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[pgraening]

Ohhhhh boy. For my day job, I work in the receiving/shipping area of the university's IT department. When we have to ship out returns and other items, we are the people who call the manufacturers to get RMA authorizations. Let's just say, it's a total pain to call HP and Dell. They either don't speak English well, put you on hold for thirty minutes, or sound like someone is slowly drilling a hole in their head while you're on the phone with them. Gateway, I guess, is not great for regular customers, but for us educational users, we don't even get put on hold. Go figure. I can't imagine how they save money moving these call centers across the world, when you still have to foot the phone bill from Smallville to New Delhi.

(BTW, at my job, I like to distribute UPS items. We have magnets, pens, and mousepads. Our UPS driver loves us. The FedEx guy [bitter ex-UPSer] thinks we're nuts. The Airborne guy thinks it's funny that I get paid more per hour than he does.)

I'm sorry, I've done very little tonight to keep any of these postings on-topic.

 

[daveupser]

Thanks guys! So, through the discount plan, am I only getting Class A?

Also, paying taxes on capital gains is exactly that - GAINS, right? I mean, it's only on profit on from the stock sale, right?

(Message edited by Daveupser on January 31, 2004)

 

[gman]

Once again, why would UPS go out of their way to hire a guy who admits he is stealing time from the company by under dispatching drivers. (By the way, stealing time and stealing in general is the only thing I have ever seen an employee fired for and the union can't do a damn thing about it) The 400 bucks sounds nice but I made more than that in O/T this week. And remember, just because your name comes up to be the next hire, you still have to qualify as a driver which means meeting their standards and running scratch for a month. If they don't want you, they will give you the worst possible areas to run and make it impossible for you to do it. Then you have to wait another year to get another chance. It's happened a couple times in our building.

 

[steamheat]

Well muncher, it would appear that you are 1 year away from 2 college degrees. And just so you know, I have a BBA with a major in MGMT and a 2-year technical degree (diesel and hydraulics). The BBA I earned while working the preload and a job during the day. After work I had to drive 50 miles to the nearest university. I would return home around 11 pm after classes. It takes a little longer that way because you can't handle more than 10 hrs per quarter. I have a 3.8 GPA for 6 years of college. Peace

 

[wkmac]

oldupsman,
I like what your local President did as it relates to meeting with the drivers to discuss building volume with the DM. We need a whole lot more of that IMO.

 

[my2cents]

From what I understand in our building, some of the part-time sups started on what they were making as hourly employees, with a promotion bonus thrown in on top of that. The ones I know are paid on a 25 hour week or 100.33 hours per month. Their annual raises are anywhere from 0-3%. There is no overtime paid, stock options granted, or any existance of a pension in our building either. I believe some p/t sups pay may start higher than the translated hourly rate, although this is something that will have to be negotiated depending on your past work experience and how bad they want you. For the sake of comparison, check what the company offers you versus what you can make in the collective bargaining agreement. Unfortunately, I've had part-time sups tell me they wished they had stayed hourly because with the hours required of being management, they actually made more money as an hourly, if you work out the figures on a per hour basis. Having said all that however, I do believe the part-time sup position will look good on a resume, as Tooner correctly pointed out. In short, from a career-building move, it can be a good one, although from an economic one and from the accounts I have heard in our building, IMO, I think it is a money loser.

 

[dooley]

UPS has started DRIP for both A and B shares. Signed up on 1/30. Jast happened to see the announcement on UPSERS.com. Just a nice painless way to add additional shares. Thank You UPS

 

[fuzzylogic]

If you sell your shares two or more years after the beginning of the purchase period (the ""statutory
holding period''):
any gain up to 10 percent of the fair market value of the shares at the beginning of the
purchase period is taxable as ordinary income,and any further gain is taxable as long-term
capital gain,and
any loss is treated as long-term capital loss.
If you sell your shares before the end of the statutory holding period:
generally,the dierence between the price at which you purchased the shares and the fair
market value of the shares on the date you purchased the shares is taxable as ordinary income,
and
the dierence between the amount you receive on the sale of the shares and the fair market
value of the shares on the date you purchased the shares is taxable as capital gain or loss.
You should consult with your own tax advisor with respect to your own personal tax situation.
Set forth below are examples to illustrate the federal tax income tax consequences of the plan.For
each example,we have assumed that shares are purchased in the purchase period beginning October 1,
2001.We have assumed that the closing sale price of the class B common stock on the rst day of the
quarterly purchase period is $60 per share and the closing sale price of the class B common stock on
the last business day of the quarterly purchase period is $70 per share.The purchase price would be $54
per share (90%of the lower of $60 and $70).The statutory holding period would end on October 1,
2003.
Example 1.Assume that you subsequently sell your shares at $80 per share:
If you sell your shares on or after October 1,2003,you will have ordinary income of $6 per
share (10%of $60)and long-term capital gain of $20 per share ($80 $60).
If you sell your shares before October 1,2003,you will have ordinary income of $16 per share
($70 $54)and capital gain of $10 per share ($80 $70).
Example 2.Assume that you subsequently sell your shares at $58 per share:
If you sell your shares on or after October 1,2003,you will have ordinary income of $4 per
share (the lesser of (a)10%of $60 or (b)the amount of the gain).You will have no long-
term capital gain (because the price at which you sold your shares ($58)is less than $60).

