So I have a question for any and all out there about Management and bidding out routes. I can never get a straight answer, nor find anything in the Teamsters book so I figured I would reach out to the community. We have a few routes in a center in Arizona and management hasn't bid them out in about 2 years, they've been in 95-100% of those years but treated as swing routes. I heard from one driver that if you've been doing the route for a while you can get the route by default without having to bid on it, if they ever bid the routes. Myself and a few other drivers have been doing the same routes since they became swing routes, and now we're just waiting on management to bid them up. My question is, does anyone know if you can get a route by "default" or if that's just a myth? Or if we need to just suck our thumbs and cry if we don't win them.
Route Bidding Issues
- Thread starter P5forLife
- Start date
burrheadd
KING Of GIFS
Sounds like you need to talk with your B.A. P5
Misthios
I love my job. Don't you?
Do they keep these routes in for 30 days consecutively with the exact same route name and area? Example route 38c is in 30 days in a row covering the same area everyday
Yeah, same route names, same areas, 30 days consecutively.
I'm only a few years in... what is the B.A.? lol
PT Car Washer
Well-Known Member
Business Agent. Full time Teamster Union representative. Should be much more knowledgeable and have more clout than a Union Steward.
Awesome, thank you.
Yeah, and for them to be "swing routes" for as long as they have been, our manager gave us the same excuse of "I'll get them bid up soon."
eats packages
Deranged lunatic
the new routes make me want to pull my hair out instead of shrinking the original routes and neatly carving in territory for a new route they just remove a chunk of residential but still make you go all the way over there and back along the peripheral.
burrheadd
KING Of GIFS
There are some things you need to learn on your own young padawan
The information is there seek it
Commercial Inside Release
Well-Known Member
Meh. The union is full of young drivers that have never met their Business Agent, don't know their stewards, never interacted with the union at all... Except for the sign up sheet, and monthly deduction from their paycheck.
542thruNthru
Well-Known Member
Been In Brown Too Long
Ex-Package Donkey
Yeah, the "by default" thing is what management tries to pull when they like who's currently doing the route. They hold those guys hostage. They know you didn't bid the route, and will threaten to bid it if you don't stay in line. But any union members in your center worth their salt will grieve that immediately and get it bid properly. I've seen guys doing a split route (that's what we called them), and it became theirs "by default," have them bid out from under them years later.
And as far as the creation of a route...the contract does explicitly cover that, as 542 has pointed out above.
And as far as the creation of a route...the contract does explicitly cover that, as 542 has pointed out above.
542thruNthru
Well-Known Member
Please, 542 is my father. Call me Spartacus.
This is what I was looking for. I must've missed it and/or didn't look hard enough. Thanks!
Yeah I had a feeling that would be the case. I just wanted to reach out and double check. Thanks!
Surprising, they’ve been pretty liberal in making splits and swing routes in our center full time bids the past couple of years. Now that we’re lighter though they’re getting cut frequently
