Is UPS Replacing Drivers With AI?

A former UPS driver from Iowa, Preston Riemenapp (@prestothebesto_3), says he lost his job not because he stole time or deceived his employer, but because the company needed him gone and eventually found a way to make it happen.

Riemenapp posted a video saying he was fired on Feb. 24, after two separate termination attempts. “I never thought that I would be making this video,” he said.

“As of February 24, ‘26, I am no longer a UPS driver,” he said. “I’m still in shock with everything. I can’t believe that I was let go. I’ve always done the right thing. I never misled anybody.”

The first attempt stemmed from allegations that he and two coworkers committed “time theft” by purchasing snacks and using the bathroom during their shifts. He says management watched it happen without saying a word.

“They had allowed us drivers to continue making this mistake even when they had supervisors—they didn’t let us know that, ‘Hey, this is a problem,’” he claimed. But he called the premise absurd: “We make $50 an hour to do that job and [get] health insurance out of our union. Why would anybody wanna try to steal time?”

The other two drivers were reinstated, and Riemenapp was initially reinstated as well.

The UPS Driver’s Final Straw

The second, and final, termination came after he misdelivered packages while working the “heaviest route in the building” on roads he’d never driven, during the recent snowstorm that covered much of the country.

“It was the most difficult—like, you had to have weeks, sometimes months, of experience on this route … to know the area,” he said.

When management asked days later whether he’d confirmed a particular customer’s last name, he couldn’t remember. “I’m on two different routes I’d never been on,” he said. “I mean, just start when you don’t know an area, and you follow a GPS all day.”

Riemenapp says management twisted that uncertainty into a confession: “They twisted my statements up … and they deemed it dishonesty.”

He went back to the businesses himself to find out what actually happened. “I ended up going to the businesses where my management team had said they went. … The owners of the business, the employees, were all advocating, like, ‘No, this was not what we were intending.’” He says the manager who claimed to have investigated the complaint never actually did.

Riemenapp’s union, he says, had the evidence to fight for him but didn’t push hard enough. Now he’s looking for an attorney: “I’m not gonna let this keep me down. God is gonna get me where I’m supposed to be—whether it’s in a different place or back at the company.”

He ended the video with a warning to other drivers. “It’s so obvious that the company is doing this, and there’s nothing we can do about it. If you’re a driver out there going through this, I know what you feel like now. We have families, we got bills, and I’m at a standstill.”

The Peanut Gallery Weighs in on UPS Driver’s Firing

One person wrote, “If companies want to cut costs, they can start by cutting CEO’s salaries in half.”

Many questioned his union. “Your union needs to do better, keep pushing them to advocate for you,” said one commenter.

“You need to contact Sean O’brien, the president of the Teamsters Union, and share your story with him,” suggested another commenter.

“Sorry this happened to you!” said a well-wisher. “In addition to finding an attorney, please file a complaint with the EEOC. This could turn out to be a class action lawsuit. Be encouraged!”

The Reality of UPS Firings

The reality of Riemenapp’s situation is that he was possibly just an easy catch in UPS’s human resources dragnet.

UPS plans to cut up to 30,000 workers in 2026 through attrition and a second voluntary separation program for full-time drivers. It also plans to deploy automation across its network and to close two dozen buildings in the first half of the year.

This is on top of the 48,000 jobs UPS cut last year, per HR Executive. The driving force behind this is the company’s decision to dramatically reduce its reliance on Amazon, which it has restructured as a client for much lower volume. UPS is pivoting away from Amazon shipments to move toward higher-margin customers.

UPS said that involuntary layoffs could occur depending on how many drivers accepted the severance package. This could mean Riemenapp was offered the package, as many other drivers were, and did not accept it. So, the company may have opted into Plan B.

UPS’ AI Overhaul

UPS has been running a sweeping, multi-billion-dollar technology transformation called the “Network of the Future” that replaces human labor, with broad surveillance baked into it.

The company has been going long on RFID readers pretty much in all facets of its logistics business. The next phase, called “Smart Driver,” goes even further. It will display to drivers exactly where each RFID-tagged package is in a loaded vehicle. It’s supposed to improve driver productivity and reduce on-road exceptions.

It also means UPS will be able to see mistakes in real time and use AI to monitor and evaluate all parts of the process. The idea is that if they can run tighter, more efficient routes, the company won’t need as many drivers.

And this goes for whole warehouses for processing. “We have 127 buildings that are automated,” CEO Carol Tomé told investors. “We are adding another 24 in 2026. The cost per piece in these automated buildings is 28% less than the cost per piece in our conventional buildings.”

AllHipHop reached out to Riemenapp, UPS, and Teamsters Local 238 (Greater Iowa) for more information. This article will be updated upon response.

@prestothebesto_3 Fairwell UPS, i loved my job, i would do it all over again. Thank you for supporting me over these years. Sadly you lost one of the good ones. Also my go fund me will contribute to an attorney along with supporting others who have been terminated wrongfully https://gofund.me/fcc25ac43 #UPS #Delivery #driver #fyp #yeshua ♬ By His Stripes – Instrumental Worship and Prayer & Josué Novais Piano Worship

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