To all Veteran drivers
- Thread starter gotmike88
- Start date
Backlasher
Stronger, Faster, Browner
Well over half the guys @ my center do this work off the clock bullcrap. It's normal to the building. A good # of them are in @8A.M. helping out loader. Makes me sick and I feel Isolated cause of it but I'm there 10 till start when covering. Screw em.
Don't work off the clock be it before work, after work or during you unpaid lunch or even on your paid breaks. Why would anyone work off the clock unless they are worried about meeting the unrealistic numbers that someone in management made up.
kingOFchester
Well-Known Member
Not sure if this is a question or not. But I will take a stab at the answer.
Some buildings are bonus. So, if you put in 30 minutes of working off the clock in the AM and make that up in bonus.....then you come out even. Your pay check will be the same whether you came in 30 minutes early or rolled in at start time and came back 30 minutes later at punch out. Like it or not, this is how it is in a bonus center. In my center I would say about half the drivers run around 1hr bonus, a hand full closer to 2 and several even creeping up into the 3hours of bonus.
Anonymous 10
Guest
And also make peace with the fact the at least once in your career you are going to fart and accidentally $ h|+ your pants just a little. This day will kind of suck but we all go through it.
Anonymous 10
Guest
My center is a bonus center & I don't tolerate loading your truck in the am. It just doesn't happen. When you file on them working under article 17 & get paid the management team fixes the problem real quick.
old brown shoe
30 year driver
Treat your customers with respect and keep conversations short and positive. Your customers can make or break you if they don't like you. Remember the only thing you provide is a service. Give them the best service you can and always thank them on your way out. Treat the other employees where you work the same way as they can help you also. Set a pace that you can keep up for a full days work. Be honest about any mistakes and you will be fine.
Isn't it funny how it's easier to backup a package car than your own vehicle.
hellfire
no one considers UPS people."real" Teamsters.-BUG
once you get full time status you can be the biggest slowest miserable union slug that you can be,, untill then i would say show up early and set your load up, look through your truck and see where stuff is, also skip your lunch, you need to look good on paper, that will do it, also dont chat w/customers or waste time on your cell phone..the rules change once your full-time but untill then.......
Johney
Pineapple King
How many of you would tap the horn on your personal vehicle for the first 3 months when backing?
Guilty.
Working off the clock? I personally don't recommend it,but like someone said if everyone does then oh well do it, it will help. Now if it's a center where they discourage it DON'T. All you need is a grievance filed against you for working off the clock and that will p/o your manager. Something you don't need or want. Also working off the clock and getting hurt you will be on your own.
numberonedriver
Well-Known Member
Something that helped me when i first started was that after my 3 day training with my sup I went out on the weekend and drove around in my route area to get a better idea of where everything was at. Biggest thing is be safe and have no service failures. Make sure to segregate your nda pickups from your ground.
kingOFchester
Well-Known Member
And I understand 1000000000%. But, right or wrong, I play the game that I was put into. There is no way I would put myself into the position of pissing off 75% of the drivers plus management. It is what it is. Trust me, many many times I wish I had a center, better yet a union that would play the game by the game rules. I drove for almost a year before given seniority. Union was no help. I was told by the BA that I couldn't get seniority due to the fact that other hub workers with more seniority had not gotten their chance to drive full time. When I approached management regarding making book, I was told "do you want to go back to the inside"? Yes, I could make an example and stand up, but that will not get me anywhere inside my center. The drivers I would file on, are the same one's I need to go home to allow me to work as a cover driver. And I will admit that I do go in early, set up the truck so that I can have an easier day and even get home quicker at times. I don't make the rules that my center plays by. I just play the game as it is.
I know that I could make it change by standing up and TRY to have the contract followed, but I know as the day is long that it would not better serve me. I am there for me and my family and the smoothest way to the finish line is the path I will take. I respect what you do and how the contract is followed, but try to understand what it is like in a center that is pretty much a free for all.
