(Source: International Brotherhood of Teamsters press release, June 22, 2017)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The first thing Walter Beasley does in the morning before heading in to work is listen to the traffic report. He takes note of all the delays on the interstates, planning alternate routes as he maps out his day behind the wheel.
“I want to know what’s going on at all times so I can maneuver through the traffic and get the packages where they need to be quickly and safely. We need to know all the ins and outs,” he says.
Walter, a member of Teamsters Local 191 in Bridgeport, Conn., began driving for UPS in 1967.
“I felt like the luckiest man when I got that job,” says Walter, who went from making $2.80 per hour at another shipping company to earning $3.16 per hour when he started at UPS.
Earlier this year Walter reached 45 years of driving without an accident, joining an elite group of just ten UPS drivers– out of 102,000 – who have achieved that milestone. He has logged more than four million miles without even a fender-bender, which is equivalent to driving around the equator 160 times.
As a feeder driver, Walter is responsible for next-day air packages coming out of Stratford, Conn., which he transports to Philadelphia before picking up another load of next-day air packages from Philadelphia to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut.
“Safety is a top priority for me. The company spends billions on safety – equipment and training. We’re driving double trailers and dealing with the public every day. So we have to be very professional and safe at all times,” he says.
Full story: www.teamster.org