What It’s Like Working as a Personal Vehicle Delivery Driver for UPS During the Holidays

(And during a Pandemic)

You might not know this, but every November and December the United Parcel Service, AKA, UPS, hires personal vehicle drivers to help with Holiday deliveries. I say you may not know this, because as a personal vehicle driver myself working for UPS, I was often asked why I was delivering UPS packages from the back of my black Kia Sorento. Many people are confused by this, it seems, though UPS has employed the practice for several years now.

Working for UPS in December of 2020 as a personal vehicle driver was not exactly where I saw myself at the beginning of 2020, but then, again, I don’t think anyone was prepared for just how much 2020 would disrupt our lives. It’s like that SNL skit from last year, where four friends go to see a fortune teller named Madam Vivelda at the beginning of the year and are then told strange visions of what their lives will be like in the future — washing a bag of Doritos with soap for instance, or driving to Kentucky and peeing in a bag because they’re too afraid to stop at a gas station, or *gasp* eating inside a restaurant!

I’d lost my job in September. I was working in the coffee industry and when our office moved out of downtown Portland, everyone began to work remotely. Except my position was not exactly the kind I could do from home. I found myself with dwindling hours and an ever-shifting job description. When a meeting with HR was called to discuss my next steps at the company, I knew I was doomed.

I had been staying home with my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter on Fridays for the previous three months and I was excited to take some time off work to focus on my own writing and spend even more time with my daughter. Also, my wife’s internship was fortunate enough to turn into a job right as I lost mine.

I didn’t mind staying home with my daughter at first. We went on walks to the park. We played with play-doh and trains and puzzles and watched lots of Daniel Tiger and Finding Nemo and Moana. But it was still a pandemic and the usual public activities of stay-at-home parents were no longer available. There were no libraries or story times to go to. No playdates. No indoor gymnasiums or play cafes. No pools. No zoo even at times. And two-and-a-half-year old’s can be well, as they say, quite terrible (and also, annoyingly cute).