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Surviving the Holidays
We survived another Peak Season. It was touch and go there at times, but we all pulled through. There is so much work to be done that I would think UPS would just stand back and let the workers go at it, but they can't do that. They've got to be in there mucking things up. Here are a few examples of things that happened this Peak that I'm still scratching my head about
and wondering........why?....
 Early in December, IE was cutting routes like mad and there were days off to be had for some lucky drivers. That's nice, but at the same time other drivers were pushing 11 hours a day and anyone who went over 11 was called on the carpet. If you didn't have express permission from your manager, then you got a warning letter. Maybe that would not have been a problem if they hadn't cut so many routes.
Sheeting mistakes got to be a big issue, like sheeting a business as closed between noon and 1 o'clock. If you had been talked to about it before, then that became a warning letter too. If a driver had a bad day, he could easily get 2 warning letters the next morning. That gets you off on the right foot !
The dress code became the pet peeve of some managers with nothing better to do. Shoes and hats that didn't fit the company mold were favorite targets. T-shirts of the wrong color were hot items too. Too bad they wouldn't send home anyone with offensive shoes, many of us were ready to wear flip-flops on Peak Day if it meant getting the day off.
In our center, the manager stooped to posting the WOR as a shame list on the bulletin board for all to see. At first he listed the top 5 production drivers and the worst 6 or 7 according to the over/under numbers. Someone tore down the worst list the first day. The next day he posted the whole center report showing how everyone ran. As the steward, I raised Cain that it was low-ball management. He countered that everyone was looking at it. I said the interest was
morbid and for some embarassing. People stare at a car wreck too, they watch Jerry Springer. It's vulgar. It's dirty. It's not how management should be operating.
As our cars got more full every morning, you would think that IE would have SPA'd the Next Day Airs all up on the 1000 shelf. But they continued to SPA Next Days deep into the load and every day I had some in the 2800 or 2900 sections. That put them in about the middle of a packed car on the lower shelf. There is no way to dig those out and get them delivered before 10:30. Anyone who has ever driven would know that.
Another way to shame drivers was dreamed up this Christmas and it was used on any driver who ran 3 or more hours over allowed. Management would pick a city that's 3 hours or 4 hours away, like Grand Junction and feigning righteous indignation, they would exclaim. "How could you be 4 hours over, Hell, I could drive to Grand Junction in 4 hours!!!"
We were working Peak Week under a 12 hour curfew and a lot drivers were bringing stops back every night. One driver forgot to punch out his board, went home and an OMS punched him out and he was over 12 hours. They wanted to fire him the next morning, but decided against it. A bunch of us were hoping they would send him home because that's the kind of termination you can easily get reduced to a suspension and we were all going to "forget" to punch out that night too. I'd take a
3 day suspension during Peak Week anytime.
With the 12 hour curfew of course came missed pieces every night. Some drivers were bringing back 50 to 100 stops a night. Soon management was browned up and running routes, working as helpers, etc. You can't have it both ways, you can't restrict driver hours and have management working. Management would meet drivers at 8 o'clock at night and take everything they had left and send the driver in to get off the clock under 12 hours and management would stay out and do the stops themselves.
Gee, I wonder if that will generate a girevance?
I arrived at work one day just as an ambulance pulled away from the building. Unfortunately, someone had slipped and ruptured 2 discs in his back. They rushed him into surgery that very morning and he'll be out for quite some time. That's a heck of a way to get out of Peak. The rumors flying around the building were that a driver had looked in the back of his truck and had a heart attack. It wasn't that hard to believe.
I would think that UPS would focus a little more on getting our pickups covered during Peak because having to do pickups in the afternoon just kills us. Not only does it take valuable time away from delivery, but it fills much needed space inside the truck. Then when we stay out till 8 or 9 o'clock, the pickups don't get unloaded and sorted in a timely mannner and the twilight goes down late, then the midnight sort runs late, and then the preload is not done when the drivers come back to work the next morning. Then
we leave late and the cycle repeats itself.
UPS never seems to take a good plan for Peak and save it and build on it the next year. They have to reinvent the wheel every December.
Why is that???
The Road to Retirement
All of us are dreaming about retirement. But very few of us know any details about what hoops we will have to jump through when the time finally comes. I know someone who plans to retire next August, and he has agreed to
share with us each month the steps of setting up his retirement. Let's join him now as he prepares for the first big step, filling out the forms.
