Does anyone remember what the "S" in UPS stands for??
- Thread starter Limper
- Start date
Work right slow and safe
Well-Known Member
+1
Limper
Out For Delivery
The Fedex ground driver can talk to my customers for 5 minutes - I say "hi" while I'm
running back to the car. The Fedex driver leaves the appropriate number of dog biscuits next to the package - I mailbox the package if there's a dog anywhere. The Fedex driver has time to talk to my shippers about new business - I get a message to take 20 stops
from a driver in trouble. The Fedex driver is done delivering at 2 and eating his lunch - I still have 75 stops at 2. Sound familiar?
running back to the car. The Fedex driver leaves the appropriate number of dog biscuits next to the package - I mailbox the package if there's a dog anywhere. The Fedex driver has time to talk to my shippers about new business - I get a message to take 20 stops
from a driver in trouble. The Fedex driver is done delivering at 2 and eating his lunch - I still have 75 stops at 2. Sound familiar?
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
705red
Browncafe Steward
You totally missed Limpers point. The post has nothing to do with salaries, but the amount of interaction the smae two people doing the same job but for different companies provide to a customer.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
I posted the salaries to show that the more you make the more they expect out of you.
There is also a fine line between service and BSing. Most of us here are able to provide both service and production at the same time.
705red
Browncafe Steward
By most of us, are you referring to the drivers that take their lunch in the evening or skip it all together? Because most of the drivers that follow the methods and the contract cannot do both.
If your first sentence was correct, why does UPS still ask us for sales leads?
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
By most of us, are you referring to the drivers that take their lunch in the evening or skip it all together? Because most of the drivers that follow the methods and the contract cannot do both.
This has been discussed ad finitum--I won't change your mind nor will you change mine. I don't have much tolerance for lunch skippers, either, but am not as adamant about following contractual lunch times and neither is my mgt team (obviously because it benefits them). All they ask is that we take our full 45 and 10.
If your first sentence was correct, why does UPS still ask us for sales leads?
Are you going to tell me that when you are delivering a bulk stop at a warehouse that you can't ask if they are happy with their current shipping and, if not, would it be OK if someone from UPS BD called them? Or if you are in an office and you notice a pile of FedEx Express outbound envelopes that you don't ask for a business card for the office manager while making the delivery? Sales leads are simply looking around while you are at a stop and then asking for a contact name and phone number. We are not there to sell the business.
It would be nice and I do agree with Limper that more customer contact would help us grow as a company but both you and I know that, if anything, our limited customer contact will be reduced, not increased, as production demands continue to increase.
This has been discussed ad finitum--I won't change your mind nor will you change mine. I don't have much tolerance for lunch skippers, either, but am not as adamant about following contractual lunch times and neither is my mgt team (obviously because it benefits them). All they ask is that we take our full 45 and 10.
If your first sentence was correct, why does UPS still ask us for sales leads?
Are you going to tell me that when you are delivering a bulk stop at a warehouse that you can't ask if they are happy with their current shipping and, if not, would it be OK if someone from UPS BD called them? Or if you are in an office and you notice a pile of FedEx Express outbound envelopes that you don't ask for a business card for the office manager while making the delivery? Sales leads are simply looking around while you are at a stop and then asking for a contact name and phone number. We are not there to sell the business.
It would be nice and I do agree with Limper that more customer contact would help us grow as a company but both you and I know that, if anything, our limited customer contact will be reduced, not increased, as production demands continue to increase.
1989
Well-Known Member
It is sad that the union doesn't fix this. It has corrected this poor behavior by it's members in other places, along with drivers working off the clock. All with no change in dispatch.
Limper
Out For Delivery
You're right Red! This has nothing to do with salaries. I'm at the PCM when the Fedex driver is at his first stop. I'm ringing doorbells at 7:30 while the Fedex driver
is back at the hub. Who is providing the service? I remember hearing BD people years ago saying about leads - "Get me a lead - I'll talk to your center manager about lowering
your stop count or putting some lost time back on your time card!" Where did that go?
Coldworld
60 months and counting
And to top it off, fedex management doesnt seem to be out on 3 day rides, or hiding out in the bushes, or their drivers being way over dispatched or cutting out half of a centers cars...but for some weird reason which amazes everyone they seem to make a profit year after year,,,hmmmmm, and ups tells everyone they have to do this because they need to make a profit. Anyone care to explain this???
Coldworld
60 months and counting
I have actually on many occasions have customers at home become angry at ups(not me) on why Im knocking on a door at 800 trying to get a sig for a bottle of wine. It seems that I rarely hear a customer say, "geez, thanks for staying out so late so you can bring me that parcel.." hell, most time I dont even get a thank you from them when they comeout to retrieve the pkg at 745. Its so interesting in regards to service in general, ups is the first to "sell" customers the relationship between them and the driver, the friendly, alert, reliable, caring professional, but are the first ones to downplay this relationship also. this company gets go caught up with ALL of the tiny things that they arent paying attention to the big story. I know of no other company that micromanages as ups does...can someone think of one. Sure companies have to cut costs like any other, especially in tough times but many of the things that are beat upon upsers are non monetary, and it just breeds mistrust and anger on both sides. Ups says they have to do what theyre doing now because of the economy and competition from fedex, but they were doing these types of things when they had double digit growth and no fedex. Trust is the foundation of teamwork and there is for sure a HUGE lack of trust with this company.
1989
Well-Known Member
More profit equals growth. Lower or stagnant profit equals contraction. Happens at all companies.
Coldworld
60 months and counting
Thats an interesting statement. Profit =growth..who decides how much grow is healthy. At what point in ups history has there been an extended period of contraction. Sometimes growth means getting more packages from your competition, which can be done using many different ways including drivers and drivers management teams.
1989
Well-Known Member
Typically more packages equals more profit, but if it doesn't, your business model may be flawed. I believe 2009 was a contraction year for UPS. And somehow UPS wheathered the storm. If UPS has lower profits, or god forbid, a quarterly loss there will be less people working. In the end, the golden rule always apply.
705red
Browncafe Steward
Hey company boy, you yourself knows that the union cannot tell the company how to run its business. However when they attempt to discipline someone for not taking a lunch or a shortened lunch the union has to get involved, as we have here. I have a grievance asking that the company enforce the 1 hour lunch during the proper hours, guess what? deadlocked at panel, the company wont agree to it. Eventually an arbitrator will. How come someone so gifted to this company as you are is only still a package car driver?
705red
Browncafe Steward
Than why are we laying off and jamming more work on the trucks? Its obvious that we are growing yet we have less employees and more overtime. When I delivered after dark, I always got a signature, I felt it was too unsafe just to leave a package outside overnight.
Coldworld
60 months and counting
ups had done better than most companies the last year, some of that was pushing us harder, some of it was other factors. Injuries are up in my neck of the woods, maybe the climate of ups recently has caused some of this maybe not. In 2009, every week numbers were being thrown around about why routes were being cut, volume down 13% from year earlier, etc. In 2010, Nothing has been said and routes are still being cut, and the stops per car have gone up, the allowance had been lowered, and injuries are up. I recall fedex having a nosedive, but it was pretty much business as usual from what I heard from drivers that I know. Ups has been freaking out and that is stating it mildly...now it seems that volume has been going up and it will be interesting to see next quarters numbers..if they are anywhere near last quarters I believe the recovery is here, at least for the business is concerned. The thing that has been an eye opener for many is the way people have been treated around the company the last year, and still being treated...and Im not talking about joe union who doesent feel complete unless hes filing 10 grievances a day, I dont have to get into it you read it everyday here....it doesnt make for a climate of trust and co-operation.
