Peak has now become the easiest time of year.

[PT Car Washer]

Coinciding with UPS launching PVDs was the launch of Amazon's delivery fleet. Being in full swing now, Amazon is delivering countless millions of their own packages each day.

Can't imagine how screwed we'd be without those two factors. The 70 hour rule wouldn't be enough to cover it.

UPS can always turn the volume down because they can not make service. Or jack the prices up so the volume will go elsewhere and make bank.

 

[Wontmake9.5]

Here it’s hell. Management is pulling their hair. Pvds are quitting and so are helpers. Never seen it this bad in 17yrs… on road sup has been here 25yrs says it’s the worse peak he has ever had. People running out of hours and they can’t do anything about it bc no one wants to work. Good times

 

[ManInBrown]

Last four years in package from the Monday after Black Friday until the day before Xmas Eve I finished every night at 11pm. Drivers in my old center have gotten back no later than 8pm every night. They all say it’s because of one thing. PVD’s. Company just keeps chipping away slowly with an ice pick. It’s not healthy, but people are blinded by the happiness of not having to work 14 hour days. This really needs to be addressed by our union leadership.

 

[Analbumcover]

but people are blinded by the happiness of not having to work 14 hour days. This really needs to be addressed by our union leadership.

True but I'm actually getting to see my child on holiday evenings. Thanks to PVDs I was able to attend her first Christmas recital and she was so happy to see me, even if I was in my uniform and came straight from work.

 

[UncleRico]

I guess we have about 30 pvds now including remote ones that get packages dropped off to their garage or meet up point....they claim we need more though...they were pretty much begging pvds to work today whatever hours they could

 

[oldupsman]

True but I'm actually getting to see my child on holiday evenings. Thanks to PVDs I was able to attend her first Christmas recital and she was so happy to see me, even if I was in my uniform and came straight from work.

I get it, BUT, the answer is more year round full time drivers. Not part time off the street yahoos.
Wait until one of these PVD's does something to hurt someone like the FedEx guy.

 

[PASinterference]

I guess we have about 30 pvds now including remote ones that get packages dropped off to their garage or meet up point....they claim we need more though...they were pretty much begging pvds to work today whatever hours they could

Does anybody wonder why pvds are always non union members? Why isn't pvd offered to hourly part timers? It's because they will be the first ones called when we go on strike. These young drivers need to get their heads out of the sand.

 

[PASinterference]

I get it, BUT, the answer is more year round full time drivers. Not part time off the street yahoos.
Wait until one of these PVD's does something to hurt someone like the FedEx guy.

The problem is that ups tries to call a 10 hr day an 8 hr day. We cannot plan or staff properly if ups can not measure time correctly. This is a fact that will never be addressed. Management will not demonstrate that it can be done following their own methods. I've asked them to but they just run away.

 

[ManInBrown]

I get it, BUT, the answer is more year round full time drivers. Not part time off the street yahoos.
Wait until one of these PVD's does something to hurt someone like the FedEx guy.

Forget about what the FedEx guy did, that was horrible. That aside, these low seniority drivers will have plenty of time to go to their daughters recitals if things keep heading in this direction. They’ll be working at McDonald’s or they will be unemployed. Do something Sean. Don’t talk, act.

 

[Fido]

I’m glad it’s easy for you because I’m getting shafted.

 

[Pullman Brown]

Not everywhere no doubt, but it seems in most areas, we are oversaturated with resources that makes November and December the lightest paid days of the year. Tons of drivers not even seeing 8 hours. In the time since Black Friday and Cyber Monday, half the drivers in my center are barely getting 8, the other half 9-9.5 tops.
4 years ago and prior, it was 11-12 hour days.

We're also actually wrapping around start time right now which we don't do all year because of all the temporary preloaders.

PVDs are obviously the most dramatic change. UPS has taken this to the extreme leaving little available OT.

On top of that, with peak comes splitting your usual area in half simplifying your route vs the rest of the year. Plus, most large bulk stops going to rental truck routes.

And the other major change? Relaxed commits to the extreme. End of day for resi, and 3pm for business air. Just a few years ago, relaxed meant 12:00 commits which didn't help all that much.

