UPS drivers from coast to coast are writing in to sound off about the company’s rural deferred delivery policies in response to a Cowboy State Daily story about Wyoming customers paying premium prices for overnight delivery, not getting it, then not getting their money back.
A delivery for Kindness Ranch was delayed, even though Executive Director John Ramer paid a premium for overnight delivery to the ranch, which is in rural southeast Wyoming.
Ramer had ordered the laptop on a Friday, paying extra for guaranteed delivery the next Monday. But internal tracking from UPS showed the delivery was made “on time” by Tuesday.
The extra premium Ramer paid to receive the laptop by Monday was not only not refunded, Ramer said he was told by the company to “plan better” next time.
That’s not how the system should work, a current UPS driver from North Carolina told Cowboy State Daily. Because he’s still employed by the carrier, he asked not to be identified. Cowboy State Daily has confirmed the man is a UPS driver.
“The system is supposed to catch it as it goes down our belt,” said the driver, who we’ll call Todd, about the handling of overnight packages. “And it’s supposed to not put it on the hold trailer. It’s supposed to set it to the side.”
But that’s not what’s been happening, Todd said.
“Whether the system doesn’t work, or they don’t have it set up correctly, (those packages) have been going to the trailer,” he said.
And the only way that those packages come off that rural deferred delivery trailer is if someone from “upper, upper” management says so.
“That’s the thing that we’re all upset with, and we expressed it to our management, is the critical health care. I mean, you have people’s diabetic medicine, this, that and the other, and a company is paying next-day air to have it delivered,” Todd said. “And most of it’s got cold packs in it, stuff like that, and they’re like, ‘You know, it is what it is. They’re just not going to get it.’”
Not Functioning As Advertised
Todd is employed at one of six trial centers set up to test rural deferred delivery.
“All six did this a little bit differently,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “For ours, once they picked the ZIP code for us, we would hold all the packages for that ZIP code. It didn’t matter if it was next-day air, second-day air, critical health care, perishable foods like Hello Fresh and stuff like that. We held everything.”
After about three months, the trial centers became permanent, and the plan was rolled out to other locations.
Todd said he and some of his coworkers have since tested the system to see if they can order packages for next-day air that the system shouldn’t allow because there is no delivery to that ZIP code that day because of rural deferred delivery.
“The system will allow you to do it,” Todd said. “And they told us that they would have the system set up to where it would block that, like if you wanted to send it to Warrensville, then they would tell you, ‘Oh, you know, we don’t have next-day service there. It will get there Friday.’”
But that’s not how the system is functioning, based on Todd’s own test of the system and the Kindness Ranch experience.
“They’re still allowing it to go through and charge customers,” he said. “And then these customers are calling going, ‘Whoa, I paid for the service and I didn’t get it.’ Then UPS is going, ‘Well, that’s in our rural deferment. It is what it is.’”
Todd likes to feel that his customers are happy, but the way the system is currently set up, that’s not how he’s feeling.
“We will go to hell and back to do whatever we can for our customers,” Todd said of UPS drivers who actually see these packages not being delivered. “And we just hate it that our customers don’t get their stuff when they paid to get it there.”
A photograph Todd provided to Cowboy State Daily shows one of those daily deferment trailers stuffed with packages that couldn’t be delivered that day. Right in front is a white Styrofoam container marked as being a critical health care package.
Welcome To Being Part Of The 1%
UPS told Cowboy State Daily that it delivers more than 22 million packages and documents each day, and that it’s chosen to consolidate deliveries to very rural areas to save money.
“It’s more costly to deliver to very rural areas compared to cities or suburban areas,” spokeswoman Becca Hunnicutt told Cowboy State Daily in an emailed statement. “By consolidating deliveries to very rural areas, we keep shipping costs from rising for those customers.”
Hunnicutt said shippers “always see the updated expected delivery date at the time of shipping,” while customers can visit ups.com to view the most current delivery times or use the free UPSMyChoice App to track and redirect deliveries.
“The overall impact (of rural deferred delivery) is small, affecting less than 1% of our daily deliveries,” she said.
Hunnicutt declined to speak directly with Cowboy State Daily about her statement or the situation.
It was not clear if the 1% includes national deliveries or just rural areas, but Todd had some insight into that.
“At our building we do, on average, 4,000 to 6,000 pieces a day, and we are holding between 500 and 800 pieces a day,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “So, we are more like at 10% for our building. Now, other buildings could be a lot less, and they’re just doing like a national average, but we hold about 10% a day as far as total packages.”
Todd has personally seen that UPS is losing customers in the territory he delivers.
“When this came down, I actually talked to our sales rep who does our area,” Todd said. “And he said that they were losing customers left and right because they’re like, ‘Well if you can’t pick up, we’ll just have FedEX do it.”
Delayed Deliveries Predate Rural Deferred Delivery
Over on the West Coast, retired UPS driver Mark Marquez, who worked for the company about 28 years, said delayed deliveries are actually nothing new for the delivery service.
“It’s been a common practice for years that UPS has let food spoil in the warehouse hubs,” he wrote in an email to Cowboy State Daily. “And also refrigerated medications like insulin just sit in the summer heat from Friday to the next Monday for delivery.”
Marquez told Cowboy State Daily by phone that one of the problems he’s seen are workloads too heavy for one person to complete.
“If you can’t complete the work, you have to bring it back to the hub, and you get ridiculed because you didn’t complete the work,” he said. “On the delivery side, I would be out there delivering, and they would tell me that I’ve been out there too long — because they’ve given me too much work.”
That resulted in texts directing Marquez to return to the building immediately, with his remaining packages undelivered.
“So, I would get back to the building, and we’re sorting it out and I would say, ‘This has to go out,’ and they’d say, ‘No it can wait until Monday,’” he said.
On some occasions, those packages were medications that needed to remain refrigerated, Marquez said.
“I see what the drivers are going through today,” he said. “And I know their situation, and I don’t see it changing until somebody steps up and slaps them with a major lawsuit. That’s the only way to get the point across.”
On The Receiving End
Marquez retired from UPS in 2013, and that’s put him on the receiving end of UPS deliveries, waiting on critical medications for a family member.
“My daughter was really sick, she had leukemia,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
At the time, his daughter needed IV medications about three times a week for home administration, and these were being shipped by UPS.
“Some days, it wouldn’t show up,” Marquez said. “And I would get frustrated. And I would, I knew how to make contact with the driver, and I would have to go out and get the medication myself.”
Fortunately, as a former UPS driver, Marquez knew a lot of people on the inside. He was able to get in touch with someone working inside the facility, who could personally help him to find the medications.
Other customers, who do not have any inside friends, are often not quite as fortunate, Marquez said.
“I knew people there, so they were willing to help me, under, you know, the cover of I would say darkness,” Marquez said. “And one person I was able to make contact with called me back and said, ‘It’s here.’ And I said, ‘Well it was supposed to be delivered this morning.’”
Marquez told his friend he was leaving to go and pick up the medication immediately.
“It’s overdue,” he recalled telling him. “It’s gonna spoil.”
When Marquez got the medication, it was still cool to the touch.
“Thank goodness it wasn’t a hot day that day, because it would have been bad,” Marquez said. “And that’s just one scenario.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
