laffter
Well-Known Member
I'm going to tell a story that I, at least, find funny. It shows the lunacy that goes down at UPS on a daily basis.
On Monday I was asked if I could help a driver on his route. This part will be relevant later, but this driver sup told me I could work as many hours as I wanted.
This driver started driving last Summer, and this was his first peak. During peak, he ran a residential split route following by a letter run. On Monday, he was thrown on the full route, cold. It had just under 200 stops, including 15 NDA stops and some pickups. And guess what- he still had his letter run around 6pm. From the very beginning, the driver was telling his sups that he did not know the area, and would not be able to finish. He was told it was the same stuff he had already been doing and that he'll be alright. The same stuff? He knows a partial residential area of the route, not the whole thing. Moving on...
I meet up with him around 1pm. He tells me that he didn't leave the building until 9:45 (8:40 start time- preload went down super late that morning), and didn't deliver his last NDA until after 11. We start hitting resi's, then do pickups, and by about 6, still have ~65 stops left. Now, there's not a whole lot I could help with on a letter run, so this is where the sup's words come in. He told me I could work as many hours as I want. So I stay on with him, with the idea that we'd go back and continue resi's after the drop box pickups.
On his letter run, he has a pickup at a UPS store. This is supposed to be a quick stop. Another driver is supposed to do the main pickup earlier in the day, and this guy is supposed to grab the new stuff right before the store closes. We show up and the whole back room is packed- keep in mind that we're in a 700(?). Apparently, the driver of that route did not come in that day, and that same sup I spoke to in the morning (the same one who put this driver on the route), told the guy covering it that he didn't have to make the pickup. In fact, not only did that guy not make the pickup, he dropped off his own pickup pieces at the store. We load up the car, and now it's bricked out floor to ceiling, about three feet from the bulkhead door. And we still have stops on there... quite a few stops that we can't get to now. Oh well, someone at the building will figure out how to fix this mess, right? So we move on. The driver goes to start the car- everything lights up, but it won't start. It just clicks once. Fast forward to a while later, he gets a call from a mechanic who gives him the code to the keybox. He tries the key- it starts. It's gotta be nearing 7pm now. We're way behind.
We meet up with a driver at one of the pickup points to give him half of our stops. But, we can hardly get to any of them. We start pulling off everything between the sequence range that he's giving him. I'm having to literally climb up onto the mound of pickups and the top shelves, to find stuff. I don't know how long we spent there trying to find everything, but felt like it could have been a half hour. It's around 8pm now and the driver is doubting that he can make it back to the building in time to drop off his NDA pickups. At some point during this, he does get a call from someone at the building telling him that they gave away the last 5 stops on his letter run, so that helped a little.
We move on with the pickups. It's really late now. He realizes there's no way he's going to make it. He calls the building and is advised to drive to the airport if he cannot make it back in by 8:45. So, we drive to the airport, drop off the NDA pickups (70+) and go back to the building. Someone else was going to grab the rest of the stops at the building, but by now it's probably 9:30 and way too late to go back out to where the route is. He's advised to sheet up any undelivered stops as EC (roads are a little icy).
Here's the kicker... when we pulled in, the guy who grabbed some of our stops earlier was already back. We're like, wtf? How could he get off so many stops that quickly? Turns out, a few deliveries in, his DIAD died.
And that's the story of how 60+ stops didn't get delivered.
We unload the ground pickups, find a few more hidden NDA's, and sheet everything up as EC.
What a night. We leave the building after 10pm and he drives me out to my car, which is still parked on-route. To my surprise, he tips me a twenty. I go home and crash. Preload started at 2:20 the following morning. I was showing up at 1 to re-scan undelivered stuff.
The end.
On Monday I was asked if I could help a driver on his route. This part will be relevant later, but this driver sup told me I could work as many hours as I wanted.
This driver started driving last Summer, and this was his first peak. During peak, he ran a residential split route following by a letter run. On Monday, he was thrown on the full route, cold. It had just under 200 stops, including 15 NDA stops and some pickups. And guess what- he still had his letter run around 6pm. From the very beginning, the driver was telling his sups that he did not know the area, and would not be able to finish. He was told it was the same stuff he had already been doing and that he'll be alright. The same stuff? He knows a partial residential area of the route, not the whole thing. Moving on...
I meet up with him around 1pm. He tells me that he didn't leave the building until 9:45 (8:40 start time- preload went down super late that morning), and didn't deliver his last NDA until after 11. We start hitting resi's, then do pickups, and by about 6, still have ~65 stops left. Now, there's not a whole lot I could help with on a letter run, so this is where the sup's words come in. He told me I could work as many hours as I want. So I stay on with him, with the idea that we'd go back and continue resi's after the drop box pickups.
On his letter run, he has a pickup at a UPS store. This is supposed to be a quick stop. Another driver is supposed to do the main pickup earlier in the day, and this guy is supposed to grab the new stuff right before the store closes. We show up and the whole back room is packed- keep in mind that we're in a 700(?). Apparently, the driver of that route did not come in that day, and that same sup I spoke to in the morning (the same one who put this driver on the route), told the guy covering it that he didn't have to make the pickup. In fact, not only did that guy not make the pickup, he dropped off his own pickup pieces at the store. We load up the car, and now it's bricked out floor to ceiling, about three feet from the bulkhead door. And we still have stops on there... quite a few stops that we can't get to now. Oh well, someone at the building will figure out how to fix this mess, right? So we move on. The driver goes to start the car- everything lights up, but it won't start. It just clicks once. Fast forward to a while later, he gets a call from a mechanic who gives him the code to the keybox. He tries the key- it starts. It's gotta be nearing 7pm now. We're way behind.
We meet up with a driver at one of the pickup points to give him half of our stops. But, we can hardly get to any of them. We start pulling off everything between the sequence range that he's giving him. I'm having to literally climb up onto the mound of pickups and the top shelves, to find stuff. I don't know how long we spent there trying to find everything, but felt like it could have been a half hour. It's around 8pm now and the driver is doubting that he can make it back to the building in time to drop off his NDA pickups. At some point during this, he does get a call from someone at the building telling him that they gave away the last 5 stops on his letter run, so that helped a little.
We move on with the pickups. It's really late now. He realizes there's no way he's going to make it. He calls the building and is advised to drive to the airport if he cannot make it back in by 8:45. So, we drive to the airport, drop off the NDA pickups (70+) and go back to the building. Someone else was going to grab the rest of the stops at the building, but by now it's probably 9:30 and way too late to go back out to where the route is. He's advised to sheet up any undelivered stops as EC (roads are a little icy).
Here's the kicker... when we pulled in, the guy who grabbed some of our stops earlier was already back. We're like, wtf? How could he get off so many stops that quickly? Turns out, a few deliveries in, his DIAD died.
And that's the story of how 60+ stops didn't get delivered.
We unload the ground pickups, find a few more hidden NDA's, and sheet everything up as EC.
What a night. We leave the building after 10pm and he drives me out to my car, which is still parked on-route. To my surprise, he tips me a twenty. I go home and crash. Preload started at 2:20 the following morning. I was showing up at 1 to re-scan undelivered stuff.
The end.
