The legacy of James E. Casey, founder of United Parcel Service, has been swallowed by the corporate mentality running the show. Mr. Casey’s feeling that the company was about the  people that worked there has been thrown in the trash. Todays CEO’s are all about profit, money, and the stock holder. Any operation is subject to the effect on the bottom line. Every person is only as important as their effect on the bottom line. There is no function important enough to be kept if it effects the bottom line.
     The bottom line is why you have seen the destruction of the safe driving award system. The attitude has changed from upper management that safe driving is a condition of employment. Your reward is that they won’t fire you, if you have no accidents. The implementation of Telematics is about replacing costly management people with a machine capable of supervising the hourly workforce thus saving money in wages and benefits by eliminating people. 
       “Take people out of the equation and you improve the bottom line”. 
     The driver is still a necessary evil because the technology does not exist to replace them. You can bet that someone somewhere is working on the problem.
      The legacy of James E. Casey died on the day of the IPO, (Intial Public Offering), of UPS stock. The thought behind that push was the desire of upper level management to drive the value of the stock up before they sold it off. One of the reasons the stock value has remained so flat is because the old time upper level management has put a glut of stock on the market keeping the value of that stock low. They of course sold their stock at the moment of high price and have walked away from the company leaving the world you live in today as a driver.
     Remember, every time you ask for, or need, anything from the company, the background question is, “what does it mean to the bottom line”.
     Cost of health care? Bottom line. Cost of pensions? Bottom line. Cost of wages? Bottom line. Cost of vehicles? Bottom line.
              You have been swallowed by Corporate America. Welcome to the “bottom line”.

You should be so lucky as to have this happen to you. You know what they’d say when you called in…


                                                 “Can you finish your route???”

                               

 What causes injuries on the job, and how can they be prevented? Employers usually say that injuries are caused by “human error.” They say that workers wouldn’t get hurt if only they were more careful on the job.
        But that employer argument misses the point.
        Since we all are human and cannot avoid mistakes, it is the employer’s responsibility to provide safeguards so that mistakes don’t become injuries.
        A simple example involves machine guarding. Years ago, employers were not required to put guards on moving machine parts. When workers lost their concentration and got caught in a machine, management said they were hurt because they were “careless.” Now, guards are required and workers get caught in moving machine parts much less often. They’re still careless from time to time–we all are–but the safety protection keeps them from getting hurt.

        The following is a checklist for identifying possible changes needed to prevent injuries on your job. The same list can be used after an accident to show management how the real causes can be corrected.

•        Are workers provided with too little time to do the job?


•        Are tools or equipment inadequate or poorly maintained?


•        Is there poor supervision?


•        Is there enough help?


•        Does the job involve an unsafe number of tasks?


•        Does it require physical positions or a degree of effort that will contribute to accidents and injuries?


•        Are stressful conditions that can contribute to accidents allowed to go unchecked? For example, too much noise? Vibration? Heat? Cold? Poor lighting? Exposure to chemicals that would cause headaches, dizziness, skin problems, or other irritation?


•        Are staffing or procedures inadequate to prevent conditions in which workers will trip or slip on something, be hit by a falling object, get caught between two objects, come in contact with electricity, etc.?


•        Do poorly designed or overly stressful work schedules make workers tired and less alert? Does management fail to provide all necessary protective clothing and equipment, and keep it in good working order?


•        Is training inadequate or too infrequent?

        Management works hard trying to make us beleive that every accident and injury is our own fault. Think about the list above and how it applies to your job conditions. Old trucks, extreme heat and cold, falling objects caused by bad loads, the list begins to build when you take a good look at it.
        Always get the Union involved when you have an accident or injury before you buy into management’s line that everything is your fault. The Union can help you identify what is management’s repsonsibility and what is yours.
Thanks to IBEW Local 1613

Here is an interesting concept that I’m sure every UPS driver has already figured out. Upper management at UPS has not figured this out. Upper management thinks that stress makes people more productive. They spend millions of dollars on health and safety programs while ignoring the root cause of accidents, injuries and attendance problems. They wonder why workers call in sick every chance they get. Maybe the problem is not the workers, maybe it’s the slave drivers that run the company. Read on….

When it comes to keeping workers healthy and productive, a flexible boss may be the best medicine, at least according to a national study from the Work, Family and Health Network.

The 3-year study looked at wide range of jobs including retail, long-term elderly care, hotels and hospitality as well as several white collar firms.

“The study found a little give and take in the workplace can add years to a person’s life,” said CBS4 Medical Editor Dr. Dave Hnida. “Specifically people who worked in a supportive workplace had half the risk of heart disease than folks who worked places where they were treated poorly.”

The good workplace also had workers who slept better, averaging an extra 30 minutes every night.

“That extra sleep seemed to help those people — healthier overall with fewer infections,” Hnida said.

So what makes a workplace supportive?

“It’s flexibility in the workplace,” Hnida said. “Happier workers were given a lot of leeway to take care of sick children or to take time to attend school events and parent-teacher conferences.”

