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Show Me the Money
With package volumes down and revenues flat, UPS seems intent on one thing. You would think they would be trying to cut expenses, but they aren't. In fact, they seem to be trying to spend all their money.
At first this would make any driver who is concerned about the long term health of the company a little concerned, but the beauty of it is that they want to spend it all on us. While drivers make a healthy wage even at straight time, the frosting on the cake is overtime pay. Overtime pay adds up fast and
most companies concerned about controlling costs would try to control overtime pay, but not UPS. Instead, UPS cuts the hours of their lowest paid employees and opens the door to excessive overtime for the drivers. For drivers who love money, it's a financial field of dreams.
 A seniority driver in Denver makes $28.17 an hour or $225.36 for the first 8 hours that he works. He receives an additional 10 minutes of overtime for completing the day, this is called the 10 minute paid break. So that adds $7.18 to his paid day, making his total $232.54 or an average of $29.07 per hour for 8 hours of work. If he works 9 hours, his daily average hourly pay goes up to
$30.53 per hour. That's a pretty good wage. But it's not good enough for UPS. They like to work us 10 hours, that's $31.70 an hour or even 11 hours, that's $32.66 an hour. I even know drivers who are working close to 12 hours a day and that's an average daily wage of almost $33.50 an hour!!
Now you would think UPS would want to reign in this gravy train but they don't. In fact, they are stoking the boiler. In response to dwindling shipping volumes, UPS is reducing the number of cars on the street and upping the number of hours per day that each driver works. That way more packages are being delivered at the overtime rate instead of at straight time. We have had average paid days
in our center of around 10.5 hours. That's an average of 2 and a half hours of overtime per driver and we have 40 routes still running. So that would be a 100 hours of overtime per day while drivers who could have done this work at straight time enjoyed the day off.
Another way the company is rewarding its drivers with more money is by not spending money on the lower paid loaders and fixing the problems that give drivers lucrative overtime. With the volume down, the preload claims it is fat with help and is reducing hours on a daily basis. But load quality is in the crapper and it's the drivers who have to spend time sorting and often even loading when the preload can't get wrapped. Fewer loaders means poor quality loads and more misloads. Drivers find an average of 2 misloads per day and have to run those, often
spending a half an hour or more on just one or two stops.
As routes are being split out, every truck is getting an add/cut. These splits are not integrated into the load of the car they are going to, they are added onto the front of two shelves. So your 2000 and 3000 shelves almost always contain an add/cut that you will do later in the afternoon and you get to run all day then off the back shelves. Every step you have to take deeper and deeper into the truck to get a package is money in your pocket. The minutes per stop add up, the hourly rate increases and the longer the truck the more money you can make. A nice P1000
with splits on the front shelves is a gold mine on wheels.
UPS loves to spend its money so much it even throws some to the foreign oil producers by cutting the preload hours and allowing a hundreds of misloads to go out every day. Then they run these misloads using deisel fuel that costs over $4 a gallon. Smart business.
UPS seems to bound and determined to spend all its money. They maximize the hours of the highest paid employees and cut the hours of the lowest paid. That doesn't seem like a winning strategy but I don't have time to worry about it right now. There's a big car show is this weekend and while UPS is trying to run its business into the ditch, I'm thinking maybe it's time for a sports car. Afterall, UPS has deep pockets and they must be lined with gold.
The Road to Retirement
I got nice letter in the mail last month from the Central States Pension Fund. The letter was sent to inform everyone in the Plan that Central States is certifiably in trouble.
Central States made it official on January 1 of this year that they are in critical status, or the "red zone" as defined by the Pension Protection Act (PPA) of 2006. Being in the red zone mandates under the PPA that Central States make some painful changes. They are at this time saying that these changes "may" occur. But with the economy sliding into a recession, the chances are good that they will occur.
Among the changes could be the elimination of the "and out" language that allows participants to retire early. Central States would raise the retirement age to 65. That means that you could still retire at 57 or 59 or whatever age suits you, you just couldn't pull your pension until you reached the age of 65.
