Ask a Feeder Driver, Feeder Driver FAQ
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9.5er
Well-Known Member
4th year in for me. Got a bid run this year so no more covering. Sure is nice to have a set schedule even if it’s a night schedule.Hey Y’all. Haven’t been here in a few years. Created an account a few years ago when I got into feeder to ask some rookie questions. Got in feeder in 2018 so time flew by. Going into my 5th year and I cannot imagine ever going back in a package car. Cheers
l‘d cry like a little b if I had to go back to package.
Cementups
Box Monkey
Been 6 years for me in feeders now after 21 in package. Did 5 years in a brown and then before peak bid a job on sleeper. I work 3 days now and off for 4 while making as much as I did in a brown in 5 days.Hey Y’all
Yeet
Not gonna let ‘em catch the Midnight Rider
How are you liking sleeper?Been 6 years for me in feeders now after 21 in package. Did 5 years in a brown and then before peak bid a job on sleeper. I work 3 days now and off for 4 while making as much as I did in a brown in 5 days.
What'dyabringmetoday???
Well-Known Member
But that will add to the day. Need to get done!!
Cementups
Box Monkey
I don’t mind it but I also have a pretty short run. I’m not one of these guys that want to run 6k miles and be gone for 5 days at a time. My run is 4K miles and barely over 3 days. I mean, I liked it enough to bid into again after running it for 6 months prior
. But I really value that I work 3 and off 4 and still gross $2800-ish/week. I’ve got a pretty decent kid as my B driver too so that helps. Just getting into a routine is the important part. And being able to feel comfortable enough to sleep when the truck is rolling.
Yeet
Not gonna let ‘em catch the Midnight Rider
I’ve been playing with the idea although I’m not on board yet. A lot of my buddies are trying to talk me into doing it with them. If I decide to do it, I’m like you, I don’t want a 6K mile run and I don’t want to go to M43NY. Maybe in a few years I’ll give it a shot.I don’t mind it but I also have a pretty short run. I’m not one of these guys that want to run 6k miles and be gone for 5 days at a time. My run is 4K miles and barely over 3 days. I mean, I liked it enough to bid into again after running it for 6 months prior
I’ve got a pretty decent kid as my B driver too so that helps. Just getting into a routine is the important part. And being able to feel comfortable enough to sleep when the truck is rolling.
We got one guy paralyzed from the waist down cuz he was comfortable too.
You never know if your co-driver had a bad weekend, got in a fight with the wife, didnt get any sleep, whatever.
You're really putting your life in his hands. I could never do that.
Just A UPS Guy
Bully.
I was looking into this a lot and did a lot of reading. Everyone knows someone who knows someone that had something happen to them in some circumstance. Death/injury is no more common amongst sleeper/berth passengers than anyone else, and probably fewer by percentage. I'm planning on going into sleepers next year, ride out my last 8 years working 3-4 days a week, if I happen to die that way, guess it's how I'm supposed to go. I feel like it's just as dangerous driving to the grocery store.
Thebrownblob
Well-Known Member
I never felt it was a big problem with being dangerous. I just have no desire to sleep in the back of a truck if it works for you that’s great.
6000+ here. I brought home an extra $1000 over my brown truck gig. Every week. Whatever that was(brown paycheck) add $1000 clear extra. Think about that.I don’t mind it but I also have a pretty short run. I’m not one of these guys that want to run 6k miles and be gone for 5 days at a time. My run is 4K miles and barely over 3 days. I mean, I liked it enough to bid into again after running it for 6 months prior
I’ve got a pretty decent kid as my B driver too so that helps. Just getting into a routine is the important part. And being able to feel comfortable enough to sleep when the truck is rolling.
Now safety.....better worse less more dangerous? We had more fatalities on the yard than anything......
Comfortable? I felt WORSE than brown truck. And I hated working nights in brown truck(my whole career).
Even as the A driver and "working days".......it was truly awful. There is a reason folks look the way they do in truck stops. Zombies. Worst year of my life working at UPS. They literally couldn't pay me enough money to do sleepers. IMHO.
We had the best mattress money could buy and a spanking new tractor. Inverter, micro, fridge.....the first time you get airborne back there....wtf!? And I had several co-drivers....it was the same top hands to rookies.
Now, if you could have slept one night in a hotel......or even solo where you could sleep while not moving......might take another look.
