Go Back  Airline Pilot Central Forums > Airline Pilot Forums > Cargo > FedEx
FedEx First Year Info for New Hires... >

FedEx First Year Info for New Hires...

Notices

FedEx First Year Info for New Hires...

Old 05-11-2021, 02:12 PM
  #951  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Feb 2007
Position: FO
Posts: 3,031
Default

I had pass travel for 11 years at my last jobs. It was practically useless. You want to book a cruise or nice vacation and then sweat getting there or home. It made vacation less enjoyable.

Usually get enough miles to get a couple domestic round trips a year for me and the wife. Have the super duper credit card which gets me into the lounges. It also comes with a companion fare once a year.

Only departed once past midnight eastern time in the past year.
BlueMoon is offline  
Old 05-11-2021, 02:58 PM
  #952  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Nov 2017
Posts: 2,099
Default FedEx First Year Info for New Hires...

Originally Posted by Braniff DC8 View Post
MOGuy, if I may. Nothing against FedEx and it’s fine folk. Great company and great group of pilot’s.

Night cargo flying will wear on you after years! It WILL take years off your life. The life expectancy of cargo pilots is like 10 years earlier than pax pilots. You won’t escape it. Sitting reserve in the middle of the night versus the day is huge.
Long haul flying starts to wear on you HARD after about 50. HARD!
Commuting to cargo is a nightmare as they usually park on oppsite sides of the airports. This adds a lot to stress. Uber late at night, good luck!
Pass travel is SOOOOO much better at a pax carrier as is jumpseating. Buddy passes etc.
You’ll tire of vending machine food!
More bases as well at UAL and this means better jumpseat and pass travel.
Volatile you say at pax carriers??? Fred will possibly replace his pilots with drones as soon as he can. Our lifetime, prob not but Fred and his pilots have had a hard relationship as well.
Having done both, I would stear you to UAL. It’d be just better overall and longterm, at least for your health.

Best of luck. Either way You’ve won a golden ticket and a lifetime supply of chocolate, it’s just how long that lifetime will be.
Say HI to Willy.

As someone who has also done both, there are a few exceptions I’ll take on this.

Sitting reserve at night, not too bad if you plan accordingly. I didn’t mind sleeping during my call window and waking up in the morning in my own bed. But I can see how this can be a negative aspect, especially having to plan for it. Luckily you only have to be junior once.

Commuting, most pilots commute on FedEx aircraft (where you end up at the ramp your aircraft or car is parked at) or deviate and have FedEx pay for positive space ticket (many times in first or get upgraded) from their home airport to where the trip starts. This typically shaves a day off a trip and you also have a company paid hotel at your show city that you can easily Uber to or use the hotel provided transportation. The few times I’ve commuted and needed to get from the terminal to the ramp, it was either at a FedEx base which provides transportation or wasn’t so late that there were no transportation alternatives. Keep in mind that at the outstation, the FedEx flight leaves in the evening to get to the sort city by around midnight. So you won’t typically be getting there late at night with no transportation options. Commuting at FedEx is actually a huge plus over passenger airlines.

As for pass travel, been there. In fact, I still have pass riding benefits through my spouse. It’s been almost five years since we’ve used them. It takes time and effort, to figure out the best way to get somewhere, and if you have kids, it’s exponentially difficult to find flights with enough chance of open seats for all of them. If you all can’t get on or none get on, it becomes a headache, especially if you have to get back. Now, I just use all the miles that I accrue from all the scheduled and deviated dead heads. No hassle, no checking loads, no headaches of getting bumped. Also, I wouldn’t give buddy passes to my friends. That’s as bad as Zed and ID90s, that we have access to here. Not worth the stress or the work it takes to make it to your vacation destination or back, in my opinion.

And as a pilot, you have the same jumpseating privileges as any other passenger airline pilot. I’m not sure how more bases equates to better pass travel or jumpseating but like I said, commuting is a positive at FedEx over any passenger airline. So FedEx might only have seven bases (like any airline, great if you live there), but it certainly isn’t a negative as far as JS or no pass travel is concerned.

