GPS tighten your standards?

Coldworld

60 months and counting
This issue sounds like a broken record to me. "Just do your job and don't worry about it" has been said a million times over since I started almost a decade and a half ago, yet the advice still rings true. I have witnessed scores if not hundreds of drivers get 3 the day "happy rides" yet have never seen 1 driver discharged or even repremanded for anything that happened after that (hello waste of company resources. How about fix the ML problem with your time?).

Its simply because the company can't do anything about it. The master contract says "a fair days pay for a fair days work". It mentions nothing about meeting certain SPORH goals or under-allowed numbers, so my guess is the company doesn't have a leg to stand on if you can't meet your SPORH goal.

As long as you're not dogging it out there and intentionally slowing down or driving the long way to a stop to earn more money anyone should be fine. Of course you're going to do the route faster with a management person standing next to you for three days. He/she is not going to allow you to speak with your customers and we all know this is not how the real world works. Customer contact is imperative if we want to keep up the image of the "friendly UPS guy" or my "UPS guy is like family". Which the company likes a promotes to the general public.

Its funny that UPS wants to use this advantage to get a foot in the door for customer service to get a phone number for a decision maker to gain volume, but on a 3-day ride customer contact is to minimized and finding sales leads is a non-issue on the 3-day ride, yet otherwise its so vital to the company's survival?

Sorry, you can't have it both ways or you can't have your cake and eat it to, or any other way you want to put it. I think we all get the picture?


Thats all fine and good until they start writing you up for not following driving methods....
 

menotyou

bella amicizia
That is kind of a "defeatist" attitude.

Correct me if I am wrong.... But, I thought you were "gearing up" to return ??

Physical rehab.... Blah, Blah, and Blah..??


Cartoon type Avatars.... are no substitution for real pictures. Unless they are repressed feelings. :wink2:



-Bug-
I got your blah, blah, blah.
I wouldn't say I'm 'gearing up'. More like don't have any other choice.

If you are fishing for a picture, don't.

Repressed feelings? There is only one thing repressed about me. Don't ask.
 

barnyard

KTM rider
Do I want to go back to this?

I was on comp for 14ish months and am just getting back now.

I am finding that with no more pain, I am more pleasant to be around, I deliver with a smile and roll with the changes way better than before. Looking back, there were days that I hurt so bad and was taking it out on customers, kind of amazing that I did not get my butt kicked.

Working without pain is actually kind of enjoyable.
 

menotyou

bella amicizia
I was on comp for 14ish months and am just getting back now.

I am finding that with no more pain, I am more pleasant to be around, I deliver with a smile and roll with the changes way better than before. Looking back, there were days that I hurt so bad and was taking it out on customers, kind of amazing that I did not get my butt kicked.

Working without pain is actually kind of enjoyable.
The difference is I am not pain free. I will have to live with this pain forever. I wish the surgeries were to 'fix' the problem.
The first I had no choice but to do. The disc was so herniated that is was pushing on my spine causing damage, irreversible damage. There is no fixing that. The disc had to be removed. The surgery included a fuse that never fused. That precipitated the second neck surgery(I've had 4). That was to fix the fix. They had to go through the back this time, which is infinitely more painful. The scar is 9 inches long. It runs from the middle of my head and down my back. I have a 5 inch metal bar screwed into my spine with about 15 drywall screws. Yes, drywall screws-but, titanium. It is a brace for my spine. The discs on either side of the disc that was removed are herniated. The ones on the outside of those are bulging. That is why the bracing was used. I had the second surgery only to get back to work. No other reason. I will be on Lyrica and lidoderm patches the rest of my life. I can't take ibuprofen because I have one functional kidney.

I am glad you are painfree.
 

Coldworld

60 months and counting
The difference is I am not pain free. I will have to live with this pain forever. I wish the surgeries were to 'fix' the problem.
The first I had no choice but to do. The disc was so herniated that is was pushing on my spine causing damage, irreversible damage. There is no fixing that. The disc had to be removed. The surgery included a fuse that never fused. That precipitated the second neck surgery(I've had 4). That was to fix the fix. They had to go through the back this time, which is infinitely more painful. The scar is 9 inches long. It runs from the middle of my head and down my back. I have a 5 inch metal bar screwed into my spine with about 15 drywall screws. Yes, drywall screws-but, titanium. It is a brace for my spine. The discs on either side of the disc that was removed are herniated. The ones on the outside of those are bulging. That is why the bracing was used. I had the second surgery only to get back to work. No other reason. I will be on Lyrica and lidoderm patches the rest of my life. I can't take ibuprofen because I have one functional kidney.

I am glad you are painfree.
did you have this injury suddenly or was it years in the making??
 

Dragon

Package Center Manager
Is this a PCM....???


Get on the truck.

Demonstrate you can do the job....

At least, for more than 5 minutes.


Methods.... won't cut 2 hours off.... any route.

If anything, you make more money.



