Full-Time Package Car Driver at UPS: Bidding, Pay & Schedules

The full-time package car driver — the person in the familiar brown truck delivering packages on a set route — is one of the core Teamster jobs at UPS. Generally speaking, these drivers start their day at a UPS building, load or receive a preloaded package car, and run a pre-determined route delivering (and often picking up) packages ^[11]. This article walks through how members get into these jobs, what the schedule looks like, how cover/utility drivers protect the classification, and how pay and overtime work — always separating what your contract says from general background.

Keep in mind: the exact rules depend on your supplement, rider, or addendum. The examples below come from several different UPS agreements (Western Region, Southwest Rider, Kentucky Rider, Local 705). Confirm the details for your area with your steward.

How you become a full-time package car driver

There are two common paths into full-time driving: bidding as an existing full-timer, or moving up from part-time.

Part-time to full-time. Under the Western Region supplement, a part-time employee who qualifies for full-time employment is placed on the appropriate full-time seniority list with a seniority date as of their first day of full-time employment, but keeps their old seniority for fringe-benefit purposes according to the applicable area/local addendum or rider ^[2]. Importantly, a part-timer attempting to qualify as a full-time package car driver shall not be automatically disqualified for a minor accident during the training period ^[2]. If an employee disqualifies themselves, that supplement says they cannot put their name back on the same full-time list sooner than 24 months after the date they last disqualified themselves ^[2].

Bidding vacated or new routes. In the Western Region, a package car area that is permanently vacated or newly established (except areas established during December) must be posted within five days, for five working days, during which drivers can bid the area. The posted vacancy or new area must include geographical descriptions such as area boundaries and loop designations ^[9].

Combination and hybrid paths. Some riders create additional avenues. In the Southwest Rider, newly established or permanently vacated full-time combination jobs are posted within five days for five working days and offered by seniority — first to existing full-time combination employees, then to package car drivers with at least 15 years of company seniority who signed up for the list, and then to employees on the part-time-to-full-time list in company seniority order ^[1]. A package car driver who accepts a combination job is paid at the top rate of that combination classification, and once in, can only bid other full-time combination jobs ^[1]. The successful qualified bidder is awarded the job the Monday after the five-day posting period closes ^[1].

Training areas

To help new drivers, the Western Region supplement requires the Company to designate certain areas in each center as training areas ^[2]. Once designated, those areas can't be changed until discussed with the Local, and they remain subject to job bidding ^[2]. The number of training areas scales with center size — for example, 1 training area for 1–15 package car drivers, up to 5 training areas for centers with 61+ drivers ^[2]. Employees who bid a training area are removed from it in inverse seniority order within the center when it's needed for training, unless waived by mutual written agreement ^[2]. The parties also intend that part-timers who accept full-time package positions stay on a given training area for the duration of training ^[2].

Your work schedule

Under the Western Region supplement, a package car driver's regular scheduled workday is eight consecutive hours with an established start time, excluding an unpaid meal period of a half hour or one hour as set by the area/local addendum or rider ^[7]. The regular work week is five consecutive eight-hour days, Monday–Friday or Tuesday–Saturday ^[7].

A few key schedule protections in that supplement:

• No employee with a seniority date before August 1, 2019 can be forced onto a Tuesday–Saturday work week unless mutually agreed or unless the employee bid it ^[7].
• Start times must be posted the prior Friday for the coming week ^[7].
• If you're ordered to report earlier than your scheduled start, you get time-and-a-half for all hours worked before your regular start ^[7].
• If you're ordered to report later, you get time-and-a-half for the number of hours equal to how late you were called in ^[7].

Cover / utility drivers protect the classification

A big part of full-time driver protection is limiting how UPS uses cover (utility) drivers so it doesn't avoid creating permanent full-time jobs. The Southwest Rider language is a strong example.

Under that rider, cover drivers may be used as temporary replacements only — not to supplement the workforce or to avoid hiring full-time package car drivers ^[3]. Some of its triggers that force UPS to add permanent full-time jobs:

• Effective January 1, 2019, for each 156 cover driver reports an individual works during the calendar year, the Employer adds one Regular Package Car Driver (RPCD) in that center, awarded to the senior individual(s) ^[3].
• If a cover driver continually works less than the guarantee, or is used improperly and works a total of 30 days out of a 90-day period (excluding Oct/Nov/Dec), the Company must add a permanent full-time job ^[3].
• Cover drivers covering a specific absent person for more than one year create another full-time opening in that classification ^[3].

Cover drivers also can't work if there are full-time package car drivers on layoff in that Local's jurisdiction ^[3]. If used outside these parameters, cover drivers are guaranteed eight hours' pay at the package driver's top rate ^[3][8]. Those doing planned weekly coverage get five consecutive eight-hour days (40 hours) ^[8], and generally no cover driver works less than eight hours in that classification ^[8]. Any alleged violation is subject to the grievance procedure ^[3].

Pay and premiums

Wage rates are set in your local rider/addendum. For example, the Kentucky Rider lists a full-time Louisville package car driver rate rising from $44.34 (8/1/2023) to $49.09 (8/1/2027), with slightly different rates for drivers outside Louisville ^[4][5]. Your own supplement will have its own table — don't assume Kentucky's numbers apply to you.

The Southwest Rider also provides that employees operating a UPS on-road non-feeder vehicle requiring a Class B license, or towing a trailer, receive an extra 35 cents per hour for all hours worked ^[10]. And any employee who reports for work as directed is guaranteed full pay for their regular hours unless excused at their own request ^[10].

For general context, UPS publicly advertises full-time driving jobs with "excellent pay + great benefits," and full-time drivers often receive benefits and overtime pay ^[12][13]. Public job postings for non-CDL positions have shown starting figures in the roughly $19/hour range in some markets ^[13] — but those are recruiting numbers, not your contractual top rate, which is set in your supplement.

Overtime and the right to be relieved of overtime

Overtime rules also live in your supplement. Local 705, for example, has detailed language for a package car driver who wants to be relieved of overtime. That agreement requires a written request at least 24 hours in advance, processed by seniority; if UPS fails to adjust the dispatch to work that can reasonably be finished in eight hours, the driver gets a two-hour penalty at double time ^[6]. It also requires letting at least 10% of drivers off daily, caps requests at two per month, and blocks such requests from November 15 through the first two full weeks of January ^[6]. Drivers must notify management by 1:00 p.m. if they can't finish in eight hours, and no one may be threatened, harassed, or disciplined for exercising this right ^[6].

Local 705's Article 37 also protects drivers from technology-based discipline: no discipline for exceeding personal time based on DIAD/telematics/GPS data, no inward-facing cameras, and forward-facing camera footage can't be used for discipline ^[6].

Layoffs and bumping

When a center must reduce its workforce, seniority governs. Under the Kentucky Rider, the employee in that classification with the least company seniority is laid off first; a laid-off full-timer may exercise company seniority into the next lower classification in the center the following Monday if qualified ^[4]. Full-timers may also, in seniority order, elect to take part-time work for the duration of the layoff, with a minimum three-hour guarantee plus fringe benefits ^[4].

What to do next

Because so much of the full-time package car driver's rights — bidding order, pay rates, overtime relief, cover-driver limits — is set in your local supplement, rider, or addendum, the single most useful step is to confirm the exact language that covers your building. Talk to your shop steward or business agent, get a copy of your supplement, and if something looks off (like a cover driver being overused or a start-time change), file or ask about a grievance promptly. You can also ask TeamstersGPT with your specific supplement selected to get answers tailored to your area.