Operations

Veteran driver hangs up keys

Nov. 1, 2009

There are long-time employees, and then there's Marty Peters. The longest-tenured employee in the history of UPS is at last a retired driver at age 87 after 63 years, five months and 29 days of service

There are long-time employees, and then there's Marty Peters. The longest-tenured employee in the history of UPS is at last a retired driver at age 87 — after 63 years, five months and 29 days of service.

On the job since 1946, Peters joined UPS straight from service in the U.S. Army and the battlefields of World War II. During the late '40s, Peters braved frigid Michigan winters in a White Horse delivery truck without a heater or defroster. After that, he held a variety of jobs from sorting packages and loading trucks to finally sitting in the driver's seat of a big rig, logging more than 1.4 million mi. driving between Detroit and Grand Rapids, MI. At the end of his career, Peters worked the 3:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. shift at UPS's Woodbridge Center in Detroit, moving 50 to 70 trailers a day between docks, then moving inside to help incorrectly addressed packages reach their destinations.

Peters and his wife, Christine, have been married since 1950 and have four children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.