van driver

owner operator driver

driver (independent contractor)

e-commerce specialist

Relay-Runners-Courier-Service-LLC

I do not recommend this company to anyone. The managers are horrible. The place is run by favoritism! The start time changes daily. Messaged daily after leaving work what time you start  the next morning. You never know what time you’re off work. If trailers are late you have to wait for them. Belts break and you have to load cages from another belt and transport the cages to your belt to unload the cage and, then load your trucks. You work almost every Holiday. Fedex does not allow you to take time off during the holiday season. Does not matter how much earned time off you have saved up. Christmas Day you will have off but, you will pay for it the next work day. You will earn holiday pay even if you do work. Some holidays you will work but have the following work day off. 
Whether you work a holiday or not, the next work day is a nightmare. The drivers get the holiday off, but you will load trucks on top of what you already loaded the day before. Drivers do not work for Fedex, they work for contractors but, drivers have more of a say than you will. You are told when hired to load by vision. But, the drivers all want their truck loaded a different way. Then when you’re moved to other trucks, you don’t know how that driver wants his truck loaded. So, you load by vision and the driver comes in, is angry and takes everything off the truck and re-loads it how they want it. Also, when hired you’re told you will be trained a certain amount of time. Often, you’re only trained a few minutes. Some are lucky to get a few days of training but, never the time you should receive. You will NEVER take a break! It doesn’t matter if you work one hour or ten, you will not get a break or lunch break. You will be required to load three trucks but when someone beside you calls out, you will load at least one of that persons trucks, also. You may be required to load all three of them. It will happen! Some people call off two or three times every week and still keep their jobs. But, you might call out once in a years time and get written up and fussed at. People often quit during the sort. They will provide bottled water but, not always. You are not allowed to bring in a thermos. You are not allowed to bring in your phone. No jewelry allowed except, a wedding ring. You must remove your shoes, hat, jacket when coming into work and when leaving. You can not clock in more than three minutes before your start time and must clock out immediately when told to leave. Depending on where you work, you have a specific clock to use. If caught using another clock you’ll get in trouble. If your work location is all the way to the rear of the building, arrive at least five minutes early so, you can clock in on time at your designated clock in the rear of the building. Do not be even one minute late! Do not share any of your business you do not want the entire place to know about. Even if you tell your manager something in confidence, it usually isn’t. They will talk about you to everybody else. You will not receive a Christmas bonus nor will there be a company party. 
When hired you’re told you’ll work four hours from 4am-8am. Yet, you will get an afternoon text to come in for 3am, or possibly 2am during holidays. You will usually work until 9 or 9:30 but, there will be times where you are there until 11. 
If there is severe weather conditions causing the trailers to come in very late, you will be required to come in at night. Then back the next morning. If streets are flooding, or roads iced, you will still be required to be at work. Or, you will come in at night or work your only day off. SAFETY, is the main priority of Fedex Ground. They just don’t care so much about the employees safety. There are meetings constantly for drivers, contractors, managers, other staff, occasionally in middle of building and, there should be one every morning at your belt before the sort starts but, package handlers are never given a meeting to express their feelings.  Do not answer your phone from anyone at Fedex once you leave. There are times when they want you to go back to work for some reason. 
Don’t get use to your work area. You might be in that position for a long time then, you might be moved to a different work area every day. Even if you don’t have a second job, say you do. Often a manager will come around and ask you to work at night because that shift is short staffed. It doesn’t increase your check by much. They find a way to cut you earlier in the mornings. Helping them does not help you! I believe I got my point across. Fedex may be a great company but Fedex Ground, St Rose is terrible!! Managers are usually sitting in the office playing games, eating, laughing with each other, or whatever it is they do in there when a package handler needs them. Then, when the manager does decide to go to the belt and see there is a problem, you get yelled at. 
Fedex Ground St Rose, LA is poorly operated. Managers cater to their favorites. You’re spoken to and treated like a child. 
Dress code is comfortable but if you’re an attractive female you may be told something about the way you dress. I have heard muscle shirts, tanks, wife beaters are not allowed but certain people can wear them. 
Told to load by vision but you must look at addresses too. If a business is closed on a Monday, or another day, you can not load that package. When schools are closed you need to know not to load those packages. When schools re-open, be ready for the rush! Some loaders are horrible and let all his packages roll to the rear of belt. Then you get yelled at for letting those boxes pass you up. Like you don’t already have to much else to do. The salary is alright but not enough for what is expected of you. Many companies are paying higher rates now, too. If you make $10 per hour you can make a larger paycheck. You have to work more hours but, it’s not at 3:15 in the morning and not in the same conditions. And, your start and end times and, work area doesn’t usually change day to day.

It's hard to know where to start.  

