Driver Release Form

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
I have always signed anything put in front of me. I know I am suppose to make sure my deliveries are safe, out of sight and out of weather, and I do.
But recently I got a bunch of crap from a sup, about not getting a sig, or an ID from a guy who with his buddies blocked me in and wanted the pkg. I was not going to leave it, as the house was vacant. It became apparent to me quickly that it was not "just a pkg". AS I walked back to my truck and saw my visitors.
When I relayed the incident, I was told " You get paid good money to verify ID, YOU SIGNED A PAPER SAYING YOU WOULD ASK FOR ID IF NECESSARY, YOU SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST GOT A SIGNATURE, YOU COULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IF THERE IS A CLAIM" Here I was afraid I was going to be a statistic, as I had a car in back of me and a car in front of me backed up to my bumper, and this guy is telling me I should have been a martyr, dying for a cause of delivering a pkg.
So as I was talking to a few people on here about it to see what they would have done, and they agreed I did the right thing. And it was about three days later when my center manager called me in the office, and told me I did the right thing. You give them your keys, your truck, whatever they want. When your life is in danger you dont question them. I was relieved that he told me I was correct to give it up, and see another day. So since then I dont think I will sign it. If I didnt have the decent human being who is my center manager now, I feel this sup may have tried to get me on incorrect DR methods, and go after my job. When he should have been worried more about me, than the package. I was not impressed, and since have been quite disillusioned.
 

Channahon

Well-Known Member
I have always signed anything put in front of me. I know I am suppose to make sure my deliveries are safe, out of sight and out of weather, and I do.
But recently I got a bunch of crap from a sup, about not getting a sig, or an ID from a guy who with his buddies blocked me in and wanted the pkg. I was not going to leave it, as the house was vacant. It became apparent to me quickly that it was not "just a pkg". AS I walked back to my truck and saw my visitors.
When I relayed the incident, I was told " You get paid good money to verify ID, YOU SIGNED A PAPER SAYING YOU WOULD ASK FOR ID IF NECESSARY, YOU SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST GOT A SIGNATURE, YOU COULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IF THERE IS A CLAIM" Here I was afraid I was going to be a statistic, as I had a car in back of me and a car in front of me backed up to my bumper, and this guy is telling me I should have been a martyr, dying for a cause of delivering a pkg.
So as I was talking to a few people on here about it to see what they would have done, and they agreed I did the right thing. And it was about three days later when my center manager called me in the office, and told me I did the right thing. You give them your keys, your truck, whatever they want. When your life is in danger you dont question them. I was relieved that he told me I was correct to give it up, and see another day. So since then I dont think I will sign it. If I didnt have the decent human being who is my center manager now, I feel this sup may have tried to get me on incorrect DR methods, and go after my job. When he should have been worried more about me, than the package. I was not impressed, and since have been quite disillusioned.
Tooner,
You absolutely did the right thing, based on your situation. Your center manager backed you, he must have been informed by the you or the sup regarding your situation. Hopefully, your center manager kicked the sup's butt for the converation he had with you.
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
The sup didnt tell him about it til 3 days later. I had not said anything to him, I figured, they all felt the same way. I was suprised he did back me. It made me feel better, that now someone knew, who had a clue what I am dealing with. I thought it was something that should have been relayed to the Boss, well before that. I also felt that a supervisor should tell him ,as the boss is not suppose to have to deal with each driver, on every issue. There are some things they can filter out and take care of. I was only trying to make someone aware, If I end up dead, heres a plate number to start with. If he is suppose to handle everything, then he doesnt need the sups.
 

