UPS Freight or UPS Parcel?

I am retired from UPS (Parcel) as a feeder driver last working out of the Ontario, CA. hub. I retired several years ago, but am working in tankers due to a divorce/support kind of thing I won't go into. Anyway...I started part time in what is known as the "sort"..At the hub on Washington Blvd. in Vernon, CA. After 2 years of that, I was lucky enough to bid a part time package car gig, because Brown was undergoing one of it's "growth spurts". After another year I went full time. (During this time I did everything from haul freight to fuel to supplement my income from UPS). I worked a package car for close to 8 years on various routes. It is extremely hard work, but I was much younger then. UPS then started team bids. I didnt have enough seniority to bid the feeder gig I wanted, so I ran team for 3 years. Usually CA to Albq. and beyond. Made excellent money. I then was able to bid an air gig, running from hubs to LAX with airfreight. I finally got on feeder after close to 13 years. I then slowly made my way up the feeder ladder, starting with a Reno bid and retiring with a Phoenix/Tucson bid. It took many years to work my way up that proverbial "ladder" and I put up with a lot of crap on the way there. UPS is not by any stretch of the imagination, a "fun" place to work. They micromanage you constantly and you live and die by the almighty DIAD. To this day, I can't stand to see someone wearing a London Fog coat (management at Ontario just loved them..) . I still have a lot of good friends that work there and they are still are just there for the day we all wait for..The day you walk out and file for retirement. The upside is the pay is excellent, my last years there easily averaged about 95-100K, the pension is very good (when I can collect it, but that's another story) and I never paid for excellent health coverage. Even though I am technically "retired", I still only pay for retiree health coverage. I get the same package I had when I was working and my total cost is around 75.00 a month. Brown is a good job for a young man with the patience to see the "big picture".I stuck with it and I am glad I did, but if I had to do it again I don't know if I would.

 

And this is true...Look around at the guy that comes to your house driving that #### "Brown Beetle"..I'll bet you he (or she) is in pretty good shape..At around 100-150 stops per day..they have to be..You HUSTLE on package cars, or you don't make it. Progressive discipline starts and you can actually get fired..