I've only been thinking about retirement for about the last 30 years. I've been thinking seriously about it for the last 3 months. I'm in Central States and since the new contract passed, I feel I can afford to retire now. The age penalty has been removed, so I don't have to be 62 to get my full pension and I qualify for the health insurance as early as age 55. Plus, I can work any job I want, as many hours as I need, to supplement my retirement income.
 I've always been a little worried about living on a retirement income. I make about $6000 a month working now and my health insurance is free. My retirement will be $3000 a month (taxable) and my insurance will be $200 a month for me and $200 for my wife. (I'm anxious to find out exactly what the insurance will be like.) But, I went to a financial advisor a few years ago and told him what I wanted in my retirement and he showed me some things I could do to make the
transition a little less painful.
If you or someone you know is not currently in the Joint UPS/Teamster 401(k) plan, the time to get in is now You will need some supplemental income when you retire, especially at first, and one place to get it is your own investments. Once I reach 62, I can draw my Social Security on top of my pension and that will boost me up another $1800 a month. At that point I will be making about $50,000 a year in retirement without working. That's not too shabby. But you will need some
additional money to get you from the day of retirement to the age of Social Security. And, unless you are going to retire near the age of 59 and can draw on your IRA or 401(k) without penalty, then you may need to save some money in a more liquid account. Start saving today. Unless you know what you're doing, it's smart consider seeing a financial advisor.
Under the new UPS/Teamster Pension, I have to work 1 hour in 2008 before I'm officially in the new pension. That will give me the benefits of the new plan, the guarantee for life, the ability to work any job I choose, etc. I earned all my benefits up to now in the Central
States Plan and thats where I make my application for retirement benefits.
I'm excited. I'm a little scared. But every morning when the alarm goes off, I lay in bed and I think, "I don't have to get up every day for the rest of my life and go to work. I can have a new life in retirement. I want to do this. I'm ready."
Next month I'll report on how my application is going and talk about part time years and how they figure into a 25 or 30 and out pension.
UPS Worker Driven To Quit Over Belly Ache
November 12, 2007 -- Quit or get off the pot.
That was the message UPS delivered to one of its sales managers, who was forced into early retirement over his irritable bowel syndrome, the employee charges in a $3 million lawsuit that will be heard tomorrow in Brooklyn federal court.
 Peter Mihalick, 57, of Saint James, L.I., said he was essentially fired after 34 years, when he was transferred to a Brooklyn office in 2003 and forced to drive two hours or more to work.
His IBS made the commute highly uncomfortable, if not impossible, and the stress affected his health, he claims.
He said he was constantly stopping to use the restroom - and sometimes even had to relieve himself along the roadside - said his lawyer, Tom Ricotta.
Even more humiliating, Mihalick at times would have "accidents" and couldn't even make it to work, his lawyer said.
When Mihalick, who'd worked for years out of the Melville, L.I., office, asked to be transferred back due to his condition, the answer was "no," he said. When he asked to start earlier than 8 a.m. to avoid rush hour, again the answer was no.
The stress so worsened his condition that Mihalick quit his $85,000-a-year job in 2005.
Mihalick's lawyers say UPS violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Lawyers for UPS refused to comment.
New York Post
Sweet Surrender
As UPS focuses more and more on safety and still pushes for production numbers, I get called into the office more frequently to represent drivers who have 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 are pretty good but not perfect, but I think they are better than most for a couple of reasons. One reason is that I'm a steward and as a steward I know I'm a target for some managers and so I try to not give them reasons to write me up. Another is that I get reminded weekly of the importance of doing the job by the book when I'm in the office with somebody
else who is getting chewed out for not using all the methods. It's always a wake-up call for me and then I 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.
10 Stupidist Mistakes Managers Make
There is a book out called the 10 Stupidist Mistakes Managers Make. At first I didn't give it much of a look because I figure UPS must be doing everything right because they continue to make money. But a quick glance shows that UPS is making money in spite of themselves. UPS is not a great work enviroment and someday they will have to change or pay the price. Here are a few examples of how "old school" UPS still is:
Mistrust employees
If you consistently mistrust all employees you`ll be correct 3% of the time. Not very good odds, are they? If on the other hand you trust all of your people all of the time, until they prove you wrong, you will be right 97% of the time! So why not go for a sure thing? It will have incredibly positive results in your organization.
