UPS man retires after 26 years in Okeechobee

Posted 2/10/21

After 26 years serving the community of Okeechobee, UPS driver Jeff Brown has retired.

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UPS man retires after 26 years in Okeechobee

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OKEECHOBEE — After 26 years serving the community of Okeechobee, UPS driver Jeff Brown has retired.

Born and raised in Vero Beach, Brown first worked as a water bed salesman at City Waterbed in Saint Lucie County. He said he got up to 250 pounds, because all he did was sit at a desk while he was working. “I decided I needed to do something to get healthy so I wouldn’t keep putting weight on.” He applied at UPS in 1989 and was hired. When he first started, he delivered in Vero Beach which he said was great, because that was his hometown, and he knew where everything was.

In 1994, he started his Okeechobee route. Okeechobee routes are popular because there are more miles. The more miles, the fewer deliveries. They drive from Fort Pierce to Okeechobee each day before they actually deliver anything. Whereas, in Fort Pierce, you almost immediately begin delivering packages. Most of the Okeechobee drivers have 30 plus years in.

When Brown started in Okeechobee, he worked the downtown area around city hall, Northeast Park Street, the courthouse and down to the doctors’ offices and the hospital. “I did that area for 10 years.”

After that, he was transferred to a route that began in Yeehaw Junction, went to Fort Drum, the prison, crossed over to Bassinger and out to the Prairie. This route is considered one of the best, averaging 270 miles per day. “There was a lot of driving and not so much working,” he laughed. He averaged about seven stops an hour. The downtown route averaged about 14. In Fort Pierce, it might be 21 per hour.

He had the Prairie route for 16 years. The downside to that route was the roads you have to drive on. They are very rough and hard on your back, he explained. “I didn’t mind it though. I thought it was worth it.” After 16 years though, he had had enough of the bumpy roads. He worked 16 months longer than he had to in order to retire with the company. He had a daughter in college and another was engaged, so the money was an incentive to keep working.

The day he decided to retire, he was out on the Prairie and it was raining. “The roads were horrible, and then the sun would come out. The mosquitoes were bad. I pulled over and sent a message on the UPS computer about 25 weeks ago and sent a message that I was going to retire in January of 2021. I thought, ‘I don’t really have to do this anymore. Why am I doing this?’” He waited until January so he could get his 2021 sick days, vacation, etc. His official last day was January 29.

As a UPS driver, he has had many unusual experiences.

Over the years, he was bitten by several dogs but has learned how to interact with dogs to make that less likely. “Sometimes you just have to ignore a dog, pretend like they aren’t there. Sometimes I had to sweet talk them.”

Once while he was delivering in the Prairie, there was a tornado warning, and there was no place for him to go. “It started getting dark. The wind began and it started raining. I backed up my truck, angling into the wind. It was just insane. I sat in my truck for about 15 minutes, and several times I thought it was going to lift off the ground.”

When he delivered the downtown area, he picked up at Hazellief Groves, and one day, lightning struck a tree right next to him.

He had several encounters with poisonous snakes.

On the route, he saw a lot of wildlife, and came to love the area and the animals. Prior to working that area, he was not a hunter and had never been one to use a 4-wheel drive or an ATV, but after spending time with the people out there, he went from a BMW sports car to a 4WD Dodge Ram with 35 inch tires. “I started hunting and have shot guns, rifles and bows.”

He became friends with many of his customers and when he posted on The Scoup (a Facebook page) that he was retiring, he had over 1,000 responses. “I was sort of surprised by that, but I always tried to put people first and not worry too much about numbers. Customer service was real important to me.” He made a point of getting to know people on his route. If he knew they worked nights and slept in the day time, he would not blow his horn. If they had a new baby, he tried to be quiet.

Many times while working out on the Prairie, his truck got stuck, but he always had phone numbers of people who lived out there and were willing to come pull him out.

While on the downtown route, he often stopped at a title company across from the courthouse. The owner’s cat had kittens, and she kept telling him he needed to take one. He finally did and kept the cat for 18 years until it died last year.

His favorite stop on the downtown route was Lydia Jean Williams at city hall. He used to go in to use the phone, because this was before cell phones. “She had a real bubbly personality, everyone in there was great. I just enjoyed them all.”

Brown plans to spend some time just relaxing before he decides what to do next. He will enjoy his hobbies, hunting, traveling out west, raising wild turkeys, going to the gym, hiking and biking. He plans to stay active so he does not gain weight again.

Brown’s wife, Susan, has a medical business and is not retired yet, but she is able to take some time off to travel and have a little fun with her husband. The couple have a 35-year-old daughter, Tia and a 25-year-old daughter, Tara.

UPS, Prairie, Okeechobee City Hall,

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