Voting out Bonus

[Ruralbrownman]

A good majorityof bonus drivers in our building are guys who jump the clock , sort thru and dispatch out of their truck. While I would be in favor of some type of bonus system , the one in place is not fair to all drivers. But if the union starts to recognize time measurement and allowances that than opens the door for drivers to be fired for off performance.

If you follow the job by the companies methods , and by the book I mean , I dont think there is a driver who can make bonus. While you can work faster , I dont believe that means you work better or safer.. Do you ever exit out the drivers door , how about knocking and waiting at the door at a residental stop , run from the truck to the door, do you call a pickup to see if they have anything instead of driving to the stop. Bonus encourages short cuts , short cuts the company would like you to do but hang you if you get caught.

My feeling is if you vote to keep bonus than you better not complain about over dispatch. Go ahead a file your over 9.5 grievence , but don't whine when you are over dispatched.

 

[Dragon]

A good majorityof bonus drivers in our building are guys who jump the clock , sort thru and dispatch out of their truck. While I would be in favor of some type of bonus system , the one in place is not fair to all drivers. But if the union starts to recognize time measurement and allowances that than opens the door for drivers to be fired for off performance.

If you follow the job by the companies methods , and by the book I mean , I dont think there is a driver who can make bonus. While you can work faster , I dont believe that means you work better or safer.. Do you ever exit out the drivers door , how about knocking and waiting at the door at a residental stop , run from the truck to the door, do you call a pickup to see if they have anything instead of driving to the stop. Bonus encourages short cuts , short cuts the company would like you to do but hang you if you get caught.

My feeling is if you vote to keep bonus than you better not complain about over dispatch. Go ahead a file your over 9.5 grievence , but don't whine when you are over dispatched.

From my experience, if you vote it out you will regret it later. I am not not intending to be mean or abusive.

 

[Jones]

From my experience, if you vote it out you will regret it later. I am not not intending to be mean or abusive.

If you're a methods driver who doesn't make bonus anyway, why would you regret it?

 

[hellfire]

i love bonus,, i get tons of money from it,, from what i have been told there are very few non bonus centers

 

[pretzel_man]

i love bonus,, i get tons of money from it,, from what i have been told there are very few non bonus centers

Last time I looked it was about 50 / 50. Half of the drivers on bonus, half not.

 

[soberups]

I purposely kept away from work measurement on my last post. I responded to what you wrote....

You said that a bonus system would reduce the number of drivers, reduce H&W payments, incent drivers to skip lunch, reduce UPS' cost.

With any bonus system that would be true.....

P-Man

What I said was that the bonus system that is currently implemented reduces the number of drivers, and pension/H&W payments....and it does so in a manner that is inherently dishonest.

My opinion is that it would be possible to come up with a bonus system that would be a win/win, as long as it is based upon honesty, accuracy and transparent, verifiable work measurements.

 

[Anonymous 10]

Bonus is unsafe which makes UPS a unsafe environment as long as this short cut system is in place in your center. This is just my opinion so lynch me if you want.

 

[Catatonic]

If you're a methods driver who doesn't make bonus anyway, why would you regret it?

Or you may be a methods driver that does make bonus and then you would regret it.

or you may not be a methods driver who doesn't make bonus, you probably will not regret it.

or you may not be a methods driver who does make bonus (seems counter-intuitive but I guess it is possible) and then you would regret it.

 

[Catatonic]

Bonus is unsafe which makes UPS a unsafe environment as long as this short cut system is in place in your center. This is just my opinion so lynch me if you want.

There is no logic to this statement ... I like the color green so I am unsafe.

Perhaps some premises and logically explained deductions would help.

 

[Anonymous 10]

There is no logic to this statement ... I like the color green so I am unsafe.

Perhaps some premises and logically explained deductions would help.

Hoak all bonus does is give you a reason to cut corners. I'm as methodocial a driver as there is and I'm about .10 tk .60 late every day. This Leeds me to believe the statement I made before. When you have been out of operations for as long as you have there is a chance you might have lost touch.

 

[brownmonster]

Bonus is unsafe which makes UPS a unsafe environment as long as this short cut system is in place in your center. This is just my opinion so lynch me if you want.

Bonus is unsafe? Take off your Union hat and start working faster. Weak argument.

 

[Jones]

Or you may be a methods driver that does make bonus and then you would regret it.

or you may not be a methods driver who doesn't make bonus, you probably will not regret it.

or you may not be a methods driver who does make bonus (seems counter-intuitive but I guess it is possible) and then you would regret it.

If most methods drivers were making bonus, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

 

[JonFrum]

Telematics is causing all sorts of grief here. I wonder how much blame we should lay on the bonus drivers for bringing this scourge upon us. Aren't they the ones that cut every corner? Isn't Telematics aimed at forcing drivers to stop all the corner cutting and falsifying and lunch skipping that Bonus drivers are famous for?

I don't think the New England region has Bonus, but my building, and others, sure have Telematics!!!! What did we do to deserve this?