I can’t speak for long haul other than it’s probably no different than long haul at passenger airlines. You cross many time zones and will end up on the wrong side of your circadian rhythm. But at fedex, you can still be completely domestic and be on widebody pay on the airbus or the 767, which does a lot of day flying. About 275 of our aircraft are widebody with about a net +25 more on the way in the next four years.

I don’t know where vending machine food comment comes from. You can eat it if you want but both IND and MEM have cafeterias open 24 hours. I think most people just eat some of the catering and at a restaurant on the overnight.

And for longevity, I don’t know. But you can certainly do strictly day flying once you have enough seniority. I’d also like to see the data on this though.

Maybe some of this comes from working at a different company? I don’t know if that’s what it’s like at ACMI carriers. Is that what you are referring to?

Last edited by FXLAX; 05-11-2021 at 03:22 PM.
FXLAX is offline  
Old 05-11-2021, 03:56 PM
  #953  
Fill'er Up Again
 
FrankTheTank's Avatar
 
Joined APC: Jun 2008
Position: Scarebus Captain
Posts: 1,088
Default

Originally Posted by Braniff DC8 View Post
MOGuy, if I may. Nothing against FedEx and it’s fine folk. Great company and great group of pilot’s.

Night cargo flying will wear on you after years! It WILL take years off your life. The life expectancy of cargo pilots is like 10 years earlier than pax pilots. You won’t escape it. Sitting reserve in the middle of the night versus the day is huge.
Long haul flying starts to wear on you HARD after about 50. HARD!
Commuting to cargo is a nightmare as they usually park on oppsite sides of the airports. This adds a lot to stress. Uber late at night, good luck!
Pass travel is SOOOOO much better at a pax carrier as is jumpseating. Buddy passes etc.
You’ll tire of vending machine food!
More bases as well at UAL and this means better jumpseat and pass travel.
Volatile you say at pax carriers??? Fred will possibly replace his pilots with drones as soon as he can. Our lifetime, prob not but Fred and his pilots have had a hard relationship as well.
Having done both, I would stear you to UAL. It’d be just better overall and longterm, at least for your health.

Best of luck. Either way You’ve won a golden ticket and a lifetime supply of chocolate, it’s just how long that lifetime will be.
Say HI to Willy.
You have no clue what you’re talking about…
FrankTheTank is offline  
Old 05-11-2021, 05:24 PM
  #954  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Mar 2021
Posts: 166
Default

To the cargo health differences, there are plenty of studies backing poor health with sleep deprivation. The latest one I came across the other day...

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/a-lack-of-sleep-in-middle-age-can-increase-the-risk-of-dementia

Guess it doesn’t say we will necessarily live less, but maybe just a bit more insane. Tomatoes, potatoes.

Sure wish we had a 6hr sort now.

The non cliff note version: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22354-2
Jamo is online now  
Old 05-11-2021, 06:55 PM
  #955  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Adlerdriver's Avatar
 
Joined APC: Jul 2007
Position: 767 Captain
Posts: 3,987
Default

Originally Posted by FXLAX View Post
You might not lose as much seniority as you may think. First, if you were hired at UAL 1/20 and started here on 1/22, that’s only two years. Second, is it really two years worth of new hires behind you? How many have they hired since 1/20? Your seniority is only worth how many are below you. Longevity wise, you will not be at the higher pay scale. But you’ll make that up quickly at FedEx. So if you come here in 1/22, how may pilots would you have had below you at UAL? Probably not as many as you think considering they didn’t hire anyone since 3/20. It’ll probably be more like less than a years worth of people below you. Not insignificant but certainly not three years.
I'm not sure I'm following your logic regarding seniority. Pilots hired behind you don't do that much for your actual seniority. Pilots retiring ahead of you do that. If you are #100 out of 100, you have 99 bubbas ahead of you choosing schedules, vaca, upgrades, etc. If the company hires another 100 behind you and isn't drastically expanding and no one retires, then that just means they were undermanned when they hired you and there are still 99 folks ahead of you picking all the stuff you might want. Sure, you went from 100% to 50% in the seat, but that doesn't change the "buying power" you have with your seniority.
If there were 99 captain seats available when you got hired and that didn't change, then those 100 pilots hired behind you did absolutely nothing to get you any closer to one of those left seats. Pilots hired behind you are just a furlough buffer and give the company more options in properly manning the airline. That may end up making things better for you but that's not the same a pilots leaving ahead of you.
Adlerdriver is offline  
Old 05-11-2021, 08:23 PM
  #956  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Nov 2017
Posts: 2,099
Default FedEx First Year Info for New Hires...

