I know how much everyone just loves a stupid question...

bleedinbrown58

That’s Craptacular
So I warned you lol. The bags that the smalls come off the feeders in...as a loader, we never had to deal with them until a few yrs ago when this post office (bleep) started. Why are they call forever bags? I've never heard that term in my hub.
 

Bagels

Family Leave Fridays!!!
The "forever bags" are the UPS-owned vinyl bags that we use to sort smaller packages into. These are different from the USPS-owned bags used for SurePost.

They're called "forever bags" because they can be reused indefinitely. But not forever. UPS use to make a big deal about them being designed & manufactured by a firm in Georgia, similar to our uniforms. Now they've been made in China (also same as our uniforms) for quite some time, so clearly they're not forever. I guess UPS should call them "one-year bags" or however long they last.

We call them "forever bags" here because they stay in our building forever. We fill about at least two dozen bins (usually more) everyday but only send out half that amount. We're required to send them out in packages (label ripped off, ten per package) and because it costs hours, nobody wants to take credit for the time. Thus, we usually keep them around forever until CACH gets desperate, then we fill up a pair of 53' trailers full of them to CACH. I'd really hate to be the person unloading that trailer... (Just to give an idea of how this works: we've probably got about the equivalent of a hundred bins or more of these bags sitting around; meanwhile, another hub sends us garbage bags that get tossed after one use because they don't have enough. UPS is saving money... somehow... probably with some manipulation.)
 

104Feeder

Phoenix Feeder
FEEDER TIP: those forever bags are great to store your chains in, EPDM (rubber bungie) strapped to the deck plate if you don't have a rack to hang chains on. They won't rip like the canvas bags & you don't have the chains in the cab waiting to bash your skull in if you have a rollover.
 
The "forever bags" are the UPS-owned vinyl bags that we use to sort smaller packages into. These are different from the USPS-owned bags used for SurePost.

They're called "forever bags" because they can be reused indefinitely. But not forever. UPS use to make a big deal about them being designed & manufactured by a firm in Georgia, similar to our uniforms. Now they've been made in China (also same as our uniforms) for quite some time, so clearly they're not forever. I guess UPS should call them "one-year bags" or however long they last.

We call them "forever bags" here because they stay in our building forever. We fill about at least two dozen bins (usually more) everyday but only send out half that amount. We're required to send them out in packages (label ripped off, ten per package) and because it costs hours, nobody wants to take credit for the time. Thus, we usually keep them around forever until CACH gets desperate, then we fill up a pair of 53' trailers full of them to CACH. I'd really hate to be the person unloading that trailer... (Just to give an idea of how this works: we've probably got about the equivalent of a hundred bins or more of these bags sitting around; meanwhile, another hub sends us garbage bags that get tossed after one use because they don't have enough. UPS is saving money... somehow... probably with some manipulation.)

They'll piss and moan about the same thing at CACH. "We send out good ones and get back nothing but bad ones." Meanwhile we get container trailers full of cases of them which they stack in an empty outbound to hoard them.

Want to see something funny. Pop the back door on a trailer full of loose bags and have the equivalent of a greased pig come sliding out waist high in the middle of the yard. They just come scoop them with a bobcat to clean them all up.
 

Bagels

Family Leave Fridays!!!
Pre loaders like them also because they can shove them behind shelves instead of unloading the packages on the shelves.

We're working as directed. We're suppose to put forever bags in package cars, and drivers are suppose to place their small pick-ups in these bags, to speed up the unloading / sorting to small sort process. Few drivers use them, however.
 

Cementups

Box Monkey
We're working as directed. We're suppose to put forever bags in package cars, and drivers are suppose to place their small pick-ups in these bags, to speed up the unloading / sorting to small sort process. Few drivers use them, however.

They used to even have heavy duty "clips" strapped to the shelves to hold the bags to the shelf and have them open for us to put the smalls in. But once they broke off they wouldn't replace them.
 

Jackburton

Gone Fish'n
We're working as directed. We're suppose to put forever bags in package cars, and drivers are suppose to place their small pick-ups in these bags, to speed up the unloading / sorting to small sort process. Few drivers use them, however.
So putting entire bags full of packages behind a PB teen so you can make your PPH is working as directed? I grab empty ones in the morning for my smalls I pick up during the day, perhaps that's what you're refering to.
 

UPSGUY72

Well-Known Member
So putting entire bags full of packages behind a PB teen so you can make your PPH is working as directed? I grab empty ones in the morning for my smalls I pick up during the day, perhaps that's what you're refering to.

They have totes to put your smalls in when you pick them up. Putting then in a Forever bag isn't saving anyone anytime as every package is going to get scan and sorted when it gets back to the building. the forever bags are for the small sort to put the smalls for shipment to another building...
 

Bagels

Family Leave Fridays!!!
They have totes to put your smalls in when you pick them up. Putting then in a Forever bag isn't saving anyone anytime as every package is going to get scan and sorted when it gets back to the building. the forever bags are for the small sort to put the smalls for shipment to another building...

It saves a tremendous amount of time in unloading (especially flats, which we have to bag ourselves anyway) & sorting/filtering to the small sort. Totes are also acceptable, but there aren't enough totes to handle the incoming volume of smalls -- plus most drivers like to hide their totes so they have them the next day.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
We're working as directed. We're suppose to put forever bags in package cars, and drivers are suppose to place their small pick-ups in these bags, to speed up the unloading / sorting to small sort process. Few drivers use them, however.

I use 3-4 every day. It makes it easier for everyone involved. I agree that few drivers use them.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
They have totes to put your smalls in when you pick them up. Putting then in a Forever bag isn't saving anyone anytime as every package is going to get scan and sorted when it gets back to the building. the forever bags are for the small sort to put the smalls for shipment to another building...

Using the forever bags for smalls definitely saves time as the bags are sent directly to the smalls sort.
 

Nimnim

The Nim
Using the forever bags for smalls definitely saves time as the bags are sent directly to the smalls sort.

Technically totes with smalls should be sent directly to small sort as well.

I guess those on the metro line are used to just anything being thrown in the totes so they just dump it out instead of sending it on it's way.
 

Nimnim

The Nim
Totes are exclusively for NDA.

I'll take your word as I've not worked on preload, driving, or on the metro unloading the package cars enough to know for sure. The standard operating procedure during twilight and midnight shifts here though is "bunch of smalls in a tote, send it on it's way towards small sort." It's a sound enough policy I'm not surprised it wouldn't be uniform among all operations.
 

Babagounj

Strength through joy
Last week I saw my mgt team unloading a 53ft filled with forever bags into those laundry carts , they only finished half of the job before walking away .
Between all the additional man hours used to double check that each bag is really empty , to put them somewhere after the shift ends , to load them into those basket carts , to finally hang them onto their racks for the next shift to use them , and to repeat this daily . They should be renamed the gravy bag .
 
Top