In addition, employers paying into the Plan will be charged a 5% additional surcharge on top of what they are already paying. Next year that increases to 10%. These decreases in benefits and increases in costs will not effect UPS or its employees who are now in the new Teamster/UPS Pension Plan.
 The cost increases explain why UPS wanted out of Central States so badly. And the benefit decreases explain why getting out was so, so important to all full time UPS employees whose pensions are held in the Central States Fund. We can still retire at any age with full benefits at 30 and out, at 57 and up with full benefits and 25 and out and reduced benefits with 25 and out under the age of 57. And we have those benefits only because we
are no longer bound by the trials and tribulations of the Central States Fund.
The new contract appears to have truly saved our pensions. Our pensions are guaranteed at the full monthly benefit until our death, even if Central States reduces the monthly benefits. UPS will make up the difference. With Central States doing so poorly, that kind of security is priceless. Of course that depends on UPS remaining healthy also and if you haven't turned in a sales lead this month, do so today. Thank you.
On a lighter note, my wife bought me a countdown clock. I set it for Sept. 19, which I think will be my last day of work. With an additional 3 weeks of vacation, my "official" retirement date will be Oct. 11. I used look at the countdown clock every morning. Now I look at it every morning and every night too. It moves slowly, but it's moving. As of May 1, I will have 140 days left and only about half of those are working days. People tell me the time will go fast, but every morning when I punch in at UPS I think, "Man, it can't go fast enough."
Dumb Idea of the Month
Pickup account commit times. This is the flavor of the month at UPS and has to be one of the dumbest flavors they have come up with for quite awhile.
It works like this. Your pickup log will show a commit time and you have to close out the pick up within 15 minutes after that time. It sounds wonderful to someone sitting in an office somewhere. It gives the customer reliable service that they can really count on.
And when you are sitting in an office staring out the window envisioning a perfect world, what could be better than that?
 But in the real world, the one we drive in everyday, a 15 minute pickup window is the stuff that fruitcakes are made of.
What it means is that you will be breaking trace to go do a pickup that could care less whether you get there now or an hour from now. I have a variety of pickup accounts, some wholesale, some retail. I get the wholesale accounts anytime between 4 and 5 and the retail ones sometime between 2 and 7, depending on my day. They don't care what time I come and I can use that flexibility to make the most efficient use of my time.
The trace in EDD will be compromised as commit times approach and you have to jump forward to get to on-area pickups. Or you could just run up and get the pickup (tell them you have packages for them but you will be back in a little while) and then go back to your delivery trace. That's not efficient, but we all know efficiency isn't as important as adherence to the rules. And afterall, what's does a little wasted gas cost us.
So, until this new idea fades away as we all know it will (this idea has been tried before), I guess we get to waste a little time and money pleasing the guys upstairs and their view of the perfect world. My only solace in this newest dumb-idea-of-the-month is the age old mantra of all UPS drivers; "Thank God we get paid by the hour."
On Vacation
High in the mountains of Colorado a rancher was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture
in western Colorado when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud
towards him.
The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and
wearing a big "UPS" lapel pin, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, 'If I tell you exactly
how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?'
The rancher looks at the man, obviously a techie, then looks at his peacefully
grazing herd and calmly answers, 'Sure, Why not?'
The engineer parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer,connects it
to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the
Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his
location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area
in an ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it
to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany
Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has
been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database
through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry
and, after a few minutes, receives a response.
Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech,
miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says,
 'You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.'
'That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,' says the cowboy.
He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as
the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.
Then the cowboy challenges the young man, 'Hey, if I can tell you exactly what
your business is , will you give me back my calf?'
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, 'Okay, why not?'
'You're an Industrial Engineer and you work for UPS', says the cowboy.
'Wow! That's correct,' says the engineer, 'but how did you guess that?'
'No guessing required.' answered the wrangler. 'First, you got that bigass button on your shirt, and second, you showed up here even though
nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a
question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you
are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a
herd of sheep!
Now give me back my dog.
UPS Accuses Lawyer of Infringing 'Brown' Trademark
United Parcel Service Inc., the world's largest package-delivery company, sued a lawyer in Lakewood, N.J., for trademark infringement.