FedEx does have some pluses.  First of all is the health coverage.  It's not great, and it takes a chunk from your paycheck, but at least you have it in case of a catastrophe.  Secondly, you get retirement benefits, and FedEx matches your contribution.  You are also pretty much guaranteed a job with the company as long as you want it.  They are proud of not laying off employees, and to my knowledge, they have never done so.  You also get paid vacations, maxing out at 5 weeks after 20 years with the company.  Again, not great, but when you compare it to other American companies, well, it could be worse.  Overall, however, I'd say FedEx has not been a great company to work for, and I wish I had started somewhere else, even if it meant getting paid less initially.  

When I began, I worked long hours and there was plenty of overtime available.  I went from part-time to full-time in a matter of months, and the padding in my checking account was nice to see.  But such hours are not guaranteed, and in time they dwindled.  After a few years, I was invited to attend a meeting with the head of the district.  The topic of "top pay" came up, and he told us we would reach the top of the pay scale within 5 years (when the company started, it was under 2 years to reach top pay).  We were using an assessment system then to rate couriers that was on a scale of 1-7 in a variety of categories.  In the driving categories, new employees were considered to be on probation, and the highest score you could achieve was a 5 in those assessments.  I did the math, and told the district head there was no way we could hit top pay within 10 years.  He replied that there would be a series of pay bumps that would counter my calculations.  After a few years, they did away with the assessment system, and instead gave pay raises based on an employees time with the company.  It took me 17 years to reach top pay, and I still have co-workers who have been with the company 23 years who have not reached the top.  The reason I got there faster was because I received 7 out of 7 scores during the years the graded assessment was in place.  

I was a full-time courier for about 6 years when I downgraded to part-time.  I had been in an afternoon FT route, but switched to a morning PT route.  (All employees began as part-time - usually an afternoon/evening route - and when the opportunity arose, were offered an afternoon/evening full-time "pickup" route.  At our station, moving to a morning/day route usually didn't take place for 12-15 years).  My reason for switching was that my wife and I began having children.  We looked into daycare, but FedEx didn't pay me enough that I could afford daycare (it would have cost more than the hours I lost).  To make up for the loss in pay, I created my own business that I could do from home in the afternoons.  I was told that whenever I wanted to go back full-time, I could.  The goal of most couriers is to eventually get a full-time day position, and I figured if I remained a good employee and served my time, I could eventually bid on such a position when it became available (and my kids were old enough for me to go back to full-time hours).  That turned out not to be the case.  Our district did away with the afternoon full-time positions, and since those drivers were now displaced, they were given the open day routes (even if they had fewer years with the company than someone who was part-time;  though frustrating, this decision was understandable).  In some cases, full-time day routes were created to accommodate the displaced FT drivers.  When it came time for me think about returning to full-time hours, I was told I could not bid on open routes.  Only FT drivers could bid on FT routes, and the only option for a PT driver to gain a FT route was to bid on a FT swing position (a position were you must be available to do any route in the station, whether a morning or evening route, at a moment's notice).  This is not a friendly job position when you still have young children.  When I asked how long I would need to be in such a position before I could bid on a daytime route, I was told 18-24 months (management and HR had different opinions on the matter).  It turns out my time with the company had little to do with any rewards after all.  In the meantime, the company decided to reinstate the afternoon FT routes.  In fairness, I could have bid on one of these, but again, the hours aren't great if you have kids (they're fine if you are young and starting out).  So now with over 20 years in the company, I don't have direct access to a better position;  despite years of service, someone with under 3 years in the company has better prospects than me.

But that's my personal story.  Let's look at the real problem with the company;  it encourages mediocrity.  If you are a hard-worker, you will get abused and have little to show for it.  Consider this:  if you are a good courier and can deliver 12 stops per hour in a given area, and are given 60 stops, then you will get paid for 5 hours of work.  If you are an exceptional courier and can deliver 15 stops an hour in the same area (because you plan better, are more organized, etc.), and are given 60 stops to do, you get paid for 4 hours of work.  You made the same number of deliveries as the good employee, but got paid less.  If you are an okay employee and can only do 10 stops per hour in the same area, you get paid for 6 hours of work.  It's actually better to work slowly - there is less stress and the pay is more.  Besides the managers will push the extra work on the employees who can't help but do a good job.  There are no pay incentives for being good at your job, and there are no promotions (management is a separate program you must enter on your own, and once you complete it, hope you can find a position near enough to home to make it worth it, and it really doesn't seem worth it;  managers in domestic ground operations aren't necessarily treated well either).

It's a terrible system.



1.	Business Relationship (Motivational Fits):
-	Demonstrates familiarity with external entity vendor agreements such as P&D, Janitor, security, maintenance, etc.
-	Getting well with another person, group by things in common, which makes communication easier, in other words, this is how friendships are built.
-	Effectively communicates business needs and customer expectations to external entities in a way that allows them to understand contractual obligations.

Background→ package loaded to wrong truck.

Action-------→Speak to contractors to take these packages out for deliver. Help others to handle their miss loads. QDM service.

