I made Walmart mad

[soberups]

Before I worked at UPS I was an OTR driver. Every time going to a Walmart distribution center was hell. There were times I was sitting for hours waiting to be unloaded. Once in a while, I was stuck there for an entire day. The rules they have are insane. I'd have to drop the trailer in a certain spot, bobtail to receiving to sign in for the 2nd time, then sit and wait until they were ready for me. Then hook up the trailer again, bump the dock, drop the trailer again, go to the designated parking spot and wait some more. I was at one near Dallas once for 2 days. At least there were several "migrant workers" with taco trucks. Unfortunately, there would only be one bathroom for maybe 20 drivers who recently consumed said tacos.

What would be nice is if the various trucking companies all banded together and collectively refused to comply with WalMart's ridiculous shipping/receiving policies. If every trucking company just quit taking WalMart loads then they would be forced to extend their receiving hours, open up more dock space, and pretty much stop being obnoxious pains in the ass. As it stands right now, WalMart pretty much goes out of its way to make things as difficult and time-consuming as possible for the poor schmuck who is just trying to do his job and deliver their merchandise.

I deliver to a Fred Meyer (AKA Kroger's) which is almost as big as a WalMart, but the difference in the receiving departments between the two stores is night and day. Fred Meyer receiving is open from 7:30 to 4:30, they almost always have at least one dock available, and if they dont then I can either handtruck the packages up a ramp and thru the man door or else leave them on a pallet in the parking lot and an employee will come out with a forklift and haul the pile in for me. There are several people in the receiving department who are authorized to sign, and they are always helpful and cooperative. Which is just one of the many reasons I do all of my shopping there.

 

[Richard Harrow]

Here's what my ex-ex center manager said when I asked him how to sheet the 2nd and 3rd boxes of a multiple box COD shipment when the receiver didn't have a check:

"Assign $0.01 in the COD field for the additional packages in the DIAD".

Brilliant.

I deliver to a shop that puts real big rims on real big cars.

Four packages, only one package has a COD (over $1000), but the COD is clearly for all four boxes (1 of 4, 2 of 4, etc...).

I'm a cover driver, but the other cover drivers (and the route driver) leave the three packages and only have the one send-again when this business doesn't have the check...which happens every first delivery.

I don't play that...

Look, I'm not the one who ordered the COD required package(s). Dear Lord, it's 2012, you know you have packages coming that require a COD, this isn't a guessing game. Change your business model or be ready with the check, or better yet, I'll be back tomorrow.

Some of you are going to go all freaking nuts saying bla-bla-bla, bla-blah, bla ba-ba-ba, but here's the thing:

They don't have the check. There's no immediate way to assign a non-delivery status to the additional packages...give them a $0.01 COD amount, call them NO$1, bring them back the next day. (Like plants, certain customers need training).

OR...you leave the three boxes, the company goes out of business that same day, and you're on the hook for $750.

(UPS will absolutely not have your back on this one, sorry.)


What the heck are you going to do with only three rims anyway?

A) The company routinely asks drivers to falsify records when it's convenient for them or when it's the flavor of the month, what your ex-center manager had you do there with the 0.01 is no different.

and

B) Even if the company didn't have your back, the Union would. All you would have to do is prove the other 3 packages had no COD charges attached, which is as easy as reading the tracking number.

 

[menotyou]

What would be nice is if the various trucking companies all banded together and collectively refused to comply with WalMart's ridiculous shipping/receiving policies. If every trucking company just quit taking WalMart loads then they would be forced to extend their receiving hours, open up more dock space, and pretty much stop being obnoxious pains in the ass. As it stands right now, WalMart pretty much goes out of its way to make things as difficult and time-consuming as possible for the poor schmuck who is just trying to do his job and deliver their merchandise.

I deliver to a Fred Meyer (AKA Kroger's) which is almost as big as a WalMart, but the difference in the receiving departments between the two stores is night and day. Fred Meyer receiving is open from 7:30 to 4:30, they almost always have at least one dock available, and if they dont then I can either handtruck the packages up a ramp and thru the man door or else leave them on a pallet in the parking lot and an employee will come out with a forklift and haul the pile in for me. There are several people in the receiving department who are authorized to sign, and they are always helpful and cooperative. Which is just one of the many reasons I do all of my shopping there.

They probably hire competent employees. The utter laziness and disdain for the anyone other than themselves by the majority of the employees there is absolutely disgusting.

 

[BrownArmy]

Sorry, but you and your ex-center manager are clearly mistaken. The other drivers are doing it correctly. And your ex-center manager is asking you to falsify the delivery records, and I can ASSURE you, you will get into trouble doing that.

This isn't a matter of whether or not UPS does or doesn't have your back. You are simply doing your job. Just what do you think you are going to get fired for? So what if they are out of business later that day. All you did was deliver three non-COD packages.

Again, this is a SHIPPER issue. No driver would be on the hook for the $750 dollars. The cheap shipper would be. Now if the driver left the COD without getting the money, well that would be a different story. But not your story.

There is a reason why UPS has extra charges for COD packages, and, obviously, there is a reason why some shippers cut corners to avoid paying those costs. But if things go south, UPS, and it's driver is clean and clear.

