The one time charge was planned and does not make the quarter a loss. Profit sharing will be paid on the $217M ish adjusted pre-tax profit that was booked. Also $1.2B in debt paid down with $1.9B in free cash flow. 2Q will be excellent and this year has the chance to match 2019's record profits and profit sharing.

 

Happy to hear that you guys are able to use your profit sharing calculator to cut through the accounting chicanery. However, probably the most explicit difference between pax hauling and box hauling is playing out over at FedEx right now. Even though they booked solid profits (by pax standards) last quarter they have paused hiring, are executing a corporate restructuring, and pilots are talking about bailing for greener pastures as management drags out contract negotiations. The freight business model consistently makes money, but regards shrinking profits the same way the pax haulers regard bankruptcy. This moderates the boom/bust cycle but makes it harder to lock in contractual improvements.

 

All still easier than night sort flying.

Well, IMO

 

Can’t say which is worse as I have stayed clear from both most of my career, but totally agree I fear the sort as well. Both stink hands down no fun to be had.

 

Night sort flying getting in Hotel bed by say 6:30am is not bad at all. You end up working 10-11 days a month, most if not all weekends off, fairly easy. It becomes harder when you start playing with the circadian issue, or start arriving Hotel at 8-9am, that is simply brutal.

But agree not for everyone.

 

Yep, 1 in and 1 outs (of the sort each night) with a 2-3hr sleep and commercial tickets on both ends of the pairing aren’t bad & easy AF. Delays wiping out the sleep opportunity and putting you into the hotel super late (past 8am) and reschedules to multiple legs are the gotchas. Biggest issue is that there are no ways to catch-up if you get a bad day of sleep.

I’m one of the ‘not for everyone,’ crowd. I hate these -> just can’t sleep more than 4-5 hrs once I get to the hotel. So, I take an early evening nap for 2hrs at best, then an hour or 2 at the sort if lucky (plenty of times I’ve laid there tired AF yet wide awake…🤷‍♂️). But by the end of the week I’m pretty wiped out. My days off are then consumed by catching up and getting back into some sort of sleep routine, finally feeling rested a couple of days before I have to go back to work. Result = chronically tired with no relief.

I’ve flown ones that start and end mid week so you get the weekend off (on a long layover). They were excellent for rest/fatigue mitigation but you lose the commercial tickets. I don’t think these are common on any fleet unfortunately.

Also note, night sort flying is commuter friendly so the lines don’t go junior.

Id take the day pax flying without a second thought. Would hate it but better than being a walking zombie flying night sort.

 

From July class thread…

UPS is similar to other outfits but has a lot of idiosyncrasies. UPS is the opposite of the “We are family,” thing a delta. We are already a unionized company so there’s no care-bear hugs and puppy dog kisses going on to keep union drives at bay. Breaking the unions is their mission.

Decentralization org structure causes frustration:

UPS employees are essentially individuals in our own fiefdoms. Y’all want to know why hiring here is so disorganized? It’s because Louisville HR, Atlanta HR, and management pilots are all involved in the process…not in 1 big cohesive team working together, but 3 different teams with three different agendas working almost against each other. It’s like that all over the company, very little is top down, it’s all decentralized. Even the pilot training group is sequestered between mgmt and non mgmt, sim and oe guys, different fleets, none of them much in sync with the others. Often leads to dysfunction, frustration for the end users and a big portion of perceived “toxicity,” here stems from this. eg. Mgmt asst. chief pilot approves an expenditure for a line pilot. Line pilot submits reimbursement to admin. Admin denies reimbursement as ACP not authorized to, “authorize.” Union gets involved, grievance process gets line pilot his reimbursement (if he/she had recording of orig conversation with ACP). New hires take note: screenshot everything -you must become your own quasi paralegal working here. No ones fault, no one targeting another, everyone is just doing their job according to their house rules. System is flawed.

Active Union Busting:
I don’t want to air dirty laundry but If you’re new at UPS, logon to the B&G and read post 1 from “for the new guys,” thread. Union busting activity is ultimately implemented through the management pilots and admin people. Important to note that it’s not personal, has nothing to do with you specifically. You happen to be the pawn on that square at that time. Old school UPS it was constant. Over time the company has softened up (or they became more cautious, less brazen…?). Now that we are officially in contract negotiations, things have started to ramp up again. The next couple of years are sure to be unpleasant in hopes to break you and so that you place blame on your union and EB/NC. Things will ease up again after the contract is signed.

Bleeding Brown:
Another aspect of toxicity is the UPSer factor. With few exceptions UPS is a, “promote from within,”company. (With no exceptions, they are frugal from head to toe - Our current CEO flies on Delta vs private jets). Everyone with a decent job at Brown started out in entry level positions and paid their dues towards earning good jobs and good pay/benefits. Pilots didn’t. We walked right in and went straight to the top. Think of the psyche of people who put in 15, 20 years at a company seeing new hires (relative) making 2,3, 4 times as much as they’ll ever will. Remember, UPS is a promote from within culture, good jobs/high pay here are a reward for hard work and loyal. Pilots bypass that cultural nuance and there is real resentment to us by some for it. That’s also why I think 1st year pay is low: not because its what “UPS thinks we are worth,” but because they feel we need to pay our dues, make some sacrifice like everyone in Brown else did. JMHO…. Anyway, this resentment can translate into some of the toxicity felt working here.

The IPA
In stark contrast, there is a, “We are family,” atmosphere within the IPA. Maybe more like a fellowship in reality, but we are a cohesive team and we do look out for and help each other out. It’s a small group of 3K or so vs 15K at the legacies and that helps us. I feel way more like an IPA pilot who is subcontracted to UPS vs as an actual UPS employee. The union doesn’t sell this, it’s just the organic dynamic that exists within the group.

Sorry for the long winded reply. You have all the facts you need about the job at UPS available to you but getting a feeling for how it is once you’re inside is another feat altogether. Hope these types of posts help you in evaluating a career at the IPA and UPS. Best of luck to you all.

 

Great post. Good summation of how things work around here for those considering it. Only thing I’d add & it’s been discussed before but worth repeating: The management pilot situation here is unlike anywhere else. They are completely separate from the line and can never come “back” to line flying. As such, their careers are completely hinged on toeing the company line. They will not provide any kind of “top cover” or protect pilots from bad corporate decision making. A successful career as a line pilot here means you’ll likely be making some tough calls from time to time.

 

IOW, no life. I can do that here and then some if I took no vacation, no sick, and worked my rear off. Easily. Here $250k year 3-4 by working your schedule, taking your normal vacation, is fairly easy.

 

You do realize that was a 2.5 year old pre-contract post? And I guess 117 days worked in 2023 is no life…