Originally Posted by Adlerdriver View Post
I'm not sure I'm following your logic regarding seniority. Pilots hired behind you don't do that much for your actual seniority. Pilots retiring ahead of you do that. If you are #100 out of 100, you have 99 bubbas ahead of you choosing schedules, vaca, upgrades, etc. If the company hires another 100 behind you and isn't drastically expanding and no one retires, then that just means they were undermanned when they hired you and there are still 99 folks ahead of you picking all the stuff you might want. Sure, you went from 100% to 50% in the seat, but that doesn't change the "buying power" you have with your seniority.
If there were 99 captain seats available when you got hired and that didn't change, then those 100 pilots hired behind you did absolutely nothing to get you any closer to one of those left seats. Pilots hired behind you are just a furlough buffer and give the company more options in properly manning the airline. That may end up making things better for you but that's not the same a pilots leaving ahead of you.

Yep. My post is in context to the poster I responded to. And of course there isn’t an airline in existence where no one is retiring because we are all getting one day closer to that date. So that is not even a consideration in this context. Both airlines have pilots currently retiring into the future. And like you said, there is something to be said for furlough fodder, especially in the passenger industry. So that should be a consideration for him. One of his concerns was losing about three years seniority. But there wasn’t any hiring for almost 14 months and the airline has shrunk, hence the excess pilots. So if he decides to go back, he has a few pilots (I guess about a years worth) below him and many (those still not retired) ahead of him. Contrast that with if he comes here, he has none below him and all ahead of him. Essentially the difference in the two choices is that one he has some below him and both have many ahead of him. That’s why I only mentioned those below him. Thats the big difference between the two, in terms of seniority. That’s the context in which I wrote that post.

Other than that, I agree 100% that QOL is mostly due to relative seniority going up.

Last edited by FXLAX; 05-11-2021 at 08:34 PM.
FXLAX is offline  
Old 05-11-2021, 08:32 PM
  #957  
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Nov 2017
Posts: 2,099
Default FedEx First Year Info for New Hires...

Originally Posted by Jamo View Post
To the cargo health differences, there are plenty of studies backing poor health with sleep deprivation. The latest one I came across the other day...

https://www.healthline.com/health-ne...sk-of-dementia

Guess it doesn’t say we will necessarily live less, but maybe just a bit more insane. Tomatoes, potatoes.

Sure wish we had a 6hr sort now.

The non cliff note version: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22354-2

The abstract says, “Sleep dysregulation is a feature of dementia but it remains unclear whether sleep duration prior to old age is associated with dementia incidence.”

Does seems to say that people with dementia have sleep dysregulation. But there is no evidence that sleep dysregulation causes dementia. The classic correlation does not imply causation?

It also said, “Here we report higher dementia risk associated with a sleep duration of six hours or less at age 50 and 60, compared with a normal (7 h) sleep duration…”

Is that six consecutive hours of sleep or total hours of sleep. Many get more than six hours but in more than one sleep period. I try to get 8 consecutive hours of sleep as soon as I get to the hotel and am very rarely unsuccessful. Does it matter if the sleep is not during the window of circadian low? Or that it’s not all in one period? When I have more time, I’ll read the rest of it, maybe it’ll answer my questions. Thanks for the reference.

