Delivering After 7:00

[soberups]

9:00 PM is my cut off time as well for deliveries that I deem unsafe. I have been told to use the emergency conditions selection in the DIAD. Which I have used numerous times this week. I no longer put myself in harms way just to deliver a package. I have had one to many guns pulled on me. And if they don't like that then they are more than welcome to come get it and deliver it to the trailer sitting a half mile off the road down a rutted out muddy driveway.

The reason you have been told to do this is so that your management team doesnt have to show "missed" packages on the report.

The problem with this is that it is dishonest. By instructing you to sheet the packages as "emergency conditions", your management team is defrauding your customers out of the refund that they would be otherwise entitled to. Failure on the part of your management team to make rational dispatch decisions is not an emergency condition. By sheeting the packages as "missed"(which is what they are) you take away the ability of your management team to hide the service failures that are being caused by their incompetence and you force them to be accountable for those packages, which will in turn force them to make rational dispatch decisions in the future. I have played this game before and won every time; when instructed to scan them as "emergency conditions" I refuse to do so and scan them as "missed" instead. When confronted about it and threatened with discipline, I respond by threatening to file an Art 37 grievance for coercion and oversupervision ( being instucted by management to falsify delivery records is coercion) and they shut the hell up real quick. The only time I ever sheet packages at"emergency conditions" is if there is so much snow on the driveway that I cannot possibly make it up to the house, or if storms have cause trees to fall and block the road. Any use of EC other than for bona fide emergencies is dishonest, and if you want your management team to quit keeping you out until 9:00 then shoving a few missed stops up their ass is the best way to change their behavior and motivate them into making better choices in the future.

 

[Brownslave688]

9:00 PM is my cut off time as well for deliveries that I deem unsafe. I have been told to use the emergency conditions selection in the DIAD. Which I have used numerous times this week. I no longer put myself in harms way just to deliver a package. I have had one to many guns pulled on me. And if they don't like that then they are more than welcome to come get it and deliver it to the trailer sitting a half mile off the road down a rutted out muddy driveway.

The reason you have been told to do this is so that your management team doesnt have to show "missed" packages on the report.

The problem with this is that it is dishonest. By instructing you to sheet the packages as "emergency conditions", your management team is defrauding your customers out of the refund that they would be otherwise entitled to. Failure on the part of your management team to make rational dispatch decisions is not an emergency condition. By sheeting the packages as "missed"(which is what they are) you take away the ability of your management team to hide the service failures that are being caused by their incompetence and you force them to be accountable for those packages, which will in turn force them to make rational dispatch decisions in the future. I have played this game before and won every time; when instructed to scan them as "emergency conditions" I refuse to do so and scan them as "missed" instead. When confronted about it and threatened with discipline, I respond by threatening to file an Art 37 grievance for coercion and oversupervision ( being instucted by management to falsify delivery records is coercion) and they shut the hell up real quick. The only time I ever sheet packages at"emergency conditions" is if there is so much snow on the driveway that I cannot possibly make it up to the house, or if storms have cause trees to fall and block the road. Any use of EC other than for bona fide emergencies is dishonest, and if you want your management team to quit keeping you out until 9:00 then shoving a few missed stops up their ass is the best way to change their behavior and motivate them into making better choices in the future.

Yep many times I have said EC is dishonest u sheet them if you want. Often the reply is "sheet as missed". Lol

 

[browniehound]

I got a delivery tonight sometime after 7. I got home just shy of 8pm and there was a package on the porch. I told the wife, "thanks for bringing that in". She said it wasn't out there when they got home just after 7. So apparently the driver who delivered my place tonight didn't feel like knocking either. And it wasn't a toss and dash. It was placed up against the wall. I know it wasn't a regular driver since most of the regular drivers will abuse the crap out of my bell or door because they know it's my house. LOL.

I don't ring the bell unless I need a signature mainly because then they come out and start talking to you with the tired conversation and questions. You know, things like "ooo present for me!", "what is it?", "I didn't order anything", "is it true UPS doesn't make left hand turns? Ever?", "Is it ticking?" "I want to send a package how do I do that?", etc. I don't have the time or patience for that non-sense anymore and try to avoid it as much as I can by not ringing the doorbell.

 

[browniehound]

You realize it. I realize it. Our customers realize it. The people at the top wondering why we lose volume and don't grow don't. What's wrong with that picture?

The people at the top simply don't get it or choose to ignore how we are perceived by the public and what our reputation really is. They believe we are perceived as having industry leading service provided by well-dressed, clean-cut, courteous and professional drivers that are supervised by people with highest degree of integrity.
The reality is most customers see us as rude a-holes that kick and throw their packages, cut them off in traffic, park where they please who drive and run around like maniacs.
How many times have you heard "you guys are always in a rush" or "get out of the way of the UPS driver he'll get fired if he doesn't finish his route on time"? I think that says it all.
Who wants to be perceived like that? If it were my business I wouldn't want my employees acting like that.


