I wonder if working for UPS beats USPS

R

Romeofud

Member
I've been driving the postal delivery truck for USPS for 3 months now since hired and was doing well aside from a few local drivers unable to pass my double-parked vehicle and honking at me, which sometimes slows my day down, forcing me to move the truck to the end of the block and then walk the packages to my destination. However, most cars do pass fine. It's the women drivers having the most trouble for some reason.

The thing is that I was working every Saturday and UPS gets the weekend off. Now they got me doing freaking Amazon every Sunday and the package count exceeds 250 but yet the supers call me on the phone while I'm on duty wanting everyone back by 6 in the evening after departing at noon.

This is ridiculous! There's no way that high volume of parcels can be delivered on 3 parts of the town in such a short span. I'm forced to return about half the parcels and they don't seem to care anyway. They just want everyone back in time! I'm annoyed with this.

Plus, they gave me today off at one of the centers, but since one of the supervisors didn't know about it, he tried to pull me into work after doing 8 straight 10 hour work shifts. I had to lie to him and say I was in NJ because he was being relentless. Not to mention, I can never get any holidays off because USPS's contract with Amazon. The management team is always saying one thing and doing something else. Also, a supervisor from Collections has threatened to have me written up for parking infraction because one :censored2:ing car couldn't pass me, even though two had just gone through moments earlier. And they hate when we take lunch breaks. It's 30 minutes!

Is UPS this bad, worse, or a better place to work? I'm referring mostly to package drivers since that's what I do now. I really wanna try my luck again with UPS since things didn't work out in them calling me back on that last road test.
 
Pooter

Pooter

Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure UPS is way harder and more strick than the PO. So if ur having a hard time dealing with the PO then maybe UPS isn't for you.

I'd say go for it. Job security FTW :)
 
T

TG43

Well-Known Member
I was a city carrier at USPS from May 2011-May 2013.
I quit shortly after TE's lost $5.90/hr during the last contract. (TE is similar to a UPS cover driver). I've been a cover driver at UPS for 6 months now.

This is only my opinion on the two jobs...

There's a lot more BS and stress at UPS. This is not to say there isn't BS and stress at USPS...there is! I know. But at UPS when I hit the street, one of my main concerns is getting next day air delivered by 10:30. There could be 2 NDA's or 10. There are commit times you have to make throughout the day for deliveries and pickups. You could get to a pickup that has 5 pallets of boxes for pickup (no end of day sheet either) there's an extra 20 minutes picking them up. You could get an on-demand pickup out of no where that you have to take care of, bunch of extra time there. There's a bunch of little BS at UPS...can't sheet businesses closed between 12-1, I sheeted a package "other, other" one day because of a dog, found out that's a big no-no, have to sheet "other, emergency". At post office you just fricken write "dog" on the letter, it's not rocket science. With telematics if you drive with the cargo door open, back up after starting the truck, back up far, etc you risk getting in trouble.

I've literally have had 3 days I would consider "good" in the 6 months I've been at UPS. Most days I feel overwhelmed and stressed. At USPS I had more good days than bad...only an occasional really stressful day.

Saturdays do suck at USPS. I also didn't really like walking 10 miles a day and hearing welfare scum telling me I was late with their check.

I don't really like giving my opinion or advice because people are different. You might like it at UPS, I don't know you. I don't like the stress of it, but stress probably gets to me more than others.

Also at UPS you may not get many hours on the road and might be asked to work inside unloading trucks. They do that at 4 am, I hate it. I'm looking at getting back into USPS as a Rural carrier. It's a whole different world than city carrier, different union and all.
 
Last edited:
barnyard

barnyard

KTM rider
My brother in law is a carrier and from what we have talked about, there a couple of big differences. The PO HATES OT. Unless you want to work OT, 8 hour days are the norm. No walking routes after dark. They consider it a safety issue. If you skip your break and have an accident, you are automatically at fault. They expect their people to take break for health and safety reasons.

My brother in law likes OT, volunteers for all he can get and frequently works his day off. He just paid his house off (10 years early) and he and my sister are both planning to retire within 5 years.

He also says that all the packages that they get from UPS and FE pretty much wreck his day.
 

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