Result-------→ deliver potential DNA’s without temp driver. Help my team.
	

2.	Communication:
-	Speak and write clear, concise and direct manner using proper grammar, present ideas in an organized manner.
-	Target goals to others.
-	Communication behinds with listening.
-	Translate technical ideas to the audience using gestures, proper tone, and non-verbal communication to support the message.
-	Display patience and understanding when listening.

Background→ What is the code for today

Action-------→ Ask my manager what code to use, listened to her instructions. 
Communicate the instruction for today; 34 for business and school, 36 for residential. Pay attention to non verbal communitcation.

Result------→make my manager job easier. Shared translate the goal for today to my team. Took initiative to ask. 


3.	Business and Technology:
-	Understand the industry, marketplace and possible trends that may affect business outcomes. Understand how changes in the industry will affect area of responsibility.
-	Understand business driver outside of own area.
-	Understand how profitability is impacted at each location for each business and the company.
-	Apply QDM to everyday business process.

Background-→ QDM innovation.



4.	Self and Lead Others:
-	Identifies personal strengths and opportunities in others, and incorporates them.
-	Take time to coach others by asking questions that help others clarify expectations.
-	See failures as opportunity to improve and learn.
-	Modifies self-perceptions and behavior based on feedback from others to enhance personal effectiveness.


Background→ Saw a video about how to reduce lost and damages in the purple hub called “1x10x100”. About 5 damage packages on my Van Line every day. Packages from the unload arrive damage to the belt.

Action→ 1x10x100 rule explained to packages handlers. If you see an open box stop it.

Result→ Reduce damage packages to 1 or 0 in a day. Change their perspective. Reduce cost for the company.


5.	Engages and Inspires Others:
-	Build trust and respect with and among team members. Taking time to understand driver’s challenges.
-	Treat all people with respect and dignity regardless of differences.
-	Show importance on hearing others and perspectives before drawing conclusion, actively listen and show empathy with the concerns of others.
-	Keep promises.
-	Share information, responsibility and decision making with others.
-	Give praise to others and recognizes their contribution. 
-	Builds own credibility through use of good judgment and business ethics.

Background→  

6.	Exceeds Customer Expectations:
-	Continuously looks for ways of doing things better, faster and at lower cost while maintaining focus on providing value to internal and external customers.
-	Turns even the most difficult customer situations into a positive experience and a “win” for the company.
-	Handles all internal and external customer issues with urgency.

Background-→ Angry customer on the phone. He request package to be deliver after 8:00pm. He was working and couldn’t  get package. Package requires direct signature. 

Action--------→explained that I was really sorry for his experience. Called customer service with him on the line, and re-route his package to nearest FedEx Office to pick up. 

Result-------→ turned his difficult situation into a positive one. He can pick up his package after work. Even saved money for the company in temps drivers. Share my experience with team
7.	Deal with Change:
-	View changes as an opportunity.
-	Understand and communicates the future direction of the company and it is important. (Grow core of packages, grow international).
-	Utilizes QDM.



8.	Organization:
-	Effectively perform multiples responsibility and move from activity to another without losing focus.
-	Focus on goals achievement from both a short and long term perspective.

Background→ blizzard storm, bad weather. Many people called out.

Action-------→ leave earlier to make it on time. Ask the sort manager for an extra body. Split the work between us. Focus on my priority QA from my belt and another belt. 

Result-------→ Regardless the storm able to sent them out for deliver. Took the lead of my team, performed multiple task at once. Took the initiative.

9.	Solve problems:
-	Use judgment based on fact scientific facts. 
-	Use QDM to make a decision.
-	Transfer new skills and existence knowledge to unique or unusual situations.


10.	Understands Cross-Functional Impact:
-	Knowing how others decisions will impact other departments, people or process. 
-	Form strong relationship with co-workers in other functions.
-	One Team, One Vision, One Goal, One Queens.

Background-→ me package handler scanning. At that time in my team it was ok to miss two or three package. Ask my team members why they missed.

Action--------→ showed concern to my team. Explain the importance of why is important to inbound a package since it give an accurate information to our customer. Plus, the sorter need to see the vision stickers and the loader need to know where to load it. I lead with an example, if I miss a package; I stop the flow of my belt get the package and scan it. Every package is important.

Result --------→ improve my manager’s numbers in scanning. Took responsibility. No one told me to do it. Made easier the job of someone else. One vision, one goal, one team, we are Queens.

A typical day as a FedEx package handler depends on what position you work in, as it is a blanket title for all employees at a sort facility except for managers and QA. You could be unloading trailers, scanning boxes, manning a sort tower, loading delivery vehicles, or moving NCs, which is the term for anything that is too large or too heavy (75 to 150 pounds) to go on the conveyor belts. Nothing is particularly complicated, though it does take time to get settled in to new positions. It is also quite the workout, though some positions are more physical than others.

