I need help with a driver release procedure

[Dustyroads]

"Work as instructed" is just a term often used by supervisors who aren't bright enough to give a reason for their instructions, which are often incorrect. For example, a few months ago, I had a call tag/return service tag for a package which contained hazardous materials. I called the center. The supervisor that was present instructed me that I needed to pick up the package, after all, they wouldn't have sent a call tag if it couldn't be picked up. Does the box look good, the supervisor asked. I replied, it looks fine, but that isn't the issue. They instructed me, just pick it up. I did not work as instructed. After returning to the building the same supervisor indicated that I would have to go back and pick the package up the next day. After a small talk with that supervisor's boss, we decided we would not to pick up the package, and instead, obey federal law. "Work as directed" is only as good as the direction.

 

[toonertoo]

I hold doors open for women and the elderly.
It was something taught to me at an early age.
Its called being respectful.

Exactly, AND we are professionals, that includes courtesy. I would take Dilligafs way, and make him sign something so when you get a rudeness complaint, it can go in your sups file.
Now if it is just someone telling you to wait coz they are on the phone, etc. Drop and go.

 

[over9five]

I understand now. We can refuse to work as directed if it is our opinion that the sup is a buffoon.
Or, we can refuse to work as directed if we think we won't be disciplined for it.

I guess I have an outdated work ethic. I would deliver the way the boss told me to.

No offense Dusty! Sometimes I'll take the "Devils Advocate" position too far!

 

[Dustyroads]

I guess you would have picked up that haz mat package because a supervisor told you to, even though you knew that it was violation of ups policy and federal law and could result in fines for both yourself and UPS?

No offense, Over9, but no, I do not blindly follow a supervisor's orders out of fear.

 

[over9five]

Not fear, work ethic. He is the boss, not Dusty.

Nana does not give you a paycheck, UPS does. It is up to the boss to decide how to run the business.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Dusty, I would have picked up the hazmat per instructions and then brought it to the sup's office and let them handle it from there.

 

[over9five]

Dusty, I would have picked up the hazmat per instructions and then brought it to the sup's office and let them handle it from there.

Me too. "Work as Directed".

 

[Dustyroads]

Upstate, if you had been stopped out on the interstate by the Motor Carrier Enforcement division, before you made it back to the building, you would have been fined, as well as ups, and your blind following of "orders" is no excuse to the Department of Transportation.

We are highly trained to obey Federal law concerning Hazmats, and no matter what supervisor tells you to violate that law, we must not do it.

This isn't Nazi Germany, we are bright enough to do our jobs without having them micromanaged stop for stop.

My center manager was happy that I was brighter than his supervisor, and chose not to violate the law. He indicated that he would do some training with the sup.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

The only problem is that Dusty would have been the one who had to return the package to the shipper the following day and explain why we could not accept it after we had already accepted it.

 

[Dustyroads]

No, upstate, we couldn't have returned the package the next day, we couldn't have it on the truck...it's an undocumented hazmat.

I find it difficult to believe that two veteran drivers would violate Federal Law and also defy the things they signed in their hazmat training, just because some supervisor who was manning the phones at 2:30 in the afternoon instructed them to do so.

 

[over9five]

Dusty, you have taken this way out to left field!

We were talking about an on-road sup instructing his driver on how he wants a package delivered. It has nothing to do with Federal law!

 

[Dustyroads]

No, you had changed the conversation from delivering to the elderly to a issue of working as directed, in your position as the devil's advocate. In fact, that has been your argument all along, work as directed, and YOU asked, can we choose when to work as directed, and I replied, yes, we can. I gave you a perfect example, and now you choose to dismiss it as off topic. You made that the topic.

I don't hear you defending the practice of being discourteous to the elderly or disabled, you hung your hat on work as directed, not me.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Dusty, you would be technically correct in refusing to pickup the pkg but if after explaining the situation on the phone to a sup and being directed to pickup the pkg I would pickup the pkg, load it properly, and bring the pkg to his office to let him deal with it. I didn't even think about the pkg not being able to be RTS due to being hazmat. Did the customer have to come and pick it up?

 

[Dustyroads]

I doubt that the customer came and picked it up, it was shipped from about 500 miles away. I don't really know what happened to the stuff, but I do know the rules are about hazmats.

We got a driver nailed on the interstate a couple months ago, just 5 minutes into their day, by the DOT, for having a fire extinguisher that was low. Have you checked your fire extinguisher level lately?

As for dealing with the elderly and disabled, I invite any member of management to come out and tell us here publically that we are supposed to drop their package on the porch, knowing that they can't retreive it. Anyone want to put their name on that order?

 

[UnconTROLLed]

If you pick up a hazmat, undocumented, and it leaks and melts your arm off, or explodes in your truck, who is responsible in UPS's eyes? The supervisor who gave you the order, or you for picking it up?

 

[UnconTROLLed]

I doubt that the customer came and picked it up, it was shipped from about 500 miles away. I don't really know what happened to the stuff, but I do know the rules are about hazmats.

We got a driver nailed on the interstate a couple months ago, just 5 minutes into their day, by the DOT, for having a fire extinguisher that was low. Have you checked your fire extinguisher level lately?

As for dealing with the elderly and disabled, I invite any member of management to come out and tell us here publically that we are supposed to drop their package on the porch, knowing that they can't retreive it. Anyone want to put their name on that order?

I really feel that not working as directed would have to be a safety concern, as management cannot force you to work unsafely. Everything else is pretty much grounds of discpline that I am aware of. Would it stick? No. I would argue customer service values are being shorted.

In driver training you are taught to hand package to customer if applicable, get a signature if applicable, say thank you and continue your business. So while it is bad business to drop a package and run when an elderly person will have trouble retrieving it, its probably best to WAD and make a complaint higher up instead of disobeying.

 

[Dustyroads]

I guess my commitment to service exceeds my fear of some low level supervisor threatening me with discipline for handing a package to a customer.

"work as directed" is a threat of a person with a small mind.

 

[cachsux]

Another example of "work as directed". Your feeder dispatch hands you a load thats a "hot cutoff". The only way you`ll make that cutoff time is to speed to the railyard. You know this and inform dispatch as such stating that you`ll take the trailer but will not speed (break the law) and the trailer will get there but not by the cutoff time. Do you (A) work as directed and speed on down there knowing full well you are breaking the law and if you so much as scratch anything they`ll hang you disavowing any knowledge of said "direction",or (B) take the trailer but make them well aware that you will be following the speed limits and any other laws and the trailer will get there when it gets there?

This is something that happens all the time and despite the best efforts of senior drivers to educate the junior ones they still manage to talk some new guy into running his butt off to make up for their mistake. But no one has EVER been disciplined for refusing to break the law.

 

[over9five]

"some low level supervisor"

It was his on-road sup. His direct supervisor.

I'm beginning to think you have issues with supervision.

 

[Dustyroads]

Cash, I imagine that happens all the time. I expect we could think of scores of other examples.

I manage to be underallowed almost every day I work, I'm 54 years old and have a hard 30 years as a package car driver, and I still manage to be courteous to my customers, including the elderly, the slow, the blind and disabled. I strive every day I work to provide a level of service for my customers far beyond UPS's standards of excellence. And, my customers notice the difference. It's difficult for my cover drivers and for fedex to fill my shoes, and I like that, since my shoes are so old.