Cementups
Box Monkey
there’s a good and bad with all jobs.
And I totally under your concern. We had a team perish in an accident on the PA turnpike a couple years ago. One of the drivers was a friend of mine. Thing is, even in a brown, you are at risk with every turn of the wheels. You never know if today is your day. But if you have the mentality of being scared or worried all the time, don’t do it. It’s not the bid for you.
Cementups
Box Monkey
I’m the A driver on my run and I choose to run 4pm-4am. I never ran nights until I started in sleeper but it’s nice and quiet and far less traffic on the roads. All my B drivers friends are shocked and always ask him how the hell he got to run days
. But he’s not complaining. And running nights fits my body’s natural sleeper clock. I am not a morning person.
Cementups
Box Monkey
The best thing you can do if you’re curious is to have someone take you out when their codriver is off some week. That way you can dip your toes in the water before just diving in head first. I never thought I’d do sleepers but decided to check it out. I covered for two years off and on then finally just said screw it.
And my codriver asked me to take him out in a 6 month bid but I made him cover a run two weeks in a row before I committed to him. He must have done ok especially since I took him for another bid
. I told him from the beginning the most important rules I have. There’s not a single package in this trailer that’s worth either one of our lives. That being said, your number one job is making sure I get home to my kids and wife. You do that for me and I’ll do the best I can to do the same for you. Deal. The moment I catch him doing something stupid and totally unacceptable then I will seek to have the team dissolved. So far so good.
ManInBrown
Well-Known Member
Sleepers hard pass for me. I could’ve done it this year had I wanted. I’ll never do it. It’s blood money. If you can handle it god bless. Not for me.
Coldworld
Well-Known Member
Anyone know what the approximate time is for a pre trip on a tractor and then a pre trip with hooking a set or just a single?? On roads have been telling new drivers here all a different story and trying to jam people up on it….had someone ask me about it and I had no idea 
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The approximate time is approximate. There are exact "allowances" specified.Anyone know what the approximate time is for a pre trip on a tractor and then a pre trip with hooking a set or just a single?? On roads have been telling new drivers here all a different story and trying to jam people up on it….had someone ask me about it and I had no idea
Are you really talking about gate(departure) times?
To UPS, there are no exceptions or deviations from these "allowances" or departure times........no matter the circumstances.
Now the Union "doesn't recognize" productivity.......yet they(UPS) "jam people up on it".....
Which really begins the discussion about intangibles......such as rocky lots, jammed pintle and the millions of possible time consuming problems that can and will occur.
UPS counts on "On time departures and arrivals". Their business model is framed around them. The very top of the management on down dictates such. Employees are the bottom of that "flow".
My advice would be to document ANY delay you experience....when the "jamming" occurs. You will get tired of such and so will they(mgt).
Just A UPS Guy
Bully.
In my mind it should be no less than 30 minutes, and I take about 45. Probably 20 mins or so at a minimum for your tractor, then find and hook up to your trailer, and then another 5-10 mins for that. The tractor takes me around 30 alone. I don't just fire it up and stomp on the throttle to build air though, I let the rig warm up and build its air at idle, brake test, rebuild air at idle.Anyone know what the approximate time is for a pre trip on a tractor and then a pre trip with hooking a set or just a single?? On roads have been telling new drivers here all a different story and trying to jam people up on it….had someone ask me about it and I had no idea
If they really wanna start riding guys you can always bring safety into question, that usually slows the conversation down a little. "Are you asking me to shortcut safety to get on road?"
The key is being consistent.
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BigUnionGuy
Got the T-Shirt
I remember when I took the CDL test with the state, the time allowed was 30 minutes.
Exactly.
DriveInDriveOut
Inordinately Right
I had a run that started with a bobtail out and the schedule was 13 minutes to leave.Anyone know what the approximate time is for a pre trip on a tractor and then a pre trip with hooking a set or just a single?? On roads have been telling new drivers here all a different story and trying to jam people up on it….had someone ask me about it and I had no idea
When I was scheduled to leave with a set it was 33 minutes from clock in. A single is 19 minutes. I imagine these are different depending on the run but I don't really know or care.
I basically never leave on time. Leaving with a set in 45 minutes is a good day. I've heard over an hour of property time without time coded to something triggers a report, but I'm not sure.
Honestly it's a pretty crappy management choice to pressure new drivers about property time, they just need to be careful.
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