Compensation wise, FedEx is okay. The starting pay is decent, but the benefits are great. From the start, you get access to things like discounts from various businesses and tuition reimbursement. After you put in 1000 hours, you also become eligible for their health plan. For reference, I paid about $25/month for a plan that included medical, dental, vision, and mental health. My big complaint here is that it takes so long to become eligible. Since they try to keep shifts to 4 hours or less, it takes a while to reach 1000.

The shifts, themselves, depend on what location you are at. Hubs, supposedly, gave you the option to work full-time and had more shifts to choose from. I, however, worked at a smaller sort facility that was limited to part-time for package handlers and only offered two shifts, early morning (2am start) or night (6pm start). I had other obligations in the evening, so I was limited to mornings. This could be a deal breaker for some as it can be brutal starting at 2am every day, or sometimes earlier during peak season.

Now time for my rant on leadership.

Company-wide, there are things that changed about 6 months into my employment that resulted in very poor work conditions. Namely, FedEx established themselves as the go-to for shipping big, heavy packages when UPS raised their prices. This meant that we had a huge influx of NCs and had to somehow get them unloaded and delivered, despite being in a facility that was not built to handle the volume. Certain employees, including myself, were given the burden of dealing exclusively with NCs. Unfortunately, even though the volume increased, we were still expected to get things done in the same amount of time. This meant that safety standards went right out the window. As a team of 2, I was responsible for 3-5 trailers every day, filled entirely with 100+ pound packages while other employees never had to touch a single NC. They even loaded the belly of the trailers with them, which meant that there was no safe way to lift them out and you were putting your back on the line in every single trailer, not to mention that this was supposed to be against company policy.

More specific to my location, the leadership was even worse. If you were any good at your job, you were completely overburdened. During my worst time there, I was expected to do the job of 4 people while the managers consistently demanded that I get things done faster. Lazy/incompetent employees were not fired, they just expected the rest to pick up the slack. In fact, firing practices on the whole seemed completely random. You might have one really good worker uncharacteristically miss a couple days and be fired immediately, and at the same time you'd have other people being allowed to miss multiple days a week or come in more than 30 min late every day. While managers would spend much of the time talking about work safety, they never did anything to actually provide a safe working environment. As a member of the safety committee, I saw countless issues brought up on a monthly basis, and I saw the vast majority of those issues be completely ignored by management until they caused an incident. In one instance, another member of the committee pointed out a cracked wooden support beam in the shelving of a delivery van. The issue went ignored for 2 or 3 months until it broke during a sort, hitting the loader between the eyes, resulting in a broken nose. If you were able to put up with everything and still remain a productive worker, your reward would be absolutely nothing. Recognition was a fantasy. There were always discussions about how it needed to be a higher priority, as many people become unmotivated when their efforts go unrecognized, but nothing ever came of it. In fact, when I left, they were  multiple months behind on announcing employee of the month, not that it mattered since most of the people were chosen arbitrarily rather than by performance. All in all, the last 2 years of my employment were a steady decline in management, resulting in a completely demoralized workplace. Due to being overworked and underappreciated, I went from being the friendliest person in the building to working on auto pilot and being supremely angry at everyone and everything.

If you've made it this far, I will leave you with this. FedEx can be a great place to work, as I'm sure that other locations have better leadership. It can be particularly great for those who are looking for part-time work but also want to have benefits. You just have to be on guard against poor/unsafe working conditions, because the physicality of the job could easily lead to serious injury if you're not careful.

i was hired as a part time package handler, was excited about the job, but the excitement did not last long, training was two days of watching a couple movies each day and then doing a pop quiz filling out question and answer papers like your at school for your trainer to see what you learned, then on day 3 i started in the trailer to start work, i got a trainer to show me all the ropes of what i had watched plus a few things i did not learn watching the movies, only for the first 4 days of my job, after that was on my own, i would say you need more then just 4 or 5 days with the trainer to really get the hang of this job. 

so what is the job?  well what your doing is you scan boxes and stack the boxes in a wall form from one side of the trailer to the other and make your way from the back of the trailer to the front, you will see that 1 special person gets to work only in one trailer but you will end up having 2 or 3 trailers you will have to go back and fourth to load up, which i did not think that was fair. 

you have a scanner you have to learn how to use, and its not user friendly even for the techies.  the thing goes on your arm you focus the red beam on the special fedex bar code and it will beep to uploaded the bar code into their system so they they know the right boxes are meant to be on that truck and also so that people can track their package----
but and takes notes here, you have to be careful as if you miss even one box you will get in serious trouble, they take the scanning of boxes very seriously if you do not scan every box you are loading even if you just miss 1 box, they will fire you no ifs, ands, or buts about that. 

one thing i should say is, the trailers are very tall and im more a shorter guy, and this job is really best if your closer to 6 feet tall as its very hard to get a step stool, to help you reach the top of the trailer. 