satellitedriver

Moderator
I have always signed anything put in front of me. I know I am suppose to make sure my deliveries are safe, out of sight and out of weather, and I do.
But recently I got a bunch of crap from a sup, about not getting a sig, or an ID from a guy who with his buddies blocked me in and wanted the pkg. I was not going to leave it, as the house was vacant. It became apparent to me quickly that it was not "just a pkg". AS I walked back to my truck and saw my visitors.
When I relayed the incident, I was told " You get paid good money to verify ID, YOU SIGNED A PAPER SAYING YOU WOULD ASK FOR ID IF NECESSARY, YOU SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST GOT A SIGNATURE, YOU COULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IF THERE IS A CLAIM" Here I was afraid I was going to be a statistic, as I had a car in back of me and a car in front of me backed up to my bumper, and this guy is telling me I should have been a martyr, dying for a cause of delivering a pkg.
So as I was talking to a few people on here about it to see what they would have done, and they agreed I did the right thing. And it was about three days later when my center manager called me in the office, and told me I did the right thing. You give them your keys, your truck, whatever they want. When your life is in danger you dont question them. I was relieved that he told me I was correct to give it up, and see another day. So since then I dont think I will sign it. If I didnt have the decent human being who is my center manager now, I feel this sup may have tried to get me on incorrect DR methods, and go after my job. When he should have been worried more about me, than the package. I was not impressed, and since have been quite disillusioned.
As I have said before, do what ever it takes to come home safe and sound to your family.
You did the right thing, and no piece of paper could change that.
PAX
 

canon

Well-Known Member
The first question that came to my mind upon reading your post was 'Why would you as the driver be requested to sign a form releasing you from responsibility for deviating from policy as directed?' Wouldn't it be more pertinent for management to sign the form? Which led me to suspect there is apparently some confrontation involved with this issue between you and management. If that is the case, why would you be compelled to sign the form?
That part hit me as odd too... all too often I wish I had something in writing which managment instructed me to do. Instructing me to DR to apts? Want me to sign? Sure. And since it's no big deal, I'd like a copy of that.

I used to see FedEx, DHL, and USPS pkgs left at apt doors and thought they just weren't as cautious as we were. But most apt dwellers work for a living and aren't home during the business hours we deliver. If the office doesn't accept or if they close before the resident gets home, the person is better off shipping elsewhere if they want their package that day. NDA included.

This is one of the things I've always wanted to be able to do. Especially since UPS time allowances don't see a difference between apts or houses. Apartments are the same as businesses... signatures only. Lots of time writing notices, and no credit for making that extra stop and handling pkgs again to drag them into the office.

At the very minimum, I wish we had some service that allowed for DR of signature required or HV pkgs once we get a "Signature On File" release from the consignee. Too often, house waaaay out in the country completely isolated and I can't DR their mouse from Dell.
 

oldster

Member
There was an official procedural change last November. You can now DR in buildings with perimeter security or gated communities. If its a high risk or claims area, it probably was already non-DR and would presumably remain so.

You didn't give much detail about the form you were asked to sign, but the new DR guidelines did come out with a signature sheet. My understanding of the the form, from reading it was that the signature indicated you had been trained in the new DR methods.

I don't see anything sinister in that - but since there are many posting here that don't appear to have received the training, I have to wonder about how effective the center mgmt teams are at disseminating new information.
 

oldster

Member
This is one of the things I've always wanted to be able to do. Especially since UPS time allowances don't see a difference between apts or houses. Apartments are the same as businesses... signatures only. Lots of time writing notices, and no credit for making that extra stop and handling pkgs again to drag them into the office.

Canon - the time allowances do account for apartment deliveries. Take, for instance, a complex with several buildings. On a time study you would be allowed the walks to the apartment door, ring bell wait, leave notice, walk back to the car, load package. Rinse and repeat for all the stops in the complex. Then drive to the office, get them all out again take them into the manger for indirects. All of the allowed time would be part of the signature allowance for that unit.

If on the day of the study, a driver does not attempt indirects, its pretty difficult for the observer to guess what should have happened and accurately measure it.
 

