So You Want to Be a Package Handler?

That was the same thing that was said to me by my friend Martin before I applied for FedEx. I said the same thing to my friend Ted when he wanted to apply for UPS. To no one's surprise we all ended up quitting after a few months. So yes, working as a package handler was tough. Pay was definitely above minimum wage, but work was constant.

Initially, how hard work was depended on the shift. When I worked at FedEx, I worked the noonday shift, which was around three to four hours. My friends Martin and Julian both worked the five-hour evening shift. I say three to four hours for my shift because they would change up the hours occasionally, which could be cool or really suck.

The easiest part of the job was reading the packages. As the packages came down we had to check the zip code to see if it matched its trailer. Depending on the flow of your trailer, there would be a lot of packages, and not reading them could've resulted in a lot of misleads, which were definitely bad.

Another easy part of the job was getting ICs, incompatibles packages for the chutes, which were placed below the chute. Sometimes they would build up, so getting that out of the way was all that mattered.

The flow of packages I got depended on which trailer you get. I got Brownsville for my first three weeks. It was beyond horrible. At least fifty packages were coming at me every minute. There were many times that so many packages coming down that the chute would eventually get jammed.

I would have to go and get the jam out, and that usually sent a lot of packages soaring down the chute and making a mess in the trailer. There were always at least two people working a Brownsville trailer, with three Brownsville trailers total. Eventually I worked the Fort Worth trailer which was so much slower that I did two trailers at one time. With the busy trailers, there was hardly any time for breaks, but even if I did have time I usually helped someone else with their trailer.

Another thing that made or broke a shift's ease was how many people worked on a belt, or section. Sometimes there were enough people to do the loading on the belt I worked on. If one or two people were didn't show up, that screwed me over big time. Other people would be sent from other belts to help out.

After getting caught up, I was back to being solo with another chance of having multiple jams. That happened a lot due to absentees and the fact that there were always people quitting; to be fair though, there were also applicants coming in every day, which evened the situation out.

By the end of the shift, I was ridiculously dirty, sweaty and tired, not to mention two separate incidents where I injured my foot and vomited. The only good things I got from my work experience at FedEx were the pay and maybe the extraneous workout. The fact that I worked during the summer made it ten times worse. Looking back, I still don't see how I survived as long as I did.