Not only adr/dr but also contact your senator and congressional rep. Shine a light on these people.
Management failing to provide vehicles for GOV routes
- Thread starter PollenFarm
- Start date
Not only adr/dr but also contact your senator and congressional rep. Shine a light on these people.
Shannonboy
Well-known member
Not in my old office. Two carriers tried to refuse, and both got walked off the floor, and put on EP for refusing a direct order. ....so think what you want...
The union put em back to work, and they got compensation, but you do what you think is best. Some po mgmt are REAL
A-HOLES....some you might get Oiveh type nice po mgmt where you can refuse and not have consequences, some, like my old office....you cant unless you want to go through a big hassle....but it's your office, you know what's best. We all got opinions here, and real life experiences, so choose what you think is best for you.
Dominator
Well-known member
I'll return the volley on the unlawful nature of ordering an employee on a route assigned government vehicle to drive a POV, on the clock, during a faux emergency, without commercial insurance.
Good one !!! I didn't even think about that aspect of it.I'll return the volley on the unlawful nature of ordering an employee on a route assigned government vehicle to drive a POV, on the clock, during a faux emergency, without commercial insurance.
Shannonboy
Well-known member
Yeah..... I bet they'd balk at ordering you out with knowing that they would be liable if you wrecked...
i do not have nice management.
i just don't let them push me around.
kinda like this.
I was able to keep my Wranglers on regular insurance. My argument was that I used it for personal use as well. He decided since it wasn't out of a fleet, we could keep regular insurance.I'll return the volley on the unlawful nature of ordering an employee on a route assigned government vehicle to drive a POV, on the clock, during a faux emergency, without commercial insurance.
Might be different if it was work only, I don't know.
Shannonboy
Well-known member
Maybe you oughta bring em some donuts, and sweeten them up....
Or....even better, just tell em that working for them is like "Herding cats"stillfirstclass
Well-known member
THIS
I had state farm since I started driving at 16. I made regular at work, bought a Jeep Wrangler RHD and they said I needed commercial insurance on it. 2 years later they said I don't need commercial and took me off it. Lost 2 years worth of paying commercial rates for nothing.
Dominator
Well-known member
Results may vary (as it may be a policy-specific clause), but I personally know an employee that did management a "favor" by running express mail in their POV, then was hit on the road in a no-fault collision. The PO and the employee's insurance told them, "sorry about your luck".
If your insurance rep is telling you you're covered, I hope that they give you that in writing (if you hadn't already). When it comes time to pay out, insurance company's arms often become too short to find their pockets.
Deer Smearer
Well-known member
They said you needed it…
They said you didn’t…
File a claim and see what they say then.
Insurance companies will gladly take your money then deny coverage.
Yea the second you have to do any maintenance outside of the basics (fuel, fluids, tires, alignment, oil, etc) + insurance, EMA really doesn't go far enough. Even when you do the work yourself. I'm pretty tired of older folks talking down to POV drivers as if they all have a war chest stored up. The fact of the matter is EMA does not cover keeping your vehicle in prime shape and the only way you end up with a "war chest" is if you ignore basic maintenance and literally drive the thing to death. It's such a wasteful mindset and honestly really rubs me the wrong way.
I mean look at the LLVs. USPS' similar mindset towards the older vehicles is a result of the awful state our fleet is in. We're at the point to where offices are relying on subs to cover the gap while they roll out a fleet of vehicles that break down in less than a year. What is management's purpose other than to waste money?
It's even more infuriating when I hear old heads talk down to me as if I should be able to just drop cash on a replacement vehicle, plus more to convert it any time I have an issue. All while I was on a pitiful sub salary and now making a reduced wage on table 2 and now inflation and parts availability has made the cost of everything double or more in many instances. Make it make sense.
apologies for sorta hijacking the thread to ask this but it's been a curiosity
can management take a metris away from a route and put an LLV on?
while i assume the answer is yes, could you grieve it? I'm genuinely too big for the LLVs (6'7'' and it practically kills me to have to deal with the lack of legroom all day, foot hurts and goes numb almost every time on top of banging the hell out of my knee getting in often times + back issues with the setup) so i don't really know how i'd handle it. I've had some manner of ache or injury a good 75% or so of the time having to use one when the metris is down for maintenance
i'd imagine it'd be a frustrating process to grieve but i did see some documentation stating that 6'2'' is the max limit for what they are designed for. I'm one of the rare carriers that barely ever had to drive an LLV even as an RCA
can management take a metris away from a route and put an LLV on?
