Should I wait for driver or get apprenticeship?

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

Baseball, dart board
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?
 

sailfish

Master of Karate and Friendship for Everyone
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.
 

Redtag

Part on order, ok to drive
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.
 
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sailfish

Master of Karate and Friendship for Everyone
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

Part on order, ok to drive
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
 

BSWALKS

Fugitive From Reality
I thought he was pole dancing?
plunger.gif
 

Brownsocks

Just a dog
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.
 

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Jkloc420

Do you need an air compressor or tire gauge
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
 
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