FedEx sucks the big one

[Jim at Gentex]

a friend of mine just retired from ups
he said he was making over $100,000.00/year and gets $4000.00/month pension

My sis just finished her 17th year at UPS.
She works in the warehouse and isn't making anywhere near $100K, but still makes decent money.
It's funny because she started there as a seasonal temp before Christmas one year, and she is still there 17 years later.  :w00t:

She said they are slave drivers to work for, and they routinely chew up drivers and warehouse workers and spit them out.
But if you can put up with their bullshit you can make good money, especially drivers, and especially if you are willing to work overtime.  

She is 62 now, and she plans on working 3 more years, then retiring @ 65 with 20 years service.  
I'm not sure what her pension will look like, but I imagine it will be pretty good.

[HTM01]

[quote="Jim at Gentex" post_id=17754 time=1635334659 user_id=83]

a friend of mine just retired from ups
he said he was making over $100,000.00/year and gets $4000.00/month pension

My sis just finished her 17th year at UPS.
She works in the warehouse and isn't making anywhere near $100K, but still makes decent money.
It's funny because she started there as a seasonal temp before Christmas one year, and she is still there 17 years later.  :w00t:

She said they are slave drivers to work for, and they routinely chew up drivers and warehouse workers and spit them out.
But if you can put up with their bullshit you can make good money, especially drivers, and especially if you are willing to work overtime.  

She is 62 now, and she plans on working 3 more years, then retiring @ 65 with 20 years service.  
I'm not sure what her pension will look like, but I imagine it will be pretty good.
[/quote]
my friend started part time nights packing trucks but drove for 27 years

[YoDoug]

We ship a minimum of 100 to often 500+ packages a week. We have two pickups per day per carrier. We use almost all shippers, Fedex, UPS, USPS, DHL, etc. Fedex is the worst. We get the most customer complaints and we get the worst service from the drivers that do pickups here from Fedex. The thing about Fedex, at least in our area, is they outsource to a group of companies. The driver shows up in a Fedex truck, wearing a Fedex shirt, but they are employed by the third party company. These companies bid for the routes. We have had some that were decent and we have had some that were horrible. Sometimes if we complain we get a new company, other times it just happens randomly. We suspect it is when contracts are up and a new company wins the bid.

[Jim at Gentex]

my friend started part time nights packing trucks but drove for 27 years

Yeah my sister said that's a pretty common occurrence at UPS.
Guys start off loading trucks, then they realize that the drivers make quite a bit more money, so they apply for that.
She said there are almost always open driver positions because they have so much turnover.

In fact, she said at one point UPS had a 'ride-along' program where people who worked in the warehouse could actually go out on the road with a driver for a day to see what it was like to actually deliver the packages to the customers.
I don't know if they are still doing that, but my sis told me one day on the truck was enough for her to realize she did NOT want to be a driver!

Both driving and the warehouse jobs are physically demanding, but add weather, traffic, and the pressure of constantly moving to empty your truck by the end of your shift, and you quickly discover that the driving gig is not for everyone.  

Her current job in the warehouse (I'm sorry...sorting facility  ) is that of a sort of troubleshooter.
The whole thing is a huge system of barcode readers and conveyors that divert packages to the correct truck for the correct delivery route for that day.
Any package that doesn't read cleanly through the barcode system ends up at her station where she has to figure out where it belongs, and manually load it onto the correct conveyor.

During 'peak' season, she has to manually process 2 packages PER MINUTE to keep from getting literally buried in packages.  
I don't know how much they pay her, but I do know it's not enough, and I would NEVER want a job that stressful!

[Tim Johnson]

I'm at the point of sending mail that needs to be on time with UPS. They blow the USPS out the door. The mail I receive is usually postmarked two to three weeks before hitting my mailbox.

[HTM01]

[quote="Jim at Gentex" post_id=17760 time=1635340659 user_id=83]

my friend started part time nights packing trucks but drove for 27 years

 
I don't know how much they pay her, but I do know it's not enough, and I would NEVER want a job that stressful!
[/quote]

yeah because programming/machining is so not stressful  

[Jim at Gentex]

yeah because programming/machining is so not stressful  

Good point.
I guess it's a matter of perspective.
I also think your stress level decreases proportionally as your skill level at your job increases.

For example, in my sister's case I described earlier, she has become a walking encyclopedia of zip codes in the entire area her facility covers.
She can often identify where a package belongs by zip code alone, so memorizing them became a necessity for her to do her job more efficiently.

She also knows a bunch of little odd places in their delivery area where problems always occur, like one place in our county where two neighboring towns share a common street, but in one town it is Main Street, and in the other it is Main Avenue.  
That always causes problems with their system!  

There are also places where different towns have the same street name in the same zip code, so those get mixed up pretty regularly too.
But once she learned those special circumstances, and the route drivers know them too, it gets a little easier to get the package to the right place.

So yeah, we have our own kind of stress as programmers, but I still wouldn't want her job!    :w00t:

[HTM01]

[quote="Jim at Gentex" post_id=17763 time=1635347265 user_id=83]

yeah because programming/machining is so not stressful  

I also think your stress level decreases proportionally as your skill level at your job increases.


[/quote]

don't agree
they just pile on more shit
how long will it take to make this part we're quoting, they want an answer today, it's 2:00 pm i leave at 2:30

[Jim at Gentex]

don't agree
they just pile on more shit
how long will it take to make this part we're quoting, they want an answer today, it's 2:00 pm i leave at 2:30

I meant less stress from the perspective of knowing how to do your job from the technical side, as in having confidence in your ability to produce the part in the first place.

If you have shitty management that constantly puts you in that shitty position, with shitty unrealistic time frames, then yeah, that's always going to be stressful.
Not all workplaces are like that.

Maybe you should be looking for a change of scenery?    

[HTM01]

[quote="Jim at Gentex" post_id=17767 time=1635351169 user_id=83]

don't agree
they just pile on more shit
how long will it take to make this part we're quoting, they want an answer today, it's 2:00 pm i leave at 2:30

Maybe you should be looking for a change of scenery?    
[/quote]

i am
37 working days until retirement

[Jim at Gentex]

i am
37 working days until retirement

Amen brother!
Enjoy every minute of your retirement!  

[BrianP.]

[quote="Jim at Gentex" post_id=17763 time=1635347265 user_id=83]

Good point.
I guess it's a matter of perspective.
I also think your stress level decreases proportionally as your age increases and your give a phuck decreases.
[/quote]

Free fiss.  

[HTM01]

[quote="Jim at Gentex" post_id=17763 time=1635347265 user_id=83]

Good point.
I guess it's a matter of perspective.
I also think your stress level decreases proportionally as your age increases and your give a phuck decreases.

Free fiss.  
[/quote]

my give a fuck has got up and went!

[mkd]

FedEx's insured shipment racket isn't worth the paper it's written on.
never pay those bastards extra for insurance.

[YoDoug]

I was just chatting with the shipping gals. We ship on average 150-200 packages a day. Most go UPS, then USPS. Fedex is our last choice because of issues, but if the customer selects Fedex we go that route. We currently have 450 orders waiting for one component. One of the few that we import versus make ourselves. They are supposed to be here tomorrow. We will ship out the open 450 orders as fast as they can add the missing component to the box and tape them up.