dealing with center managers

dudebro

Well-Known Member
UPSgrunt, it IS true. Feeder routes with 1 stop go into the PKG average, and the addition of a feeder route in a typical 50 driver center will require the rest of the drivers to go up by 2 stops per car each to maintain the same average stops per car overall.
The center manager in many cases doesn't have a choice. In my district the region dictated we plan 2 spc over last year for the summer. We were short staffing last year, so paid day and spc were already high, so this is difficult. The response was then fix your overallowed, which is about an hour per driver.
The gutsier center manager's would run drivers over the plan and take the gamble that they could get the SPORH they needed with fewer stops per car, so when they were questioned on dispatch they could respond by pointing out their performance. Sooner or later you were bound to have that "bad day" though, and you got murdered for 'underdispatching'.
This year the staffing was scrutinized and every driver on the "bench" required a justification as well. In these cases, without sending anyone home, the decision on a Tuesday (peak stops) is taken completely out of their hands. They run who they have, and don't get anymore people to do otherwise. That's why when you point out your dispatch on THOSE days, all the guy CAN do is say "sorry". I know a few sadists revel in overdispatching their people, but this summer I had a "discussion" with a managers nose in my mouth probably twice a week about the stops per car plan, and would be accused of trying to kill their people. They don't like it either. This goes on behind closed doors and you drivers may not see much of it, but it happens.

The corporation's position is that we have an hour overallowed per driver on average, so even if half of that is wrong, go get the other half and turn an unreasonable 9.50 paid day into a more reasonable 9.0 paid day, then come talk to me. Maybe it's out there. But that's the "terrain in which we all find ourselves deployed".
 

upsgrunt

Well-Known Member
But what about the compassion, the guilt, the "walk a mile in my shoes", the "treat others as I would like to be treated"- doesn't that ever come into play?:thumbup1:

Whatever the case, Dudebro, you're all right. Thanks for the explanation!
 
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dudebro

Well-Known Member
You drove for 1 year so you think you know the job as good as anyone? Come on! I still encounter things at least on a weekly basis that i have never seen before and i have over 10 years in. Hey i really dont care about the bonus, i would rather see the bonus system eliminated all together, but i do understand that others depend on it so i will leave it at that. So you have 1 year driving and several brain washing classes from ups and thats how we get these almost impossible numbers? Now i can see the formula thats been breaking it off im my rear for some time now. Thanks for the time study explanation.

You're right, I've been around package for 8 years now, I work closely with the drivers, and I DO still learn new things from them through their experience everyday. I never said I knew EVERYTHING, or even MORE than anyone else. I just think I know enough to engage a driver in a reasonable discussion that doesn't waste his/her time, even if in the end he/she doesn't agree with me. I was responding to what I thought was an allegation that I didn't even know what color a package car was or how to spell UPS, so I told everyone what my "qualifications" are.
 

dudebro

Well-Known Member
But what about the compassion, the guilt, the "walk a mile in my shoes", the "treat others as I would like to be treated"- doesn't that ever come into play?:thumbup1:

Whatever the case, Dudebro, you're all right. Thanks for the explanation!

It does. It gets to people. That's why some folks quit, and others have nervous breakdowns at times, and yet others always say "I hate this place" when you ask them how it's going.
I'm not saying we should feel bad about that, we're all adults and make the decision to take the job. But while your manager doesn't take the anywhere near the physical stress you do, he/she only trades that for another kind of stress.
The thing is, the manager is supposed to be in command. Once the arguing behind closed doors is done, they can't appear to have any doubt about executing the plan. You guys wouldn't respect them otherwise...
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
Tonner, exactly how many times have you asked that question?

Far too many times:lol:
But that is the first time I ever got an answer..about package car size....
dudebro, thank you.
My route was studied sometime in the mid 80s I am told, I got it in 2002. And all was well til they took off some heavy industrial, and gave me the hood. and took away the 5.8 secs pp. It was of course done to cut miles, while I used to go 56-60, it now is 70- 80.
They know it needs studied, they have admitted the time allowance must be wrong, especially after my boss and a young guy ran 2.00 late. And the center runner was .5 over even skipping lunch and breaks til days end, to get the business off.
I know there needs to be some measurement, as a guideline, but when its flawed, they should not continue to beat a dead horse when we all know its dead. It doesnt do much for morale, so I just get the attitude every one else gets, as that presently is the only way to survive.
Thanks again for your time.
 

JustTired

free at last.......
Dudebro
Great explanations!
And in a perfect world the formulas might work. But the world of UPS is far from perfect.

Obviously, with the national avg. showing overallowed, something is missing in the formula. Is anybody looking into what that might be? It seems to me that if the avg. overallowed is 1 hr. across the country, it's probably not a fluke. The problem being that drivers are being dispatched by these flawed numbers. And while they really don't have to be concerned with running scratch, it still makes for lousy morale when they know it's taking them 9-9.5 hrs to run an 8 hr dispatch. I'm sure it does nothing for the morale of the sups and center manager either.

