Going the extra mile Local UPS driver puts safety first for 25-plus years
Chip Orbin, left, and John Lojas talk trucking at the UPS terminal in Chartiers Township.
Chip Orbin has delivered 25 years of accident-free driving for UPS.
Chip Orbin is a millionaire. He has driven an estimated 750,000 miles for UPS and perhaps that many off-duty during his lifetime.
That’s about a million and a half on the roads, mostly on Western Pennsylvania roads in Western Pennsylvania weather with Western Pennsylvania hills, valleys, mountains, S-curves and potholes.
Yet, when there’s an opportunity to relinquish the wheel outside of work, he won’t.
“I don’t let anyone drive,” Orbin said, chortling. “I’m not a good passenger.”
But he is good behind the wheel – exceptional, actually. Orbin, of Washington, was inducted recently into the company’s Circle of Honor, an accolade bestowed upon drivers with 25-plus years accident-free. He is among 24 statewide, including six in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and 1,445 in the world so honored this year.
“Think about it – 25 years of safe driving. Some roads are in rural areas that aren’t plowed,” said John Lojas, business manager of the Chartiers Township center, where Orbin starts his workday.
He is proud to be in the circle, which also includes co-workers Mike Rogers and John Fidazzo. “This is an honor. Not everyone hits (25 years).”
Orbin, 48, has had the Waynesburg route for nearly a dozen years, serving the borough and the area surrounding it. His workday begins at 8 a.m., earlier than many drivers at his center because of the distance to the Greene County seat. He said he travels 100 to 150 miles daily with 120 to 150 deliveries or pickups. He lifts as many as 300 packages in a shift, and a package can weigh as much as 150 pounds.
“This is like my portable gym,” he said, standing next to a truck at the North Main Street terminal.
“It’s not like you’re driving from Point A to Point B,” Lojas said. “You pull over and get out maybe 150 times.”
A father of three from North Franklin Township, Orbin is easygoing, outgoing and modest. Call him John, his birth name, and he politely says, “I usually go by Chip. Nobody knows me as John.”
His demeanor, adherence to company rules and procedures and determination to be on the outlook are integral to his roadside success.
“The big thing is Chip has to watch,” said Lojas, who is new to the North Main center. “It’s not Chip’s driving, it’s other people.”
Other people, indeed. Orbin has seen some interesting sights in this corner of the state.
“I’m driving down I-79 and eight of 10 people who pass me have a phone in their hand. I have to watch if they’re weaving.”
Lojas, who lives in Westmoreland County and knows a lot about the highway, chuckled.
“Twenty years ago, no one had a cellphone,” he said. “Now they do. No one just drives.”
Orbin’s record, and that of every other Circle of Honor honoree, is remarkable considering how fast and/or carelessly some operate a vehicle. Even careful drivers may collide. Not that it hasn’t almost happened to the new local guy in the circle.
“Someone asked recently if I’ve ever had a close call,” Orbin said. “I said I had one today.”
About 15 years ago, his father, John, had more than a close call, one that likely has a bearing on how his son functions on the job. The elder Orbin, an avid motorcyclist, was riding under the speed limit when another commuter turned into him. The father nearly lost a leg and walks with a pronounced limp today.
“He used to race cars in the ’50s and ’60s and didn’t get hurt. Then he takes a leisurely ride and almost gets killed,” said Chip, who also was a cycle devotee but gave up that pursuit following that accident.
This son of a racer almost seemed destined to drive. In fact, he learned early, at age 8, when his father put him on the seat of a tractor. Four decades later, he is being paid to steer – and pick up, drop off.
As with many his age, the younger Orbin was highly uncertain of a career when he graduated from Chartiers- Houston High School. He did attend college for a year, studying data processing, when one idea did crystallize.
“I couldn’t see myself behind a desk all day.” So he left school.
He applied at UPS and was hired in 1986. But because he was 19 and barred from driving until 21, Orbin loaded trucks for two years before moving into the driver’s seat.
Now he is in one full time and enjoying it – always inside an undamaged truck.