So I guess it's time to start looking forward to peak every year now, instead of dreading the thought of it. It's a breeze now.

A lot of this goes back to two really bad peak seasons. 2013 the company over promised and we missed millions of Christmas deliveries and then they over hired the next year and they missed their Wall Street numbers. And then you have 2018 when it was so bad that they had to move package car nationwide to 70 dot hours. After that is when it became bearable and they started the PVD’s. That’s how I remember it.

 

[Brownwind]

I’m glad it’s easy for you because I’m getting shafted.

Yep. Used to get my sixty hours by Friday now it’s Saturday for me. Strange peak for a lot of us.

 

[ManInBrown]

A lot of this goes back to two really bad peak seasons. 2013 the company over promised and we missed millions of Christmas deliveries and then they over hired the next year and they missed their Wall Street numbers. And then you have 2018 when it was so bad that they had to move package car nationwide to 70 dot hours. After that is when it became bearable and they started the PVD’s. That’s how I remember it.

This is how I remember it, someone correct me if I’m wrong, on his way out the door Hoffa’s kid got one last fat envelope and bent us all over a little further by allowing PVD’s.

 

[HavenoEDD]

Management care about their bonuses and doing as they are told. PVD use this peak is most we’ve to where it’s very noticeable.
Drivers that care about their hours and making money this time of year aren’t too happy. PVDs taking a ton of work off of our drivers on route and our guys coming in with hours to spare on Saturdays.

It’s the good guys that see the job as a full time thing and not being clowns that show the company that this job could be done by part timers and gig workers.

 

[Brownwind]

Management care about their bonuses and doing as they are told. PVD use this peak is most we’ve to where it’s very noticeable.
Drivers that care about their hours and making money this time of year aren’t too happy. PVDs taking a ton of work off of our drivers on route and our guys coming in with hours to spare on Saturdays.

It’s the good guys that see the job as a full time thing and not being clowns that show the company that this job could be done by part timers and gig workers.

It’s a bummer watching the reputation of excellence I’ve established on my route for eleven months getting destroyed in a few weeks. Boxes left at the mailbox, at the wrong address, in the rain. Had more complaints in the last two weeks from newbies and PVDS than I’ve had in my entire thirty plus years. We’re the best in the industry but a few of these guys just don’t get it and worse they don’t care.

 

[HavenoEDD]

It’s a bummer watching the reputation of excellence I’ve established on my route for eleven months getting destroyed in a few weeks. Boxes left at the mailbox, at the wrong address, in the rain. Had more complaints in the last two weeks from newbies and PVDS than I’ve had in my entire thirty plus years. We’re the best in the industry but a few of these guys just don’t get it and worse they don’t care.

Agreed. Same out here in NJ. Our center doesn’t reward hard work and the guys that grasp that early in have the best careers. Doesn’t say we can’t try to deliver a good service though but the PVDs and casuals are doing the damage trying to impress this year like no other.

This peak it’s a case of helping the Saturday guys out but the scabs send the seasonals and PVDs to take everything off them. A few of us are no longer coming in so that some of the work stays on their trucks for some OT…and then it will be the SUP that wants to be home for dinner with the wife by 8pm BEGGING at PCM and DIAD for help.

The infamous “No driveways. We’ll deal with mailbox concerns, just get it off your truck” every day or so during peak makes me sick. Service..ha!

 

[oldupsman]

The infamous “No driveways. We’ll deal with mailbox concerns, just get it off your truck” every day or so during peak makes me sick. Service..ha!

I remember vividly a division manager standing in front of a large group of drivers one
morning saying, "We're UPS. The S stands for service. And service is what we sell."
Ah, the old days.

 

[IVE GOTTA PACKAGE 4U]

I remember vividly a division manager standing in front of a large group of drivers one
morning saying, "We're UPS. The S stands for service. And service is what we sell."
Ah, the old days.

The "S" stands for something different now.

 

[textat3]

UPS spending freely on resources so they can have disappointing earnings going into a contract year.

 

[DumbTruckDriver]

This has definitely been the easiest peak for us. Can’t blame it all on the PVDs because our building doesn’t have as many as previous years. Volume just seems to be down. Management isn’t begging and pleading for people to come in on Saturdays.