The company has taken a new plan to avoid having to pay Unemployment. They are able to combine the new Telematics system with the desire to terminate senior drivers, and the desire to send them down the road with no unemployment benefits.
     They use Telematics to show when a vehicle stops, and when it starts. They then have claimed that your break starts and stops based on the movement of those wheels. You do not get credit for putting your mirrors in. You do not get credit for entering times in your board. You do not get credit for washing your hands, or going to the bathroom.
     They claim that if you do claim that time for any of the above listed activities that you are, “stealing time from the company”.
     Telematics does not show any information about any action that takes place outside of the delivery process. Other than the seat belt, and bulkhead, and backing, it only shows stops, starts, and speed of the vehicle, and the vehicle location, all as a function of time.
     The system does not show questions from customers. The system does not show the driver dealing with damaged packages, or open packages. The system does not show a driver dealing with rabid animals, or people.
     Of course the company design is that any action outside of the delivery process is on the driver’s time.
     So of course the question would be, “Why would the company leap directly to the theft of time when such problems arise?” The answer is of course the quest for super production standards, the attempt to rid themselves of less than desirable drivers, and the desire to terminate for dishonesty.
     The Unemployment system in most states allows a company to protest an employees right to claim unemployment for theft from the company.There are a number of other reasons, violence, disappearing from the job, etc.
     The worst part of the whole attack is that the Union has become accepting of the Telematics information. Even though the contract specifically prohibits the information from being used against a driver, the mapping and times are routinely allowed to be presented in a case. The Union has accepted that all of the information is exact, and in fact is a clear reference of the drivers actions, setting the drivers up for failure in any case the company may have brought before them. 
     It would seem to me that the Union has forgotten what it is like to be a driver on a daily basis, and in fact many of the BA’s have never had to survive with the company under the Telematics regime, and probably would be the first ones fired if they did.
     Of course when you go up the ladder within the Union officer ranks, that mentality becomes even more prevalent, which is unfortunate for the driver, because these are the people that are supposed to be representing the driver’s interests with the Company.
     The goal here is of course to make the Rank and File aware of the situations that you may face, and to give the Rank and File the ability to anticipate the politics of the Company/Union relationship. 
     Write or call your Business Representative, and let him know that you want to be protected in these situations. A call to your Local Union principle officer would also be a good idea.
     To find your Local Union go to Teamsters.org.
     It also wouldn’t hurt to send a note to James Hoffa.
     Your world within the company is definitely under attack, and any fairness in the decisions that may affect you, are being taken out of the equation.
     If you don’t believe that, then you have your eyes closed.