UPS driver marks 25 years of accident-free driving

The year was 1990.

East and West Germany were coming back together, the Internet was first getting its legs as a global tool of communication, and William Lelievre of Whitefish started down the path of a 25-year spotless driving record for United Parcel Service.

From 1990 through 2015 Lelievre never once had a fender bender or even a traffic ticket while on the job.

UPS recently took note of Lelievre’s clean driving record and inducted him into the Circle of Honor. The award is a recognition for 25 years of accident-free driving with the company.

“It’s a pretty good feeling to know you accomplished a goal,” Lelievre said. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t set that for a goal on Day One. But once it got closer... there is just a lot of satisfaction when you achieve a goal.

“And it’s not just accident-free, it’s ticket-free, too,” he pointed out.

Lelievre, a Whitefish resident of 38 years, is the third driver in the Flathead Valley to achieve the honor. He was born in Boston and moved to Great Falls when he was 17. He moved to Whitefish and began working for UPS in 1985.

“You make a good living, and if you’re not afraid of hard work, it’s not bad,” he said.

Lelievre said there are challenges that come along with being at one job for almost 31 years. Overall traffic in Montana has increased, he said, so part of retaining an accident-free status is looking out for other drivers out on the roads. There are also the long work days, especially around the holidays.

He is also keen on staying motivated to get up every day and do his job well.

“The biggest challenge is you can’t afford to get complacent,” he said. “You have to be on your game every day, every minute.”

That might apply more to driving for a package delivery company than other jobs. Not long after Lelievre started with UPS, a woman had a bison head shipped to her Whitefish home during the warmest time of the summer. Simply telling the story reminds him of the foul smell he breathed in after first opening the truck door to reach the package.

“We opened the door and the stench... We had to take it out. It was just a buffalo head in a box and it was disgusting,” he said.

Lelievre said flies swarmed around the exterior of the truck where the bison head had been boxed inside. The woman who shipped the head picked it up in a rented truck to avoid fouling her own vehicle with the funky odor.

Lelievre laughs often when he tells stories about his years on the road. Not long after he began driving, he didn’t account for the height of the truck and struck a three limb. That was when his “days without accident” counter dropped back to zero, and it’s been climbing ever since. He was 31 years old then; he’s 61 years now. Today, he remembers it as a silly accident that could have been easily avoided.

Other memories were more somber.

“There was a moment ... It wasn’t a great moment, but it had a big impact. I was being followed by a guy, looked back and he wasn’t there anymore. He had gone off the road and into a swamp. I went back to help, but he had had a heart attack and died. It was an intense moment. It’s just one of those unexpected things that happen.”

Later that afternoon, Lelievre asked himself: what if the man had driven across three lanes of traffic, possibly killing other people after succumbing to his heart attack?

“You gotta be on your toes all the time. If there’s one thing to pass on to the guys I mentor, the word we use is ‘focus.’ Avoid distractions and make good decisions.

“I think that applied to anything you can think of in life,” he said.

Lelievre is one of the older drivers on staff at the UPS branch in Kalispell. He treats the younger drivers as equals, but still has some advice to hand down from time to time. He’s on the company’s local safety committee that trains new drivers as they enter the company. He likes to let them know what the company expects of them and how to handle any situation — even a smelly bison head.

“I didn’t have this long-term goal when I started. It just went further and further, when I saw it was in sight, it’s almost like planting a tree — the best time to do it was 30 years ago,” he said.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.