When the numbers are attainable, there will be those that try to attain them. When they're not, nobody is going to even try. Seems like a losing situation for the company to keep raising the bar when somebody gets close to clearing it.
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
Boy Just tired, what an excellent post and well thought out. Its exactly how I feel.
On a side note, I thought there was a party for me because yesterday I was scratch, there was a BIG CAKE, OOPS it was founders day.......................
Did I hear one word about making scratch, to make up for all the browbeating I get for being late. NOPE. Not one tiny word, they just gave me 20 more as a thank you.
It was one of those perfect UPS days, no red lights all cods ready, light packages, friendly people, no millions of msgs from the OMS. Just slick. Just slick, and just a very rare day. In the perfect world they would all be like that, they are not. So since I ran scratch, I know I was actually an hour early.
 

govols019

You smell that?
Some days the stops roll off the truck like water. Others days the stops are like rabbits. They multiple when you turn your back.
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
Some days the stops roll off the truck like water. Others days the stops are like rabbits. They multiple when you turn your back.

I have noticed that. Pretty amazing feat. But we get through it, one stop at a time, just like they went in.
 

Coldworld

60 months and counting
I think most of the time on routes are is lost from selection time, and business customer interaction. There is no selection time allowed when you have a bulked out 1200 and your trying to find 10 pieces thrown up in the middle somewhere. And in regards to customers, in the old days customers would drop EVERYTHING to sign for their pkgs so drivers could get to the next stop. Now we have to wait while their on the phone, have to roll a handtruck in a back room where there is crap stacked up all along the path, etc, etc. People just are too busy now to help drivers unload also, the allowance doesnt allow for these types of problems. Even if there was no bonus system, ups would still have these allowances so they can tell us were doing a ****ty job. Its sad that the company is 100 years old and the harrassment still has to go on, its absolutely pathetic.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
.....or someone will look in your [-]truck[/-] car at lunch and say, "It looks worse than when you left the building!"
 

john346

No more Brown!
Our center has been lucky for the last few center manager's, but just got a new one who came in saying he just needed to "coast" two years & retire. He used to work in the center as the loss prevention guy, chaps who used to deal with him as the LP guy said he frequently told them that EVERY driver is a thief, and it was merely a matter of time before he would catch them stealing something. Always lurking about, sneaking peeks in drivers cars after a shift, etc. The Monday following our other center manager's departure, with our new leader at the helm, off came the gloves. Every am we will have a windy pcm, story, after story. I am so fortunate as I live & work fairly far from the center, and meet my load on the highway, and seldom, if never even go the the center for anything. The fellow I meet with my load, told me last week that the new center manager, in his over-length pcm, reflected on one of his achievements in another center as a supervisor. A driver was stopped at a red light in his car, a woman in a pickup came through her green on a tight left turn, her mirror clipped the bonnet of the drivers car. Our guy charged the driver with an accident!! Why? Well he didn't follow thw methods, and failed to communicate with his lights, signals & horn! This is going to be a long two years! How lucky I feel to be so seperated from those poor boys at the center. :sad:
 

705red

Browncafe Steward
You're right, I've been around package for 8 years now, I work closely with the drivers, and I DO still learn new things from them through their experience everyday. I never said I knew EVERYTHING, or even MORE than anyone else. I just think I know enough to engage a driver in a reasonable discussion that doesn't waste his/her time, even if in the end he/she doesn't agree with me. I was responding to what I thought was an allegation that I didn't even know what color a package car was or how to spell UPS, so I told everyone what my "qualifications" are.
Im going to do something i usually dont do, because im never wrong, but i apoligize if i was harsh on you. Im not a big fan of ie like many on here, but i will give you respect you answered everyones questions with respesct and not with the same ego that we see with the average ie guy. Welcome to the cafe, your ok with me (for now)!
 

DS

Fenderbender
I ask you dudepro,is there any one thing we could correspond to the ones that make the big decisions in the comments section of the ERI?
 

NI1

Well-Known Member
My current center manager is probably the best one that I have had in 20 years. He will actually try to work with everyone, sometimes to his own determent. Although when I first met him I did not believe that he would be. I spent 20 to 45 minutes / 3 weeks in the office with him and probationary driver. He had yellow legal pad with 3 pages of single spaced, bulleted and highlighted issues.

In case, someone from corporate is this reading post. He still manages our center this way. Please take him away. We can stand another day with him. ;)

he wont last very long if he is that nice
 

NI1

Well-Known Member
If you want that center manager out of your center, all you need to do is make it look like he is nice when that eri survey comes.:)
 
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