driver helper
- Thread starter jljgreene
- Start date
Re-Raise
Well-Known Member
It has its advantages physically because your helper can do a lot of the deliveries while you sort the truck. The disadvantages are that you get a lot more work on your route, and you have to think for two people instead of just doing it yourself.
Personally it is a little exhausting carrying on a conversation with someone all day when I am used to being by myself and thinking about my next deliveries. You also are responsible for everything your helper does so you have to explain what you expect them to do at each delivery if they have limited UPS experience.
It is a luxury to have a helper with delivery experience who is familiar with the DIAD and driver release procedure. Most of the helpers just slow me down and kill my dispatch allowance.
Personally it is a little exhausting carrying on a conversation with someone all day when I am used to being by myself and thinking about my next deliveries. You also are responsible for everything your helper does so you have to explain what you expect them to do at each delivery if they have limited UPS experience.
It is a luxury to have a helper with delivery experience who is familiar with the DIAD and driver release procedure. Most of the helpers just slow me down and kill my dispatch allowance.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
Yes.
Think about it--you are used to working by yourself and have your own routine and then they give you a helper and you are supposed to do more work in the same amount of time with someone you don't know and who will only be there for a few weeks and is making less than 1/3 of what you are making.
I have learned that it is crucial to set the tone the minute he steps on the pkg car. Tell him what you expect but also tell him that you are not asking him to do anything that you would not do yourself. I am a non-smoker so there is no smoking in the pkg car. Lose the cell phone--you are here to work, not text. Try to use the rest room while making a delivery at a place that has one. Cross behind the pkg car. Walk briskly but do not run.
I will be using the same helper as last year. He knows the DIAD and is really trying to get in to UPS so he busts his butt. It took a few days for me to get him to put the cell phone away but now that I have him "trained" I know that it will be a smooth Peak.
Keep in mind that your hours are dictated by the center, not the driver. We are told before we leave or shortly thereafter how long we can keep you. One day I was told 45 minutes. I called the center and asked if he could work with someone else and they took care of it.
There are some drivers and helpers who simply cannot work together. This is why they always ask us to find someone first before they assign someone to us.
I run a rural route and they always insist on giving me a helper. I complain every year because it doesn't raise my SPORH. My impression is that most drivers enjoy working alone. Helpers are useful on a metro route; especially if they can use a DIAD. But personally, I would rather work alone. Whether you have one or not you are going to work 12 hours. If you want to be useful, learn the DIAD, stay off the phone and pay close attention to your driver's instructions. If your planning on driving someday you can learn alot as a helper. It will also help you become a better loader because you will see how the driver sorts and selects packages.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
I run a rural route and they always insist on giving me a helper.
Helpers on a rural route make no sense.
Whether you have one or not you are going to work 12 hours.
Not true. I punched out the same time during this Peak as I did during the rest of the year.
If you want to be useful, learn the DIAD, stay off the phone and pay close attention to your driver's instructions.
Good advice.
If your planning on driving someday you can learn alot as a helper.
Good advice.
It will also help you become a better loader because you will see how the driver sorts and selects packages.
This was true pre-PAS.
Helpers on a rural route make no sense.
Whether you have one or not you are going to work 12 hours.
Not true. I punched out the same time during this Peak as I did during the rest of the year.
If you want to be useful, learn the DIAD, stay off the phone and pay close attention to your driver's instructions.
Good advice.
If your planning on driving someday you can learn alot as a helper.
Good advice.
It will also help you become a better loader because you will see how the driver sorts and selects packages.