 

[satellitedriver]

My bonus story.
Every route I drove for the first 20yrs as a cover driver and a bid route driver I could make 45minute bonus every day. I always took my full lunch break. On the days I needed to get home early I would skip lunch and make 11/2hr bonus.
Then, several years ago a new time study-(for EDD/PAS)- took 2hrs off my time allowance.
I had 15hrs OT and .25hrs bonus on my last paycheck.
Funny thing is that my SPORH is higher than it was before the time study.
Fine with me. Pay me $45 an hr for what you could get for $30hr with a correct dispatch.
The Add/Cuts have only increased my miles and my OT.
Great cost savings plan by corporate.
Yes, last quarters report showed record profits, but it also showed a huge increase in operating expenses.
69% of OE is in wages.
So, someone with better economic skills needs to explain to me how increasing profit by 50% and increasing OE by 400% over the last quarter is growth?

 

[Catatonic]

Hoak all bonus does is give you a reason to cut corners. I'm as methodocial a driver as there is and I'm about .10 tk .60 late every day. This Leeds me to believe the statement I made before. When you have been out of operations for as long as you have there is a chance you might have lost touch.

Ok - The incentive to make more per hour can cause a driver to cut corners - that is one logical premise.

An ad hoc assertion that your performance should be applied to others and that it even even relates is not logical.

Ok - back to your logical premise - certainly that could happen but it does not have to happen. One of the best methods drivers (ok probably the best) i ever road with ran an hour or more underallowed. He did not cut corners anywhere, came to a full stop every time, lifted packages properly, never exceeded an optimum carry, knew his next 5 stops, etc. He just happened to work very hard and was a very smart person. He knew every every stop once he looked at it ... and he was a cover driver that did this on every route in the center. As an aside, he made more bonus on some routes than others. Of course, he is just one driver ... not all drivers can do this. But then, that is the purpose of Bonus is to allow those drivers who are better to make more per hour than the drivers who are not as good.

Sort of like baseball - some hitters hit over .300 and they make more than hitters who bat .270.

 

[JonFrum]

Falsifying a timecard to make bonus is stealing, and yes with bonus there is an incentive to do so.

Not taking lunch used to be called buying the employees lunch and was an accepted practice. Laws now require an employee to take lunch and they need to do so and properly record it.

In essence everything else you say is accurate... Bonus is good for the company, good for the individual employee making bonus, bad for the Teamsters.

P-Man

Accepted practice? Not by State Laws. Not by Union Contract.

 

[JonFrum]

Why should one driver get Bonus Money every day because his route's time study is wrong in one direction, while another driver is hauled into the office every morning because his route's time study is wrong in the other direction?

 

[Jones]

Ok - The incentive to make more per hour can cause a driver to cut corners - that is one logical premise.

An ad hoc assertion that your performance should be applied to others and that it even even relates is not logical.

Ok - back to your logical premise - certainly that could happen but it does not have to happen. One of the best methods drivers (ok probably the best) i ever road with ran an hour or more underallowed. He did not cut corners anywhere, came to a full stop every time, lifted packages properly, never exceeded an optimum carry, knew his next 5 stops, etc. He just happened to work very hard and was a very smart person. He knew every every stop once he looked at it ... and he was a cover driver that did this on every route in the center. As an aside, he made more bonus on some routes than others. Of course, he is just one driver ... not all drivers can do this. But then, that is the purpose of Bonus is to allow those drivers who are better to make more per hour than the drivers who are not as good.

Sort of like baseball - some hitters hit over .300 and they make more than hitters who bat .270.

Sure, because all the time studies are the same right? Every route has a fair, accurate timestudy and if you cant follow the methods, take your lunch, and still beat the standards by an hour well, you're just not a .300 hitter. I guess it all looks the same from behind a desk in Atlanta.

 

[whiskey]

Except the runners are making less overall and effectively less per hour worked.

In theory, Bonus is a means of paying smarter, harder working people a higher wage per hour.

In theory, no truer words have ever been texted. In reality, the e is missing from bonus.

 

[Catatonic]

Sure, because all the time studies are the same right? Every route has a fair, accurate timestudy and if you cant follow the methods, take your lunch, and still beat the standards by an hour well, you're just not a .300 hitter. I guess it all looks the same from behind a desk in Atlanta.

I guess you conveniently overlooked the statement in my post I made to this point - "As an aside, he made more bonus on some routes than others."

I understand that the same person running one route will run a different Over/Underallowed than he/she will on another. Work Allowances are by design are "only accurate to within +/- 5% on 95% of the routes and for only 95% of the time". I was taught that 30 years ago and it had been around 30 years before that. No system is perfect and certainly not perfectly fair. I believe there is a process in place for drivers to bid on routes. If the allowances are unrealistically tight, then UPS will not realize the benefits of a bonus system. A bonus system where no drivers are able to make bonus is not a bonus center.

Not wanting to be crass here but it seems that one can make a natural conclusion that the people who are so against Bonus are against it because they cannot make bonus and don't want others to gain from a system from which they never get any benefits. That's understandable but not commendable.

I guess baseball players on the bench make pithy remarks about the everyday players who get more hits, more RBIs and more home runs and consequently better contracts with more money.