Catch employees mess up
But, you protest, I thought that`s what managers get paid for? Only if you are from the "old school" and only if you want to reduce your effectiveness. The reason is that over the long run you, the manager, get what you expect. So if you want to have a more positive high energy organization then you must focus your energy on catching people do things almost right.
Spend too much time with trouble makers
Quick grab your calendar. Now figure out what proportion of your time you spent with "slackers" during the last three days. If you spent more than 5% of your time with slackers, you are messing up. Why? Because, what you pay attention to, is what you get. If you want a positive, high performance organization, then you must spend the majority of your time with the people who deliver that.
Make work painful
Do you like to have fun? I bet you said yes! So how come, many managers make work painful. So unbearable that 25% of employees in the U.S. hate their job, 56% could take it or leave it, and only 19% love it. Only if you create a climate where people have fun and want to come to work, will you be able to achieve extraordinary performance with ordinary people.
How far from using any of these management strategies is UPS? UPS is an angry work enviroment and it will drive away good people. That's a shame because they don't have to be that way to be successful.
That Brown Uniform
 One of the more interesting observations you make from your front-line worker experience is about company uniforms. When talking about the iconic brown UPS uniform you write how the uniform had a “galvanizing effect on the workers” and that the UPS uniform was an “indicator of a special bond with the group.”
You continue by saying, “More than once on the job, I ran into delivery people from FedEx and Airborne, and I was immediately struck by how unimpressive their uniforms were and what those companies were losing in terms of image.” Talk about the role a uniform plays in how it impacts a front-line employee’s demeanor and performance.
 Uniforms and dress codes are prevalent on the frontlines of commerce and can make the employees feel differently depending on what specific rules he or she must follow.
UPS is a great example of a uniform that I think works well. UPS drivers can rest assured that customers and members of the public think highly of them when they are in uniform. And they also have some latitude to be different than their colleagues. One driver might wear shorts, another pants. There are choices of jackets, vests, sweaters--and this allows people to express at least some individuality.
The UPS uniform also harks back to the old days, when customer service was more common. I interviewed one former UPS driver who delivered for years in the World Trade Center. He had never delivered in New York City, outside of those office towers. After 9/11 he was transferred to a new post delivering outside. He found it amazing to witness the attachment perfect strangers had for him based on his uniform.
Alex Frankel, PUNCHING IN: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee
UPS Store Received Ammo Used in Church Shootings
Good Shoes.....Not Overpriced
 I got a new pair of work shoes last month online and I think you ought to check this out.
They are made for drivers like us, they are even called "Pro courier". They meet the UPS standard for a sturdy work shoe, but they look and feel more like a running shoe. And they have safety toes, for those of us who
occasionally drop a box on our foot. I wish I could say they were made in the USA, but of course they aren't, but they are sold by a small locally owned business in Wisconsin. They are called TheBootPro and they ship UPS. And they are offering a 25% discount off the suggested retail price good through February 2008. "Here is a coupon code for UPS drivers worth 25% OFF any boot order: DEN7D.
It expires 02/28/08." Just click on the UPS truck on TheBootPro home page.
I tried them in the snow because I'm always concerned
about traction when I get a new pair of shoes. I don't want to be ice skating in the back of the truck. They had great traction, I could leap in and out of the package car with confidence ( not really, I don't leap anymore). But honestly, you should check them out, they come in 2 styles, the oxford and the high top.
And, best of all, you can have the UPS logo put on the side!! (Or Teamster)
How cool is that!!!!
Oxford ProCourier
6" Hiker Style ProCourier
Enhanced Grip Sole
Why Going to Prison Beats Going to Work
In prison you spend a majority of your time in a temperature controlled 8x10 foot cell.
At work you spend most of your time in a freezing 8x20 foot truck.
In prison you get three free meals a day.
At work you only get a break for one meal and you have to pay for that one yourself.
In prison, a guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
At work you have your hands full and must open all the doors yourself.
In prison you can watch TV and play games.
At work you get fired for watching TV and playing games.
In prison you get your own toilet.
At work you're lucky if you can find a toilet.