If you sell your shares before October 1,2003,you will have ordinary income of $16 per share
($70 $54).You also will have capital loss of $12 per share ($70 $58).

 

[my2cents]

Cheers dooley, and thanks for the heads up. Just enrolled myself. This should make Ken Rodrigues happy if he is back as a UPS stockholder. I wonder if his petition from a few years ago on this site played any role in this new offering from the company.

 

[pretender]

I think that I would take the cold over the snow--At least the temperature does not slow you down (vehicle). Toonertoo: I can relate to the Lake Erie snow machine--I am about 60 miles from Lake Michigan...

 

[moreluck]

Lived in Idaho Falls, Idaho for 7 years. It was great 3/4's of the year.....but in winter it would stay -20 (actual temp.) for weeks. Did you know that diesel fuel would gel and the trucks would just stop running? (1978). So did the brand new diesel cadillacs. There would be ice ruts carved in the secondary streets and your vehicle would slip into them and you
couldn't steer out of them. We grew up in Ohio and thought we knew about winters until we experienced Idaho. Yikes! Ahhh, the good old days! Rest assured we are comfortable now in S. Calif.

 

[my2cents]

Spent one winter in Minot, N.D. and remember plugging my car in at night so the engine block wouldn't freeze. In addition to the drivers, I'm sure the automotive guys have their hands full, as well. I can't imagine any vehicles being left out in the yard at night. Must be lots of spare batteries and dry gas around.

 

[tieguy]

Nothing is colder than the 10 degrees with the high humidity we experience on the East Coast...

 

[traveler]

You hit one of my hot buttons there. I really hate being put on hold but I have found a remedy for the problem. I call on my speaker-phone while I have other work to do at my computer. When I am asked to wait for the next representative, the call goes to speaker and I do some other work until they decide to take the call. Many times, I get in a half hour's work before the call is picked up. The only down side is having to listen to some really lousy music in the interim. I can't even imagine what they are paying for folks like me who stay on that long on their dime. Their "800" number bills surely outweigh their resistance to properly man the phones.

 

[tieguy]

"Second, my boss is stupid, but not stupid enough to listen to your one-sided opinions! And last yes it sucks working seven years part-time working full time hours, but it feels soooo goood ... geting my revenge every day by sending out my drivers lite on stops, really pisses off the onroads and makes the center managers numbers look bad!"

I'll repost your quote here just in case you forget that you just blatantly admitted your a stiff. Thank you! one little poke or prod and you turn states evidence against yourself.

 

[tieguy]

I've seen people use EDR and win with no repercussions.

 

[eeriana]

I am not going to complain about or 20 degree temps anymore... We're pretty much weenies out here. LOL it's 30s and 40s during the day and 20s or so at night... We had a lot lower but not -20!

 

[ok2bclever]

I'd have answered earlier, but I did get a bit teary eyed and it froze over, just getting my sight back now.

Yeah, if I ever dig out of the snow and get down that way I'll take the hug.

I've had some limited coversation with those "in reach of the know" and the guarded answer is UPS has not changed anything as of now.

Any UPS personell interested and in position to retire currently might be best advised to put in the formal papers and force the issue at least specific to their own predicament.

You don't have to stick to the date you set on the retirement papers to start the proceedings.

 

[oldupsman]

I agree mac. Some of the hard core union guys didn't like it but they're in the minority anyway.Much better to at least try and work together and create something positive than sit around and moan. Looks like the pension issue will be pushed off for at least another year. I'm not going anywhere until this thing plays itself out. And if it takes until 2008, so be it. I've lasted this long (28 years) I can do 4 and a half more. I leave you with the words of an old center manager of mine now retired. "Leave? Why would you want to leave? Where else can you have so much fun and make so much money?"

 

[brownmonster]

Wind chill hit minus 30 here yesterday. Finally had to put on a coat instead of just a vest. I hang my head in shame. Didn't wear a hat though, it really has to be cold for that! I have a couple of stops that are within 100 feet of lake Michigan so we get the lake effect too. Intake pipes froze coming from the lake and some of the factories had to shut down Thurs. due to lack of water. 6 weeks from today I'll be in Florida. At least when I grill my Bratwurst I can stick a 6-pack in the snowbank! BM