Samuel Z. Brown, of The Law Offices of Samuel Z. Brown, infringed the parcel-delivery service's various “Brown” trademarks, the company claims in its complaint filed March 19 in New York federal court.
 UPS objects to Brown's Web site, www.sambrownlaw.com, and his uses of the phrase “See What Brown Can Do for You,” and his “Brown Engine” that performs a “See What Brown Can Find for You” search function.
The 101-year-old UPS has used brown as a signifier since 1916, according to court papers. One of the parcel service's founders, chose the color brown for company uniforms and delivery vehicles because the color “reflected class, elegance and professionalism,” the company said in its pleadings.
In 2002 the Atlanta-based company began using the slogan “What Can Brown Do For You?” and spent $45 million in this campaign, which included commercials at the Academy Awards. The company received U.S. trademark registration for this slogan in November 2002, according to the database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The lawyer Brown applied for trademark registration for “See What Brown Can Do For You” in June 2006. UPS opposed this registration, and the lawyer later withdrew his application.
UPS asked the court to find that lawyer Brown infringed its trademarks, and to order him to quit using “See What Brown Can Do For You” and other phrases or words that are “confusingly similar to any Brown marks in advertising or as part of his corporate or trade name, domain names, Web sites or otherwise in connection with defendants services.”
Daily Report
Woman Says Careless Driver Killed Dog
State Center woman says a UPS delivery driver was careless when he stopped at her house last week. She claims the driver sped out of the driveway, running over her dog. Amanda Hodgell wants others to learn from what happened to her animal.
Hodgell has lost a pet before. It's the reason she and her husband spent thousands of dollars on an invisible fence to keep her two dogs on their acreage. "I know not everybody looks at their animals the way I do. My animals are part of my family," she says.
Hodgell said she heard the UPS man pull into the driveway last week as her two dogs, Gabby and Bo, were barking at the truck as it drove in. She grabbed her eight-month-old son and met the driver, who she says, was in a rush. "I met him at the door," Amanda said. "He just quickly gave me my package and turned around."
Hodgell says she realized she needed to also grab the dogs. She got her dog Gabby as the driver turned his truck around, but Bo didn't listen. "They were almost at the end of the driveway but Bo had run around the front of the UPS truck and that right side tire caught him. And he hit him once and then proceeded to continue to drive and the back tire ran over. Just ran right over the middle of him and the UPS man kept going," Amanda says.
Hodgell is upset about losing Bo, but it bothers her that the driver didn't stop. "Our society is so worried about getting everything done so fast, that we've forgotten our manners. Forgotten our heart. Forgotten just something as simple as drive slow out of my driveway so you don't kill one of my dogs."
A UPS spokesperson says they spoke with the driver's branch manager. The driver claims he didn't know he hit the dog. UPS says their policy is to stop if they hit anything on a person's property.
WHOtv
Bad for Business
Rants and Raves
 Have you ever wondered why you have never seen a UPS truck pulled over for speeding? Has it got something to do with the NASCAR image and Dale Jarrett? Or is it just because the cops look the other way when those SOBs fly by you at 90 mph on the interstate and stop you for going 10 mph over? Is it just me? Try driving down Dunbar Road in Cayce between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. any weekday. You better hold on tight baby cause it’s a damned scary ride.
 During an ice/snowstorm this winter, I was faced with the task of wrestling with a trash barrel while going down icy steps from our porch, along the walk and another set of icy steps to the sidewalk, and then to the curb. I wasn't looking forward to it.
Just as I was heading out the door to do it, the UPS truck stopped in front of our house. The driver brought me a paperback book-sized parcel, said, "Trade you," took the barrel, lugged it back down and deposited it at the curb. I have been thinking fond thoughts of him all winter. Thanks to the UPS guy. He is my hero.
