Is anyone else experimenting with mystery preload start times?

Norma

Active Member
We know how UPS likes to play around with Preload start times ... as if they somehow know next Thursday will warrent a 5 minute earlier start time. My building has been experimenting with complete mystery start times. As in no time posted on Friday for a Monday start.

Since these 'mistakes' come from corporate, I assume other buildings must be experiencing the same thing. Am I correct?
 

cosmo1

Perhaps.
Staff member
We know how UPS likes to play around with Preload start times ... as if they somehow know next Thursday will warrent a 5 minute earlier start time. My building has been experimenting with complete mystery start times. As in no time posted on Friday for a Monday start.

Since these 'mistakes' come from corporate, I assume other buildings must be experiencing the same thing. Am I correct?

Show up, punch in and push a broom around for a while.
 

Bagels

Family Leave Fridays!!!
My local (region?) requires 48-hour notice. For awhile they experimented with posting Mo & Tu on Fri, adding Wed on Mon, Thur on Tues and Fri on Wed. Lately they've went back to posting the entire week on Fri, although they sometimes make changes.

Lately it's been 4:15AM Monday, 4:10AM Tuesday, 4:05AM Wednesday, 4:20AM Thursday, 4:40AM Friday for the Input, with the Loaders starting 20 minutes later (some others with odd times here & there). Many people just show up at 4AM everyday. Not me--2 hours less sleep...
 

mixyo

Dispatcher
Many people just show up at 4AM everyday.
That's what I do. I wake up, leave home, and get to work at the same time everyday regardless of start time. I don't even bother to look at the schedule. If I have to kill 30 minutes, so what? If they need help with anything, I'm there.
 

Jackburton

Gone Fish'n
At our hub they are calling drivers at 4am to work preload who sign the extra work sheet due to all the supervisor working grievances filed on preload. The problem is when said drivers get off at 9pm the night before the earliest they can clock in is 7am.
 

DriveInDriveOut

Inordinately Right
That's what I do. I wake up, leave home, and get to work at the same time everyday regardless of start time. I don't even bother to look at the schedule. If I have to kill 30 minutes, so what? If they need help with anything, I'm there.

The security guards wouldn't even let you in the building here. No one gets in until 10 minutes before the posted start time.

If you did that here on day sort, you would be working for free. The start times change every day. When you swipe your time card, the machine shows you the time you clocked in, and the "paid from" time someone put into the computer for you. 9:45 on a Monday, 11:15 on a Friday, anywhere from 10:00 to 10:45 in between. Not to mention some people are on a 10 minute stagger, some are on a 30 minute staggered start time.

Throughout the year your start time will change from 9:00 to 11:15 am. Depending on your seniority it could end anywhere from 2:00 to 4:30 pm. It's a pretty terrible system for people who have a second job. You're looking for a second part time job, but you can't commit to any shift between 9:00 am and 4:30 pm, plus commute. 9 to 5 is not part time hours. Has anyone looked for a part-time job since the economy tanked? Almost every one has "must be available for flexible hours" listed as a requirement.
 
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Bagels

Family Leave Fridays!!!
I'm surprised to hear some people still clock-in through time cards. I assumed everybody used the company intranet.

UPS.jpg
UPS.jpg
 

Norma

Active Member
I know all the union rules. They haven't said a word to me even though I know my start time has been off 3 out of the last 5 days. They've played on both (all) sides of the law. My usual start time is official start time + X. Day 1, my start time is X + 15, next day it's X - 5, next day it's X + 5 with watchers.

Just posting because they don't usually do these things in just one building. BTW, I'm in the top 10 with attendance, misloads, showing up late, absenses etc.

I think it's more of a case of clueless new management in the building than anything else. I just wonder why they are trying to steal time from me because they think I don't know how to read a time clock.
 

browntroll

Well-Known Member
samething in my hub different start times for everyone, today i had one sup tell me to come in at 4:00am on monday and then i saw my paycheck
it had "start time 4:15" written on it. im just gonna go in at 4am see what they tell me. i understand workload is light but sups are also trying to cut
ppl whenever possible.
 

DriveInDriveOut

Inordinately Right
Just posting because they don't usually do these things in just one building. BTW, I'm in the top 10 with attendance, misloads, showing up late, absenses etc.

I think it's more of a case of clueless new management in the building than anything else. I just wonder why they are trying to steal time from me because they think I don't know how to read a time clock.


Chances are they're not trying to steal time from you. They don't care about you at all. They're just trying to make their numbers, that's all they care about. They do this by adjusting your start time day to day, and this is why a lot of people end up working for free and don't even realize it.
Do you swipe a time card to clock in? If you do, watch it very closely when you swipe it, as it only displays your information for a few seconds. It will say the time you clocked in, and the "paid from" time. Don't work until the "paid from" time.

Whether you use digital time cards or not, you should keep a log of everything. Get a calendar book and keep track of your own hours,trucks you loaded, misloads they blame on you etc. No one is gonna look out for your best interest for you. If you find discrepancies, go to HR and request a printout of your time records.

Even though we use a digital system to clock in and out, someone does actually have go into the system and manually put in your total hours. This is where a lot of the mistakes happen. Math seems to be hard for a lot of supervisors.
 
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laffter

Well-Known Member
We have had a drastic change in management over the past several months. New building manager, the preload manager is gone and the old center manager is now the preload manager. Our old full time sup is now the center manager. New dispatch people. I think one of our old preload sups who became an on-road is now back in preload. When people come into a new position, they tend to repeat the same mistakes their predecessors did- or so it seems, at UPS.

A little while ago someone started playing around with preload start times. Our building volume was "light", so we got a later start time by about 10 minutes or so. Then, they started customizing start times per person based on the routes you loaded. Management couldn't keep up with all of this so they took us back to a regular start time. Now we're starting at 3:50 except on Monday's we start at 4:05. 3:50 is earlier than before, yet the sort is still going down super late (8 - 8:20), probably because trailers are still arriving late.

Nobody can figure anything out around here. As far as I know, this building has a hard time meeting its production ... "requirement", or whatever you want to call it. We also apparently fail our ketter audits all the time. But, we're treated well here compared to what I read on this forum, so I don't really have too much to complain about.
 

BakerMayfield2018

Fight the power.
Our building is starting to screw around with drivers start times as well. Most start at 9:05 and some people aren't starting to be paid till 9:10 or 9:20
 

ChickenLegs

Safety Expert
At our hub they are calling drivers at 4am to work preload who sign the extra work sheet due to all the supervisor working grievances filed on preload. The problem is when said drivers get off at 9pm the night before the earliest they can clock in is 7am.

Haha what driver is signing extra work sheet? Top rate + OT + easy 9.5 money and still living beyond ones means...,so sad
 

TooTechie

Geek in Brown
When I worked inside we had swipe cards to punch in and the start time was announced for the next day on break over the loud speaker
 
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