Anonymous 10
Guest
There is nothing wrong with playing the game. Working off the clock is not playing the game it's making a personal decision to manipulate your time card and it makes other who don't work off the clock look bad. I understand it's hard to come up through the ranks. I came up through these same ranks and know the trials and tribulations but doing this job by the book is the only thing that's going to get you to make it at this new ups. I've never heard of other drivers or management who don't respect someone who does it right to the T.
Brownslave688
You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
I don't normally condone this but when your trying to make your 30 days sure why not just do whatever it takes.
kingOFchester
Well-Known Member
Well, you have not been to my center. Yes, I could and probably should follow the contract. I will give you that. But, suggesting that I file on other drivers for working off the clock is not reasonable. This issue has little to do with rising threw the ranks. Here is what I see daily:
Part time sups loading trucks, even entire dumps on EVERY slide.... day in day out. Several drivers getting in 3 hours before start time. Yes, three hours EVERY day. No exaggeration what so ever. 75% of the drivers going threw their loads at least 30 minutes before start time. Loaders being sent home before their 3.5 guarantee. Sups making deliveries and having their boards merged with union drivers board. Drivers coming in and being sent home do to not having work and not getting their 8. Drivers punching out while still on road to be under 9.5 (they do this because they are making 11+ hours of bonus AND THIS I WOULD NEVER EVER DO) I could go on and on. With all do respect, you have no clue how it is in my center. Again, I agree I could and should follow the contract......but suggesting that I file for violations is not practical in my center. I alone can not change the environment of where I work.
Let me ask you, what would happen if I, one of the lowest drivers on the line up, went to my management team with grievence's in regards to the greater portion of drivers for working off the clock? Would management not have it in their best interest to target me? Would the drivers not have it in their best interest to retaliate against me? Again, this is the game that I play in. please try to understand that my center is probably WAY different then yours.
it still amazes me..................I feel Like i dont know how to park
DS
Fenderbender
Welcome to the bc Mike ,
Getting through the first month or so can be frustrating if things don't go right.
The first day they should send you out fairly light,After that it gets progressively harder until it seems impossible.
My advice is to follow the methods as close as you can,If you feel overwhelmed,do not cut corners to get it done.
(example)Some drivers will take the bulkhead key off the keyring and leave it in the door to save time.
Remember that if you do say 130 stops in 8 hours,it will be expected that you should be able to do that every day.
Usually the expectations are impossible,so like superballs said,don't worry about the numbers(operations report),
Everyone learns from their mistakes,and you will make lots your first month.
When it all seems impossible,one stop at a time,efficiently and safely, and you will get it done eventually.
Getting through the first month or so can be frustrating if things don't go right.
The first day they should send you out fairly light,After that it gets progressively harder until it seems impossible.
My advice is to follow the methods as close as you can,If you feel overwhelmed,do not cut corners to get it done.
(example)Some drivers will take the bulkhead key off the keyring and leave it in the door to save time.
Remember that if you do say 130 stops in 8 hours,it will be expected that you should be able to do that every day.
Usually the expectations are impossible,so like superballs said,don't worry about the numbers(operations report),
Everyone learns from their mistakes,and you will make lots your first month.
When it all seems impossible,one stop at a time,efficiently and safely, and you will get it done eventually.
kingOFchester
Well-Known Member
To add,
Best advise I can give, When you are really maxed out, overwhelmed and stressed to the hilt......stop. Breath. Grab a soda and or snack. Take a moment and realize they are only boxes and packages. Nothing more. We aren't putting a rocket on mars or reinventing the wheel. We look for address, look for package in truck and then deliver said package. That's it.
Anonymous 10
Guest
Where in this post did I say that the King of Chester should go on his own personal crusade??
Where in here did I say YOU should file a grivence.
all I am suggesting is that YOU follow the contract. Just because you don't have the stones to file a grivence doesn't mean you can't be a trend setter and do the right things. Ninty five percent of the driver in my center won't file a grivence and I still respect them. It's the jerks who make all the excused why they can't do the right things that makes me sick. If we were back in the good old days real men like our grandfathers just did what was right and didn't give all these excuses. That's why we won world war II and don't speak German & Japeness. Excuses are like buttholes everybody has one.
