Should I wait for driver or get apprenticeship?

[Generic UPS Monkey]

I've been a preloader for 2 years. I'm 31 and really need a career. I know if I don't work here for 3 more years I won't get any pension.

If I do an apprenticeship for like a plumber it's still about 4-5 year program, and worse insurance and probably no pension.

No idea how long I have to wait for driver position. Any advice?

 

[KearsargeCoop]

I've been a preloader for 2 years. I'm 31 and really need a career. I know if I don't work here for 3 more years I won't get any pension.

If I do an apprenticeship for like a plumber it's still about 4-5 year program, and worse insurance and probably no pension.

No idea how long I have to wait for driver position. Any advice?

You aren't the first one to struggle with this and you won't be the last.

Anyway you can do both until you go full time? Are you able to get into local sort in the evenings and get some sort of apprenticeship during the day? Keep your ups benefits, and try out another vocation?

 

[nWo]

Having plumbing skills and experience will come in handy.

 

[BSWALKS]

Exact situation @sailfish was in, and he went into the plumbing trade

 

[allahuakbar]

If the waits longer than 2 years to drive get into plumbing.

 

[sailfish]

Exact situation @sailfish was in, and he went into the plumbing trade

Not a got damn plumber but I would recommend learning the trade skill any day of the week. You have more freedom to go anywhere you want. Around here I can walk into just about any electrical/mechanical service company and leave with a job with no competition. Get gud and you can just say piss on the union because you can literally name your price, get a raise whenever you want, negotiate your own benefits, and get an extra week of vacation not even according to the employee handbook like I've already done this year.

 

[sailfish]

Oh, and 95% of the time I'm driving home between 3 and 4.

 

[Redtag]

Not a got damn plumber but I would recommend learning the trade skill any day of the week. You have more freedom to go anywhere you want. Around here I can walk into just about any electrical/mechanical service company and leave with a job with no competition. Get gud and you can just say piss on the union because you can literally name your price, get a raise whenever you want, negotiate your own benefits, and get an extra week of vacation not even according to the employee handbook like I've already done this year.

Yeah, then when you get older, more injury prone and slower all of a sudden the opportunities dry up, they need to renegotiate your pay or just make you miserable until you quit so they can replace you with the new younger guy that's "gud"

I was a flat rate tech for over 15 years before UPS, I saw it happen to guys around 50 that did nothing wrong but age and become too expensive. This is why i seeked out union employment even though i was in that get a job whenever i want and negotiate my own pay stage of my career at the time.

However I will agree with the freedom part, I miss that. I also will agree with you about learning a trade, if you have a trade you will always find work.

 

[Emergency Conditions]

Either option is a perfectly fine choice that will provide you with comfortably above average income so I'd say go with whichever opportunity comes your way first.

 

[SorryLazyPOS]

Just stick with something and don’t look back. But you need to make the decision not me not your mom. You.

 

[sailfish]

Yeah, then when you get older, more injury prone and slower all of a sudden the opportunities dry up, they need to renegotiate your pay or just make you miserable until you quit so they can replace you with the new younger guy that's "gud"

I was a flat rate tech for over 15 years before UPS, I saw it happen to guys around 50 that did nothing wrong but age and become too expensive. This is why i seeked out union employment even though i was in that get a job whenever i want and negotiate my own pay stage of my career at the time.

However I will agree with the freedom part, I miss that. I also will agree with you about learning a trade, if you have a trade you will always find work.

The older I get doing this, the better I will get at controls, automation, and programming which is even less physical and more exclusive of a skill. The best guy we had was in his 60s and recently walked right into another company for six figures right out the gate. Forty hour weeks. This line of work is what you know far more than it is physically taxing. Companies are killing each other for people worth a damn.

 

[Redtag]

Hope that continues that way. Trucks have tons of modules and wiring with multiplexing and many different systems one needs knowledge of and many retail operations keep one or two knowledgeable people around for that stuff.







The rest... a bunch of cheap kids.



I just don't trust companies. For me it was union or my own buisness

 

[Thebrownblob]

Exact situation @sailfish was in, and he went into the plumbing trade

I thought he was pole dancing?

 

[Redtag]

I think he is in HVAC?

 

[sailfish]

I thought he was pole dancing?

You have me confused with another ol'road poster who used to prowl around here.

 

[sailfish]

I think he is in HVAC?

Commercial electrician and HVAC/R technician.

 

[I have NOT been lurking]

You have me confused with another ol'road poster who used to prowl around here.

The tranny

 

[BSWALKS]

I thought he was pole dancing?

 

[Brownsocks]

Commercial electrician and HVAC/R technician.

Neither of those pay enough around here. According to BLS the median salary is 48,530, and that sounds about right based on my knowledge.
We did have a company offering $40hr for a refrigeration tech, but that still falls way short of what I would need to switch. UPS has me by the balls.

 

[Jkloc420]

Yeah, then when you get older, more injury prone and slower all of a sudden the opportunities dry up, they need to renegotiate your pay or just make you miserable until you quit so they can replace you with the new younger guy that's "gud"

I was a flat rate tech for over 15 years before UPS, I saw it happen to guys around 50 that did nothing wrong but age and become too expensive. This is why i seeked out union employment even though i was in that get a job whenever i want and negotiate my own pay stage of my career at the time.

However I will agree with the freedom part, I miss that. I also will agree with you about learning a trade, if you have a trade you will always find work.

Getting older injury prone happens to a lot of drivers