Anonymous 10
Guest
When I see the vast difference in time studies in my center for the same amount of work I just scratch my head in disbelief.
How to run scratch
- Thread starter DS
- Start date
One Christmas , me and one other driver had to go help a cover driver . His truck was TRASHED at 5:45 , we told him to sit in cab , we ( 15-20 yr drivers ) set up his truck stop for stop . It looked sweet when we left , we each took 10 stops !!!!! we told our boss we did help him . The driver said the load came off SO QUICK after we set up his truck . I would rather waste 20 mins early in day , than go back to a stop 2 times !
The best way to set up your truck with NO dead time is , I go to a bulk stop that will allow me to set on thier door . I scan a few boxes , then I set up a few boxes on the shelf . Scan one , set up a few more . Looks good on paper . Some drivers in my hub have large windows of " dead time " in their day . It drives my boss nuts !! I just play the GAME , because thats all that UPS is now , A GAME !
DS
Fenderbender
Well 20 minutes seems a bit excessive,but,I agree with making use of every minute that reality slows you down.
Benben
Working on a new degree, Masters in BS Detecting!
I find running scratch is easiest when I do 3 things:
1. Always Keep Moving. The time I spend behind the bulkhead door is lost forever.
2. Bounce. What I mean is this; If I have a delivery for 900 Elm and the next one in trace is 100 Elm, why not go 1 block east and hit the 800, 700 and 300 Popular deliveries on my way to the 100 Elm? Why go all the way down just to go all the way back up?
3. Round the Corners. My air delivery time is sacred to me. I have X amount of air stops due off at 10:30. As I am running those air stops I am doing one of 2 things: 1. Dumping ground-Getting off as many other stops as possible while traveling to my next air delivery. or 2.-Popping those hangers. In other words, getting off those stops that are just a pain in the arse which just don't fit into a nice, smooth, fast trace. I do the second one so that when I really get into trace I don't have to spend 5 mins traveling to and then 5 mins from some oddball address.
Too many drivers treat EDD as the END ALL, BE ALL of their day. It is a tool and nothing more. Use it, don't let it use you.
Runnig air backwards so that you end your air run right where trace starts doesn't hurt also. Everyone does this so I feel like a noob even mentioning it.
1. Always Keep Moving. The time I spend behind the bulkhead door is lost forever.
2. Bounce. What I mean is this; If I have a delivery for 900 Elm and the next one in trace is 100 Elm, why not go 1 block east and hit the 800, 700 and 300 Popular deliveries on my way to the 100 Elm? Why go all the way down just to go all the way back up?
3. Round the Corners. My air delivery time is sacred to me. I have X amount of air stops due off at 10:30. As I am running those air stops I am doing one of 2 things: 1. Dumping ground-Getting off as many other stops as possible while traveling to my next air delivery. or 2.-Popping those hangers. In other words, getting off those stops that are just a pain in the arse which just don't fit into a nice, smooth, fast trace. I do the second one so that when I really get into trace I don't have to spend 5 mins traveling to and then 5 mins from some oddball address.
Too many drivers treat EDD as the END ALL, BE ALL of their day. It is a tool and nothing more. Use it, don't let it use you.
Runnig air backwards so that you end your air run right where trace starts doesn't hurt also. Everyone does this so I feel like a noob even mentioning it.
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brownmonster
Man of Great Wisdom
I timed a couple of my stops today just for kicks. At my 2nd stop I backed into a dock and when I stepped out of the truck it was exactly 9:30. Walked in, opened the overhead, grabbed a cart, loaded 31 boxes on the cart, walked out to the truck and drove away at 9:34. Later with 4 air stops left I hit the Walmart dock at 10.09, dropped 25 pkgs and rolled away at 10:12. The secret is not tricks to increase your planned day but to do what you do quicker. At one commercial stop where I can park roughly 6 feet from the door I was in and out with a signature in 20 seconds.
