At what point is it "too late" to be making deliveries?

[over9five]

Oh yeah my first day back in pkg. in like 5 months...

What made you come back now? They'll be adding temps in a couple weeks.

 

[DS]

Made my last stop at 2017 yesterday still had a half hour drive back to bldg...This is in rual area making dels. to highway address just seems totally unsafe and unprofessional...


Oh yeah my first day back in pkg. in like 5 months...

If that's your truck in your avatar you may want to change it

 

[over9five]

If that's your truck in your avatar you may want to change it

Aint his truck no more!

 

[NEFARIOUS]

I'm still just a cover driver in feeders but yeah thats the truck I drive the most. I didnt have a choice to fall back into pkg. just no drivers on vacation right now. Why would I want to change the pic??

 

[over9five]

I'm still just a cover driver in feeders but yeah thats the truck I drive the most. I didnt have a choice to fall back into pkg. just no drivers on vacation right now. Why would I want to change the pic??

I think DS is worried about you losing your BC anonymity. Remember, UPS monitors this site.

 

[brownedout]

Many, too too many, later than 9:00 PM deliveries this past spring, summer,fall. I don't so much feel unsafe, but I sure feel like an a##, especially delivering to those with pre-schoolers. I usually don't ring a bell after 8 unless absolutely necessary, but I'll never get out of habit of tapping horn while pulling up (nor should I). I've had lots of people complain about time of deliveries this year. I tell them call 1-800-PICK UPS and tell them. They respond I don't want to get you in trouble. If I were getting in trouble would I tell you to call? I suppose with peak coming, and lunches mandated between 12 and 4 its going to get ALOT worse before it gets better.

 

[formermanager]

This is why I CHOSE to leave after 15 years. Unrealistic goals and being forced to lie to drivers!!!

 

[UPS Lifer]

This is why I CHOSE to leave after 15 years. Unrealistic goals and being forced to lie to drivers!!!

I was a manager for 20 plus years... lying was not in my job description. It is probably a good thing you CHOSE to leave!

 

[Rebrak24]

Theoretically, one can accept that the business hours are when you expect a delivery. People with common sense aren't sitting at their doorstep after 8 pm waiting on a package unless they're on top of the tracking#. When the sun sets I consider it the next day any ways.

 

[MobileBA]

I would say it's too late to deliver when the light's are out. That's a bit of sarcasm but really it depends on the area and sunset. My question is was the driver on a log book? My understanding is if you work over 12hours you need a log book of hours worked, regardless if you're a cdl driver.

 

[fxdwg]

I think this Thread is approaching its end........

 

[deleted9]

I spoke with a driver yesterday who had worked 14 hours on Thursday. He was making residential deliveries at 10:00 at night, and he brought missed stops back to the building at 10:45 PM.

This is pretty much routine for the train wreck of a center I have been transferred to. Some idiot in Atlanta has mandated an impossible stops-per-car metric for this center, so our management--oops, I mean puppets---have no choice but to dispatch 12, 13 or even 14-hour days.

So my question is----at what point does it become unprofessional and downright unsafe to be making residential deliveries at night? Is it really an acceptable business practice to be knocking on doors, going into back yards or garages, or waking people up at 10:00 at night in order to deliver packages?

The only time I have ever delivered that late was on New Years Eve of 2008 when we were recovering from the worst snow storms this area had seen in 100 years and we had a 2 week backlog of undelivered peak volume. It was understandable under those circumstances, and being New Years Eve most people were awake anyway.

But this isnt peak season, its September. And its not the weather, its management incompetence.

Walking thru peoples back yards at 10:00 at night is a good way to get shot in some of the rural areas I deliver to. At what point is it time to just "call it a night" and sheet the stops as missed?

When your instructed to do so....... not your call
A 14 hour dispatch = a lot of stops...... not likely
i think you mean it took him 14 hours to complete....... that sounds more like what happened..... i could be wrong though

 

[speeddemon]

10 is too damn late to be delivering boxes. Put some routes in you idiots.

 

[Coldworld]

I don't think any driver should be delivering past 7 PM. In fact, I was never really comfortable with that number. When a driver is delivering to a residential area during dinner time and after.... we have reached the point that customers feel uncomfortable answering the door which makes it unprofessional. As soon as it starts getting dark a driver's safety starts entering into play and it continues to become an over-riding factor as the time progresses. Fatigue also sets in.