i decided to do the late night shift as it would not be so hot as it would have been in the daytime, those metal trailers get very hot all summer long and they can retain the heat for a very long time, so you learn about overheating your self and even heat stroke, was told that happens more then i might think it would, any person can overheat fast if they are doing the right stuff to keep cooled off, you need to bring a gallon jug of water with you--as you will be sweating the whole time from start to finish, plus during the wintertime you have to know how to dress to keep just warm enough as i was told during the training, just as the trailers get very hot in the summer they freeze in the winter. 

fedex ground is not the safest place in the world to work, you can get hurt very easy there, anything from paper cuts to hurting your back legs, its easy to get broken bones there, one dropped box on your foot could be the end of your foot, and they do not require you to wear steel toe boots, which i think that is not right, they dont really care what type of shoe you wear as long as its not flip flops or open toed sandels, and depending on the accident if its bad enough you could loose your job, if they think you did something on purpose you were taught not to do. 

you only work 4 hours at 11 dollars an hour, you might get lucky to work up to 5 hours on a really busy day but you only bring home about 150 a week, health benefits only come when you work there a whole year, most do not make it that long, and i think thats rotten, the location i worked at, the turn over rate was very high, the first week i started there were 3 people that had quit, so they were always hiring for the package handler position, and after my short time there i can understand why. 

you get evaluated after 14 days of working there which all they do is either tell you to keep working or they give you your paycheck and say it is not working out and leave your badge at the door, also be careful of not showing up on time or failing to show up at all, if you are late a lot they will fire you, and also they say in the interview 3 days for a no call no show to loose your job,  but the location i worked at they only allowed one day of a no call no show to loose your job.

i liked doing the job but after i started on my own the pace of the job was sped up so fast that i could not keep up, they have a bell that goes off when your boxes coming down the chute get backed up, that noise drove me crazy, and the whole time there  on my own i had my butt chewed on for not being fast enough, i only worked there for 3 weeks, and was really sad that i had to quit, i wanted to keep the job but could not take getting yelled at and cussed out any longer for being to slow, i was busting my butt as fast as i could but that was not good enough for my manager which i think is sad, they want robots not human people. 

for someone reading this hope this gives you an idea of the job, its not for everyone, and they tell you that in the interview. 

my advice to managers or the higher up,  give your new workers a chance to get used to the heavy boxes and the super fast pace and give us a little more time then just 2 weeks to get up to the speed that fedex wants from you, 2 weeks is not enough time to get used to this job, that seriously needs to change. 

im sad cause now im back looking for another job, was hoping things would have worked out with me and fedex, dont think i would ever go back to fedex for any other job offer again in the future.

This is a job not a career. This is in the same bracket as a store clerk, fast food worker, etc. There are basically no requirements and they will hire almost anyone that isn't missing all there teeth from meth or covered in blood from a murder they just committed. (They might hire those two anyway around peak) 

That could be considered plus number one they are always hiring and not picky. If you need a job NOW, you can get one here. 

The downside is that they're always hiring cause this job is brutal. If you expect to skate or cruise for a few months and get somewhere easier think again. You will have bruises you don't recall getting, you will be sore all the time, you will never be comfortable at work as you freeze in winter and roast in summer, you will be bored out of your skull as Fedex denies you any possible thing to help make the mind numbingly repetitive tasks your assigned pass quicker. You will also be constantly hounded if you don't make your metrics, but probably not actually fired because see above about the constant turn over. 

On the other hand if you do make your numbers and show up for work every day and are clearly a worker, you'll get slack when you need it and respect from your mangers. With the turn over they have good workers are actually valuable, if you stay and prove yourself one of the top guys you'll get noticed.

So the work mostly sucks, why do it? Well it has it's upsides compared to the other sorts of McJobs mentioned above. 
-The pay is better then most of those sorts of jobs. I've been there three years and currently make about 13 dollars an hour, you can be approaching 15 an hour after about five years. Yeah it's not the big bucks, but that's still appreciably more then many part time jobs with no real qualifications. 
-The hours are extremely stable, you work when you work, you're off when you're off. I work between 17 and 19 hours every week, most often right around 18, at the same time week in and week out. You only work one weekend day about five weeks out of the year. The very stable hours also make it much easier to plan a second job around this one if need be. 
-If you want more hours at my hub at least you can get them. They basically always have more hours for people that want them and full time positions are always open. Two sorts should fairly easily net you 35+ hours a week, if you prime on one shift (come in 30 minutes early to clean up what's in the chutes from the last sort basically) you'd be coming up on forty for the week. 
-Perhaps the biggest benefit is that you get medical insurance with some dental and good vision as well if you pay slightly more. You also get a small health fund per year that pretty easily covers any out of pocket expense for say an annual psychical. You get this even for part time after meeting the total hour requirement, which amounts to around a year part time, six months full time. 
-You do get paid time off, and then paid holidays after a year. Yeah you only get like six of the later, and maybe 12~ days of the former, but hey six days of free pay is six days of free pay, and given that most part time jobs offer no paid vacation whatsoever, at least you've got something. 
-You don't have to deal with stupid customers or pretend to want to be there. At my hub at least the direct supervisors and many of the middle levels of management came up from package handlers. They know the job sucks and they don't expect you do pretend to enjoy it, and indeed it's often clear they hate the bull they put up with just as much as you do. Cursing is liberal, the atmosphere relaxed, and shared misery builds a sort of comradely between workers you don't see in many places. 
-On the above note unlike in many service or part time positions which are decidedly dead end there are chances to move up in a Hub. However just know you won't be doing that anytime soon, that's a reward for a slog that will be years long, they won't even look at you for stuff like that until you've worked several years, and just like anywhere else who you know and what they know about you will influences chances big time, so you better have put in work at the bottom rung. 