In prison they allow your family and friends to visit.
At work you can't even speak to your family and friends on the phone.
In prison all expenses are paid by taxpayers with no work required.
At work they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.
In prison you spend most of your life looking through bars from the inside wanting to get out.
At work you spend most of your time wanting to get out and go to bars.
In prison you can join many programs which you can leave at any time.
At work there are some programs you can never get out of.
In prison there are sadistic wardens.
At work, we have management.
BB 8703 VS UPS Delivery Truck
UPS in the News
 Cleveland, OH -- Four men hijacked a UPS delivery truck at gunpoint on Cleveland's east side today, taking off with the truck and damaging packages before police found the truck a few hours later.
Police said a driver for the delivery service had just completed a delivery about 10 a.m. when he was approached by four males, two carrying handguns and three wearing masks. Police received a call about 1 p.m. that the truck was in the parking lot of an abandoned apartment complex with packages ripped opena and contents strewn about.
The robbers took personal items from the driver as well as keys to the truck before driving away in it,
Flint, MI -- Snowy weather caught a lot of people off guard and caused
an accident when a UPS truck hit a patch of black ice on a railroad overpass on I-75 northbound near the Reese/Caro exit. The truck slammed into a guardrail, causing it to leak diesel fuel. Rescue crews rushed the driver to a local hospital. He has only a few cuts and scrapes and should be fine.
Brighton, UK -- A security firm driver stole packages sent to eBay customers and then resold them on the internet auction site.
He was caught by an alert eBay customer who saw items he had bought readvertised and tipped off the police and courier firm UPS. Ann Toynbee, prosecuting, said the man worked for UPS at its Gatwick depot between March 2005 and December 2006. A haul of undelivered goods he stole was found at his Crawley home, Hove Crown Court was told.
He admitted to police he had stolen the packages while working for UPS and said parcels were sometimes wrongly loaded on to his van.
He said he dropped them off at his home on the way back to the UPS depot at the end of his delivery run. The former driver made almost £18,000 from the scam.
 Providence, RI -- About a week ago UPS reported a rash of thefts to the police. UPS officials said that residents in the area of Blackstone Boulevard had been complaining about not receiving packages that the company believed had been delivered. Thanks to an alert UPS driver, the company provided the police with the license plate of a suspicious car. On Tuesday, investigators in unmarked cars trailed the suspect as he followed a UPS truck to a stop on Grotto Street.
They watched him go onto the property and take a package left at the door. Then they saw the suspect quickly follow the truck to another stop nearby. When apprehended, the man allowed detectives to search his home where they found numerous that had been reported missing, some of them wrapped and placed under the Christmas tree.
Saginaw, MI -- A United Parcel Service driver suffered a minor head cut when his delivery truck slid on ice and struck a train.
The UPS driver was eastbound on Maple Grove near Old State in southern Clare County around 3 p.m. Tuesday when his truck hit the fourth car of a seven-car train and spun around, said Lt. Richard T. Miller of the Clare County Sheriff's Department.
Then the last car of the train hit the truck again, sending it into a ditch. The conductor was unaware anything hit his train and kept going, Miller said.
Harrisburg, PA -- A former UPS manager who worked at Harrisburg International Airport has been sentenced on drug charges. Federal investigators reported she used her position to help a large-scale drug trafficking organization ship marijuana into the Harrisburg area from a location in Tucson, Ariz. Officials said the former manager would monitor the progress of packages containing drugs and tip off others about whether certain packages may have been intercepted by authorities.
In one case, an intercepted package was dropped off and agents waited for it to be picked up, but because she had already tipped off the traffickers, no one showed up to receive the package. The ring took in more than 1,000 kilos of marijuana into the Harrisburg area.
 Portsmouth, NH -- A collision between a UPS delivery truck and a Volkswagen caused the closure of Banfield Road Tuesday afternoon. Spider web cracks in the UPS truck windshield indicated the driver may have impacted the window, while the truck also showed signs of front-end and axle damage. An 18-wheeler tow truck was needed to haul it from the scene.
Witnesses and the UPS driver told police Mears seemed to walk out in front of the truck on purpose.