This story begins six years ago, in the small farming community of Cornfield, USA, which is located in southwest Michigan. UPS is a fairly well known shipping company which has remained in business for many many years but now screwing over their customers. Six years ago I received a shipment of some very nice home theatre speakers. They arrived in about 600 peices. I followed the procedure to get them checked out and get a refund because UPS had apparently bounced them off a high-speed train into the back of their shipping trucks. This resulted in UPS picking up my speakers, taking them to a investigation facility, smashing them with any number of large sized hammers, running them over with the delivery truck, and returning my now completely obliterated speakers to me saying they were insufficiently packaged.
Recently, my package was left on the doorstep of someone whom I don't know down the street. Luckily, that resident found my number on the package and called me to inform me that my package had mistakenly arrived at their address. Upon picking it up, I asked if they had signed for it. They simply responded saying that it was just left on their doorstep and they did not have any contact with the UPS employee.
I decided to file a complaint with UPS. First, I was told I could not file a complaint because their records showed my package had arrived at my address and was signed for by someone named "Ford." This was obviously a lie, as the resident they had dropped it off at does not have the name Ford, nor was it delivered to my address, thus making the UPS delivery person a liar.
I wanted to write to say that UPS does a great job. I ordered a phone from Sprint.com on 03/02/07 that was easy accept when it came to the shipping part. To make a long story short, I had the wrong delivery address for the package so when my husband called Sprint about it on 03/07/07,( the package was scheduled to be delivered on 03/08/07) They told him to call UPS and give them the tracking number.
My husband did just that and gave UPS the correct address. They told my husband that they can only change it when the package gets scanned in at the last stop. We were told that we should call anytime before 8am on 03/08/07 to have the address changed but, it still wasn't scanned in by 8am. So I thought that it was too late and I would not get my package on that day. Of course, the phone rings while me and my husband were both unavailable to answer the phone, luckily my mom did answer the phone. This was 8:30am....it was a nice sounding lady from UPS verifying the corrected address. At 1:22pm that same day my package arrives....yeah! Thanks for the good service UPS.
I had merchandise to return to JBL for exchange. They recommended using the UPS Store. I wouldn't normally do that, but upon the company's recommendation I thought it the best to insure a quick and smooth exchange, plus they assured the UPS store would have a discounted rate for shipping to JBL. When I got to the store they said they didn't offer a discount (even when I gave them a copy of the email from JBL) they just shipped my merchandise in its own package and told me that if I wanted to secure it they would have to charge me a flipping single piece of tape.
I paid $10 for this crappy service and the package took a week to deliver.
Before we head out for the evening, I want to take a few seconds to say:
Brown leaves my packages in the rain, uncovered.
Brown still wears ridiculous-looking Bermuda shorts and high dark socks with black Reeboks in 2008.
Brown will spend two minutes lifting up my welcome mat to put a 3-foot-tall box vertically under it, hiding nothing - while my dog barks like crazy as he does so and he can hear me screaming through the door for her to knock it off - when it would take him all of 2 seconds to ring the doorbell, because after almost nine months of living here you think he would know I'm home every day.
Brown is secretly bitter he's driving an ugly-ass truck and the FedEx guys get pretty white ones with colorful lettering - and all the chicks.
Brown needs to know that his stupid commercials are about three shades shy of making me completely lose it and start picking off UPS drivers at random - because no matter how well you try to market it, Brown is still the color of shit.
There. I feel all better now.
This is in reference to my complaint about UPS defrauding my mother of her money. After six months, my complaint with UPS has been resolved. Yesterday, I received a refund cheque from a Corporate Customer Relations Manager at UPS. My mother and I are very happy about the news. Thank you UPS for resolving this problem. UPS does care about its customers!
I like UPS. Good people, good service. What else is there?
UPS is #1 for my deliveries!
Even though my UPS guy I liked is married but so am I he was always smiling, flirting, being friendly he's cute too! I order alot from QVC! So there were some days around Christmas time he was here just about everyday! We get along great so I asked him to have lunch oneday; he basically said no cause he's married, you would of thought I asked him to go to bed to have sex with me by his look. He's very nervous around me; mixes up pkg.'s sometimes, I don't know why!
