Flavor of the month

browniehound

Well-Known Member
I read all these different criticisms here and I wonder if they ever agree with anything mangement does.

I agree with them here: reducing backs will reduce backing accidents. How can you argue with that logic?

Problem is, many drivers are going to ignore this warning and just 'chuck' it into reverse and back just because its convienent.

I'm all for reducing backs. Like a previous poster said, "I'll bet I can walk a package off just as quick as you can back into the driveway". These backs need to be eliminated.

After this, how about focusing on using EXTREME caution when backing. If you follow the 5 rules of backing it really becomes a safe and efficent maneuver.
 

SWORDFISH

Well-Known Member
I was being sarcastic but I guess that's kind of hard to tell now that I reread it. I notice Upstate hasn't enlightened me with a response yet. He must be a sup......

No he just enjoys being a but sometimes. I think he thinks its funny. Hes a driver though.
 

EmerCond421

Well-Known Member
Deliver/pick-up at a college, the only place to deliver is at the bookstore/mailroom. There use to be enough room to drive to the receiving door and turn around/back to the door, but since they put a dumpster there reducing the turn area, have no choice but to back aprox. 200 ft. downhill to the receiving door.
 

EmerCond421

Well-Known Member
Our flavor of the month is over allowances. The center goal is to be a scratch center. Last year we averaged 1.5 hours per driver per day over allowed. We are currently averaging .40 over allowed per driver per day. The goal is scratch.

Does anyone out there work at a scratch center. It seems impossible to me.

Along with this new flavor is limited customer contact time. (This is a big area of focus for the three day 'lock in' rides). I think little or no customer contact time is bad for UPS. Alot of these shippers use UPS because of the relationship with the driver. If the driver isn't gonna stick around and chit chat for a bit, the shipper might decide to use someone else who will.

Just informed by the union steward yesterday this will be our new "flavor" starting Monday. Do more work in less time. How? Cut out working safely, or disregard the methods? Drive faster? We have less than 10 drivers - most are under, the couple of bulk routes could be over up to an hour on some days but that is unusual. The mileage routes usually travel between 200 - 400 miles daily; all in just over 9 hrs including lunch time to be back for the trailer pull time.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
Your sup is correct in that there is never any reason to back for a delivery of one package.

When the single package is being delivered to a home with a driveway that is 1/2 a mile long and there is nowhere to do a U-turn....are you suggesting that the stop be walked off?

And is the back made any more or less necessary by the fact that there are 2 or 3 packages instead of one?

Does an "unsafe" back miraculously become "safe" by virtue of the fact that some arbitrary number or weight of packages is being delivered?
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
I really try to remove myself from the standard management rhetoric you guys are used to. In this case i agree the way we sell it sounds a little overdone but the message is right. we back way more then we need to and have too many accidents as a result. Its amazing how creative our people can get. If we tell them to find ways to not have to back up then they do and they do eliminate a lot of accidents in the process. Is there really something wrong with that?

There is nothing at all wrong with trying to reduce backing.

The problem starts when some guy behind a desk someplace pulls a random number out of his ass and proclaims that number to be the quota by which the total number of backs must be reduced.

It is ignorant to assume that every driver has been backing up 4, or 7, or 10, times too many per day and to demand a reduction by some arbitrary number.

The problem with the quota mentality is that instead of solving the real problem of uneccesary or unsafe backs, the management team is expending its time and energy and credibility doing nothing but trying to manipulate a metric.
 

1989

Well-Known Member
When the single package is being delivered to a home with a driveway that is 1/2 a mile long and there is nowhere to do a U-turn....are you suggesting that the stop be walked off?

And is the back made any more or less necessary by the fact that there are 2 or 3 packages instead of one?

Does an "unsafe" back miraculously become "safe" by virtue of the fact that some arbitrary number or weight of packages is being delivered?

There is a big difference if you have to make a back to turn around and if you have to back the entire driveway. If you have to back the entire driveway you should not be driving in there. I think the one package back refers to mainly backing to a dock. All backs are unsafe, it is just a matter if the back was necessary.
 

kuff

Active Member
I'm not sure what an A8 is but if your referring to adult sig required, then yes, everything. They mentioned it a week ago. 4 of the 5 days last week I had 2 or 3 paid sendagains maybe more and they didnt say anything, so I dont know. On Teusday our center manager finds out whether he still has a job or if he's getting transferred. So I think they are a little more focused on that at the moment.
 

SWORDFISH

Well-Known Member
The latest in our building is, your only allowed 1 paid sendagain a day.

LOL! If my center manager made an issue of that I would just indirect all the extra send agains I had to his house. He lives on my route and conviently right at the end so it would workout perfect.
 
Just informed by the union steward yesterday this will be our new "flavor" starting Monday. Do more work in less time. How? Cut out working safely, or disregard the methods? Drive faster? We have less than 10 drivers - most are under, the couple of bulk routes could be over up to an hour on some days but that is unusual. The mileage routes usually travel between 200 - 400 miles daily; all in just over 9 hrs including lunch time to be back for the trailer pull time.
How many stops do you make if you are driving 400 miles? Just curious..
 

dilligaf

IN VINO VERITAS
Sounds like a Fed ex driver impersonating a UPS driver. I cant imagine any UPS routes going 400 miles in a day. I will buy the 200 but not 400.

Are you gonna clarify that to pkg? I bet there are frieght rtes that do that easily. I would say that there are probably a few pkg rtes that do that many miles too.



 

rod

Retired 22 years
Sounds like a Fed ex driver impersonating a UPS driver. I cant imagine any UPS routes going 400 miles in a day. I will buy the 200 but not 400.
We had 2 routes that ran over 300 miles a day (25-35 stops ). After driving through No. Dakota, So. Dakota, Wyoming, Utah and Kansas a month ago I can believe there are routes up to 400 miles a day. I know there were places in Utah where the ranches seemed 50 miles apart. I remember somewhere where there was a sign that said "next gas 117 miles"
 
Just informed by the union steward yesterday this will be our new "flavor" starting Monday. Do more work in less time. How? Cut out working safely, or disregard the methods? Drive faster? We have less than 10 drivers - most are under, the couple of bulk routes could be over up to an hour on some days but that is unusual. The mileage routes usually travel between 200 - 400 miles daily; all in just over 9 hrs including lunch time to be back for the trailer pull time.
My original question goes unanswered: How many stops do you do if you are traveling 400 miles a day?
 

SWORDFISH

Well-Known Member

Are you gonna clarify that to pkg? I bet there are frieght rtes that do that easily. I would say that there are probably a few pkg rtes that do that many miles too.




If their are package car routes that run 400 please direct me to them. Sign me up. That would be like 20 stops a day LOL. Like 2 stops an hour or so, now thats paradise.
 
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