Many were given the chance to take vacation time in long chunks or lots of little ones, including an hour at a time.

Telecommuting and flex time also made a difference in how employees perceived their work environment.
CBS4

     Most of you drivers have been hearing about the”Center’s over allowed hours” at the AM meetings these days. The idea being to pump up production by giving you a number to beat. The interesting part about the “Over allowed hours” is the formula they use to get the number they announce. 
     No matter how far under you run, it equals zero. That’s right Zero. If you are 15 minutes “under”, that equals zero. If you are 1 hour “under”,  that equals zero. If you are 5 hours “under”, that equals zero.
     If you run “over”, they add it up. 10 minutes, plus 1 hour, plus 2 hours equals 3 hours and 10 minutes total “over allowed” for the center. 
     My point here is to let you know that under the system currently used to measure the centers performance, no matter how much you run “under”, you are considered a  “Zero” by management.

Driver 1- 1 hour over
Driver 2- 30 minutes over
Driver 3- 2 hours under
Driver 4- 10 minutes under
Driver 5- 50 minutes over
Driver 6- 4 hours under
_________________________________

Total Center over allowed hours- 2 hours 20 minutes

     Here’s a short story about my observations during this week. We have a younger,  newbie driver in our center. She fought hard to get on driving this year, and had to endure layoffs through the summer this year, due to volume issues, and car cutting. Needless to say she appreciates it when she can work full time. In her interest to have the company work her on a daily basis, she has become a real fireball out there. She smokes any route off, to the tune of 2 hours under allowed. The manager would just sing her praises, and would be very upset if he had to lay her off. They would search high and low for a senior, pokey, driver to give the day off, just to keep her working. 
     All was well in “brown land”, until——— she came out of the truck, (three points of contact?) and rolled her ankle. In her interest of keeping working she has let them keep her driving, and working the pre-load, etc. under the guise of TAW. She finally came to me, (the Union steward), and complained that her ankle was not getting any better. I gave her the low down on workers comp. and advised her to get to the doctor and have it checked, and that she might be interested in staying home and giving it a couple of days rest, otherwise she may risk long term problems. You should have seen the dirty look from the division manager when she advised him she needed to be off on comp. Now she is very worried about how they will treat her since she is injured and now “damaged goods”.
     Everyone needs to remember, you are only a hero when the job gets done everyday, and you make no mistakes, or have no issues. Your past history means “nothing”, when something happens.
     Now, no matter what she does, she is tainted goods. She couldn’t be a hero without being hurt.
                                  There’s no such thing as a Gimpy Super-Hero!

        I remember when UPS focused the spotlight on safet, but still pushed for production numbers, I got called into the office more and more frequently to represent drivers who had clandestinely been observed out on the route not using the methods. I think management has a quota of observations they have to do every month and some of what they see is alarming. Most drivers know what the methods are and they can demonstrate them pretty well on an OJS ride. But when they think no one is looking, they have a different way of doing things. They have what they feel is a better way, at least a better way for them, because it encompasses their own personal needs as well as the company’s needs. It’s often a less rigid version of the company methods, maybe not stopping behind the crosswalk, or not stopping at stop signs on certain streets or not using turn signals when pulling away from the curb. Some drivers don’t honk their horns when they back up unless they think management is listening.
        My methods were pretty good but not perfect, but I think they were better than most for a couple of reasons. One reason is that a steward is a target for some managers and so I tried to not give them reasons to write me up. Another was that I got reminded weekly of the importance of doing the job by the book when I was in the office with somebody else who was getting chewed out for not using all the methods. It was always a wake-up call for me. I’d go out that day and I try to rededicate myself to doing the job right. It would not be fair for me to tell my fellow driver that he has to use the methods if I’m not using them myself.
        Sometimes I ask myself why some drivers find it so hard to use the methods. Why do they fall back into the sloppy, easy ways that they find so comfortable even after being observed and criticized? One reason we all seem to have our own version of the 340 methods is because we are all just a little bull headed. We believe we have a better way, at least a better way for us. And if the company isn’t watching, then we use the better way. I used to be this way and sometimes I still am, but I believe there is a way that is even easier than my way. Some drivers won’t agree with me on this, but the road to true freedom and happiness is to surrender to the company’s wishes.
        Now surrrender is not a word most drivers like to use. Defiance is a better word to use when describing how drivers feel. And the company likes it’s drivers to have defiance. We don’t wait around for a signature, we go and get it. We don’t let a bad load overwhelm us, we conquer it. But when it comes to using our own version of the methods in defiance of what the company wants, we need to surrender.
        My dad used to say that the Russians actually had more freedoms than us because they had no choices and having no choice at all is true freedom. We need to adopt that attitude and apply it to the methods. Don’t think that you have a better way because the only good way is their way. Don’t feel that your way is easier because, when you get caught, then you have to start over and learn to do it the right way and form new habits that you should have been forming a long time ago. Learn to use all the methods for safe driving and all the methods for delivery and know true freedom. Freedom from discipline, freedom from injuries and accidents, and freedom from constantly looking over your shoulder wondering when you’re going to get caught.