Heat Exhaustion Almost Killed Me. UPS Still Won’t Give Me A/C

Hayden Koenig is a Texas-based UPS driver. Below is an op-ed he submitted discussing working conditions at UPS.


There’s a good chance you heard about me on the news last year. I’m the UPS driver who almost died when I fainted at the wheel from heat exhaustion and crashed my truck into a tree.

I still work at UPS as a proud member of Teamsters Local 767. But if the company doesn’t keep its promise to give me A/C, there’s no telling if I’ll make it through another Texas summer.

It’s no joke delivering packages in this part of Texas without A/C. Being under the 120-degree sun for hours on end, it starts to feel more like we’re driving ovens than trucks. The back of our cabs can get up to 20 degrees hotter than the temperature outside – hot enough to cook an egg in a few minutes.

At that level of heat, your kidneys shut down. Your body loses its ability to cool itself through sweating. You can die.

Last year, I saw firsthand how real that threat is. After a long day, I was getting close to the end of my route when I started feeling horrible. I contacted UPS management to let them know I was experiencing symptoms of heat exhaustion. They told me to drive to our facility. It was on the way back that I passed out and crashed my truck.

I had hoped my experience might be a wake-up call to UPS about the extreme dangers we face in the scorching sun. But it seems I was wrong, as the company has done nothing meaningful to protect us from the heat since we ratified our historic contract.

This shouldn’t even be a problem UPS drivers have to worry about at this point. In 2023, our Teamsters national agreement included a legal guarantee that UPS would install new trucks and vans with A/C and retrofit old trucks with ventilation systems.

Yet, it’s been almost two years since we signed that contract, and UPS is failing to keep up its side of the deal. The company has delivered barely any trucks with A/C to our facility, and we’ve heard the same from fellow Teamsters across the country.

There is nothing that can explain this besides UPS’s corporate greed and selfishness. They are failing to fulfill their obligation so they can save a few extra bucks. In the meantime, drivers are suffering, and the problem is only getting worse as the summer heat sets in.

When I think back to my accident, I can’t believe how lucky I was. That crash easily could’ve killed me or other innocent drivers and passengers. But who’s to say how long luck is going to win out? How many more lives does UPS need to endanger before they finally get their act together and deliver the protections we need from the heat?

For the sake of every UPS Teamster and anyone else on the road, let’s hope the answer to that question is zero. Rest assured, if UPS management keeps dragging its feet on A/C delivery, over 340,000 UPS Teamsters are ready to do whatever it takes to finally make it a reality.