Dutch Dawg

Well-Known Member
Here's my twisted perspective. This company entrusts me with keys to the building and literally Million$ of dollar$ worth of commerce each year, yet on occasion management deems they are unable to trust me when reviewing policy rules. So in turn they request a policy acknowledgement signature. I personally find this approach demeaning and have been known to respectfully refuse signing said policy form. While indeed such action may have no bearing on the outcome....it certainly helps my attitude.
 

sendagain

Well-Known Member
Why don't we just throw every package up on the roof? The package is then hard to steal, and every manager gets his numbers up: it's a win-win situation.
 

Just Lurking

Well-Known Member
Here is what get me about the secured DR delivery PCM. They asked us to submit list of secured addresses that we believed to be safe DR's. Those lists would be submitted to district LP for approval. Why do I need to make the list and not my supervisors - they know my no DR areas because they are encoded in loop detail.
 

canon

Well-Known Member
Canon - the time allowances do account for apartment deliveries. Take, for instance, a complex with several buildings. On a time study you would be allowed the walks to the apartment door, ring bell wait, leave notice, walk back to the car, load package. Rinse and repeat for all the stops in the complex. Then drive to the office, get them all out again take them into the manger for indirects. All of the allowed time would be part of the signature allowance for that unit.

If on the day of the study, a driver does not attempt indirects, its pretty difficult for the observer to guess what should have happened and accurately measure it.
Is that pre PAS allowances? Was explained differently to me by driver supe. Residential is residential. Same allowances. I hope you're right, but that seems like an awful lot of allowance. Any idea how all that is broken down? Time waiting, time to do DR notice etc?
 

oldster

Member
Canon -

Each unit has a signatue allowance and a DR allowance. All of the measured work in the entire unit, by type, is divided by the number of stops to get the allowance.

There are no changes in the allowed time elements due to PAS. There was a change in the package handling allowance a couple of years ago due to the diad. The time for recording packages on paper was adjusted to reflect scanning.

Its a little hard to explain how the elements apply in a timestudy, and I can't get too detailed in this forum.

Everything is broken into elements. And each element has a pre-determined time. A RBW (ring bell wait) is less time than a RBW-Not in, the extra time is for leaving the note.

The stops allowance for a unit is the average of all the stops. If a unit has 40 signature stops, 20 in a strip mall, and 20 in an apartment complex, as long as the same driver delivers them all, the averages work. If a different driver has the strip mall, they will probably get more time than they should and the driver in the apartment complex won't get enough.
 

canon

Well-Known Member
There are no changes in the allowed time elements due to PAS. There was a change in the package handling allowance a couple of years ago due to the diad. The time for recording packages on paper was adjusted to reflect scanning.
I knew about the changes to reflect scanning, but if there were no changes to time allowances due to PAS, why is it the numbers are so far off for everyone right after implementation? The whole building at my location went to being an hour to an hour and a half overallowed and it didn't change after the time studies. In fact, some people lost even more time.
 

wily_old_vet

Well-Known Member
Canon-I'm guessing a large part of the time loss you experienced when you went onto PAS was the company taking away all your sort time and package selection time because we all know with PAS the loads are in perfect stop for stop order.
 

Covemastah

Hoopah drives the boat Chief !!
maybe i;m old school,BUT WHEN IN DOUBT,GET A SIGNATURE!!!!when the trader shows up they won;t care if you were paid over or under that day!! they won't want to pay that claim!!!! YOU WIL BE BUYING THAT BUNDLE!!!!!
 

Channahon

Well-Known Member
Canon-I'm guessing a large part of the time loss you experienced when you went onto PAS was the company taking away all your sort time and package selection time because we all know with PAS the loads are in perfect stop for stop order.
Most of the time lost on routes after PAS was implemented was due "to and from" miles. No longer does anyone go out and look at traffic conditons. Congestion, stop lights, etc. They google on maps to determine the new to and from miles. That's a problem.

Sort time was never in any time studies, even pre-PAS as the load was suppose to be stop for stop by sequence#. Is that reality, no, every driver had to sort their cars. The select portion of the drivers day, was always in time studies.

The best advice I gave my drivers when time studied was to do the job by the methods. Not to take any shortcuts.
 
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