When I started 1990 at the warehouse there were 13-15 drivers. Now there are 45-50.
To say that UPS driver Gustavo Rodriguez Jr. has reached a milestone would be accurate but an understatement.
It’s actually more like 480,000 miles driven over 30 years of service without an accident. Rodriguez joined the UPS 30 year Circle of Honor this month signifying the achievement.
He cited one simple rule as pivotal to accident-free driving: Pay attention to the road.
“Once you get on the road, forget about the problems, just concentrate on your job. That’s your driving and don’t bring your problems from home to work. Concentrate on the road because that truck is pretty big and its heavy and nobody wants to be in an accident,” he said Feb. 14 during an interview over his lunch hour at the Whataburger at Expressway I-69 and Ruben Torres Boulevard in Brownsville.
Rodriguez drives the UPS route on the west side of the expressway between Ruben Torres and Morrison Road. He said he used to cover the area alone but now it takes three drivers.
“When I started 1990 at the warehouse there were 13-15 drivers. Now there are 45-50,” he said. “Brownsville has grown a lot. Alton Gloor used to be Tejon Road. It used to be a two-laner, one coming one going and the sides were made of caliche. The mall here used to be from Sears to JC Penny, that was it. Beyond used to be farmland. Where Lowe’s is at now used to be a trailer park, used to be called Crooked Tree, Sirloin Stockade and Shoney’s back in the day. My area nowadays takes three drivers to do what I used to do. It got so populated we need more drivers.”
Rodriguez’s supervisor Felix Bennett called it job security.
“Nowadays it’s e-commerce. Now everything’s online you don’t need to go shopping,” he said, adding that the last stop of the day is the most important one.
“I always tell them driving in public now is not what it used to be,” Bennett said. “You almost have to be on the defense all the time is what I tell Gus and the drivers because you almost have to be watching out for everybody else now. We tell them now with that brown tank anytime you hit a car it’ll do damage to somebody. Our motto is always what’s the most important stop? That’s the last stop. That’s back at home where everything really matters,” he and Rodriguez both said.
You see your customers every day and you become good friends. They invite you into their family parties. It’s hard work, but worth it.
Bennett said Rodriguez referred him to UPS back in 1995 when he was looking for a better deal while working two part-time jobs and going to school.
“Full circle, I ended up getting hired in ‘96 part time, Gus was a full time driver and now I’m his boss,” Bennett said
Rodriguez said the thing he likes best about his job is the interaction with customers.
“You see your customers every day and you become good friends. They invite you into their family parties. It’s hard work, but worth it. Everything from pay to medical insurance. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty it will take care of your family. I always tell people my truck is my gym. Instead of me paying the gym it pays me,” he said in a news release.
One such interaction turned out to be how he met his wife Leticia, who worked for a title company.
“We met on the route. …I delivered their office supplies so I asked her for a lunch date,” he said, adding that the relationship with his customers is what makes his job enjoyable.”
“After so many years you get to know them better. With certain customers we deliver stuff daily and we become good friends, we have great relationships we become friends and compadres,” he said.
Rodriguez is originally from Harlingen but now lives in Los Fresnos.
A job opening post at what was then Texas State Technical College guided him to UPS.
The trucks have no air conditioning, but Rodriguez said that’s for the better.
“We leave the doors open and keep our coolers full in the hot summers with water, electrolyte drinks, plus high-water water fruits like grapes and watermelon,” he said.
