Living in Europe
 

FedEx has the CGN base but I have heard that UPS guys are doing something similar on their own accord. How do you guys make it work? Bid trips with a eu deadhead on either end?

I don’t think we have anyone truly living there, ie., as residents of Germany or another EU country. We have a couple of guys who “visit family” and spend a ton of time over there but maintain US residence. The FedEx guys have a special deal with the German govt and can only do 5 years. Ask on their threads for more details.

If you are going to spend significant time in Europe and commute from there you basically want to bid the Z and have good seniority on it. Lots of DH’s and CML dh’s back and forth over the pond and weekend layovers in CGN. The Z does a lot of 2 week trips that essentially do night hub turns out of CGN with day layovers in about 10 different EU cities; CGN layovers over the weekend. The whale and the MD also flow through CGN but not nearly as much as the 76Z.

If you’re on another fleet then you will be commuting. With the MD withdrawal from intl flying, more and more flights to and from SDF / CGN are on the Z - unfortunately you will find problems JS’ing on that unless they have the pod sleeper. Otherwise, on the MD and whale there are a lot of DH’s going back and forth which it makes it more difficult. You can also go on a 2
legger thru PHL (MD) or try JS’ing on the pax carriers.

Totally doable with seniority and some smart bidding.

I’ve taken the Swedish guy back and forth several times. He/his wife and kids all live in Sweden. I’ve also taken the Greek guy back once. He lives in Athens. I think both of them are naturalized American citizens who just moved back to Europe. I’ve never asked personal questions about their status though.

You could physically live there, problem is going to be if you ever come up on their radar for any reason, you’ll have some explaining to do. Outside of work (flying trips there), American citizens are only allowed 90 consecutive days in an EU country. I believe you would have to maintain an American address somehow for employment purposes and tax filing, but I could be wrong.

Without being able to hold a line that had DHs on the front or back of the trips... that commute would get old, QUICK!


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I know of 2 living in Ireland.

As I said, they don’t live (reside) there, they reside in the US but visit frequently....

There was a guy that recently did a year abroad in Spain with his family, he commuted back to SDF when he couldn’t get trips with DH’s. Not bad at all from what he said but he also had decent seniority.

I read a thread on the B&G about direct deposit stuff - guys in the Philippines were complaining that UPS doesn’t direct deposit into a non US banking account. I think there were using HSBC...? I doubt UPS would accept a foreign address either but if they did then you’d be liable for taxes over there.

Overall, it’s a whole big can of worms and sure to be a pain at times but doable if you want to adventure yourself. FedEx might be an easier option...

One is definitly a swede living full time in Sweden, and one that I know is an Irishman living in Dublin with wife and kids. We had an American with an English wife living there for a while until he retired. He's probably still there.

The guy in Sweden and the 2 in Ireland do live there full time. I’ve flown with all three of them.

We also have a guy that commutes from South Africa, another that was in Singapore for a while. The Philippine crowd. From a tax perspective they are all US based residents. What they do and where they go on their days off is their business. Capisce?

Had a guy that commuted from south Africa. Medical, probably won't be back.

Capisco;)

Thanks guys!

Agreed. But, the OP wasn’t asking about tax implications, he was asking about commuting and these folks are living in and commuting from Ireland, Sweden, etc..
I don’t think he cares where they live “on paper”.

If he wants to do the same he will, less he increase his tax percentage by 20-30%.

If anyone is thinking of living in Europe (or internationally in general) and especially if you have multi-nationalities, consider the following:

If you live in Europe as a European citizen (read: reside/qualify for a “tax home” status over there), you will be subject to Euro income taxes, healthcare obligations, and a whole slew of other gotchas. Further, not being a US resident while working in the US for a US company complicates a lot of things like our pension, DC and 401K plans, insurance benefits etc; eg., the tax shelter of these plans doesn’t necessarily exist in the eyes of a foreign tax authority; its all dépendant on the tax treaty between countries and note that those treaties are usually only at a federal level and not necessarily with lower levels of govts (think of an EU equivalent of a state level govt / income tax). Also, few if any US bank accounts or credit cards etc., will allow active participation to non US residents; foreign resident investments in US brokerages gets really complicated really quickly. Last, UPS will only direct deposit to a US bank and will apparently only accept a US address in their HR system (I’m not clear on the exact details of this). Depositing a US payroll check into a foreign account also gets interesting especially with currency conversion hits and fees (and how would one even get that check when UPS sends it to US address on file?). Even moving to Europe and paying their taxes as a resident is really messy and ends up wasting a good chunk of money. Eg, you pay for health care over there but still required to hold the one through UPS = double paying. I’m pretty confident these guys are living in the states and just visiting their family and hometowns on a frequency that our profession and travel benefits allow. If they don’t have EU passports then this is all a moot point as they would have no rights to residency over there.

Sorry OP, I just assumed you had EU citizenship. If you don’t hold a EU passport the only easy and practical option is to enter Germany on a visitor visa. There might be options for up to 6 months or longer at a time and all you’d have to do is exit and re-Enter at the end of it. Same for the family if applicable. That part is easy. Things will start to get problematic when you try to open bank accounts, rent a place (security deposits/monthly payments), setting up utilities, cell phone bills, kids schools, buying a car and registering it/ ins, etc. Based on the limited research I’ve done, I think the simplest way is to buy property over there as a vacation home. It helps with a bunch of the issues above and may give you rights to longer stays (but beware of non-citizen residency issues). Expat forums and expat retirement forums, country specific, have lots of good info and highlight things you may not think of. Otherwise, perhaps you could try for some sort of work visa or even one through your spouse?? Any extended family living over there? You could go through them for solutions to a lot of these issues.

If you are already over there and have established a little seniority built up, your best bet for trips by far would be on the Z. There aren’t that many Z trips with DH/CML to and from Europe (which obviously goes senior) but lots of intra Europe flying with weekends off in CGN and lots of CGN stuff in general. I haven’t kept close tabs on it but the whale is flying through CGN more and more taking over the old MD stuff but then you have the ANC commute to factor in. The MD probably won’t be much of a CGN player by the time you get here. If you can’t hold any of the above you could bid a domestic fleet and just commute. Not too terrible if you live close to CGN. It’s really a question of seniority at the end of the day.

Per previous post, you can drop UPS health bennies if you can prove you are otherwise covered.

Hey FDX guy here - what are your layover cities in the E.U.? See a lot of overlap on our destinations over there

Cdg
Hel
Arn
Ema
Stn
Vie
Bud
Cia
Mad
Vlc
Osl
Off the top of my head