Yesterday I had to drive into town and was on a two lane road with a 45 mph speed limit. After a red light, I was slow getting up to speed and only got up to about 37 mph. I noticed a Fed Ex truck on my bumper, looked at my speed and realized I was going slow. I sped up and was close to 45 when I noticed that he was still on my bumper. I tapped my breaks a couple of times and he only got closer.
I brake checked him thinking “He is in a Fed Ex truck and will realize he’s being stupid and back off”, but instead, he decided to get even closer. At that point he was probably 15-20 feet off of my bumper. I brake checked him again and he stayed there and started flicking his lights.
I grabbed my phone and held it as if I was videoing him and he backed off. When we got to the next light where I was turning left and had to stop, he got in the lane to my right, so I grabbed my phone and started video. He was making hand signals as he passed by. I got a photo of his tag number.
I understand getting impatient as I can be impatient too - but I damn sure would do it in a vehicle that has my company logo on it. After I sped up, then brake checked him because he kept getting closer - you would think that someone who could likely lose his job for careless/aggressive driving would let common sense take over and would back off.
I don’t want to see the guy lose his job as he probably makes good money and may need it to support his family. But on the other hand, I think Fed Ex should be aware that they have a reckless hothead driving one of their trucks. Should I report him but tell them that I wouldn’t want him fired but a good talking to is warranted? If nothing else, maybe they can talk to him and put a note in his file in case it happens again.
To call it in, I’d want it to be really egregious/aggressive. Unless I am missing the nature of the hand signals he made, I’d say your encounter falls just below the line of what warrants a call. I am skeptical that your opinion on whether he should be fired counts for much with Fed Ex. They presumably have their internal policies and once you trigger that process, your opinion on a punishment is very likely superseded by their own punishment rules.
To call it in, I’d want it to be really egregious/aggressive. Unless I am missing the nature of the hand signals he made, I’d say your encounter falls just below the line of what warrants a call. I am skeptical that your opinion on whether he should be fired counts for much with Fed Ex. They presumably have their internal policies and once you trigger that process, your opinion on a punishment is very likely superseded by their own punishment rules.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. It wasn’t the hand signals that I care about but him getting right up on my bumper. After tapping my brakes and then brake checking him he only got closer. That was the aggressive part that I was thinking of.
Was it a fedex or fedex ground?
FedEx ground are contractors not employed by FedEx.
Similar to Amazon,I know someone who got rear ended by a Amazon van and it was a royal pain with the insurance.
Was it a fedex or fedex ground?
FedEx ground are contractors not employed by FedEx.
Similar to Amazon,I know someone who got rear ended by an Amazon van and it was a royal pain in the ass with the insurance.
**Was it a fedex or fedex ground? **
FedEx ground are contractors not employed by FedEx.
Similar to Amazon,I know someone who got rear ended by a Amazon van and it was a royal pain with the insurance.
They weren’t in a plane, so it must have been Fedex ground. j/k I’m noot sure how to tell the difference. I didn’t see anything on the truck/van that said Fedex Ground - only Fedex.
**Was it a fedex or fedex ground? **
FedEx ground are contractors not employed by FedEx.
Similar to Amazon,I know someone who got rear ended by a Amazon van and it was a royal pain with the insurance.
They weren’t in a plane, so it must have been Fedex ground. j/k I’m noot sure how to tell the difference. I didn’t see anything on the truck/van that said Fedex Ground - only Fedex.
FedEx ground has a green Ex portion of the logo. Usually not time sensitive deliveries.
Maybe he was in a hurry w/time sensitive delivery? Or maybe he was trying to signal you about something about your car? Or maybe he needed to go #2? … or or or other stuff who knows? … My 2 cents is it isn’t something I’d report.
And you brake checking doesn’t put you in a good light. That’s rarely effective and usually just raises the aggression instead. A bit lucky nothing happened.
(Now, I occasionally imagine myself executing a pit maneuver… and then carrying on my merry way
Had a friend that drove for FedEx (not ground). He said if you can reasonably make 110 drops a day they schedule you for about 130 and found the job very stressful. I believe they work until they are done with their drops, that’s why you see them out so late at times.
My guess is that if you report it, it will just go into a database where drivers are tracked for flags and they take care of the outlier stats only.
So, how much time do you have on your hands? I wouldn’t bother.
**My guess is that if you report it, it will just go into a database where drivers are tracked for flags and they take care of the outlier stats only. **
My wife reported a UPS driver who buzzed her while she was riding on an empty road (very uncommon to get buzzed where we lived). UPS called her for more details on time, place, etc.
And probably all entered into a database… UPS drivers are highly unionized. It would take a bunch of strikes to even start to be asked any quiestions is my guess.
When I am doing private vehicle delivery for UPS, I can easily do 20 stops per hour. When I really bust my butt, I have done 36 stops in an hour. This is out of my GL550, not a big, brown truck.
130 stops is a pretty slow day.
During the Christmas season, the regular UPS drivers in my area are doing at least 250 stops.
Driving is a pretty serious activity. Tailgating is bad but I think brake checking is worse. I don’t fuck around when I am driving but when I see a passive (or maybe not so passive) aggressive move like brake checking I just think of all the downsides like the 20 cars that are just minding their own business and a brake check chain reaction might get someone hurt or killed. Report the guy if you feel the need, but don’t compound a problem by tapping your brakes when you don’t need to. That doesn’t do a damn thing to the tailgater, but it sure could do something to me 5 cars back with someone swerving to change lanes to avoid a rear-end takes me out.
And probably all entered into a database… UPS drivers are highly unionized. It would take a bunch of strikes to even start to be asked any quiestions is my guess.
This is probably the case now, but when I worked for UPS, when they were private, it was pretty easy to get rid of a driver, even though they were unionized. There were a lot of exceptions in the contract they had to follow and there was very little forgiveness. After they went public and have had so many different contracts in 30+ years, I would guess you are correct now.
I wouldn’t do 37 in a 45 and if I did and realized it. I would get to “close to 45â€
I definitely wouldn’t report someone wanting to do the speed limit
You didn’t read the whole thing did you?
I did. What I read is you were driving significantly below the speed limit, then increase and still below, you stepped on your breaks a few times.
He was trying to drive the speed limit and you were preventing him from doing so and driving erratically. (i.e. stepping on your breaks when you should have been on the gas)