Last edited by FXLAX; 05-11-2021 at 08:54 PM.
FXLAX is offline  
Old 05-12-2021, 01:05 PM
  #958  
Quarantined
 
Joined APC: Mar 2018
Posts: 181
Default

Does seems to say that people dementia have sleep dysregulation. But there is no evidence that sleep dysregulation causes dementia. The classic correlation does not imply causation?Hhy@GyroNole ;

It i tent

Mo said, “Here we report higher dementia risk associated with a sleep duration of six hours or less at age 50 and 60, compared with a normal (7 h) sleep duration…”

Is that six consecutive hours of sleep or total hours of sleep. Many get more than six hours but in more than one sleep period. I try to get 8 consecutive hours of sleep as soon as I get to the hotel and am very rarely unsuccessful. Does it matter if the sleep is not during the window of circadian low? Or that it’s not all in one period? When I have more time, I’ll read the rest of it, maybe it’ll answer my questions. Thanks for the reference.[/QUOTE]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
CaptainSlow is offline  
Old 05-12-2021, 03:59 PM
  #959  
Banned
 
Joined APC: Jun 2018
Posts: 1,838
Default

Originally Posted by Adlerdriver View Post
I'm not sure I'm following your logic regarding seniority. Pilots hired behind you don't do that much for your actual seniority. Pilots retiring ahead of you do that. If you are #100 out of 100, you have 99 bubbas ahead of you choosing schedules, vaca, upgrades, etc. If the company hires another 100 behind you and isn't drastically expanding and no one retires, then that just means they were undermanned when they hired you and there are still 99 folks ahead of you picking all the stuff you might want. Sure, you went from 100% to 50% in the seat, but that doesn't change the "buying power" you have with your seniority.
If there were 99 captain seats available when you got hired and that didn't change, then those 100 pilots hired behind you did absolutely nothing to get you any closer to one of those left seats. Pilots hired behind you are just a furlough buffer and give the company more options in properly manning the airline. That may end up making things better for you but that's not the same a pilots leaving ahead of you.
Are you forgetting to account for growth in some fleets? Our seniority list is growing and in some fleets by a large amount over the next 3 years. If we were to only hire for retirement replacements then that number would be around 180-200 new hires per year. Many fleets are also gaining block hours due to the new mid morning sort.
Noworkallplay is offline  
Old 05-13-2021, 04:22 AM
  #960  
Gets Weekends Off
 
opt0712's Avatar
 
Joined APC: Aug 2012
Posts: 655
Default

Originally Posted by Braniff DC8 View Post
MOGuy, if I may. Nothing against FedEx and it’s fine folk. Great company and great group of pilot’s.

Night cargo flying will wear on you after years! It WILL take years off your life. The life expectancy of cargo pilots is like 10 years earlier than pax pilots. You won’t escape it. Sitting reserve in the middle of the night versus the day is huge.
Long haul flying starts to wear on you HARD after about 50. HARD!
Commuting to cargo is a nightmare as they usually park on oppsite sides of the airports. This adds a lot to stress. Uber late at night, good luck!
Pass travel is SOOOOO much better at a pax carrier as is jumpseating. Buddy passes etc.
You’ll tire of vending machine food!
More bases as well at UAL and this means better jumpseat and pass travel.
Volatile you say at pax carriers??? Fred will possibly replace his pilots with drones as soon as he can. Our lifetime, prob not but Fred and his pilots have had a hard relationship as well.
Having done both, I would stear you to UAL. It’d be just better overall and longterm, at least for your health.

Best of luck. Either way You’ve won a golden ticket and a lifetime supply of chocolate, it’s just how long that lifetime will be.
Say HI to Willy.
This just shows you don't fly for FedEx.
opt0712 is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
gzsg
Delta
30
10-28-2015 08:42 AM
av8tordude
Allegiant
4058
09-19-2015 08:30 PM
nightrider
Cargo
39
03-28-2009 06:26 AM
Freighter Captain
Cargo
3
05-16-2005 06:00 PM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Thread Tools
Search this Thread
Your Privacy Choices