Executive Summary
-This job isn't fun, it's hard and dirty and you will never be happy to come into work 
-On the other hand if your good at it you won't have to put up with much BS, it's boring, but not frustrating or stressful once you get into a routine by and large. 
-The benefits in terms of time off and medical are highly above average for a part time job, many people that stick around do so for these reasons and work a second easier job instead of taking more hours at Fedex. 
-The people at least at my hub are good bunch to work with, allot of the immediate supervisors and mangers also came up through our jobs so they at least tend to have some idea what it's like. 
-There is potential to work your way upward, but you'll have to put in plenty of time if you want to do it.

If you are hired you will start off part-time. If you need full-time you may be in for a relatively short or very long wait, depending on the time of year or current level of full-time staffing.  You may be hired for the 1-5 shift or something along those lines, but at times you will work for 2-3 hours and be sent home because they do not have enough work to continue.  You will get less hours in the winter and even as a full-time employee you may get under 30 hours in a given week.  There are things like tuition assistance and benefits after you have worked a set number of hours, whether you are full or part-time.  The hourly rate is above average, and you will get set pay raises until you have been there for a few years.  

Then you will only get raises through a promotion or a bump in the state minimum wage, which prompts the company to increase your pay rate, even though it is already above minimum wage.  On the bad side if you are loading or unloading trailers you must meet certain quotas, and if you or the whole team do not meet their quotas you may be yelled at and constantly prodded, depending on the personality of the manager.  There were some good managers years ago, but almost all of them have moved on to another company or been promoted to another Fedex facility.  Most of them will try to be friendly until their superiors come down on them for not meeting some set goal.  Then what once seemed like a nice manager will begin to yell at people in the presort meetings or at an individual while they are working.  

They have signs that HR puts on the walls that say you talk, we listen.  Most of the managers will listen to your concerns about how your area could be improved, then walk away and do nothing, or promise to look into, and you never hear anything back.   You can be in a situation like I was, where you have done one specific job for over a decade, then a new manager that has never actually done said job thinks he/she knows more about your job than you do, and will not listen to your advice on how to make the job easier or more efficient.  If a machine is not working as well as it should you are usually out of luck unless something is completely broken.  Even when area managers know that they need more people to properly run their area they are not allowed to decide how many workers they get to accomplish this.  Their superiors decide on this, and are often wrong about how many people are needed. 

 I have seen higher ups tell employees that they should not go to the hospital to have serious injuries looked at because it will cost the company money, yet they go on and on about safety is the number one priority.  As soon as they find out OSHA will be walking through all of the sudden everything is clean, and extra workers that are needed and not provided at other times show up and help you get caught up.  

Employees are allowed to self-nominate for open promotions.  This encourages people who started off doing only one particular low-level task to become a manager after only being there for months, hence the new manager who thinks that they know your job, that they have never done, better than you do.  Finally, you have people that work in an office all day deciding to change around your area without asking for your input.  You may have everything changed around in a way that makes your job harder. Then it may take months, years, or it may never be addressed at all, because they do not want to put in the time and effort to have their maintenance department address the situation. 

 In the past you could ask a maintenance person, or have your manager ask one to fix something and it would be taken care of.  Now they have a maintenance head who decides if requests are worthy or not.  If the issue makes your job harder and frustrates you it will not be addressed unless it can be shown to directly cost the company money.  They have created a middleman for many things, and the level of red tape and inaction resembles that of the federal government.

If you do your job well, but still could use some help keeping up with the workload you may get some help here and there, or be told month after month that "we are understaffed."  The reason for this, whether it is always the truth or not is there is a very high turnover rate, and many people will be gone within weeks or a few months.  If you are the kind of person that believes in doing things the right way this place will drive you out of your mind.