And to follow your logic, if a shipper falsifies the weights on packages going out of their business, and those packages are addressed to one of your customers, and you deliver them, do you believe you will get fired? Of course not.

This is a shipper issue. End of story.

If the package has a COD label on it, then it is a COD and we are required to collect the specified amount of funds prior to delivering it.

If the package does not have a COD label on it, then it is not a COD and we are not required to collect funds prior to delivering it.

If the consignee wants us to collect a COD amount for every package in a multi-package shipment, then they need to pay the COD fee for every package in the shipment and put aCOD tag on every package in the shipment. It is not the responsibility of the driver to collect funds on packages that dont have COD tags and for which the applicable fee has not been paid.

I stand corrected, thanks.

 

[rod]

There was a shady character around here that ran a rim shop and he would orderfive. I was instructed that package with the COD amount was the only one held back, it's on the shipper to be smarter than that.

I wouldn't call him shady------I would call him "brilliant".

 

[Jackburton]

What would be nice is if the various trucking companies all banded together and collectively refused to comply with WalMart's ridiculous shipping/receiving policies. If every trucking company just quit taking WalMart loads then they would be forced to extend their receiving hours, open up more dock space, and pretty much stop being obnoxious pains in the ass. As it stands right now, WalMart pretty much goes out of its way to make things as difficult and time-consuming as possible for the poor schmuck who is just trying to do his job and deliver their merchandise.

I deliver to a Fred Meyer (AKA Kroger's) which is almost as big as a WalMart, but the difference in the receiving departments between the two stores is night and day. Fred Meyer receiving is open from 7:30 to 4:30, they almost always have at least one dock available, and if they dont then I can either handtruck the packages up a ramp and thru the man door or else leave them on a pallet in the parking lot and an employee will come out with a forklift and haul the pile in for me. There are several people in the receiving department who are authorized to sign, and they are always helpful and cooperative. Which is just one of the many reasons I do all of my shopping there.

Kroger is also unionized and Walmart ranks at the bottom for grocery stores in the US according to Consumer Reports. Kroger is one of the more profitable chains in the country, even in areas where they have to compete with super stores. I'd contribute this to their low price sales on everyday items and customer service that doesn't make you wait 5 people deep with full carts.

 

[Buck Fifty]

You are forgetting the $10 COD charge to the shipper per package. UPS has stickers that shippers can order and put on the non-COD packages of a multiple package COD shipment which basically say not to deliver any of the packages without the COD being paid for. If the shipper does not have these stickers on the non-COD packages the consignee can refuse the COD and accept the non-COD packages and UPS would not be liable. The way to get around this is to do as you said and split the COD charges among all of the packages in the shipment.

I'm sure you see these stickers all the time on your route up there in Clarksville.

.

I'm sure he sees this one a lot too !!

 

[JDoe123]

Walmart will always be a difficult stop to deliver and it's never consistent.  One day the dock will be open, the next, 3 vendors will be ahead of you.  There's no easy solution.

 

[CAFAL]

Walmart in my area isn't too bad. Woman in receiving hates walmart and hates the fedx guy. Very nice. Then around the corner, sam's club. They are absolutely terrible. Only one guy can buzz you in and only one security manager can sign. It's ridiculous!

 

[soberups]

Walmart will always be a difficult stop to deliver and it's never consistent. One day the dock will be open, the next, 3 vendors will be ahead of you. There's no easy solution.

The easy solution would be for them to allow us to deliver to an alternate location if the docks are full, and to have more reasonable receiving hours. Shutting down the receiving department at 1:00 doesnt leave a very big window of time for deliveries to be made, particularly when there is a chronic shortage of dock space.

If every trucking company started recording their crap as "refused" and RTS' ing it whenever there was an unreasonable delay to get to a dock, WalMart would be forced to address its asinine shipping/receiving policies.

 

[JDoe123]

The easy solution would be for them to allow us to deliver to an alternate location if the docks are full, and to have more reasonable receiving hours. Shutting down the receiving department at 1:00 doesnt leave a very big window of time for deliveries to be made, particularly when there is a chronic shortage of dock space.

If every trucking company started recording their crap as "refused" and RTS' ing it whenever there was an unreasonable delay to get to a dock, WalMart would be forced to address its asinine shipping/receiving policies.

If drivers could negotiate solutions with employees our jobs would be so much easier.  We see the problems that arise from corporations trying to save money so they can fatten their pockets.  They don't see what we see.  How about the DIAD design with the signature button being right where the customer rests their thumb?  That's always the bottom line though for every business.  Saving money and cutting costs  . If it's "working" now for them why would they change it?  Some of the vendors I see there never use the dock anyway because it's easier to load and cart it up the ramp:  The bread guy, the snacks guy, etc.

That being said, yeah it would be great if we could all get together and RTS their packages until they fix the problem but that won't happen and it wouldn't be an easy solution to the problem.  Yeah to the driver it would be.

I've had late air deliveries for them at Christmas after the dock was closed.  They wouldn't even take them up front.  A NDA?  Really?  How does that make sense?  Their receiving policy is a huge joke.  If I get any packages now for them after receiving is closed I record them as closed.  I do drive there and ring the buzzer knowing that they are closed and slap a note on the door.  Just covering my back on that one.