Got rid of ORIAN

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

If the company really wanted to save miles, they would provide incentives for drivers to do just that. The reality is that there is a disincentive to save miles. There is no system or gps device that can save as many miles as an experienced driver with an incentive to do so.

I suppose that, other than for those drivers in bonus centers, you are right. I know when I had my country run and I wasn't sure if I had enough work to dispatch I would "drive around the block" to build my miles up.

 

[Dustyroads]

Upstate, in bonus centers there is less incentive to save miles than in non-bonus centers. More miles, generally, means more bonus. The exceptions may be when there is a foot of snow on the ground with a 45 mph wind. I, personally, carve away at miles every day, aggressively. It's just that I don't like to work any more than I have to, and the extra money isn't worth it to me.

 

[menotyou]

This might be a stupid question, but, what is this "bonus" stuff?

 

[Dustyroads]

Well, Meno, in certain centers, for example, if you have a ten hour dispatch, but you can manage to do the work in 8 hours, you can go on home and the company will pay you time and a half for the two hours of overtime, when you were actually home in your recliner. It was designed as an incentive for drivers to go fast.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

This might be a stupid question, but, what is this "bonus" stuff?

I have heard it called the "California dispatch"--you get paid for your dispatch, not hours worked.

 

[menotyou]

That is wild. Guess where someone high up got the idea to jam production down our throats could in part be attributed to this situation? I makes me think more.

 

[Dustyroads]

I don't really know if it is EVERY day, as I don't look at the reports that much, however, I have noticed on operation reports that our center with 40 drivers sometimes runs 40-45 hours a day underallowed. It's not uncommon for a few drivers to be 2-3 hours underallowed. I'm usually just a few hundreths underallowed, but I'm pretty old and worn down. Some of these guys do this every single day, right up until the big crash.

 

[Dustyroads]

This driver was one of our biggest bonus makers. In fact, he was 3 hours underallowed on the day that this happened:

 

[soberups]

Well, Meno, in certain centers, for example, if you have a ten hour dispatch, but you can manage to do the work in 8 hours, you can go on home and the company will pay you time and a half for the two hours of overtime, when you were actually home in your recliner. It was designed as an incentive for drivers to go fast.

The "bonus" system is pretty much a cash bribe that is paid to the driver to falsify his timecard and indicate that he took a lunch when in fact he did not.

It is also a cash bribe that is paid to the driver for speeding, violating methods, and working unsafely.

It saves the company a huge amount of money to pay straight time for work that, in reality, ought to be paid at the overtime rate. The company does not make pension and health&welfare contributions for "bonus" hours. And 9 drivers who skip their lunch equals an entire route eliminated, which means one less car on the road, one less full-time employee on the payroll, one less benefit package to pay for.

The "bonus" system....along with the rigged time allowances that prop it up....is fundamentally corrupt and dishonest.

 

[Re-Raise]

This driver was one of our biggest bonus makers. In fact, he was 3 hours underallowed on the day that this happened: View attachment 5219

I guess I will quit complaining about the car wash at our center.

 

[Dustyroads]

Sober, you are on target on everything except, bonus time is paid at time and a half, not straight time. The major bonus makers achieve this by doing all of those shortcuts that you cited. There are also "quirks" in the allowances that let certain areas make substantial bonus, while others do not. For example, there may be one route where a guy picks up 500 one pound boxes in 15 minutes with the help of some of the dock workers at the pick up place. Another driver may pick up 500 fifty pound boxes of books, and it takes him an hour to load them by himself.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Sober, you are on target on everything except, bonus time is paid at time and a half, not straight time. The major bonus makers achieve this by doing all of those shortcuts that you cited. There are also "quirks" in the allowances that let certain areas make substantial bonus, while others do not. For example, there may be one route where a guy picks up 500 one pound boxes in 15 minutes with the help of some of the dock workers at the pick up place. Another driver may pick up 500 fifty pound boxes of books, and it takes him an hour to load them by himself.