This place has a lot of problems. Rampant favoritism, dishonest management, and Backstabbing co-workers.  Their is literally no selection process when they hire management, whoever volunteers gets the job. You could have the most dishonest, backstabbing garbage person of a manager and they are basically un-fireable because the manager above them would have to admit they made a mistake hiring an idiot so they just ignore bad managers.  The level of stress and toxicity of the work environment was something I’ve never experienced before(I’m prior military, didn’t think it got more stressful than that job but I was wrong).  Your co-workers will screw you into doing their work for them so they can go home early, management just ignores it even if you make a complaint.  Management is really only concerned that the job gets done they don’t care if other employees take advantage of others so they don’t have to work as hard.  Every morning their was people yelling at each other, getting angry at each other and the same human trash that continually pushed their work off onto either people regardless of their or your workload.  Zero integrity in some of the people that worked there. I honestly couldn’t believe how many lies one person can come up with to try to get you to do their job on a daily basis.  Not only is this job a nightmare for your mental health it’s also incredibly physically damaging to your body as well.  They could honestly pay double the salary to start and it still wouldn’t be worth the years it’s definitely going to take off your life.  They’ll let people quit until it’s a skeleton crew, people are getting completely burnt out/overworked and they’ll just ignore it until it’s basically at a breaking point and the negativity around the station is palpable.  One example of this specifically, one of our couriers was planning on retiring.  Everyone knew for two years, and they waited until idk about 6 months after he retired to do anything about it, how dumb can you be.  HR is non existent even if you manage to get a hold of someone (near impossible, they don’t even list the number anywhere you can find anymore) they are interested in protecting management and the company they could care less about you.  This is by far the worst job I’ve ever had, the pay was great but the damage the negativity was doing to my mental health was reason enough for me to quit. Like I said earlier they could pay double and there is no way I’d ever go back.  You will have maybe an hour of free time at night so work life balance is garbage, you get volunteered to work Saturdays if they don’t have enough people regardless of how many hours you may have worked already.  You can plan on frequent schedules changes at the very last second, can’t count how many times I’d have to take a 3 hour trip at the end of my shift. Once I even had to bring freight even further for a 5 hour round trip didn’t get home until like 1am still had the same start time the next day. 

 So I guess the TL:DR summary is 
Cons
-Trash work life balance 
-Constant schedule changes 
-Perks that may have attracted you to the job 
are not guaranteed they’ll change things to suit the company with no regard how it effects you.
-Extremely poor management 
-Zero Communication between manager/employees/ and other stations
-There is a “Make it someone else’s problem”
culture that thrives here. Between co-workers and other stations.
-Zero care for the health and safety of employees. If you get attacked by someone’s dog that’s your fault and you’ll be expected to go back no matter how many incidents occur, they won’t refuse delivery even if it’s clearly unsafe. 
-Rude customers who’ll argue with you about putting their dog away when it’s clearly aggressive. 
-DISHONESTY- I was lied to in my interview about my salary, I was told on three separate occasions when I had to do something like take a 5 hour drive at 730pm that I’d get a bonus, never got one. When I changed positions and moved into a higher paying one my manager decided to string me along for two months at my previous pay saying his boss had to take my offer letter to hr, like email and fax doesn’t exist....riiigght. 

Pros
-Paycheck 
-benefits/retirement 
-occasional free meals, these were nice but management would throw this in your face when you tried to stick up for yourself when they are clearly trying to take advantage of you. 

Writing all this out is making me realize what an awful place that was and I don’t at all regret leaving.  See you in my nightmares FedEx.

Where do I begin. I applied at FedEx Express because the pays seemed okay for the work and I figured that with me previous delivery experience, this would be a good fit for me. Man was I wrong.

For the first month I was employed, for 2 to 4 hrs a day, I would unload freight onto a conveyor belt to be sorted. I had asked a manager why I was doing this since I was hired on to be a courier. He explained that Fedex policy stated that I would first have to go to defensive driver class and courier class before I would be allowed to run a route. I was like okay, shouldn't I be riding with someone to learn the job. So I road with one driver on 3 different occasions before going to class. 

The training classes by far were the only perk to this job. It was the first and only time i got a 40 hour paycheck. They give me $1,800 to cover rental car, food and hotel which was nice. And whatever you didn't use, had to be paid back. FedEx made all of the arrangement so all you had to do what go pick up your rental car and go to the hotel. The trainers were great. They explained how everything "should" work. The trainer did tell us to try an make it 6 months and it should be easier. That didn't happen for me.

Now back to reality. My first day back from class, I was given a FedEx backpack with a map book, sun glass and a lanyard. I was told by one manager to forget what you learned in training because it doesn't work here.  I was shocked that FedEx Express did not use GPS in there trucks and that they only went off of maps. I had told management during my interview that I would have difficulty with the residential part of the job and I've never read a map to save my life. Management highly discouraged using GPS. Some of the new drivers used an app called Route4me to help with finding addresses. I was told by the area manager that I should go out on my own personal time and learn the route. I told her that unless FedEx was paying me, I wasn't going to go out on my own to learn the route. That is the day that everything went south. Because I was new and full time, I was compared to other full time people who had been there for 5 years and longer. I was told my management that it should only take two weeks to learn a route. FedEx Express is all about time and the monitor it to the second. Anytime I had trouble, A manager would ride with me to see what I was doing wrong. I never got any feed back during the ride a long, he would just document was I was doing. It got to a point where the area manager asked me to her office and she me to demote myself to part time and work nights. I told her no and management just make it harder to be successful from that point on. 