Well I can't take back my words, really wish I can but it's not possible so now he's mad @ me; took me off his route, he can't deliver to me anymore....All I was doing is being nice...@ Christmas he didn't mind me giving him a card w/money cause he's always friendly/smiling in a good mood even though my day may have been bad he makes me laugh/smile to feel better. I thought having lunch could be a thank you for doing a great job delivering my pkg.'s but I guessed wrong; now he's gone.
He let me take his pic oneday without asking why I wanted too! Maybe he's afraid of my husband!
I'd see him on the road; he'd wave to me or just driving down my street days I had no pkg.'s delivered but there were other deliveries on my street so he waved.
I thought of him as a good friend, I didn't want to start a relationship....
You Can Race the Truck
Dale Jarrett's Truck For Sale
In 2005 we took on an incredible 11-day rebuild project to turn a real UPS truck into an 800-horsepower Nascar truck for Dale Jarrett's commercial.
A standard UPS truck got a complete overhaul from top to bottom including Ford 514 ci crate engine with 620 hp and 700 lbs of torque, along with 2-stage nitrous-oxide injection system that allows the truck to reach more than 800 hp and to perform low-gear burnouts and an estimated top speed of 150 mph!
All the long days were rewarded when John got to see first hand Dale Jarrett's smile after completing his smoking burnout part in the commercial as well as some extra racing donuts and a victory dance with the UPS truck just for fun.
This one-of-a-kind UPS truck can give adrenaline rushes even to a seasoned race car driver like Dale!!
Rest assured that you are buying from a trustworthy source – AnthemMotors.com is a fully licensed and bonded dealer in the state of Arizona. We specialize in high quality sports and muscle cars. We carefully inspect all the vehicles and welcome third party inspections.
Features
514 ci Ford crate engine
 Modified power steering mechanism
2-stage nitrous-oxide injection system
Kevlar-lined fuel cells
Holley 1050 Dominator carburetor
Lexan windshield
Custom radiator and oil cooler
Custom-crafted headers
Custom-fabricated front axle
Twin MSD electronic ignition
Custom-built Watts Linkage Detroit Locker and coil over shocks in the rear end housing
Custom racing seat with five-point harness, full roll cage and window netting
4-wheel disc brakes
Custom gauge panel
You can reach us at 623-879-0930 or toll-free at 877-448-CARS;
or email at cars@anthemmotors.com with further questions.
UPS in the News
 Augusta, KS -- A 29-year-old Augusta man died of injuries suffered in a truck-pedestrian accident west of Augusta late Sunday night.
The man had reportedly crossed the highway from north to south, but when he attempted to recross the highway, he was struck by a UPS semitruck.
Weather was not a factor at the scene and the sheriff said there was no way the truck driver could avoid the accident. The driver locked up the semi-tractor trailer rig and tried to avoid the man, the sheriff said.
Quincy, MA -- Neighbors credited a UPS deliveryman for alerting tenants in a Sumner Street four-family building that an upstairs apartment was engulfed in flames Friday. Pudder said a passing UPS driver who noticed black smoke curling from the building pounded on the door of every apartment.
Lakeland, FL -- A 29-year-old Lakeland man was killed Thursday night when his motorcycle was struck by a tractor-trailer on Combee Road.
According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, the victim was southbound on Combee Road just south of County Road 542 about 8:10 p.m. when his 2003 Harley Davidson motorcycle crossed the center line and entered the path of a northbound UPS tractor-trailer.
The UPS tractor-trailer left the roadway in an attempt to avoid a collision with the motorcycle, but the motorcycle struck the left rear axle of the trailer, ejecting Olney, who died at the scene.
Augusta, ME -- Police shut down Interstate 95 northbound between Exit 103 and Exit 109 for 11 hours today while workers clean up after a tandem UPS semi trailer overturned on the highway.
The driver pulling the tandem trailer drifted off the road just past Exit 109 and then over-corrected, which threw it into some guard rails and off the road.
 Beckley, WV -- State Police say an elderly man reportedly survived walking into the side of a tractor trailer on the West Virginia Turnpike Tuesday morning, after the man walked across the highway to ask for directions according to Cpl. David Skala. The man was apparently lost, Skala said. The man then began walking across the roadway again, back to his pickup truck.
