Pulled Off Your Bid Job for the Day? Your UPS Teamster Rights

Getting yanked off the route or inside job you bid and won is one of the most common frustrations UPS Teamsters deal with — especially during heavy days and peak season. The good news is that your supplement and rider usually give you real rights when this happens. The catch is that the exact rules depend heavily on which supplement and rider cover your building, so check yours before you file.

This article walks through the most common situations, what your contract excerpts say, and where the contract is silent so you know what's a contract fact versus general background.

First: "Pulled for the day" vs. a permanent change

Your rights are very different depending on whether the change is temporary (just today/this week) or permanent. Most members who say "I got pulled off my bid" are describing a temporary, one-day change, but contracts treat these separately, so it's worth knowing the line.

• Temporary = your bid area or job is changed for a day or a short stretch.
• Permanent = your bid is being reshuffled long-term (a route gets carved up, your start time moves for good, etc.).

Generally speaking, your bid is yours — management can make day-to-day adjustments to cover the operation, but they can't simply erase your bid because they feel like it. Several excerpts state plainly that "day-to-day adjustments may be made" while still protecting your bid ^[3][7].

Temporary changes to your delivery area (the 50% rule)

The most powerful day-of right in many supplements kicks in when a big chunk of your area is changed. The general standard across UPS supplements is the 50% rule.

In the Western Region, when a driver's bid delivery area is temporarily changed on a given day by fifty percent (50%) or more of its delivery stops, that driver has the right to:

1. Follow the major portion of the delivery stops, if seniority allows;
2. Work as an unassigned driver with seniority rights recognized; or
3. Take the day off if staffing allows ^[1].

So if you're in a Western Region building and they gut your route for the day, you generally get to choose between chasing your stops, working unassigned, or going home — staffing permitting ^[1].

The Local 705 language is similar for temporary changes: when a bid area is changed by 50% or more, the employee has the right to follow the portion in excess of fifty percent (50%) of the delivery stops, and if the temporary change involves more than a two-way split, the driver is assigned by seniority ^[3].

If your area is permanently changed by 50% or more (or there's a permanent start-time change of more than one hour), Local 705 lets you follow whichever portion you want or let the job go back through bidding and work as directed; ties go to seniority ^[3]. The Western Region has parallel permanent-change language: when your assigned area is permanently changed by 50% or more of its stops, you have the right to follow the major portion, and when more than one driver is affected, the affected drivers bid the areas among themselves by seniority ^[7].

Bottom line: the 50% trigger is your friend. If less than half your stops change, the contract excerpts here generally treat that as a normal daily adjustment rather than something that triggers follow-the-work options ^[1][3][7].

Penalty pay when you're bounced off your route

A big question is whether you get paid extra for being pulled. This is very supplement-specific.

The Local 705 Agreement is one of the clearest examples: if a package car driver is removed from their bid route to cover another route, they are entitled to a two (2) hour penalty payment at their straight-time rate of pay ^[3]. If you're under 705 and they pull you to run someone else's route, that penalty should apply.

Not every excerpt here contains a route-removal penalty, so don't assume it exists in your building just because 705 has it. Check your own supplement/rider, and ask your steward whether your area has a local practice or a penalty payment for being pulled off bid.

Your start time getting changed

If management is changing your start time, that's a separate trigger in several agreements:

• In the Local 688 Rider, if your starting time is changed by more than one (1) hour either way, you can stay on the job and accept the new start time, or within five (5) days exercise the bid/displacement procedure in that Article. A change of starting time of an entire hub or center is not subject to bid ^[2].
• In the Western Region feeder language, if a bid feeder schedule's start time is permanently changed by one (1) hour or more (or the paid day changes by more than two hours), the affected driver can bump less senior drivers, and that bumping continues for ten more bumps ^[5].
• The Kentucky Rider says changing start times of feeder and package driver jobs by one (1) hour or more in either direction is the basis for rebidding those jobs ^[9].

A one-hour change in either direction is the common dividing line. A small, temporary shift in your reporting time usually won't trigger these rights, but a permanent, significant move can ^[2][5][9].

"Guaranteed time" / guaranteed hours

A point that comes up constantly online: if you're worked outside your bid, you should still get your guaranteed hours. As one driver forum puts it, if management needs you to work outside of your bid, they have to allow you to work your bid hours — your "guaranteed time" ^[10]. Treat that as general background from the web, not a quote from your specific contract ^[10]. Generally speaking, full-time UPS bids carry an 8-hour daily guarantee, but the exact guarantee and how it's applied lives in your supplement and the National Master — confirm the number with your steward.

When the work just isn't there

Your bid isn't a guarantee that your exact route runs every single day. Multiple excerpts make clear that when bid work isn't available — or when areas are consolidated, discontinued, or temporarily suspended — employees perform available work as assigned ^[2]. Local 705 likewise notes day-to-day adjustments may be made even while your bid is protected ^[3], and the Kentucky Rider stresses filling vacancies with "minimal interruption" to operations ^[8].

So being told to do other work on a slow day isn't automatically a violation. The violations tend to show up when:

• A trigger (like the 50% rule or a 1-hour start change) is hit and you're not offered your contractual options ^[1][2][3]; or
• A penalty payment that applies in your building (like the 705 two-hour penalty) isn't paid ^[3].

What about a permanently eliminated bid?

If your bid job is permanently eliminated (not just changed for a day), some riders spell out a displacement chain. For example, the Local 100 Full-Time Seniority Application Rider gives an employee whose bid job is permanently eliminated the option to take the place of the least senior bid employee in the same classification, take the place of the least senior bid package driver, or work from the "On Call" list — with a cascade for the employees they displace ^[4]. The Kentucky Rider has a similar "displaced employee" chain: original move plus three more moves, then displace the most junior person in your pay class or below ^[9].

That's a different situation from being pulled for one day, but it's worth knowing the line if management starts talking about getting rid of your bid for good.

A quick word on "wrongful" treatment and discipline

Some members ask whether being pulled off a bid is "illegal." Generally speaking, most U.S. employment is "at will," but unionized jobs are a recognized exception — your contract, not at-will rules, governs ^[11]. That's exactly why the answer here is your supplement and the grievance procedure, not a general employment-law claim. If you think a bid right was violated, the remedy is a grievance, and disputes over trial/qualification and bid procedures are expressly grievable in the Western Region ^[6].

What to do next

1. Identify your supplement and rider. Your rights to follow the work, bump, or get penalty pay depend on which one covers your building ^[1][2][3][7].
2. Document the day. Note how many of your stops changed (over or under 50%?), any start-time change, and whether you were sent to cover someone else's route ^[1][3].
3. Ask for your options at the time. If a trigger is met, request to follow the major portion, work unassigned, or take the day off where that applies ^[1].
4. Talk to your steward right away — penalty pay and follow-the-work claims are time-sensitive, and your steward will know your local practice.
5. Ask TeamstersGPT with your specific supplement selected so the answer matches your building's exact language.