I knew that I was being singled out to be fired. The first sign of this is when I got wrote up  and suspended for 3 days for leaving a van running with no keys in the ignition. This can happen if the ignition is stripped out. So I started to investigate this on my own. I found at least 10 vehicles that had this issue. So i filed a grievance against the write up since I had proof. So they was this works at FedEx Express is that once a grievance is files, all of the management at that location get a copy of the grievance and then within a week or two, a conference call would take place because an HR rep, management and you. This never happened because I was fired before the call took place and per FedEx Policy, if there are any grievances filed, they are removed and no longer looked into by HR.

So a brief incite on management at this location. So If you didn't do what they wanted, when they wanted and devote your life to them you were then looked at as an outcast. The area manager and one of the other managers there had there favorites and once you have fallen from there grace, you were never helped again. I was told by one of the office staff that when I had a family member pass as was given a week off to deal with it, it wasn't them being nice, it was because they had too many hours logged. Same thing for when I go suspended. 

All in all, until something happens to the area manager there and other managers at this location, this place will always have a high turn over rate.

If you are going to work for FedEx Express in Oklahoma, Try to get on at the South Side location. Avoid the North Side location at all cost.

Fed ex Ground is sub contracted so.it depends on your contractor how much your paid and how smooth it is. I'd say from my experience most are going to put you between 40-45k a year. Some more some less. Job is very physical. Alot of heavy lifting and stairs. If your route is in town you do alot more heavy lifting and running. Rural routes less so. Can be very stressful. All your deliveries and pick ups need done whether you broke down or your trailers were late. Doesn't matter get it done. Fed ex systems seem to go down at least every other week so be prepared to run with no manifest to help you put your stops in order. Trailers are constantly late which means you dispatch later which means you get home later and some contractors pay salary so you make no extra for that time. Customers leave their aggressive dogs loose. The house that has 3 flights of steep steps will always be the one to constantly order dog food, couches, book shelves, ect. If someone else calls off or breaks down you're probably getting stuff added to your route(for no extra pay). If you're lucky enough to have a route close to your terminal you still get the shaft because now if you can't fit everything on your truck you're close enough to come back and reload what you didn't fit and go back out. No advancement at all unless your lucky and buddy buddy with your contractor you might get management role. Don't think if you're salary you'll just work faster to get done earlier because if you're always done at a decent time You're the first person to get called when someone breaks down or calls off or they'll just add more to your daily route (for free still). Customers at businesses will make you wait forever while they're on the phone before they sign..stores or fast places will take an entire line of customer orders before they take 2 seconds to sign your scanner while mind you there's a pick up that closes in 20 minutes on the other side of town that you're gonna chewed out or fired for if you miss it. Which by the way, some pick ups don't even open till 5:30-6 pm so even if you're done delivering at 3, you're sitting around till that window opens. The business will also try to have you carrying their boxes all over the building to put it exactly where they need it rather than let you be on your way. Fed ex services 7 days a week now so don't expect to get 3 day weekends for holidays like memorial day. Expect to have a really hard time scheduling vacations depending on how organized your contractor is. Don't expect to get good benefits or any at all. Don't expect to wake up vomiting and be able to just call off. Office personal baby the loaders so expect to have to come in and reorganize or just completely load your truck in the morning doing the loaders job because there's zero accountability. And if you bring any issues up to office personal you'll probably just get told to just be quiet and do your job. " It drives the truck. It does what it's told". Don't plan on existing anywhere but your truck from halfway through November until new years day with peak season. Plan on going out no matter what the weather is. I've seen a terminal shut down once in close to 10 years. That shut down wasn't on the day we were hit with a noreeaster storm or the day there was 5-6 inches of ice on all the roads due to an ice storm. Package weight limit is 150 lbs but they get mad at you for weighing insanely heavy boxes and refusing boxes over 150 lbs and will try to get you to take them because office personal doesn't want to deal with it. I could go on and on. Job could be fairly easy with decent workloads and management and I'm sure there is at some other terminals but this is pretty much what it's like at mine in rural pennsylvania. At first it's terrible and stressful, then you learn your route and it's not so bad and you may start to enjoy it, but then if your like me you just get burnt out on all the extra B.s that could be alleviated with good management from the company and your contractor. Oh and the CEO did nothing for ground employees at the start of the covid shut down. Contractors or terminal managers had to scramble for gloves, masks, sanitizer, and cleaning supplies for employees and loaders made extra money for most of it while drivers had a day or 2 where we made extra money. At my terminal at least. 

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