while i assume the answer is yes, could you grieve it? I'm genuinely too big for the LLVs (6'7'' and it practically kills me to have to deal with the lack of legroom all day, foot hurts and goes numb almost every time on top of banging the hell out of my knee getting in often times + back issues with the setup) so i don't really know how i'd handle it. I've had some manner of ache or injury a good 75% or so of the time having to use one when the metris is down for maintenance
i'd imagine it'd be a frustrating process to grieve but i did see some documentation stating that 6'2'' is the max limit for what they are designed for. I'm one of the rare carriers that barely ever had to drive an LLV even as an RCA
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stillfirstclass
Well-known member
very well said... you can research on this site about ema in arbitration and people complaining... years ago you could come out ahead if you did the maintenance in your garage yourself. . . then about 15 20 years ago you had to do all the work yourself to come out even.... now, there are lots of reasons to want to drive your own wheels, but if you think you make money on ema, 1. bad at math 2. don't understand depreciation 3. grandpa or your dad gave you the car 4. see # 1 5. you plan on quitting when your ride kicks the bucket
You could try an Article 14 argument which in part, states ;
A. Safety Administration
The Employer and the Union insist on the observance of safe
rules and safe procedures by employees and insist on correc-
tion of unsafe conditions. Mechanization, vehicles and vehicle
equipment, and the work place must be maintained in a safe
and sanitary condition, including adequate occupational
health and environmental conditions. The Employer shall
make available at each installation forms to be used by
employees in reporting unsafe and unhealthful conditions. If an
employee believes he is being required to work under unsafe
conditions, he may: a) notify the supervisor who will
immediately investigate the condition and take corrective
action, if necessary; b) file a grievance if no corrective action is
taken during the tour; and/or c) make a written report to the
installation head.
unfortunately, I believe we are going to be faced with a decision to either drive our own vehicles, or drive llvs. They cant keep the metris running, no longer made. I called the District Rep, and he told me all usps has to do is provide me with a safe vehicle. Debate that as you may, but I suppose if it moves, stops, and has a seat belt, it qualifies.
The other factor is that when buying a used vehicle you are also at the whims of whatever the previous owners (PO) neglected or whatever issues they had being fixed poorly. And sometimes it's stuff you'd never be able to tell until you open something up and are met with a nice surprise.
Example: My 96 jeep xj. The PO had a shop replace one of the rear axle/wheel bearings. My rear dif has a friction based locking mechanism that makes it so when one wheel spins too much it engages a set of clutch packs inside the differential carrier and locks it so both wheels spin in unison to create extra friction on the ground. When these clutches wear out you start to hear a kind of chirping sound, so naturally as they were wore out I decided to open up the differential and replace them....
When they reassembled the differential after replacing that wheel bearing, they failed to put any preload on the carrier. When the carrier doesn't have sufficient preload this can cause all kinds of problems because it can create excessive extra play between all the gears inside which can cause catastrophic gear failure. Even though the thing was a mess inside I was very fortunate the ring gear and pinion were still resuable. Spider gears were missing teeth and it was full of glitter and metal chunks. I had to overnight a set of new spider gears and replace the carrier bearings and redo the pinion bearings and crush sleeve. Here Is what the inner pinion bearing and race looked like and there is a picture of a chunk of one of the spider gear teeth and bits that were trapped between the bearing and race.
With tools and parts needed to do the job I think I came out around $1k and it took me about 3-4 ten hour days to fix as I've never done it before. If I had a shop do it the price would have been so high that the only reasonable solution would have been to replace the entire axle with a junkyard one.
So I guess this really isn't the unskilled job everyone seems to think it is considering everything I've had to learn to stay employed...
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stillfirstclass
Well-known member
same, different issues... i ended up being the go to person for cherokee's and honda crv's , if ema paid me just time for looking for parts, driving to go get them, take apart rebuild, those years i thought i came out even or ahead?; on ema? i lost more than i thought, could have spent my evenings fishing or working for someone else just saying i am glad you can work on your stuff
Shannonboy
Well-known member
My axle broke....went and got a salvage one for $150.00 bucks, talked to my neighbor mechanic friend, and paid him $150.00 to swap em....that's how I stayed employed.
