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UPS Drivers Who Avoid Accidents for 25 Years Get Arm Patch and Bomber Jacket

Wall Street Journal ^ | 6-5-14 | Lauara Stevens

Posted on by afraidfortherepublic

Chadd Bunker says his friends and relatives tell him he drives like an old man. Roll through a stop sign? He would never do that. Exceed the speed limit? Not on your life. He makes three right turns to avoid a left. He can be annoying.

But Mr. Bunker, who is only 48 years old, is no ordinary driver. He recently became one of the proud, lucky few to reach the delivery driver equivalent of Eagle Scoutthe United Parcel Service Inc. UPS +0.12% 's Circle of Honor.

The award goes to those who manage to drive their big brown trucks without having an "avoidable" accident, for years and years. That isn't easy since UPS considers nearly every kind of accident avoidable. A scratch on the truck while backing up, or a tree branch hitting the vehicle and breaking a mirror, they both count as accidents that might have been avoided.

Drivers who make it through 25 years are honored with a little ceremony, a patch on their sleeve documenting the number of accident-free years and the ultimate king-of-the-road status symbol: a bomber jacket.

UPS is driven by its safety culture. New drivers at the 107-year-old company are required to attend intensive, weeklong training courses, informally dubbed "Quaker boot camps" that emphasize ethics and safety.

It isn't the only company to toot its horn for safe drivers. PepsiCo Inc. PEP +0.02% 's Frito-Lay honors its million-mile safe drivers at an annual awards gala at its headquarters in Plano, Texas. The achievement typically takes 12 years. Con-way Inc., CNW +0.09% in Ann Arbor, Mich., bestows a class ring on its two-million-milers, who also get an embroidered jacket and business cards. Waste Pro USA Inc., in Longwood, Fla...



(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...

TOPICS:

Business/Economy

Miscellaneous

KEYWORDS:

hazards

longevity

safety

ups





To: afraidfortherepublic

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!



by 2 posted onby carriage_hill (Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading.)

To: afraidfortherepublic

by 3 posted onby RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)

To: afraidfortherepublic

I must admit I had no clue that UPS was founded in 1907 and has been in business for 107 years.



To: afraidfortherepublic

UPS is driven by its safety culture. New drivers at the 107-year-old company are required to attend intensive, weeklong training courses, informally dubbed "Quaker boot camps" that emphasize ethics and safety. I worked for UPS for 8 years (5 for UPS Logistics and 3 at the corporate office) and it is a fantastic company where safety is their number one objective. the Circle of Honor is a huge deal. The CEO recognizes those people every year and posters were put up in the corporate office with the names. Riding around in a package car is an experience. Those guys are great at what they do.



To: Wyatt's Torch

I’ve done some projects at UPS facilities (including CACH just after it opened), and was awestruck by the culture and attention to detail. Everyone does their best when they work in a quality of excellence. While their investment in automation and IT is staggering, even the little things, like the attention to dress code and the fact that every package car is washed every night all contribute to the quality culture, yet most people have no clue. I’ve also worked in USPS facilities. Night vs. Day.



by 6 posted onby bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)

To: Wyatt's Torch

i like this story... i like how the drivers seem to take pride in their work...



by 7 posted onby latina4dubya (when i have money i buy books... if i have anything left, i buy 6-inch heels and a bottle of wine...)

To: afraidfortherepublic

I used to work as a seasonal with UPS. First day on the job, I got sideswiped, while standing still, by a city snowplow.



To: Robert DeLong

UPS holds that history very closely in their culture. There is a “Founders Day” and every management person is given books with speeches by the former CEO’s. It is a very distinctive and rich corporate culture. I’ve never been around anything else like it. Very impressive.



To: afraidfortherepublic

It depends on the route to determine how much praise he deserves.Going that long without an accident in New York City is far more praiseworthy than doing it in Fork Bend,Utah.



To: afraidfortherepublic

Seems like lately they are under alot of pressure to deliver faster and faster. At some point it has to break.



by 11 posted onby McGruff (What if I told you your leaders were lying to you?)

To: afraidfortherepublic

The 3 right turns to make a left is no joke. If you have ever saw the the CNBC show of Ultimate Factories on UPS, you will learn that all UPS drivers are required to take right turns, to avoid the extra time in waiting for a left turn unless you might have a 4 way stop. After seeing the CNBC show, I now refer to my UPS as Mr. Right Turn.



To: Gay State Conservative

It depends on the route to determine how much praise he deserves.Going that long without an accident in New York City is far more praiseworthy than doing it in Fork Bend,Utah. The article states that he has been driving in Manhattan for 46 years. Impressive driving.



To: Gay State Conservative

opps that was some other driver - lol...



To: Gay State Conservative

Going that long without an accident in New York City is far more praiseworthy than doing it in Fork Bend,Utah. My guess is the drivers that make it 25 years without an accident are line drivers and delivery drivers that work residential/suburbs/industrial park type routes. No way a UPS driver working Manhattan/Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore type environments is going to make it that length of time accident free. I've driven an automobile in all of these cities and it's tricky to say the least.



To: Gay State Conservative

the guy in the photograph at the article link has been driving safely through Manhattan for 46 years — that’s impressive. He is 71.



To: Wyatt's Torch

Yet they’ve had a couple of big plane crashes in recent years.



by 17 posted onby Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)

To: Moonman62

You cannot prevent everything. But given the number of flights they operate on a daily basis the safety record is pretty darn good: Major incidents and accidents September 11, 1998: Flight 744, N316UP, a Boeing 767300, suffered substantial damage after running off the runway at Ellington Field from Louisville International Airport. The airport was experiencing a major storm at the time of the landing, and the aircraft was unable to stop on a wet runway with a strong tailwind. After running off the runway, the aircraft's right landing gear broke off and the right engine separated from the wing. The aircraft was put back into service after major repairs.[16] June 7, 2005: Flight 6971, N250UP, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, suffered substantial damage after a landing gear collapse at Louisville International Airport from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. The crew accidentally lowered the nose of the aircraft too quickly, buckling the front landing gear. The aircraft was put back into service after a $10 million repair.[17] February 7, 2006: Flight 1307, N748UP, a Douglas DC-8, was destroyed by fire at Philadelphia International Airport from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Just before landing the crew reported a smoke detector activated in the cargo hold. After landing, the cargo hold of the aircraft caught fire. The source of the fire was never found.[18] September 3, 2010: Flight 6,[19] N571UP, a Boeing 747-400F, crashed near the Dubai Silicon Oasis at approximately 7:45pm local time after declaring an emergency fifty minutes after takeoff. Both crew members were killed, the first such casualties in UPS' history.[20] On 6 November 2010 Agence France-Presse released the Arabic Al-Qaeda statement that the crash was due to on-board explosion of an air package collected in Yemen, to date this has not been proven.[21] August 14, 2013: Flight 1354,[22] N155UP, an Airbus A300-600, crashed in an open field on approach to BirminghamShuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Alabama killing both the pilot and co-pilot.



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