-Bug-

You are right it won't cut off two hours the route, but d<>cking around in the back of the truck all day won't help your cause either.


I do not need to demonstrate all day...my job is to make you "demonstrate" all day and that I am damn sure I can do.

Dragon
 

CAFAL

Well-Known Member
1st your safety committee has no right to spy and rat on there own. Your union should know this , because the union and the company pick the safety committee. 2nd you are to the drive the speed limit. IF there is any discipline your next call should be to Atlanta. 3rd We had harrassment messages coming over the board asked oms supervisors to print, the next morning went in the office gave all the copies to building manager. We told him if this does not stop by today. We will send copies to Atlanta. As of today no more harrassment messages. Like in this previous post they throw sh** against the wall and trying to see what sticks. We work to hard to be treated this way. Just do your job and give them nothing.....

Nice to see how you hung oms sup out to dry. Bet you they got blasted for printing the messages
 

wornoutupser

Well-Known Member
YES!
Same garbage here- two runs just had a real person on car time study and both gained almost an hourof allowance. Several months later the GPS study was done and both runs were back to thier old allowances. What a laod of garbage!
 

Buck Fifty

Well-Known Member
You are right it won't cut off two hours the route, but d<>cking around in the back of the truck all day won't help your cause either.


I do not need to demonstrate all day...my job is to make you "demonstrate" all day and that I am damn sure I can do.



Dragon

Your job is to make mine (driver) easier. This is your only purpose . If you dont , then you suck at your job !!! Love for you to make me do anything !
 

thessalonian13

Well-Known Member
Management told us that GPS tightened up our standards. I went from .25 under or scratch to an unbelievable 1 to 2 hours over! Not alone in this, as other drivers are in the same situation. Management then sent Union Safety Committee members to spy on drivers like me. (Steward told newbie, don't know better, safety kid drivers that they were walking a
very thin line) Then received a ride along, and was told not driving fast enough on narrow, windy, hilly, gravel roads, was not using package selection area correctly, and that the over allowed was my fault! Same supervisor did the safety
ride months before, and went on and on about the great job I was doing! The messages on the Diad are inflammatory and harassing-especially about being done because we are all on the 9.5 list. I have always had a good disposition,
but I absolutely dread going to work. My question: Is the above situation happening all over, or is it just happening at our small center?

I went from driving 68 to 72 miles a day to 78 to 102 miles a day. GPS is awesome!!!!
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
You are right it won't cut off two hours the route, but d<>cking around in the back of the truck all day won't help your cause either.

If you guys could simply load the right packages on the right shelf in the right car, I wouldnt have to "dick around" in the back of the truck all day.

I have been here for 25 years and I am still waiting for you guys to figure out how to run a competent preload. The misload problem we are plagued with now is the same damn problem we were having when I started driving back in 1988. You guys are so damn obsessed with hitting your stupid PPH plan for preload that you wind up spending 4 times as much money paying OT to the drivers who have to run around all day chasing misloads.

One definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing over and over again while expecting the results to be different. You guys have been beating your heads against the same wall for over 25 years now, and I've got a news flash for you; it aint the wall that's bleeding.
 

TechGrrl

Space Cadet
Management told us that GPS tightened up our standards. I went from .25 under or scratch to an unbelievable 1 to 2 hours over! Not alone in this, as other drivers are in the same situation. Management then sent Union Safety Committee members to spy on drivers like me. (Steward told newbie, don't know better, safety kid drivers that they were walking a
very thin line) Then received a ride along, and was told not driving fast enough on narrow, windy, hilly, gravel roads, was not using package selection area correctly, and that the over allowed was my fault! Same supervisor did the safety
ride months before, and went on and on about the great job I was doing! The messages on the Diad are inflammatory and harassing-especially about being done because we are all on the 9.5 list. I have always had a good disposition,
but I absolutely dread going to work. My question: Is the above situation happening all over, or is it just happening at our small center?


Old timer here, spent youth running around with clipboard and stopwatches. HOW does a "GPS Time Study" work? Unless the new magic is somehow different from the old magic, your allowances are based on types of stops, packages, and miles driven. We used to count walk paces, stairs, elevator waits, and so on. We could dock time if driver was clearly playing games (parking too far away, driving around block 3 times, massaging the packages too long in pkg car, taking stairs instead of elevators, etc.) but I'm having a hard time visualizing how letting the DIAD GPS do a "time study" could make any significant difference. With any validity, I mean.

Could some current IE type explain this to an old timer? On the face of it, seems like pure garbage to me.
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
Old timer here, spent youth running around with clipboard and stopwatches. HOW does a "GPS Time Study" work? Unless the new magic is somehow different from the old magic, your allowances are based on types of stops, packages, and miles driven. We used to count walk paces, stairs, elevator waits, and so on. We could dock time if driver was clearly playing games (parking too far away, driving around block 3 times, massaging the packages too long in pkg car, taking stairs instead of elevators, etc.) but I'm having a hard time visualizing how letting the DIAD GPS do a "time study" could make any significant difference. With any validity, I mean.

