Simple Questions?

msswing

Member
Is there a difference between a swing driver and a cover driver? If so, what is the difference? Also, how is it relayed to the swing/cover driver what time pickups and stuff are?
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
I would think that a Swing Driver is a Full-timer while a Cover Driver does the very exact job as a Part-time employee, making less an hour with no full time Pension contributions. My foggy mind seems to think when the Cover Driver position was created, the agreement was that a Preloader would learn a maximum of three routes, and could work them if the regular bid driver was on vacation or out with injuries. This has been greatly abused, some of our Cover Drivers know twelve to fifteen, and at the time of the '97 Strike, I thought the full-timers were slowly being replaced by them!:sad:
 

UPSBOI

You don't want to know!
OK here is my view on this subject:

Unassigned Driver:

A full-time driver who for whatever reason has not bid on a route (not enough senority or chooses not to bid in order to cover other routes). They are technically supposed to run unassigned routes which are bid in senority order.

TCD - Temporary Cover Driver:

A part-time driver that is supposed to cover for vacations or absences on the bid routes.

From my experience in my center the roles are usually reversed.
 

xracer

Well-Known Member
In our center there is no such thing as a swing driver, all we have are cover drivers and they come in two different categories. First there is the bid cover driver who has seniority but no run of his/her own but has preference on the route that they cover based on their seniority secondly there is the non seniority cover driver who works at a lower pay rate and works according to a prefered casual list and does routes as directed by management and has no paid holidays or vacations unless they were promoted from the part time ranks and then would recieve vacations and holidays as if they were still part time, 4 hours for holidays and 20 hours for vacations. I think that you will find that this varies from district to district and most likely from center to center.
 

DS

Fenderbender
A swing driver knows his role.He never knows what area he`s gonna do every morning.I could be a call in,or in another center..A cover drivers job is a driver that covers areas that people are off on vacation or injured .
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
We have no "swing driver" position here. We have cover drivers who have no bid route (not enough seniority or choose to be cover). They make the same pay as a bid route driver.
 

ikoi62

Well-Known Member
over9five said:
We have no "swing driver" position here. We have cover drivers who have no bid route (not enough seniority or choose to be cover). They make the same pay as a bid route driver.
same here..never heard of a swing driver.
here we have guys who have routes and guys who dont..
we have 85 routes in my center and 97 drivers..the extra 12 guys cover for vacations and sick calls for the 85.if they have more then 12 guys out they just take a truck out of the lineup and divide it up to the guys who deliver in that aera.
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
ikoi62 said:
same here..never heard of a swing driver.
Swingdriver is probably a term that is more known to us UPS "Oldtimers".
Some more are "Blue Label Air", fifty-pound weight limits, "Call Tags", "Fur Calls", "Merchandise Exchange", "Brown Bettys", "Paper Delivery Records", "Sheet Writng","Pocket Protecters", "Bankers Clip", "Door Hangers", "Eight Hour Day",The Big Idea, and since the introduction of PAS/Edd, Service and "Every Package, Every Day"!:closedeye
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
"...term that is more known to us UPS "Oldtimers"."

....customer service, the customer is always right, innocent until proven guilty etc etc.
 

ikoi62

Well-Known Member
scratch_king said:
Swingdriver is probably a term that is more known to us UPS "Oldtimers".
Some more are "Blue Label Air", fifty-pound weight limits, "Call Tags", "Fur Calls", "Merchandise Exchange", "Brown Bettys", "Paper Delivery Records", "Sheet Writng","Pocket Protecters", "Bankers Clip", "Door Hangers", "Eight Hour Day",The Big Idea, and since the introduction of PAS/Edd, Service and "Every Package, Every Day"!:closedeye
i started 21 years ago...i remembed all of those things except the 50-pound weight limit..but still never heard of a swing driver. do remember getting sheet writing awards?
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
"..do remember getting sheet writing awards?"

Don't remember awards, but I remember the phrase, "No mark-overs"!
 

wily_old_vet

Well-Known Member
ms.swing said:
Is there a difference between a swing driver and a cover driver? If so, what is the difference? Also, how is it relayed to the swing/cover driver what time pickups and stuff are?

MsSwing-Are you having problems with your pickup being made early by cover/swing driver again?
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
over9five said:
"..do remember getting sheet writing awards?"

Don't remember awards, but I remember the phrase, "No mark-overs"!

I still have a couple of brown T-shirts with "The 250 Club" on them. That meant I had no "markovers" or handwriting mistakes, per 250 stops.:cool:
 

msswing

Member
Yes Wily, they are. And I am just wondering the difference cause Mr.Swing is called a Swing Driver, but UPS is calling the guy that messed up....I mean did our pick ups this week a Cover Driver.
 

wily_old_vet

Well-Known Member
over9five said:
Our DIADS tell the cover driver what time the regular driver makes the pickup.

Yeah, but what happens if they make it earlier. We lost a air acct on my route to DHL because the cover driver was coming there at 2:30 rather than after four as scheduled.
 

msswing

Member
Yeah, that's what happened here...again. On Monday the driver came to pick up at 3...when our pick up is scheduled for 5:30. I kindly told him that we still had packages going out and our regular scheduled pickup time is 5:30. I also gave him the office number and said if he was done earlier and wanted to call I could let him know if we were done earlier. I didn't hear from him and he then came the next day at 3:30!! I again reminded him that we still have packages going out, blah blah blah. Well....this happened all week, same driver, I gave him the same story. One of our packages didn't get picked up because he never came back one day so the person shipping it called and the story we got was "well he is a cover driver." I understand that, but how many times do you have to tell the guy that its 5:30?? AND...the person that was talked to at UPS pulled a report off his board and said that the board said the pickup time is 5:30. So...whats the deal? This "cover driver" needs to be trained again I think.
 

danlin

Well-Known Member
scratch_king said:
Swingdriver is probably a term that is more known to us UPS "Oldtimers".
Some more are "Blue Label Air", fifty-pound weight limits, "Call Tags", "Fur Calls", "Merchandise Exchange", "Brown Bettys", "Paper Delivery Records", "Sheet Writng","Pocket Protecters", "Bankers Clip", "Door Hangers", "Eight Hour Day",The Big Idea, and since the introduction of PAS/Edd, Service and "Every Package, Every Day"!:closedeye
Exactly: I started in 1980 as a "Utility driver" to cover summer vacations, the title evolved into swing driver now I think we say cover driver. I could be wrong there could be more to it though.

"Challenges of the 80's" "Delivering our future" "Reassesment" Eisenhauer Jackets, P500s , P800s, NO Shorts,
 

browniehound

Well-Known Member
When I cover routes if I get to the pick-up earlier than usual I politely state that i know i'm here earlier and if you need me to come back I wil. Most of the time they'll just say there all set
 

browniehound

Well-Known Member
over9five said:
Our DIADS tell the cover driver what time the regular driver makes the pickup.
I cover routes all the time and most of the drivers have their times all screwed up. I mean, some of them have pick-ups in their DIAD that aren't even on their routes anymore. Very rarely do i find a driver with the correct pick-up times in their DIAD
 
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