4 ms·

UPS is union and their employees urinate in bottles. I don't think unions are the magic wand that a lot of people assume they are

mindslight 6y ago
While "urinating in bottles" sounds like some sort of standard by which to indict, if you tried it you would find it's quite convenient. I'd guess that it's far down on the list of drivers' actual concerns. What are you proposing should replace this? Trips back to the depot would be terribly inefficient. Portapotties in trucks would be just fancier bottles. And time to visit public restrooms would be better spent taking an actual break and then still using the bottle.
- yibg 6y ago
  I assume this is more true for men than women.
  - BlueTemplar 6y ago
    Yeah, that's what I was wondering : is this why I haven't seen a single delivery gal in my life ? ( Unlike trucker women.)
    - bell-cot 6y ago
      A little company I worked for ~20 years ago (Michigan, U.S.A.) had a female UPS driver. Her route was ~99% residential - so extremely few bathrooms. (Vs. it was easy, then, for UPS drivers delivering to office buildings, restaurants, etc.) We made it clear that she was free to use our bathroom at any time. She made it clear that our package delivery time & pick-up time could be far, far better than "that's where you are on my route" when we needed them to be. (And I'm sure more things got shipped UPS than should have...I guess you'd call that "UPS's cut" of the deal.)
  - mindslight 6y ago
    There are portable solutions for women, but since they're built for the purpose they don't sensationalize as well as "peeing in bottles".
adamredwoods 6y ago
Source: https://www.browncafe.com/community/threads/urine-bottles-in-package-cars.356807/ https://www.browncafe.com/community/threads/urine-bottles-in... Apparently, drivers are given plenty of break times and are allowed bathroom breaks, but this behavior continues. I wonder what the economic impact of putting a portable toilet closet in the truck is? Each truck would have 30% less capacity? Would employees get less breaks then?
kingsuper20 6y ago
But it's a union-approved bottle though. It seems to me that a lot of the problem is (and will be) the instrumenting of jobs. The ability surveil a workforce is only going to go up. Everyone, medical techs, cashiers, plumbers, non-rockstar software developers, are going to end up with that bottle.

mindslight 6y ago

While "urinating in bottles" sounds like some sort of standard by which to indict, if you tried it you would find it's quite convenient. I'd guess that it's far down on the list of drivers' actual concerns. What are you proposing should replace this? Trips back to the depot would be terribly inefficient. Portapotties in trucks would be just fancier bottles. And time to visit public restrooms would be better spent taking an actual break and then still using the bottle.

yibg 6y ago
I assume this is more true for men than women.
- BlueTemplar 6y ago
  Yeah, that's what I was wondering : is this why I haven't seen a single delivery gal in my life ? ( Unlike trucker women.)
  - bell-cot 6y ago
    A little company I worked for ~20 years ago (Michigan, U.S.A.) had a female UPS driver. Her route was ~99% residential - so extremely few bathrooms. (Vs. it was easy, then, for UPS drivers delivering to office buildings, restaurants, etc.) We made it clear that she was free to use our bathroom at any time. She made it clear that our package delivery time & pick-up time could be far, far better than "that's where you are on my route" when we needed them to be. (And I'm sure more things got shipped UPS than should have...I guess you'd call that "UPS's cut" of the deal.)
- mindslight 6y ago
  There are portable solutions for women, but since they're built for the purpose they don't sensationalize as well as "peeing in bottles".

adamredwoods 6y ago

Source: https://www.browncafe.com/community/threads/urine-bottles-in-package-cars.356807/ https://www.browncafe.com/community/threads/urine-bottles-in... Apparently, drivers are given plenty of break times and are allowed bathroom breaks, but this behavior continues. I wonder what the economic impact of putting a portable toilet closet in the truck is? Each truck would have 30% less capacity? Would employees get less breaks then?

kingsuper20 6y ago

But it's a union-approved bottle though. It seems to me that a lot of the problem is (and will be) the instrumenting of jobs. The ability surveil a workforce is only going to go up. Everyone, medical techs, cashiers, plumbers, non-rockstar software developers, are going to end up with that bottle.