Do preloaders get in trouble for misleads?

[The Blackadder]

I am on my 7th preloader since about april. The most misloads I have had in that period is 8, that was the day a part time sup. loaded my car, I assume he was giving a warning letter for the more then 20 misloads he had on the 4 cars he loaded.

 

[menotyou]

So, I am lying? Stop down to Black River UPS and ask Tommy, Scott, or John. Paul is retired. Thanks for thinking I am a liar.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Never said that--I simply find your story hard to believe. What are the odds that you would have four drivers at the same stop sign at the same time?

 

[menotyou]

With the walking di#%stick as a dispatcher, anything can happen.

 

[upsman68]

Add/cuts that do not make it to your car, while technically misloads, are not really misloads and should fall out of EDD when the driver the work was cut from delivers them.

I disagree with you about the "out of syncs"--while these are not the preloader's fault if they were checking both the PAL and physical address they would be caught before being loaded.

Pre loaders load by the Pal not the physical address on the package. Some loaders load up to the three cars at a time. If I have a misload I try to run it before calling it in. I like my preloader and I know they are not perfect. I don't want him to get in trouble. I will tell him about it the next day. If he does a great job all week I will bring him breakfast on Friday Also I have the phone numbers of the drivers that are close to me and I call them so we can meet to exchange misloads.

 

[brownmonster]

Pre loaders load by the Pal not the physical address on the package. Some loaders load up to the three cars at a time. If I have a misload I try to run it before calling it in. I like my preloader and I know they are not perfect. I don't want him to get in trouble. I will tell him about it the next day. If he does a great job all week I will bring him breakfast on Friday Also I have the phone numbers of the drivers that are close to me and I call them so we can meet to exchange misloads.

I do not disagree with what you do but you are in effect hiding the misload problem from mgmnt. They need to know exactly how many mistakes are made so they can fix their fail proof system or at least staff enough people to make it work.

 

[705red]

Dave your being a little hard on the preloaders now. Its not an easy job! They now have to load more work on to the trucks with routes being cut out, they start much later than they did even 5 years ago and have less time to load more packages. Many of them work in areas that are backed up all day with packages. They do try to do their best and in many cases of misloads others have missed those packages. So why should blame fall on the preloader? You have the spa person, the sorter, the pick off etc.

UPS is crying that its costing them money because of service failures but this is their own fault in many ways. They stried saving money by starting the preload later. Back in the day before PAS/EDD the cars next to you were in your area so you easily could make an attempt on the packages. Now the routes next to you are on the other side of the state.

Sober is also right, singling out that employee for all to see is a contract violation which I have filed and won many times. People have bad days and humans make errors, just look at some of the stupid **** some Sups do.

 

[menotyou]

Pre loaders load by the Pal not the physical address on the package. Some loaders load up to the three cars at a time. If I have a misload I try to run it before calling it in. I like my preloader and I know they are not perfect. I don't want him to get in trouble. I will tell him about it the next day. If he does a great job all week I will bring him breakfast on Friday Also I have the phone numbers of the drivers that are close to me and I call them so we can meet to exchange misloads.

Three trucks?!?!? Holy crap, you guys have it easy! Two weeks ago, two people had to load 6 and 1/2trucks each!!! Imagine if they had staggered breaks!

 

[soberups]

I do not disagree with what you do but you are in effect hiding the misload problem from mgmnt. They need to know exactly how many mistakes are made so they can fix their fail proof system or at least staff enough people to make it work.

Its called "tough love" and its often just as tough on the person giving it as it is on the one receiving it.

The overwhelming majority of service issues at UPS are self-inflicted. They have nothing to do with issues that are beyond the company's control, and everything to do with the impossible expectations that are placed upon us by those who claim to "manage" us.

We can complain to management until we are blue in the face, but most of the time they either cannot or will not listen. Often times, the only way we can force them to start making rational decisions is to allow an impossible situation to fail. When the conseqeunces of that failure (service failures, missed stops etc.) cant be hidden or are too painful to ignore, the necessary changes will eventually be made. When we "prop up" an impossible situation by skipping our lunches or making dispatch decisions with other drivers via cell phone, we are enabling that situation to continue.

In a perfect world it wouldnt be this way, and as drivers we would be able to bring our concerns to the attention of a rational decision maker who had the power to solve the problem. But there arent any rational decision-makers available at the center level any more, and it is a complete waste of time to complain to a puppet.

 

[ORLY!?!]

Three trucks?!?!? Holy crap, you guys have it easy! Two weeks ago, two people had to load 6 and 1/2trucks each!!! Imagine if they had staggered breaks!

It depends on how those three cars are like. I have three cars, each can get anywhere from 350 on to 400 a night. All buisness, packages are large, heavy or both. A lot of the times its blown out front to back. Six cars would imply they are home deliveries. Most of those types of cars never have anything on the floor, its all bulked onto the shelves.

Lately they have been writing preloaders up for one missload. A kid a few months ago got 1200 packages and one missload and they wrote him up.

 

[menotyou]

It depends on how those three cars are like. I have three cars, each can get anywhere from 350 on to 400 a night. All buisness, packages are large, heavy or both. A lot of the times its blown out front to back. Six cars would imply they are home deliveries. Most of those types of cars never have anything on the floor, its all bulked onto the shelves. Lately they have been writing preloaders up for one missload. A kid a few months ago got 1200 packages and one missload and they wrote him up.