Then, the man walked into the side of a UPS tractor trailer, Skala said. Skala described the UPS truck as a box tractor trailer pulling another trailer behind it.
The UPS truck driver, a North Carolina man, will not be cited, Skala said. The trucker tried to stop and sounded his air horns. The accident, Skala noted, could have been far worse if the driver had not steered the truck the way he did.
Silver Spring, MD -- A UPS driver was shot and wounded while working on Ballard Street in the Woodside section of Silver Spring, Md., Wednesday morning. Police said the driver was at the back of his truck when a man came up and demanded money. The driver gave him his personal cash. The suspect then shot the man in the leg and ran off. The driver's injuries were not life-threatening. The UPS worker drove himself to a nearby business and called for help.
Vanderwagen, NM -- New Mexico State Police Officer Leo Romero was writing a speeding ticket for a teen-ager around 3:30 p.m. on N.M. 602 about a 10th of a mile from Jones Ranch Road. A woman drove up in a car and informed the officer that a UPS driver had rolled his truck nearby and appeared injured. Romero immediately voided the citation and rushed to the UPS truck which was lodged in a barbed-wire fence. Romero asked the driver if he was OK. "He was conscious, but he looked bad.
He had a laceration at the top of his head and below his ear by his chin," Romero said. The UPS driver said he he heard a loud "pop" from the rear of the truck, then went off the side of the road and rolled. "He didn't remember getting out of the vehicle," Romero said. "He told me he had a seat belt on. That probably saved his life.”
 Laurens County, SC -- Interstate 385 traffic is moving again in Laurens County after a truck overturned after 6:00am Thursday morning.
The Highway Patrol says a UPS truck rolled over on northbound I-385 at the six mile marker. The driver ran off one side of I-385 and overcorrected. The truck then went across to the other side of the interstate and flipped.
The driver was transported to a hospital in Laurens for treatment. The Highway Patrol will charge that person with driving too fast for conditions.
Suwanee, GA — The manager at a UPS store in Suwanee waved down a police officer who was patrolling in the area. She wanted to alert the officer to a suspicious package they had just received that was ticking loudly.
The officer contacted a supervisor, who called out the bomb squad. Before long, authorities had set up a perimeter around the building. Nearby stores were evacuated. A bomb squad technician finally determined the contents of the mysterious package: a wall clock.
If I Can't Be Andy Rooney, I'll Be The UPS Guy
Every so often, when things are not going so well, I play a little game, and I wonder if you play it, too.
The game is called "What's Going to Happen To Me (When Nobody Wants Me)?" and for those of us in our 50s, it is a game with some breathtaking thrills and spills.
The game begins by embracing the not-terribly-far-fetched premise that there will come a day when I am no longer wanted in what currently constitutes my chosen field: journalism.
What if I lost my radio job and my newspaper work? What would I do? I have almost no skills. I've never operated a cash register or shot a man, even though my mother told me there would always be work for somebody who could do one or the other.
When I'm feeling especially insecure, I walk around looking at other people's jobs, trying to decide whether I could stand doing them and whether I'm even capable of doing them.
I think I could work at Trader Joe's.
 Whenever I shop there, the people working always seem very happy, and I know the product line pretty well. My major concerns are (a) my co-workers calling me "Pops" and (b) the whole idea of standing up for eight hours.
If Trader Joe's didn't work out, my next choice is UPS guy. I like the shape of those trucks, and I look cute in brown. (The DHL colors are not so good for me.) And everybody likes the UPS guy, right? He brings you stuff you want and takes away stuff you don't want. The UPS guy is sort of a Good Humor man for adults.
The whole UPS consciousness kind of appeals to me, too, because people tend to get tired of me after about three minutes, when I've exhausted my personal charm and capacity for interaction. That's about how long the UPS guy usually stays. By the time I arrived at the next stop on my route, I would be psychically refreshed and ready to chit-chat again for another sparkling three minutes.
My major concern here is my creaky old right knee, which might not enjoy clomping down from the truck over and over again. I suppose I could get a knee brace. I've been studying them in catalogs, kind of the way many of us used to look at car magazines. Lately I've been drooling over the DonJoy OA Everyday with the patient-controlled telescoping condyle, contoured cuff shells, swivel straps and strap padding for anti-migration.
