Former FedEx Ground driver turned UPS driver / ASK me anything
- Thread starter Doubleparkedrunner
- Start date
HedleyLamarr
Well-Known Member
Have you seen the old pieces of junk trucks Ground drivers deliver out of? I doubt many of them have working A/C.
It will be fine
Well-Known Member
Depends on the part of the country they’re in. I’ve bought some trucks out of Florida that all had AC.
He said working AC
Showtime1990
New Member
How long did it take you to get on with them?
olroadbeech
Happy Verified UPSer
are fed ex drivers required to wear underwear?
floridays
Well-Known Member
Do you look like your avatar?
Contractor owned vehicles equipped with contractor specified 260 air conditioning........2 cab wide doors open 60 MPH.
Contractor maintenance protocol........."Don't fix it when it's broke. Fix it when it quits running".
Doubleparkedrunner
Well-Known Member
I know you say that facetiously but I actually took a huge pay cut at first in that i had to work only part time for awhile in the warehouse making only about a hundo a week until I was able to start driving and finally receive a decent pay.
Those first few months aside; I've quite enjoyed the pay difference !
Doubleparkedrunner
Well-Known Member
Yes, that is correct ; you can ask me anything.
Although the title did not say specifically that i would ANSWER everything.
Doubleparkedrunner
Well-Known Member
Of the four major sports I , only for a short time, liked basketball ( specifically the NBA ) as during my early teens while getting into sports the Boston Celtics were awesome to watch and Im from the New England area.
But i realized i just never really enjoyed basketball as much as Hockey, Football and yes, baseball.
So yes, i am a baseball fan and as you've probably figured out a Red Sox fan also.
I must say that baseball was my number one sport while growing up but has deteriorated over time to being number 3 on my list behind Hockey and Football ( in that order ). The game has gotten slow , and although i always thought a person would love baseball more and more as they got older, ive noticed that at least for me baseball can't live off of nostalgia forever and they need to speed the pace of the game up somehow in order for me to not stab my eyes out.
Doubleparkedrunner
Well-Known Member
It used to be a lot quicker in my younger days although I guess it would hard to compare younger times with today as back in those days I was single and now married; So the swallowing days are few and far between and I don't think the wife would want me videotaping that stuff in order to try and guess correct speed?
…. Calling INDECISION
I Am Jacks Damaged Box
***** Club Member (can't talk about it)
Doubleparkedrunner
Well-Known Member
First of all, I am so much better off being at UPS that its almost indescribable.
Although it really is the same job when you get down to it, there are also vast differences between the two.
I think Ground drivers hear or are told many stories about working at UPS that are either inaccurate due to lack of knowledge in UPS operations or from actual scare tactics that contractors will perpetuate in order to keep their drivers with them longer.
---The work week is consistently much longer at UPS as 50 to 55 hour weeks are the norm , especially for newer drivers.
---Management is much more lax at Ground as I believe they may be slightly afraid of pissing off or scaring drivers away as UPS isn't afraid of doing either and is in fact actively provoking and prodding newer drivers in order to get the most out of them as far as production is concerned.
---The pay is vastly superior at UPS. It's really like comparing apples to burning tires.
---The vacation time allotted , paid sick days, health insurance ,and just about all other benefits are night and day with the UPS driver winning that battle once again.
---Even little things like calling out sick are actually an easier process at UPS as you don't feel guilty doing so at UPS as there are plenty of younger and hungrier drivers out there waiting to get on road and work your route for you as compared to Ground which is run by contractors and they are seemingly running on such tight margins that they don't have many alternatives or fill ins for when a driver calls out for the day.
---The bullcrap from management is worse at UPS but that really depends on the work ethic and how thin skinned the driver is. If they have a good work ethic and are thick skinned , and a quick learner while also not being a hothead; they will be just fine at UPS and will learn to navigate the initial growing pains of switching over.
---There are probably a few more differences but i cant think of any at this moment. Im sure more will come up as I answer other questions.
Doubleparkedrunner
Well-Known Member
I don't know how the training at ground is from hub to hub across the country but as far as training with my employer/contractor at ground went , it was almost non existent. My contractor was a very nice guy and good to work for but on a scale of 1 to 100 as far as training goes ; FedEx would be seriously like a 7 while UPS would be like an 85 to 90.
At ground, I had a senior driver show me the route a couple days and was basically handed the keys and at UPS I had to go through so many hoops , you would have thought I was trying out to be an astronaut.
For me personally, I am a tough minded individual that almost always gets good at whatever I set my mind to so UPS training never scared or intimidated me in the least. But I will say, that if I had never driven at ground before going to UPS , I may have not made the cut at UPS.
...NOT because fedex ground training helped me but that I was there long enough to realize that I actually liked this line of work and once I realized I would consider doing this as a career , I started looking around to the best options out there and UPS was a nobrainer choice.
There was no way I was going to keep doing a job for 35 k a year when I could do the "same job" for a 100 k plus.
I was very lucky in that I didn't want to do this line of work but went to the ground interview as I was in between jobs and fully expected to say thanx but no thanx to the contractor who hired me upon initially meeting him. But I figured id give it a try just for kicks just in case it was better than I thought. It took about two months of driving to get the real hang of it at ground but once I did, I loved it.
Doubleparkedrunner
Well-Known Member
Its funny ; when I ran my particular ground route I would always see 3, 4 or even 5 UPS drivers in my area on a daily basis and I always chalked it up to them "not being as busy" as us or something. I couldn't understand how I could be "busting my hump" and
" doing the job " of multiple UPS drivers with just my one truck !
It wasn't until I moved over that I realized that UPS runs were just so much more fine tuned and densely packed. I would hear these stories of UPS drivers going out with 150 stops and that was unfathomable to me at ground as id top out at a hundred or so. But what I wasn't seeing was that at ground I had learned only my one route and didn't fully appreciate the vast difference between high mileage and lower mileage and denser routes.
Also, the technology and efficiency is more advanced and sharper at UPS. I tell my fellow drivers there and they can't
believe me as it seems like a show on most days at UPS. They are baffled when i tell them it looks like a well oiled machine compared to my fedex days.
Doubleparkedrunner
Well-Known Member
My ground truck was bricked out almost every day, I had mostly a traditional ground (business) route.
a major difference is that most UPS routes will have two to four hours of business on them and then the rest of the day will be more resi's and less bulk.
Doubleparkedrunner
Well-Known Member
Because Fat Freddy is casting a shadow on said black hole?
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