Could some current IE type explain this to an old timer? On the face of it, seems like pure garbage to me.

Docking time for walking too far, is a UPS thing. We have to park in unbelievably stupid places, to ensure some dufus doesnt hit us.
Drive arournd the block three times, Yes Mam, we are not allowed to back up or double park.
Massaging pkgs, yes Mam, some Einstein in dispatch decided to give a new an improved split, from an area we do not know, we must go through section 8000 to ensure no businesses in it. Stairs instead of an elevator, for sure, have you ever waited for an elevator>
It all started when they took 5.8 seconds away per pkg, when we got Diad, as it is faster, cool. Thats 20 minutes per 200 pkg. Ill buy that. But overnight we all went from scratch to over an hour late. Maybe you can explain that to us. No one else can. THAT IS GARBAGE.

This is when they began beating us, close to when we went public, and when they took service out of our name. And when the morale went and stayed where it is now.
 

TechGrrl

Space Cadet
Docking time for walking too far, is a UPS thing. We have to park in unbelievably stupid places, to ensure some dufus doesnt hit us.
Drive arournd the block three times, Yes Mam, we are not allowed to back up or double park.
Massaging pkgs, yes Mam, some Einstein in dispatch decided to give a new an improved split, from an area we do not know, we must go through section 8000 to ensure no businesses in it. Stairs instead of an elevator, for sure, have you ever waited for an elevator>
It all started when they took 5.8 seconds away per pkg, when we got Diad, as it is faster, cool. Thats 20 minutes per 200 pkg. Ill buy that. But overnight we all went from scratch to over an hour late. Maybe you can explain that to us. No one else can. THAT IS GARBAGE.

This is when they began beating us, close to when we went public, and when they took service out of our name. And when the morale went and stayed where it is now.

I understand all of what you wrote; and back in the day, we only docked time for that if it was deliberate. We went to great lengths to evaluate the REAL conditions on the route. That's my point. A human being, presumably one with experience of the job (I drove before I went into management) can exercise judgement. A DIAD can not. I'm having a hard time understanding how the "GPS Time Study" is even valid. So am waiting for some current IE genius to tell me.

BTW the rule on elevators used to be, "1 up, 2 down" as a rule of thumb whether it made sense to use the stairs. That rule didn't hold in high rises, so wasn't applied. Have NO idea if there is such a rule of thumb now or not.
 

pretzel_man

Well-Known Member
I understand all of what you wrote; and back in the day, we only docked time for that if it was deliberate. We went to great lengths to evaluate the REAL conditions on the route. That's my point. A human being, presumably one with experience of the job (I drove before I went into management) can exercise judgement. A DIAD can not. I'm having a hard time understanding how the "GPS Time Study" is even valid. So am waiting for some current IE genius to tell me.

BTW the rule on elevators used to be, "1 up, 2 down" as a rule of thumb whether it made sense to use the stairs. That rule didn't hold in high rises, so wasn't applied. Have NO idea if there is such a rule of thumb now or not.

GPS Time Study improves the accuracy of walks in residential areas, reduces cost, and makes the the information auditable....

Its relatively straightforward. Using the DIAD GPS readings and satellite maps the location of the park position is marked as well as the delivery location. The IE looks at that information on the computer and adjusts the points as necessary.

It used to be that you rated 1 walk, 2 walk, etc. This was subjective and guess what.... Audits showed errors. Plus, classifyng walks was good in the manual days. Why not give credit for each foot walked? That is what this does.

The data is saved and summarized by unit as done before. If someone wants to audit, it can be done.... Yes, I've heard that the distance is straight line. Yes that is true. But its also calculated from the middle of the street.....

I'm not a genius, and I'm no longer an I.E. guy. But I did take the time to learn what it does and post the facts as I understand them.....

The average driver and center gained time with this new "virtual" Time Study...... That is also a fact.
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
Thanks for the replies. Now are you saying, that if you stop complete a dr at the rear door, the gps calculates that stop and the distance it is? So then a virtual time study should be more accurate, although the time allowed for things who knows what those are.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the replies. Now are you saying, that if you stop complete a dr at the rear door, the gps calculates that stop and the distance it is? So then a virtual time study should be more accurate, although the time allowed for things who knows what those are.

I may have read it wrong but my understanding is that it calculates the distance from the middle of the street to the front door only as this would be the standard delivery point.
 

TechGrrl

Space Cadet
I may have read it wrong but my understanding is that it calculates the distance from the middle of the street to the front door only as this would be the standard delivery point.

Just curious; what's the margin of error on the GPS location? When we were looking at using GPS locators in air containers and trailers not that long ago, the circle of error wasn't quite close enough to allow automatic spotting on doors...having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that the DIAD is that much more accurate.
 
Top