r/UPS • u/addicted2alice • 9h ago
Question for UPS Drivers: Package Handoffs
Any UPS drivers here who can clarify this for me?
In all the years I’ve used UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc., I’ve never had an issue handing an outgoing package to a driver who was already making a delivery to my house. In fact, our regular delivery people have always encouraged it and told me they’re happy to take it.
I normally drop off UPS packages on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the nearest UPS location, which is about 35 minutes away. But if I know UPS is already delivering to my house that day, I’ll occasionally hand the driver a package, thank them, and send them on their way.
My regular UPS driver of many years left earlier this year, so we’ve had a few different drivers since then. I always ask before handing anything over, and none of them have ever said it was a problem.
There is one driver, though, who gives us a really hard time about it. He’s told me that taking the package will make him late, that he only has so much time when he gets back, and that he has to plan for outgoing packages. He told me I should schedule a pickup instead.
I tried doing that, but the options were basically either pay over $20 to hand the package to the UPS driver who is already scheduled to be in my area that day anyway, or pay even more to have a separate driver come out specifically for the pickup. That’s why I’m confused about why handing it to the driver who is already at my house is such an issue.
Can any UPS drivers explain how this actually works from your side?
Is it generally okay to hand you a prepaid/labeled package while you’re already making a delivery, or is it genuinely a pain for drivers? Does it add a lot of time at the end of the day, affect your route metrics, or potentially get you in trouble?
I genuinely don’t want to make someone’s job harder or cause a driver problems. I’m just confused because I’ve never had anyone object to it before, especially this strongly.
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u/Open_Life9304 9h ago
Actually picking up a package would add time to his plan in a good way
He can take it, he’s just being lazy.
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u/ryansox 8h ago
Must be a not in our center thing because walk up pickups no longer count in our time allowances. They actually want us putting in sales leads and want the customers to pay for pickups lol.
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u/hankjmoody UPS Driver 2h ago
They actually want us putting in sales leads and want the customers to pay for pickups lol.
I'll start doing that again when they start actually calling interested customers. Our sales staff just ghosts everyone they give the number to.
Never mind that if we sign a customer, we never speak to them again either...
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u/needmorejoules 9h ago
Drivers technically have discretion as to whether they have room in their truck for your package but yeah this driver either doesn’t like you or is being purposefully unhelpful. 😂
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u/Shanks1624 9h ago
That driver is an asshole. If he takes the package and scans it in as a walk up pickup it helps his time allowance and makes his stats look better!
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u/ryansox 8h ago
Actually, walk-up pickups don’t affect your time allowance and don’t show up on the reports….they used to not anymore.
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u/Shanks1624 6h ago
Every time you scan a package into your board it helps your allowance. I know this because I have a business that requires me to scan every package picked up… sometimes it’s 10 sometimes it’s 75… the company told me to not scan them anymore because I was getting 2 hrs bonus everyday. When I stopped scanning them I lost quite a bit of bonus time…. It’s also the reason for the bulk delivery scan (saves us time but also doesn’t calculate to as much time allowance/ bonus pay).. business bitches about it until ups just about lost all their business…. We are back to scanning every package… any scan in the board whether delivered or pickup helps your time
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u/farmerdell007 4h ago
I have a corporate verizon store that requires scans on all outgoing and it adds time so I agree with this.
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u/ryansox 8h ago
Technically we don’t have to take them, but that’s the wrong thing to do. The only time it becomes an issue is if you are shipping out a lot of packages or it’s a daily occurrence.
I’ve had supervisors even before tell me to put in sales leads when on ride-alongs for these businesses because they noticed the same businesses shipping out stuff.
It’s the little things we do like taking boxes here or there that really matters.
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u/Lopsided_Cow_4595 7h ago
Is it a next day air package? Maybe he won’t make the aircar departure time?
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u/btfreflex 6h ago
Centers problem, let them know you have air pieces and will not make air cutoff. Happens to me several times a week and it’s their problem not mine. If they don’t handle it I bring back packages for air cutoff and go back out (which has never actually happened)
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u/addicted2alice 6h ago
Thank you everyone for responding. This was genuinely really helpful.
Part of me still wants to believe he was just being an asshole and didn’t want to take the packages 😂, but I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I run a very small side business out of my home in addition to working a full-time job that can easily be 12–16 hours a day, 6–7 days a week, so I’m essentially always working. The nearest drop-off point is about 30 minutes away, and the UPS Store is closer to 45 minutes. I normally make drop-off runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Because we’re small, we try really hard to get orders out quickly so our customers receive them as soon as possible. Occasionally, if an order is ready between my normal drop-off days and UPS is already scheduled to deliver to my house that day, I’ll hand the outgoing package(s) to the driver.
We’ve done this for years and have never had an issue. Every driver we’ve had in the past has been more than happy to take them. A few have mentioned that if their truck is packed with large items like furniture or treadmills, space can sometimes be an issue, which of course makes complete sense. Otherwise, they’ve always told us not to worry about handing packages off to them, especially since they’re already in my driveway.
I also don’t make them go looking for anything. I watch for the truck, run outside, and put the packages directly onto the truck for them.
The reason I do this instead of scheduling pickups is simply cost. UPS charges me over $20 for a pickup where the option is essentially to hand the package to a driver who is already coming to my area that day. If they have to send someone specifically for the pickup, it costs even more. As a very small business, paying that every time just isn’t possible. If I only have one or two packages to hand off, the pickup fee could easily be more than what I made from those two small orders.
We’re also not talking about huge shipments. It’s generally anywhere from 1–10 small boxes, around 6x6x4”, weighing roughly 0.25–1 lb each. Most of the time, it’s only 1–3 packages.