dilligaf
IN VINO VERITAS
I CAN'T STAND my truck being disorganized. It drives me nuts. The first part of the day I don't mess with it much, mostly because I don't have the room or time to organize it. But, when I stop for lunch (before I take lunch) I pull my shelves up and pick up everything I can get off the floor. It serves 2 purposes. I find misloads before I leave for my next town and I usually will catch something that is missing.
rocket man
Well-Known Member
that was you who came to help me? every route is diffrent just do the best you can . the better you are the more your gonna get . better you than me . and its getting to he point in our bldg its almost not routes anymore it,s getting to be more like zones no matter how you go and no matter how many stops you have they still bitch at you?
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
You left off the $10/package UPS charges for ADC's--that being said, bulk stops are drop and go--no time for ADC's at a bulk stop.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
If I have to wait for an extended period of time for a door to open and there are no other deliveries nearby that I could do and then come back I will also use this time to sort my load. I will sheet the stop and then sort until the door is open.
DS, it is a waste of time to pull to the side of the road and sort the car.
I did that in the past , line up truck , ( 10-15 mins ) then took lunch . WELL ............ then I had 1hr 15min " dead time " and I was called into the office for taking a extra long break ??? WHY ??? my boss asked ?? . So now I do as said before , line up a few and deliver a few at a bulk stop .
Indecisi0n
Well-Known Member
In the morning i just grab and run but then as i get room i will begin to group areas together, then sort a few stops at a time. Lunch time i will take a few mins just to set the labels out from the grouped piles i have. I hate having a messy truck.
brownmonster
Man of Great Wisdom
It takes a couple of seconds to punch in an address correction. I highly doubt you are allowed 3 minutes.
bottomups
Bad Moon Risen'
On my last route I was consistently an hour plus over allowed. Bid into my current satellite route and now make about 1 1/2 hours bonus a day. Am not moving and faster. Went from being one of the least best to an all star in managements eyes! Granted, loading your own truck gives you a perfect load everyday with no surprises. Have my own Orion system as I load by address instead of PAL and do not follow anything close to EDD.
I don't follow EDD if I did I'd never get done.....
Overpaid Union Thug
Well-Known Member
I don't worry about scratch. Many drivers look at the over/under as something to use to gage their "performance" and I just laugh at them. Suckers! That's exactly what UPS wants and thats exactly why so many routes are purposely given unfair time allowances. Our center is a bonus center so its even worse than most. Just follow the methods people and everything else won't matter. Setting up the truck before or after lunch is not how its supposed to be done. Especially with telematics being used now. And I guarantee many are doing it during their lunch period. Just work on your selection area throughout the day and keep the floor clean as you go. If you do that you may or may not run scratch. Traffic, size of packages, bulk, load quality, and of course whether or not time allowances are fair or not will determine whether or not you scratch. Either way.....WHO CARES!? Numbers are management's game. Not the driver's. Metrics are for the desk jockey's. Not for us.
rod
Retired 22 years
So you sort on your lunch time? What is that sound I hear? Oh thats just management laughing behind your back saying "we have him right where we want him".
Overpaid Union Thug
Well-Known Member
Exactly! Unfortunately there are plenty of others out there. I only scratch about 50% of the time. I have gone over a week without scratching plenty of times. I'll tell you one thing though.....if I scratch its TRUE scratch. Meaning....not one second of my breaks were used to sort (which I don't do anyway), push up sections, organize the floor, etc., in order to cheat the system into thinking I was that much faster. Using any portion of breaks to do work is no better than a driver skipping their entire lunch. I see the drivers that do either come in every morning and go straight to the operation report hoping to see a negative number next to their names. Is it worth the false satisfaction?
dilligaf
IN VINO VERITAS
I have never been called in on it (at least not yet) and with tattlematics I now have a backup. My bulkhead door is open the whole time that I am sorting.
Dave, I don't think it's a waste of time. It is far easier to find packages that are lined up on the shelf rather than trying to find them scattered all over the floor or mixed in with outbound and send agains.
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