One of the six and one half trucks for one was the mall. The next two are for downtown. Next, fort drum. I what I am speaking about. Our Preload is one for the record books. Be thankful you don't work in Watertown and are represented by 687!

 

[menotyou]

By the way, joshua's last four are 1400's so packed he has to store stuff under the belt for a return trip or shuttle out.

 

[ORLY!?!]

One of the six and one half trucks for one was the mall. The next two are for downtown. Next, fort drum. I what I am speaking about. Our Preload is one for the record books. Be thankful you don't work in Watertown and are represented by 687!

We are 385.

I've loaded cars for malls before, not too bad. A lot large boxes, not too heavy ( packages ) though. I would love to hear amounts though.

Most buildings specializes in one or two things. Ours, on one side of the center, specializes in about 20. We got old town, disney, international drive, Florida mall, west oaks mall, universal studios, down town Orlando, Orlando convention center, Kissimmeee, Windermere ( god those people have money ), Motels with convention centers, Banks of central Florida.. just to name a few.

 

[soberups]

My route is loaded outside the building in an MDU, which is basically a 54-foot trailer with a conveyor belt running down the middle of it and 5 openings on each side for package cars to park against. There is a belt that runs from the sort aisle out through a hole in the wall of the building to the MDU.

Any preloader that is assigned to load in an MDU like mine has been set up to fail. The MDU is narrow, overcrowded and poorly lit. There are no stack tables for bulk routes, and the design of the belt is such that it isnt possible to store much bulk underneath it. The hole in the wall of the building that the belt comes out of is too small for irregs, so there are frequent jams. Large irregs must be loaded on a cart, wheeled out to the man door at the end of the MDU, dragged up the stairs, and pushed against the flow of the belt to the car they are supposed to be loaded into. And to make matters worse (for me) my route is parked in the first spot so anything coming down the belt for me has to be loaded immediately to keep it from blowing by. What I usually wind up with is a "fling job" which means that my preloader pretty much flings the packages into a pile on the middle of the floor since there isnt room to stack them anywhere.

The bottom line is that poor load quality isnt the fault of whatever 19 yr old kid happens to be assigned to my route on a given day. Our fine I.E. department has made a business decision that paying me $45 an hour on OT to fight a bad load and run around shagging misloads is more cost-effective than letting a $11 per hour preloader stay on the clock for a few extra minutes in a properly designed work area. Who am I to argue with their superior wisdom?

 

[menotyou]

We are 385. I've loaded cars for malls before, not too bad. A lot large boxes, not too heavy ( packages ) though. I would love to hear amounts though. Most buildings specializes in one or two things. Ours, on one side of the center, specializes in about 20. We got old town, disney, international drive, Florida mall, west oaks mall, universal studios, down town Orlando, Orlando convention center, Kissimmeee, Windermere ( god those people have money ), Motels with convention centers, Banks of central Florida.. just to name a few.

Watertown is the county seat. Fort Drum is our army base. The 6.5 trucks Josh loaded that day average 350-450 pcs. The last 4 trucks average 180 stops per trucks. No one truck is just business. We have 4 trucks to service the city, 2 to cover drum. It is summer and we have he St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. People frommall over the world move here for the summer. Every truck is blown out. No one gets home before 8. Come o up and load any day. They love fresh meat. By the way, that's how they treat you. No one understands hell to you work at Black River! We, also, have the largest delivery area in NYS.

 

[menotyou]

And, Sober's MDU sounds like our building. No carts, no tables, no place to put bulk. Can't keep under belt because they are usually storing the resi's under it for the shuttle out(by on-car) after you make room in truck because it won't fit otherwise. And, the reason I pointed out Upstate's not working Preload, is because it changes your perspective if you work the shift rather than just view it at the end of day.

 

[dupa]

i stopped the check your load by noon for misload very quickly. Go to other work, sort load skilled find a shady area , set up entire car, roughly 15 to 20 mins that will show as time on them and not on me. dont get asked anymore, you want me to sort my load its on you not me.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Watertown is the county seat. Fort Drum is our army base. The 6.5 trucks Josh loaded that day average 350-450 pcs. The last 4 trucks average 180 stops per trucks. No one truck is just business. We have 4 trucks to service the city, 2 to cover drum. It is summer and we have he St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. People frommall over the world move here for the summer. Every truck is blown out. No one gets home before 8. Come o up and load any day. They love fresh meat. By the way, that's how they treat you. No one understands hell to you work at Black River! We, also, have the largest delivery area in NYS.

6.5 cars at 350/car equals 2275 pkgs and at 450/car equals 2925 pkgs. My preloader loads 3 cars and on a busy day may load 1200 pkgs. Your math doesn't add up--I have to call BS again.

 

[menotyou]

Ask Brian R., one of our trustees who happens to be a driver. One of the drivers in the other half of the 6.5 trucks. Thanks, again for thinking I would lie on a website when basically I have nothing to prove as it didn't involve me at all.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

The math simply doesn't add up. To do this the preload would have to be an 8 hour shift.