Almost forgot : safety first

 

[browniehound]

The company no longer cares about customer service when it comes to residential deliveries. In the old days (early 90's) if we came back after 7pm we had to have a pretty good explanation.

Today, at 6 pm, drivers in my hub have anywhere between 60 and 100 stops left to deliver. A simple math equation would tell you how many hours of work that is in the dark.

100 stops @ 15 sporh avg. 6.6 hours of work
75 stops @ 15 sporh avg. 5.0 hours of work
50 stops @ 15 sporh avg. 3.3 hours of work
25 stops @ 15 spohr avg. 1.6 hours of work

With these kinds of numbers, UPS continues to overwork its driver force and then wonders why injuries are on the rise. With just 50 stops at 6 pm, another 3.3 hours means the driver would complete the dispatch at 9:15pm before being able to return to the building.

Then, as an added bonus, the routes plan out less than 8.5 hours each despite having 12 hours worth of work on them.

The company clearly doesnt care about its employee's health or safety when it operates in this fashion.

Peace

TOS

Sounds like your delivery area is not that dense. With little effort 50 stops takes me about 1.75 hours to do. Not sure which is better, finishing earlier or taking 3+hours of OT to do 50 stops

 

[soberups]

Sounds like your delivery area is not that dense. With little effort 50 stops takes me about 1.75 hours to do. Not sure which is better, finishing earlier or taking 3+hours of OT to do 50 stops

I average about 10.5 SPORH so 50 stops would normally take me over 4 hours to do in the rural area of my route. Sometimes though when volume is light and a route in my loop gets eliminated I get a cut in a residential subdivision of a nearby town that I can burn off 30 stops an hour in without even breaking a sweat. Thats why I never pay attention to my stop count; its the location of the stops that makes or breaks the day.

 

[Cementups]

I don't ring the bell unless I need a signature mainly because then they come out and start talking to you with the tired conversation and questions. You know, things like "ooo present for me!", "what is it?", "I didn't order anything", "is it true UPS doesn't make left hand turns? Ever?", "Is it ticking?" "I want to send a package how do I do that?", etc. I don't have the time or patience for that non-sense anymore and try to avoid it as much as I can by not ringing the doorbell.

Ringing the doorbell is part of the methods. Plain and simple. And let them ask all the questions they want. The last I checked I was paid by the hour.

 

[Ghost in the Darkness]

I don't ring the doorbell unless I need a signature or its raining.

 

[browniehound]

Ringing the doorbell is part of the methods. Plain and simple. And let them ask all the questions they want. The last I checked I was paid by the hour.

They don't pay me enough per hour to listen the idiots that come to the door. I really don't care if its part of the methods. You're lying if you say you follow the methods 100% of the time.
"get the signature first" is a method. When was the last time you followed that one?

 

[soberups]

They don't pay me enough per hour to listen the idiots that come to the door. I really don't care if its part of the methods. You're lying if you say you follow the methods 100% of the time.
"get the signature first" is a method. When was the last time you followed that one?

Unless I need a signature, I am halfway back to the truck by the time the customer opens the door and the only words I have to listen to are "thank you" or "have a nice day."

The methods, as well as common sense, say that we knock or ring the bell when we release a package. If its too late at night to be ringing, its too late at night to be delivering and at that point just we need to scan the package as "missed" and try again the following day.

 

[Cementups]

I really don't care if its part of the methods. You're lying if you say you follow the methods 100% of the time.

Every delivery I make I honk the horn when I pull up, knock on door AND ring door bell, and as Sober said, I'm either on my way back to the truck or in the seat already by the time the customer gets to the door. And yes, I know I am one of very few drivers who still honk the horn anymore. The only method I don't follow all the time is saying "UPS" upon delivery. The only time I do that is if I ring/knock and I hear people inside with a screen door open and I will alert them verbally that UPS is on the premises.

 

[browniehound]

Unless I need a signature, I am halfway back to the truck by the time the customer opens the door and the only words I have to listen to are "thank you" or "have a nice day."

The methods, as well as common sense, say that we knock or ring the bell when we release a package. If its too late at night to be ringing, its too late at night to be delivering and at that point just we need to scan the package as "missed" and try again the following day.

I hear ya but I get more aggravated when I'm halfway back to the truck and the customer insists I come back to the house for various reasons.
And yes, anytime after 8pm is too late to deliver outside of peak. During peak I can understand delivering after 8 pm but I wouldn't ring any doorbells much past that time