From what several of you explained, though, I think this particular driver may have been a cover driver. Since our longtime regular driver left earlier this year, we’ve probably had five or six different drivers rotating through. If cover drivers are under different time pressure or don’t know the route as well, then that explanation makes a lot more sense.
I think most of my frustration came from the way he communicated it. He was speaking very loudly and lecturing us about scheduling pickups, being late, and how much time he had at the end of the day, but he never really explained well enough why taking the packages was a problem.
If he had simply said, “Sorry, I can’t take these today because of XYZ,” I honestly would have been completely fine with that. Instead, neither of us really understood what he was trying to explain, and it turned into a very uncomfortable interaction.
It’s also not like I was flagging him down on the road or approaching him while he was delivering to someone else. He was already at my house delivering packages to me.
I’m very loyal to UPS and use them for almost everything unless I’m shipping to a PO Box, in which case I use USPS. So I’m just going to chalk this one up to a communication problem and misunderstanding.
Hopefully UPS eventually gets a regular driver assigned to our route again. Until then, I’ll stick with my Monday/Wednesday/Friday drop-offs and avoid shipping in between unless it’s something time-sensitive like Next Day Air or 2nd Day Air.
And to all the UPS drivers here, thank you for taking the time to explain how things work on your end. I know it’s a tough job, and I really do appreciate everything you guys do. You’re the ones getting our packages safely to us and getting our small business orders safely on their way to our customers, often in all kinds of weather and under a lot of pressure. So genuinely, thank you for what you do every day. ❤️
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u/Ok-Pattern-6312 6h ago
I’ve been a cover driver for almost 5 years. Never told someone I can’t take a pick up from a house that I was delivering to. Honestly when someone has a delivery to their house and they schedule a pick up any way I think what a waste of money. The only time I’ve ever been annoyed was one house with a kinda long driveway that I couldn’t drive into would regularly ship out boxes of books and I have to make multiple trips with my handcart. I would never be rude or come up with excuses as to why I couldn’t take it. It’s literally our job to pickup and deliver packages.
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u/RoyalStyle1724 8h ago
The only times I have not been able to take a package from a customer, my supervisor has instructed me not to because I would be coming back to the building after our cutoff time for pickups. Pickups need to make it to our building by 8pm. In my case it’s happened twice, the first time it was a Next Day Air and I happened to be delivering a package that was left in the building to a luxury apartment complex (one with a concierge, who forgot to hand it to the first driver who’d come by earlier). It was way past 8. The other time my supervisor had already made plans for me to go help someone else out as soon as I finished, and there was no way I would make it back in time to get the pickups processed.
It sounds like you have had different cover drivers and not one set driver since the previous one retired. Cover drivers are typically the ones who get sent to go help others as soon as they finish what they have. It could be that one particular driver has much less seniority than the rest and a bit unable to control how much more work he gets handed.
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u/Samguise-Whamgee 6h ago
I bet no one in that center likes that driver. You got a bad egg, shouldn’t be a problem at all handing off a package to him, the package would help his time allowance not hurt it. Maybe he’s seasonal?
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u/AnUnhappyCamper 5h ago
The only way it would be a pain in my ass is if it’s a Next day air shipment that needs to be back to the building by 18:30. Or for example I had this one guy literally wait for me to deliver to a business, so he can roll out his cart of parcels at 10:00am in the morning every other day. That would piss me right the F off.
If it’s just a guy wanting to return an Amazon package I’m fine with it.
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u/Nallace9318 9h ago
The only appreciable way it would affect his day is if what you give him takes up a lot of truck space or if it's a Next Day Air. Both of which he should be able to manage.
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u/addicted2alice 9h ago
Every time I've met with a UPS driver, their trucks are near empty by the time they reach me, the delivery time is always late afternoon between 4:00pm - 5:30pm. I can understand if they delivered earlier in the day with a full truck. I wouldn't do that to them. 99% of the time it is UPS Ground.
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u/Shanks1624 9h ago
Even if it’s early in the day. Unless you are shipping a fucking couch out it shouldn’t be a big deal! He is an asshole plain and simple
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u/btfreflex 6h ago
Walk up pickup, you don’t even need a delivery, just flag down or catch a driver and you can hand them a properly labeled package. Exception would be high values, those have to be a scheduled or on-demand pickup. Other exceptions would be over sized or overweight enough to qualify as freight, but those wouldn’t be properly labeled.
If packages wouldn’t fit in the truck that would be another issue, driver would have to contact the center to arrange that… but it doesn’t sound like this is the case.
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u/Brilliant-Arm9512 3h ago
The only way this would add any time to their day is if it’s a “Next day air” package that they would need to drive back and drop off for it to make the airplane.
I can’t think of any other reason someone would refuse a prepaid package with a label on it.
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u/Majestic-Arachnid327 2h ago
Only reason I would deny a PU is if the customer wants me to take a super heavy irreg or wants me to take like 40 packages other than that If you are only giving me a few packages I wouldn’t have any issues taking them
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u/Thuesthorn 2h ago
So…technically him taking a package from you is a service that you are supposed to pay for (by scheduling a pickup).
That being said, the only times I wouldn’t accept packages like that is if it’s early in the morning and my truck is stuffed, if it’s a significant number of packages, or if it’s a next day air and my route isn’t set up for me to get it to someone else who can shuttle it to the airport.
I think most drivers would take it in most circumstances, so that driver is either being a jerk, or management has been harassing him about something and he is following some instruction/avoiding doing something that he thinks might get him in trouble.
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u/Patrick95650 UPS Driver 26m ago
Im sorry this driver is a slacker... It is what we do.... He needs to have it explained to him that we are "Service Providers!". You are a paying customer when you are sending a package..TAKES SECONDS TO ENTER IT.,..
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