you will NEVER be able to get comfortable enough to sleep in your tractor. But you will. Get a pillow to throw behind your seat. Jack around with stretching out...you will find a spot.

This job is definitely easier than package car. Despite what some people claim on this site, I don't know ONE feeder driver who wants to go back to PC. I know plenty who wish they could still fire up a doobie every once in a while, but, hey, that's the price of being back here.

Hours vary from center hub to hub. In our building there is a very strong push to limit hours to 9.5, like package car. I've got a job where I climb over 55 hours a week, which I like. your results may vary. But I wouldn't come back here to get fewer hours than in PC. The long hours back here are MUCH easier than the same amount of hours in PC.

That's all I got right now. If I think of anything else, I'll re-post, but most of the others here have covered this better than me.
 
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