The pool isn't being drained to empty. The way they explained it was: They always want a pool of candidates ready to call to be ready to respond for any additional hiring requests from manpower planning.
That might not make sense since the training center is already running at full capacity. But it was emphasized to me again today that "being in the pool IS definitely a good thing. We hire now from the pool only."
It's still a competitive pool, but I gather that the days of getting placed in the pool and never seeing the light of day as a UPS pilot are over. If you do good enough in the interview and get pooled, the only question at that time is when you get a class date. Not if.