At approximately 8 p.m. on a hot Thursday in July, UPS driver Nicholas Gubell was nearing the end of his route in Long Island, New York, when he began to feel down. That day, Gubell, 26, had delivered about 200 packages. Temperatures had soared into the 80s, and it was even hotter inside the metal shell of the back of the truck, where, with each stop, he spent up to a minute or so retrieving his load, beads of sweat on his his skin. Now, pulled over to the side of the road, he was panting and barely able to speak, clutching his phone with his dehydrated hand. Subscribe to The Morning newsletter from The New York Times “My body was losing it,” Gubel said. Rescuers covered him with ice packs to lower his body temperature and took him to a hospital. “I was just trying to hold on as best I could.” As blistering heat swept across the United States this summer, breaking temperature records and putting millions under heat advisories and warnings, workers like Gubell continued to deliver America’s packages for various carriers, often in trucks lacking cooling mechanisms for drivers . Some UPS workers have shared photos showing thermometer readings of up to 150 degrees in the back of their trucks. Now, a spate of heat-related illnesses among drivers has renewed calls to improve their working conditions. “They vomit. Their bodies are shutting down,” said Dave Reeves, president of Local 767, a Texas local of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents 350,000 UPS workers nationwide. “It’s awful.” State records show the problem is not isolated: Since 2015, at least 270 UPS and US Postal Service drivers have been sickened and in many cases hospitalized from heat exposure. Dozens of workers at other delivery companies, including FedEx, have also suffered from heat exhaustion, records show, and a handful of drivers have also died in recent years. Heat-related injuries, illnesses and deaths among drivers are seriously underreported, according to the Teamsters. The story continues The issue first gained widespread public attention in 2019, after reports by the Center for Public Integrity and NBC News highlighted the serious heat risks facing postal workers and delivery workers. The Teamsters have been mobilizing for better protections for UPS workers ahead of contract negotiations next year. “With the temperatures and the record heat, we’re getting to the point where we’re having an alarming number of heat-related injuries,” Reeves said. In just the past six weeks, he added, 18 of the roughly 9,500 workers in his jurisdiction had become sick from the heat. “It’s absolutely worse,” he said. Although linking a particular heat wave to climate change requires analysis, scientists have no doubt that heat waves around the world are becoming hotter, more frequent and longer in duration. In the United States, the number of hot days is increasing, according to the 2018 National Climate Assessment, a major scientific report by 13 federal agencies, which found that the frequency of heat waves increased from an average of two a year in the 1960s to six a year by the 2010s. The heat wave season is now 45 days longer than it was in the 1960s, according to the report. Last year, Jose Cruz Rodriguez Jr., a 23-year-old UPS driver in the Reeves area, was found dead in the company’s parking lot in Waco, Texas, just days after starting work. In June, a 24-year-old UPS driver, Esteban David Chavez Jr., died while delivering packages in Pasadena, California, about 10 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Last month, another company worker was caught on video by a Ring doorbell tripping and collapsing outside a home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Although the Postal Service and other delivery drivers have also been sickened, attention has mostly focused on UPS, which is the world’s largest package delivery company and among the nation’s largest employers. Although its tractor-trailers are refrigerated, the company’s smaller delivery trucks are not air-conditioned. “Our parcel delivery vehicles make frequent stops, which require the engine to be turned off and the doors to open and close, approximately 130 times per day on average,” the company said in a statement. “The health and safety of our workers is our highest priority,” UPS said, adding that in preparation for the heat, it provided workers with extra water, ice, electrolyte replacement drinks and fruit. The company said it also plans to distribute cooling towels and wetsuits made from moisture-wicking fabric and speed up the installation of fans in vehicles across the country. “We never want our employees to continue working to the point where they risk their health or work in an unsafe manner,” the company added. At the same time, lawmakers are also pushing for better conditions for mail carriers. Last month, U.S. Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., introduced a bill that would require the Postal Service to install air conditioning in all its vehicles. The measure is named after a 63-year-old driver for the service, Peggy Frank, who, on a 117-degree day in 2018, found herself passed out in her mail truck in the San Fernando Valley, about 25 miles northwest of downtown Los. Angels. Currently, 34 percent of its vehicles have air conditioning and an additional 66 percent have fans, the Postal Service said, adding that all vehicles purchased after 2003 were equipped with air conditioning. “Our carriers deliver mail throughout the year in varying temperatures and climates,” the Postal Service said in a statement. “This includes the summer months when temperatures rise across the country.” The Postal Service is reminding carriers to stay hydrated, wear hats and stay in the shade whenever possible, he said, noting that it has launched a heat illness prevention program to provide mail carriers with training and “resources needed to do the job them safely”. UPS has also trained employees to “work safely throughout the year,” he said, adding that it has sent out reminders throughout the day to “stay hydrated and take rest breaks.” Drivers said such reminders were insulting in the context of their arduous working conditions. It’s hard to drink enough water in an environment where bathroom breaks are limited to stopping at stores and restaurants, UPS workers said, adding that their fan requests were often not granted. “You can drink gallons of water, but it still gets to you,” Matt Leichenger, 26, a Brooklyn UPS driver and store manager, said of the heat. Education, he added, “basically tells you to drink water and eat cucumbers and watermelons.” As temperatures have risen in recent years, so have the demands on shipping. The coronavirus pandemic has kept shoppers at home, prompting a surge in e-commerce and, drivers say, more stops on their routes. “There’s only so much a body can take,” said Tony Bell, a UPS driver in Longview, Texas. Bell, 45, was hospitalized for heat exposure and kidney failure after making his route on a 103-degree day in July. That day, he drank 12 bottles of water and one Gatorade. He said doctors later told him he had come very close to having a heart attack. “I was afraid that was it,” he said. Jorja Rodriguez, mother of Jose Cruz Rodriguez, the UPS driver who died after his shift in Texas last August, said she sent her son to work that morning with a cooler full of water and energy drinks and told him “to he does it casually. “ When he didn’t come home that night, she drove to UPS and watched as police found her son dead. “I called his name so many times, thinking that if he heard my voice, he would wake up,” he said, adding that he had texted his supervisor earlier that day to say he wasn’t feeling well. Dominique Chavez, the stepmother of Esteban David Chavez, who died in Pasadena, said that since his death, she and her family have made it a point to undercut UPS workers to offer them a tip and a drink of cold water. Gubell, the Long Island worker, said he felt lucky that on the day he felt sick, he was able to call his parents. He was too incoherent to give them his location, but they called 911. A neighbor also notified authorities. “I didn’t want to call an ambulance,” Gubell said, adding that he feared retaliation from UPS if he had. “People are dropping like flies out here,” he added. “It’s very brutal.” In an email, UPS said that if one of its drivers needed immediate assistance, the company would send personnel to its location to help them return safely to the delivery center or arrange for immediate assistance at the driver’s location, which could include calling an ambulance. Gubell’s mother, Prudence, said she regretted encouraging her son to apply for the UPS job and never imagined a neighborhood job delivering packages could be so dangerous. “I’m worried about him,” Gubel said. “How much can the human body take?” © 2022 The New York Times Company