We had a pickup stop like that and we were told to code those pkgs with a four digit number (9901?) which would then reduce the time allowance for that stop.

 

[soberups]

This driver was one of our biggest bonus makers. In fact, he was 3 hours underallowed on the day that this happened: View attachment 5219

Lets do the math on this one.

If we assume that this driver averages 2 hrs of bonus per day, that is 10 hrs of work per week that the company is paying at straight time ($30)vs. overtime.
($45). That is a direct savings of $150 per week, and that is before you factor in the cumulative effect that several bonus drivers have on reducing the number of routes dispatched.

So if this driver takes 4 weeks per year of vacation, then 48 weeks X $150 per week equals $7200 per year that the company is not paying out in overtime. If we assume that a brand-new package car costs $30,000, then a 2 hr per day "bonus driver" could total a package car every 5 years and the company would still come out ahead.

The savings will be even greater if the company successfully terminates the employment of this particular driver and replaces him with a new hire who will make $10 per hour less.

 

[menotyou]

This driver was one of our biggest bonus makers. In fact, he was 3 hours underallowed on the day that this happened: View attachment 5219

Was he ok? I would imagine he couldn't talk his way out of it being his fault?

 

[soberups]

Sober, you are on target on everything except, bonus time is paid at time and a half, not straight time. The major bonus makers achieve this by doing all of those shortcuts that you cited. There are also "quirks" in the allowances that let certain areas make substantial bonus, while others do not. For example, there may be one route where a guy picks up 500 one pound boxes in 15 minutes with the help of some of the dock workers at the pick up place. Another driver may pick up 500 fifty pound boxes of books, and it takes him an hour to load them by himself.

At my building, bonus is paid at straight time.

 

[menotyou]

Thank you for all the responses of information. Very enlightening. Again, Thank you.

 

[soberups]

Sober, you are on target on everything except, bonus time is paid at time and a half, not straight time. The major bonus makers achieve this by doing all of those shortcuts that you cited. There are also "quirks" in the allowances that let certain areas make substantial bonus, while others do not. For example, there may be one route where a guy picks up 500 one pound boxes in 15 minutes with the help of some of the dock workers at the pick up place. Another driver may pick up 500 fifty pound boxes of books, and it takes him an hour to load them by himself.

We have "bonus whores" here who will drive around and "skim the gravy" off of other driver's bulk stops by grabbing the totes and bags of smalls and taking "credit" for the pieces. They are home at 5:00 and making "bonus" while their coworker is at the same dock 2 hours later, lumping the bulk that the whore left behind and getting harassed for being "overallowed".

 

[2Slow]

I don't know anything about this ORIAN system, but I know a lot about EDD.
EDD could have been great, but the implementation was awful. Simply tasking one managment person with fixing all trace issues and staying in touch with drivers on how to keep the routes better would have paid large dividends.

Instead:
IE came in and set up the whole center in their driving in circles concept. Any stops that were poorly placed were never fixed, the drivers were forced to simply deal with the issues.
Then:
With each route change, split, and add/cut things got worse and worse. Repeated attempts by many drivers to get issues fixed were ignored.

It sounds like ORIAN is a way to coax the computer into fixing EDD, which I'm willing to bet will cost a hell of a lot more than telling the on-road to work with the drivers to fix it.

I'm so glad that I recently went into Feeders...

 

[soberups]

EDD defined; UPS spending $100,000 on a 400HP sports car with high-end suspension, brakes and aerodynamics.... then at the last minute spending $95 at WalMart on four of the cheapest tires in stock in order to "save money" and then not being able to understand why the driver cant keep the car out of the ditch.

ORIAN defined; UPS spending another $100,000 to install a whole new engine with 50 extra horsepower into that car....but keeping the same bald set of $95 WalMart tires on it and then telling the driver that he needs to cut 20% off of his lap times in order to justify the expense of the additional horsepower.

 

[MC4YOU2]

At my building, bonus is paid at straight time.

Straight time here as well, and like you mention, no pension contribution for "bonus" hours not worked.