UPS or Railroad

TheKid99

Well-Known Member
I may recieve an offer for freight conductor at a railroad.

I talked to my co workers and they said ill be a fool to pick UPS over the railroad do you agree?

The money would be really good and the railroad pension would be nice but my weekends and holidays will be gone
 

SaladTosser

Kill me now
Railroad retirement is the best I've ever seen. Around 5g for you and half more for your wife if you're married. And if you die first she gets the full pension.

But kiss your weekends goodbye. I worked on the rails for 3 years weekends and graveyard included and it sucked.

Both jobs has it's ups and downs, so think about it.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
I would pick railroad. A friends Dad retired from the RR and he was getting 13 weeks paid vacation at the end. Weekends aren't all they are cracked up to be if you are getting plenty of other time off.
 

rickyb

Well-Known Member
I may recieve an offer for freight conductor at a railroad.

I talked to my co workers and they said ill be a fool to pick UPS over the railroad do you agree?

The money would be really good and the railroad pension would be nice but my weekends and holidays will be gone

i worked on several railways in canada, and i can tell you the big railways CN and CP are toxic. what happened was the american managerial class immigrated north and ruined our railways. so workers get fired for little or no reason. the safety enforcers will hide on the property and just do the most ridiculous stuff to test you. the killer money is on the road which is 90k a year, and here it was you would go to 4 to 12 hours away, and wait for a train dont know how long like 36 hours, and then take a train back. the guys who retired from CN / CP were getting 60k a year in pension, but i think thats been changed or cut now.

i worked at deltaport and it was hte best jobs ive ever done on the other hand. after being on call it was 8 hour days 5 days a week.

i worked at 2 smaller railways and the safety wasnt overkill like above it was normal. i was doing 12 hour shifts 4 on 4 off all scheduled at one. i was switching in a yard it was hard work, but u can get promoted to loco engr and then all u have to do is stay awake.

go to glassdoor.com and look up the reviews for the railway your interested in.

i think if u leave UPS which i am not thrilled about, you will definitely have a worse schedule at a railway
 

rickyb

Well-Known Member
I would pick railroad. A friends Dad retired from the RR and he was getting 13 weeks paid vacation at the end. Weekends aren't all they are cracked up to be if you are getting plenty of other time off.

that vacation number sounds high...

at deltaport it was 6 weeks paid vacation after 10 years.\

at CP rail it was 5 weeks paid vacation after 18 years.

the railway in edmonton was non unionized so it was only 2 weeks.
 

greengrenades

To be the man, you gotta beat the man.
I may recieve an offer for freight conductor at a railroad.

I talked to my co workers and they said ill be a fool to pick UPS over the railroad do you agree?

The money would be really good and the railroad pension would be nice but my weekends and holidays will be gone
I'd take railroad. It could take years upon years to get anywhere with UPS. It took me 12 years to go full time. That isn't every hub but there is no guarantee with UPS. I'll be honest I enjoy my job some what, but I still sort of wish I would have just did something else.
 

Richard Harrow

Deplorable.
Railroad. I have a cousin who works for NS. He makes the same as me (as a conductor), the work isn't nearly as hard (at least this is what he says) and they have an excellent pension.

The only downside is the hours and the holidays. They keep him on call pretty much all the time, and he ends up working some holidays that we would get off.

Railroads move freight at a far more economical rate than UPS. The future is much brighter in that industry than it is at UPS, IMO.

Good luck.
 

Bottom rung

Well-Known Member
Rail, all the way. Most places at ups you will be waiting upwards of six years to go friend/t. Another four years to top pay. Your first two years will be spent being laid off every other week. So you'll spend ten years waiting to live a decent life. You'll be doing that for the rail way faster than that.
 

softshoe

Well-Known Member
Railroad- My nest door neighbor retired from the RR and his pension is over $60,000 a year. He also doesn't have a bad back or sore knees.
 
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