THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503220040
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 136 lines
THAT BROWN SHIRT. Those brown pants. And, oh, those legs.
``I'm scared to death to wear my shorts,'' said Roger Savage, 38, a UPS driver in Virginia Beach's Hilltop area. Savage has heard about an article that ran in the Wall Street Journal in February exploring the mystique of UPS delivery drivers. Lately, these men in brown have appeared as women's fantasy idols in books, TV and movies.
Since the Wall Street article, 175 Tidewater area UPS drivers are enduring even more attention and ribbing from customers. The media flurry has cemented them into place as delivery route darlings in suburbia and downtown shipping rooms. And as soon as the weather warms up and the drivers' shorts come out, the teasing will likely increase.
Quickly noting that he's married, Savage speculated that sharp-eyed customers are waiting for a better look at the typical UPS physique, each well-toned by lifting about 200 packages a day and trotting back and forth to trucks.
``Most UPS guys are bigger,'' Savage said. ``You just build up muscles on the job. That's just the nature of the job.''
That's true across the country, said Robin Conaway, a UPS watcher and real estate agent with The Prudential Decker Realty in the company's Great Neck office in Virginia Beach. ``I have a friend who's a UPS driver in Indiana and he's a big hunk of a guy, too.'' Driving around town a lot herself, she's looking forward to spring and seeing a bit more of UPS drivers.
``When you're on the road,'' Conaway said, ``they always have the truck door open. The first thing you see is those little brown shorts and those legs. They're always tanned.''
It's the kind of attention that some company managers wish their drivers weren't getting. One high-placed official at the company's Atlanta headquarters who did not want his name used said United Parcel Service of America Inc. has enjoyed its low profile in the mailing industry and that officials like himself are not happy about publicity that throws the company's muscles into the spotlight.
The same official frets about security. If the company's plain brown uniforms and lumbering brown trucks have so much sex appeal, he said, there's a danger that impostors posing in UPS fakes could gain access to women's homes or office reception areas.
Indeed, UPS drivers - 93 percent of them are male - do have a certain attraction that makes them immediately popular with customers. Some have pondered why that's true.
It could be their elusive quality.
``We used to call out to each other, `The UPS man's coming,' '' said Charlene G. Lee, a Chesapeake insurance agent, recalling a former workplace. ``There are nice little bods on those fellas, running around like they do. And you just get a good hard glance at them and then they're gone, like ghosts.''
In fact, when some popular drivers leave their routes, customers go into mourning. The staff and customers at Shear Designs, a hair salon on Sandbridge Road in Virginia Beach, still fondly recall a UPS man they had several years ago.
``His name was Mark. He was really, really cute,'' sighed stylist Tammy Wakefield. ``Everybody would stare at him when he came in. When he got transferred, the ladies were really upset.''
Some customers wonder if UPS has a company policy against hiring unattractive men.
``I think most of them are attractive,'' said Susan Champigny, a listing secretary at Prudential Decker Realty in Great Neck in Virginia Beach. ``It seems like they always hire a certain stereotype. They're always a certain age, between 30 and 35, kind of on the slim side, nice body, tanned, they look good in their uniforms. And I think a lot of them think they're good-looking.''
Could be the result of corporate image-making. The company requires drivers to maintain a clean cut look - neatly trimmed moustaches, frequent haircuts, polished brown shoes and a pressed brown uniform, right off the rack. Even their trucks are washed daily. Hefting boxes and running to finish their quotas in time to spend dinner with their families is a good workout even if drivers never see the inside of a gym.
The average age of drivers is 36, said Susan Rosenberg, a UPS spokesperson in the company's Atlanta offices. Her phone's been buzzing with media queries since the Journal article. ``It was like chuckle, chuckle, chuckle when it first came out,' she said. UPS has long fielded and politely declined the occasional request to feature its drivers on a ``Men of UPS'' type of calendar. But rather than age, or physical characteristics, Rosenberg wonders if the appeal doesn't stem from something else.
``There's a reliability factor,'' she said. ``They come at the same time every day. There's a confessor factor. They're friendly, so customers end up telling them their life's story.''
``That's true,'' said Savage, the Hilltop driver. ``It's amazing what people will tell you about their family life or what they've done all weekend. I think people are kind of attracted to the fact that we know what we're doing and we have this air of confidence. After you've been working a route a while, if you don't know the answer, you know where to get the answer.''
For Sharon Brothers Parker, who once treasured glimpses of her UPS man, it wasn't his confident air. It wasn't his body.
She was attracted because of his smile, manners, professionalism and - OK - his looks.
``It was the package,'' she said. ``He had the complete package.''
Three years ago Parker worked as the assistant manager of a jewelry store, JB Robinson, in Chesapeake's Greenbrier Mall. The UPS man visited twice a day for deliveries and pickups. Parker would put off going to lunch until he'd stopped by.
``Whenever he walked into the store, my heart would skip a beat,'' she recalled.
Her UPS man remembers that Parker had a similar effect on him. ``She was hot, hot, hot,'' he said.
After several hundred deliveries, pickups and dates, Sharon Parker, Miss Norfolk 1992, married Thornton Parker Jr. Early this March, sidestepping UPS, she delivered a package to him, a baby girl named Sydney Lee.
UPS doesn't keep statistics on how often drivers fall in love with and marry customers, said Rosenberg, the company spokesperson. But it probably doesn't happen often enough to please some. Many, say drivers, appear to have more in mind than accepting deliveries when UPS comes calling. It's hard they say, to keep a comfortable distance between themselves and customers who flirt.
Some drivers blame the pants.
``I've seen a lot,'' said Erwin B. Faison, 34, a driver in the Kempsville area of Virginia Beach, who's been with the company for eight years. ``Once we changed to shorts, it changed the whole image and that's when the flirting started.''
He deliberately wears his wedding ring, but that hasn't stopped the bold passes women make.
``I've had phone numbers thrown at me, even knowing I'm married. I've seen a few come to the door in towels and some with panties and nothing else on,'' Faison said. ``But you have to be friendly.'' ILLUSTRATION: BETH BERGMAN/Staff color photos
``Whenever he walked into the store, my heart would skip a beat,''
says Sharon Brothers Parker.
UPS deliveryman Thornton Parker Jr. met his future bride, Sharon,
while making a delivery.
by CNB