Brown doing it better than ever

Tony Caldero’s layers of brown were ready for the 10-degree chill outside as he rushed to sort the packages in his truck.

“At least we’re light today,” the 44-year-old said, glancing at the stuffed shelves. “Yesterday, I had two trucks (to deliver back to back).”

Rumbling out of the darkness of the trucking station on Ramsey Road, the vehicle was soon swerving into the constant stops on his Government Way route.

His method was mechanical. Gloved hands shot straight for packages listed on his handheld DIAD (Delivery Information Acquisition Device).

Fluidly, his arms stacked and hoisted. He darted into business after business: Gift shop, hardware store, custom truck mechanics.

Like a reflex, as soon as a signature was collected, he hustled back to his wheels.

Ninety seconds per stop is the standard.

After a decade on his route, Caldero knows it well.

“It’s not for everybody. It really wears on your body. A lot who retire have knee replacements, back problems,” said Caldero, looking back on 20 years working for UPS.

But it’s worth it, he said: Benefits, great pay, pension.

“You get invested in the company,” he said. “And there are not many other jobs out there that don’t require college education.”

So many blue collar jobs can be inconsistent, the opportunities for stout working folk escalating and dropping with market trends.

But the UPS truck driver stays strong.

The 103-year-old delivery company announced that earnings surged 44 percent in 2010 in its 4th quarter report this past week. The report expected 2011 to set an all-time high.

Little wonder the UPS driver is thriving as a lifelong career choice, with salary and benefits that trump even jobs requiring degrees. Individuals have left other venerable professions to reap the rewards.

“The vast majority of our drivers have college degrees,” said Dan McMackin, UPS spokesperson. “We have a reputation for pay, benefits, pension, stability. Our turnover in drivers is unbelievable. It’s under 3 percent. It’s like nonexistent.”

JUST HOW good a gig is it?

The average truck driver earns approximately $75,000 a year, McMackin said.

Other treats include: Two raises a year, pension and seniority-based vacation that can pile up to nine weeks after 25 years.

There are an additional five floating days drivers take off at their choice. Sick days accrue and come back to the driver in a check upon reaching 240 hours.

Drivers from the Ramsey station earn between $60,000 and $80,000, said Caldero, who brought in $82,000 last year by piling on overtime.

Starting drivers earn about $24 an hour, he said, and after 5 years reach the full-scale $30 an hour.

Overtime, common every day, pays time and a half, he added.

“You get great health benefits, and you don’t have to pay any extra into it,” he said.

Not bad.

Quality compensation is possible because of steep demand in the delivery industry, McMackin said, thanks to the popularity of online shopping.

UPS handles most of those deliveries, he added.

“With the advent of online ordering and shipping, we only see volume possibilities going up,” he said.

Especially since there’s no replacing a delivery man, regardless of how technology advances.

“There’s no such thing as a virtual package,” he said. “The last mile is a human being.”

UPS IS at the top, McMackin said, because it’s polished its game.

Training is intense for delivery workers, with driving fine tuned to how quickly drivers start their engines and the speed of delivery stops.

“(Job) stability comes from innovation, offerings we give our customers to improve the shipping experience,” McMackin said, pointing to how customers can track packages online.

Employees enjoy another source of stability.

Drivers are represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, or the Teamsters Union, which negotiates compensation packages every 5 to 7 years.

That’s an important security for employees, said Alivia Body, regional economist with the Department of Labor.

“That’s the big difference. If they’re union, they have to guarantee all the same rates in the country and are not (restricted) to Idaho wages,” she said.

Many blue collar jobs in North Idaho offer comparable compensation, she said — lumber and mining work, for instance, though those are dependent on the price of timber and metal.

“It’s a compiling of factors. Not only are they union workers, which tend to make more, but it’s also the hazards of work, as well, as far as being more susceptible of getting injured on the job,” Body said.

Steve Griffitts, with Jobs Plus economic development corporation, said UPS can afford such impressive benefits because of its outstanding profits.

“Based on my experience, they treat their employees with respect, and they expect excellence from their employees,” Griffitts said. “Their total compensation seems to indicate the expertise and trust that these (delivery) companies have in their people.”

MOST UPS truck drivers are there for life.

McMackin, a Wisconsin native, started loading trucks when he was 17 to fund his college education, he said.

But after earning degrees in English and business, driving trucks for UPS was the best deal he could find.

“Most starting salaries then were about $17,500. I was making $45,000 a year as a driver,” he said, adding that he chose later to move up to a corporate position.

Caldero’s arc was similar.

After leaving the Army, his criminal justice studies at North Idaho College only lasted a few years, eventually defeated by the allure of going full-time with his UPS job.

“As I driver I wouldn’t have to work nights or weekends,” the Hayden Lake man said, adding that he had started a family at that point. “And this job paid more, better benefits.”

ON TUESDAY, Caldero rolled a cart of packages into the back of Deming Industries, Inc.

“’Bout time you showed up,” greeted company co-owner Jeff Deming with a grin.

After 10 years of meeting over packages, their small talk comes easy.

Like so many others on Caldero’s route, Deming knows the names of Caldero’s two children, and asks about the status of 20-year-old Brad, who is stationed in Afghanistan.

He has even attended fundraisers with Caldero for soldiers overseas.

“We’re trying to take care of the guys who take care of us,” Deming said. “He does a really good job. The higher-ups don’t see the volumes that come in.”

The customers are the best part of the job, Caldero said.

They even make up for waking up with a sore back, he said.

There are other downfalls, Caldero admitted. Like the overtime, with some days stretching 10 and a half hours.

“It’s a lot of hours I’ve missed with my kids,” he said. “But you have to provide for your family.”

There’s facing the elements, too. A biting wind cut through the truck’s open door on Tuesday, which Caldero shrugged off with a casual, “used to it.”

And deadlines hover like a harping back-seat driver, with so many packages committed to early deliveries.

That’s why after each stop, Caldero skips up the truck stairs into his seat and speeds down the road — below the speed limit, of course.

“From time to time, management will follow you without you knowing, just to make sure you’re working safe,” he said, adding that termination is in store for a UPS driver who causes an accident. “It is a lot of pressure.”

DRIVERS ARE hired from UPS part-time workers, Caldero said.

Folks could be waiting five to 10 years for that promotion, he warned, and suggested keeping a squeaky clean driving record.

“No DUIs,” he said.

It’s a hard job, he’ll say again and again.

But at every delivery, he passes off the bounty with a grin.

Job stability really comes down to good work, he said.

“UPS is a service company,” he said. “If you don’t provide good service, you don’t have people returning.”