Chicago, IL -- A receptionist for the Cook County public defender's office accepted delivery of almost 40 pounds of marijuana at her Loop office, prosecutors alleged Wednesday. Authorities were notified of a suspicious package Tuesday at a United Parcel Service facility in Chicago. Authorities obtained a search warrant to open the package, which was shipped from California, after a police dog detected drugs.
An undercover officer, dressed as a UPS delivery man, took the package to the building, where the public employee accepted it and was arrested.
The Lady or the Tiger
Woke up this morning at 10 AM, which would be a pretty reasonable hour to wake up, except that it was because the UPS guy was banging on the door, delivering my precious precious ink.
Leapt to my feet, snatched my bathrobe off the hook, and shrugged into it while running for the door.
Now, my bathrobe is large and grey and very very soft. It is warm and exceedingly comfy, and to replace it would require shelling out a fair amount of cash, since this is no cheap terrycloth concoction. This is a bathrobe par excellance! This is why I continue to keep it around, despite the fact that the belt vanished some time ago, and thus the wearer must either A) hold it closed, B) tie one of the ties to the little belt loop to make a haphazard closing, or C) keep the blinds closed.
Owing to time constraints, I was using option A as I opened the door to the UPS guy, and reached out for the package and the stylus.
And Ben, having tasted freedom t'other day, shot out the door and into the yard.
Now there is a dilemma. Capture of an 18lb cat requires two hands. Bathrobe requires at least one hand. UPS guy standing right there. Choice must be made between cat and modesty.
As my readers are doubtless aware, that was no choice at all.
I dove for Ben, caught him--he slowed down briefly, confronted with the madness of the outside world--and scooped him up, cursing. He hung like a miffed sandbag as I stalked back to the door and flung him inside, gathered up bathrobe and dignity, and turned back to sign for my package.
And that is how I started my Monday by flashing the UPS guy.
UrsulaV
The Big Brown Mess
I come to you writing of injustice and greed and monotone, of stark adherence to rules and of people bearing dog biscuits.
I talk, of course, of UPS—the United Parcel Service—and their unknown scam.
UPS bills small businesses by the shipment. Ship four times in two weeks and you’re likely to receive four bills. Unlike Fedex, they do not bill monthly, accumulating shipments, unless….
….unless you agree to a monthly billing “deposit.” If you send UPS $100 they will do what Fedex does for free and bill you monthly, as though they are an adult business and you are not a criminal.
That $100 in NEVER refunded, so long as you ship with them and want monthly billing. Not if you’re a good customer; not if you never miss a payment; not if you polish the ugly brown van. Never. They keep it for no good reason.
What does this mean? Let’s assume that there are 200,000 small businesses in the U.S. which choose to do this so as not to have UPS bills rained down every three days. That, my friends, comes to $20 million, which you and I would at least call a “float” and which many in other professions would call “vigorish.” A modest 2% on that return, assuming arch conservatism, is $400,000 a year, but more aggressive but still sound investment would easily yield $1 million. And THAT’S if my numbers are right. UPS won’t say, but that 200,000 number could be a million.
But that’s not all, as they say on the infomercials. I am guessing that most of this is unclaimed. That is, the $100 is never returned because: small business go out of business; small business owners forget about it; the business is sold to someone else who doesn’t realize the deposit was made. You get the picture.
If even half of this is kept permanently, and is refreshed by new small business clients each year, and that interest rate continues, and you annualize the return, well, we’re talking hundreds of millions over a decade or so, because UPS demands $100 from small business owners. This makes shipping seem secondary, doesn’t it?
This is as big a scam as the fake “yellow pages” that send a “free” check to cash which obligates you to pay for worthless listings, or guys in Nigeria who want us to take millions off their hands. And from a pillar of American business respectability!
I asked to speak to the general counsel at UPS to get their side and report it here. I was told by an account representative—listen to this response—“Our general counsel and our attorneys never talk to customers. If your lawyer writes us, we will respond in writing.”
In other words, the hell with you, spend $350 for a letter to contest your $100, we’re waiting here to respond, but laughing all the way to the bank in the meantime.
Who on earth in senior management would tolerate and support these kinds of confiscatory, unethical policies? Oh, yes, I asked if someone were to cancel their service if UPS refunded the money as a matter of course. “If they ask,” I was told.
It certainly is the big brown, because it’s reminding me of something the dogs leave behind.
Alan Weiss
UPS Truck Little Boxes
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January 2008