This was true pre-PAS.
dilligaf
IN VINO VERITAS
Not liking to have helpers and not getting helpers are 2 different things. I don't like having a helper.
brownmonster
Man of Great Wisdom
Helpers are dispatch killers. If you run bonus, you wont with a helper. I usually dont get one but we have a new regime at our building so I might this year. Our volume is so low right now and we still have a few helpers working.
dilligaf
IN VINO VERITAS
PAS or no PAS I think jumping on a rte, especially one that you load is a very very good idea. And I do believe that it helps if the loader/jumper pays attention. It is a great frustration to me because a loader does not understand that a long tube that is buried at the back of the shelf for a later del is placed with the label away from the bulkhead door and I have to pull it out to see where it is going. This is just one trick that I learned from a senior driver while I was preloading. Mgt did not teach me to preload, my drivers did.
brownrodster
Well-Known Member
I always prefer to not have a helper. But almost everyone in my center gets one for at least the last couple weeks before christmas.
hurricanegunner
UPSPoop
I'd rather not have a helper. You have more time to sort, but you also have a lot more deliveries. And I'm tired of management holding drivers responsible for helper's mistakes. In our center, they do not teach helpers how to use a diad. They expect us to do that. Donkey Danish! We have 300 stops on the truck. We don't have time to teach them how to use a diad.
barnyard
KTM rider
I learned 12 different routes in my center when I was a helper. That came in handy when I started driving. Last year, I was able to scratch most days that I had a helper. Until the very last week before Christmas, I was under 9.5 everyday. My helper's wife had a baby the weekend before Christmas, so I did the route alone the rest of the season.
tracker2762
Well-Known Member
Last week a driver ran 2 hours under with a helper. Don't ask how he just does this all year long and he's been driving almost 30 years. More power to him.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
I'd be willing to bet they adjust his helper hours next week.
whiskey
Well-Known Member
To justify having a helper, you pretty much have to double your SPORH. That cancels out us old timers, who still swear there is only one steering wheel in the iron.
MC4YOU2
Wherever I see Trump, it smells like he's Putin.
I, like most prefer no helper. The plan here changes each year, and so some years I go solo and some I get stuck with a helper. I believe company wide we will see more helpers for longer this year, if only to utilize laid off drivers.
We had a guy years back who ran -3.00 hrs or so all through peak. His helper learned how to expertly run the diad, and (before pas) how to set up the shelves, and how to work standing up in the back while the driver drove from stop to stop. Driver never had to get up, just drive to the next stop, and he was punching off around 6PM all through peak!
Yes you can bonus big time with a helper, just like you can solo. But you can't do it safely or by using the methods. If you see big unbelievable numbers like those, it's not rocket science, it's usually cheating.
NHDRVR
Well-Known Member
Yeah, it's true..
Why would I want to babysit someone on car all day. I can't take care of myself...
Big Babooba
Well-Known Member
I was yelling at mine to fasten his seat belt! Try explaining a dead helper to your center manager. Uh...we hit a big bump.....uh.....The bulkhead door flew open as hit seat belt failed and he flew into the back....uh.....and he was buried by all the boxes that fell to the floor.....yeah!.....that's it!......that's how it happened.......honest!
JustTired
free at last.......
I generally would rather work alone. Having said that......
I had an area that was 70% rural. I would meet my helper around noon. We would do the in-town deliveries (where both of us could deliver at the same time for the most part). Then, if they wanted to make some money (which was the case most of the time), I would take them into the rural andrun the crap out of it. They would deliver while I set up for the next stop. Then I would use them to help with my pickups and then release them. What would have taken me about 11 hrs by myself, we were getting done and off the clock in 9 hrs.
I caught hell for keeping them so long until I explained that it was actually saving them money ( using real figures). Funny that when you can show them on paper the actual figures, what a difference it makes. They let me go from then on and not a word was said. Of course, I'm sure the reports didn't reflect those real savings.
Anyway...it's all a distant memory now. Becoming more distant by the day. And I like it.......
I had an area that was 70% rural. I would meet my helper around noon. We would do the in-town deliveries (where both of us could deliver at the same time for the most part). Then, if they wanted to make some money (which was the case most of the time), I would take them into the rural andrun the crap out of it. They would deliver while I set up for the next stop. Then I would use them to help with my pickups and then release them. What would have taken me about 11 hrs by myself, we were getting done and off the clock in 9 hrs.
I caught hell for keeping them so long until I explained that it was actually saving them money ( using real figures). Funny that when you can show them on paper the actual figures, what a difference it makes. They let me go from then on and not a word was said. Of course, I'm sure the reports didn't reflect those real savings.
Anyway...it's all a distant memory now. Becoming more distant by the day. And I like it.......
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