But in summer months, the UPS guys wear shorts.
"Which UPS guy came today?"
"The old guy with the weird knee brace."
You can see how UPS might not want to take a chance on me.
Colin McEnroe
My New Watch and UPS
When my new watch was finally shipped of course I couldn’t wait for it to arrive. Shipped on Wednesday and would be delivered on Friday. Then disaster struck, a snow storm that would delay deliver till Monday. Well I’d already harassed Jim why not go after UPS.
By tracking it I found it was in Ontario, just a mere 1hr drive from where I live. I called several times and finally found out it was out for delivery but it was unlikely the driver would complete his route due to the weather.
I kept calling until someone at UPS was foolish enough to contact the driver and find out where he was. I now knew the watch was somewhere within 20 minutes of my house and had the street name where the UPS truck was.
 So out I went, in a snow storm, to find the UPS truck/driver and my watch. Finally came back home after about 45 minutes with no success. Phoned UPS again and told them I couldn’t find their truck and asked them to contact the driver again. They actually did this and called me back to say the driver had agreed to walk the pkg. to my house (he wouldn’t be able to drive down our street because it hadn’t been plowed).
So I waited….and waited. By 7:00pm I’d given up, figured the driver told his dispatcher he would deliver it so they would stop bothering him. At 7:15 the poor UPS guy showed up at my door with a small brown pkg. I couldn’t believe it. Great job UPS, now I’ve been able to stare at my new watch all weekend.
Watchuseek
What is Wrong with UPS these Days?
I swear, we have the worst UPS delivery person ever. Because we have to buy so much merchandise online for both the store and our other jobs, we have to have it delivered to our home. Most of the time, the companies we use choose UPS, and the people that deliver our packages don't seem to understand the concept that the things that we have delivered are actually worth money.
 For example, the normal operating procedure for our UPS delivery person is to leave the package at the back door. This wouldn't be such a bad thing, if the back door that is visible from the street were actually our back door. Unfortunately, we share that back door with three other units, so there's a distinct possibility that one of the other tenants would be tempted to run off with the package. (Fortunately, we only have one psychotic neighbor, and she's usually not around when UPS does their "deliver and dash" routine.)
I think that we may have gotten a new UPS delivery person, though, because the delivery style has changed. For the last few deliveries, the UPS delivery person sets down the package, rings the doorbell...and then runs like hell for the truck. Every time I hear the doorbell, I get to the door in time to see the UPS truck speeding away, leaving behind my package right next to my front door. I swear, the man delivers packages like he's dropping off bags of flaming dog poo. Our most recent package was sitting at such a bizarre angle when I opened the door that I wondered whether or not he just threw the package from his truck and happened to hit the doorbell in the process.
Perhaps UPS is understaffed; however, they only ever seem to advertise for package handlers in their local shipping and receiving facility, so I think that the UPS delivery people just don't care that much about doing a good job around here. In my home state of Missouri, the UPS delivery person actually knocked on the door or rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer and sign for the package.
On the other hand, maybe the UPS drivers are just scared that they will get robbed and/or get shot if they stay in any residential area for too long. I know that there are some places that are really bad in this village, but there haven't been any local shootings for several months, and none of them were in my neighborhood. The worst we've had around my neighborhood has been domestic violence and vandalism to a couple of abandoned businesses. I realize that the problem is only going to get worse over time, but until that happens, there's no real excuse for UPS to provide such poor service. After all, my front door is visible from the street, and there's very little stopping someone from stealing my package if I don't happen to be home to pick it up.
While I realize that delivering packages for UPS is a dangerous job, I still feel like there's no excuse for putting down the package, ringing the doorbell, and running away as if there's an explosive in the box. Many of the things that my partner and I purchase are things that we would prefer not to have stolen. Until UPS starts getting drivers that care about doing their jobs correctly and not just abandoning packages wherever they please, I think I'll be taking my business to the post office or DHL.
Rebecca O.
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May 2008
