Try dealing with a female shipper who is hysterical, crying her eyes out because you are taking all her worldly posessions and moving them across the country.

Dealing with a grocery warehouse is a cakewalk compared to HHG. I know - I've done both.

Try waiting 11 days in a truckstop parking lot to unload a shippers home, and being away from your own home for 2 months.

As far as lumpers, 99.999% of my loads require lumpers - both loading and unloading. The remaining 0.001% I load myself - by hand. An average load takes between 5-10 hours to load, and 3-5 hours to unload. The difficult ones can take DAYS to load or unload.

You don't know the meaning of the word fun. Just sayin'. :wink:

 

What he said........

 

Package drivers are a little nuts at times. We have a lot of time pressures during the day. Airs have different commit times during the day 10:30, 12:00, 1:00, 3:30 and 4:30. Can't be late or you will be disciplined. Plus you have to start pick ups at the same time everyday, and if you're heavy you need to make sure that your next day pick ups are back to the center and on the airport shuttle by 7:00. So we do rush at times.

The tractor trailer guys live in completely different world. All drop and hook and the time pressure is reduced by a bunch. That's where I'm trying to go.

 

It used to be that you didn't even have to be a truck driver to apply for driving positions at UPS-You applied and then they trained you and there ya go.

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: 8)

 

Lol, yeah the air is a very important thing, loading one of though's package cars. Leave all the air out! mixing the ground and the air together is a huge no no lol. Big trouble for that. After loading 3 of them, you start to wonder can they maybe make a larger size package car? lol. or maybe less stuff lol. it's chaos in the morning.

 

I have thought about the pecking order for skill.

1) Ice road drivers
2) log truckers - 9% grade on a 16 foot wide mud covered road
3) dump truck & pup - always backing up to the blindside; constantly in city traffic
4) OTR is just last in my opinion

Shields up!

 

Try loading 5 everyday. and i'm talking full-time runs. 60-70 stops each. And after doing that, I go out on the road as a combo driver and do deliveries for another 4 hours or so.

And everybody that's said something about how we drive is right. It's all about getting the packages delivered on time but when we leave the building at 9:30 or so, it's kinda hard to be safe and get all of your 1030's done on time. Yeah, they preach safety all the time but those packages better be there when they are supposed to be.

 

Hey tfmotors,

Funny you should mention La Grande. I was a feeder driver based in LG with 6 other drivers from 1977 to 1986. We parked our trucks at the J (but it was a Husky station in those days). I can't claim to know this jerk but most likely he was from the Hermiston, OR hub going either to or from Farewell Bend where they swap sets with Boise drivers (at least they used to).

I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to get a feeder run right off the street. I was 24 and 1 yr. driving experience after graduating driving school. I was told that I was what they were looking for because I had my doubles certificate from school and I was still green enough & not too cocky yet that UPS could train me their way without a lot of resistance :P . They gave me the choice of feeder or package. I was forced to quit in 86' due to cancer; if not for that I'd be enjoying a very nice retirement now 8).

Most everyone I worked with is either dead or retired :wink:. I agree that those I knew were very professional but there are always a few mavericks. The guy you met in La Grande was not typical. It's just a matter of time before he screws up big time (like Cabbage Hill in January) :wink: .

 

I agree. 8)