That being said, it is the responsibility and obligation of the management team to make sure that each driver is dispatched accordingly. If a driver is over-dispatched then a plan should be put in place to bring help to that driver. After 7 PM deliveries should be done with ONLY the safety of the driver in mind. I would put 2 drivers on the car if necessary.

If there was an emergency condition such as weather or late air then ALL drivers participate. It is my feeling that drivers should all be coming back to the barn within 1/2 hour of each other. No more than 1 hour should separate the 1st driver in and the last driver in. BTW - this included peak season as well.

This was a pet-peeve of mine when I was a driver, and it carried right on through my years as a package center manager. "Once upon a time", there was a concept that on road time should be no more than 9.2 hours and that the paid day should not exceed 9.5 hours. It is a REAL shame that it has evolved past that. I did not respect other managers who did not care about getting their drivers back to the building at a reasonable time. I could never forgive myself, if something happened to one of my drivers because of a dispatching problem that I or one of my supervisors had control over.

I have always believed that for every challenge there is a solution. I used to fight tooth and nail for what I believed in, I just don't think that happens today.

lifer, dont know how long youve been gone from ups but if you came back you probably would recognize things....

 

[Coldworld]

10 is too damn late to be delivering boxes. Put some routes in you idiots.

Not sure why everybody is do up in arms about this....after all its ups were talking about here. They could absolutely care less about any of us...period.

 

[UPS Lifer]

lifer, dont know how long youve been gone from ups but if you came back you probably would recognize things....

I am assuming you meant wouldn't recognize things. I left in 2007. In 2005, I had an operation with 33 or 34 PT supervisors reporting to my full timers. When I started in 2000, I had 19. I was able to justify 14 more supervisors in 2 years. When I got my retirement job in 2005, it only took the division manager 4 months to move 7 supervisors and and the operation went down to 23 in less than a year. My last job had me working with package centers, hub, preload, local sort and airport operations, so I got to see what was going on in all aspects of the operation. Some buildings had drivers working late and other buildings didn't. This was also the same with individual centers within a division or building.
The one thing I did notice was most centers had inexperienced managers running the centers and that is where a lot of your problems stem from.

I don't think I would be surprised by what I would see today. In every occupation, there are folks who know how to work the system and there are those who get worked over by the system.

All I am saying is a management team that can show justification for what they do with facts, figures, common sense and cost reduction will probably have pretty solid ground under them and make a good case for doing the right thing and should not worry about retaliation. On the other hand, a management team that just follows the policy set forth by upper management will not only get frustrated at some point but will be unwilling (or afraid) to challenge or justify a different position. I am sure that most of you will contend that this is more the norm in each center.

 

[Coldworld]

I am assuming you meant wouldn't recognize things. I left in 2007. In 2005, I had an operation with 33 or 34 PT supervisors reporting to my full timers. When I started in 2000, I had 19. I was able to justify 14 more supervisors in 2 years. When I got my retirement job in 2005, it only took the division manager 4 months to move 7 supervisors and and the operation went down to 23 in less than a year. My last job had me working with package centers, hub, preload, local sort and airport operations, so I got to see what was going on in all aspects of the operation. Some buildings had drivers working late and other buildings didn't. This was also the same with individual centers within a division or building.
The one thing I did notice was most centers had inexperienced managers running the centers and that is where a lot of your problems stem from.

I don't think I would be surprised by what I would see today. In every occupation, there are folks who know how to work the system and there are those who get worked over by the system.

All I am saying is a management team that can show justification for what they do with facts, figures, common sense and cost reduction will probably have pretty solid ground under them and make a good case for doing the right thing and should not worry about retaliation. On the other hand, a management team that just follows the policy set forth by upper management will not only get frustrated at some point but will be unwilling (or afraid) to challenge or justify a different position. I am sure that most of you will contend that this is more the norm in each center.

When you could loose your job by challenging a higher level decision, there is no incentive to say anything. Aren't these discussions about operational decisions a give and take approach between center level and division/district mgrs. So much focus and energy is consumed by dealing with adding or cutting those 2 cars on a daily basis...

 

[whiskey]

I guess it's to late to deliver when safety is compromised.

 

[satellitedriver]

I am assuming you meant wouldn't On the other hand, a management team that just follows the policy set forth by upper management will not only get frustrated at some point but will be unwilling (or afraid) to challenge or justify a different position. I am sure that most of you will contend that this is more the norm in each center.

It is not just the norm, it -(fear)- is the required motivation these days.
Lifer, if I had managers with your old school integrity I would "keep on truckin"' for years, but sadly, I will leave next year.
It has gotten ridiculous.