Little Black Book

[rod]

They keep track of EVERYTHING (and you know how screwed up they can get sometimes)- it's to your advantage to do the same. The first time you get called into the office and your sitting there with no defense you will understand. It's always more exciting when you have some facts and figures to back you up. Remember- to them EVERYDAY is suppose to be a perfect day with dry roads, sunny skies, no traffic and customers that run out and meet you. They are judging the kind of day you had while sitting in an airconditioned office twirling around in their fancy chair.

 

[Jim Kemp]

For those that think its petty just remember one thing UPS is keeping a "little black book" on you.

CYA

 

[filthpig]

it's a good idea to keep up with stuff your supe tells you over the phone, since that will be the only record of it. Also write down things like days off you request so they can't crawdad on you. Also, if you ask to change a vacation week and they say "ok" you want to be sure to have it written down.

 

[rocket man]

I have a calender at house route number if notes about day stops pickups if any missed anything note worthy . IT really helps amonth or two down the line if they come back with somthing. you look at date hey i wasnt on that route that day or anything like that it works good luck.you may never need it but its good to see when you took off ect.

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

I remember seeing an ad for a "black book" on "makeupdeliver.org" a while back. They were selling a book that sounds much like the one being discussed here. Looked pretty cool. Or maybe it was another site. Either way I saw it.

 

[IWorkAsDirected]

I keep the info so that I can check my hours worked . We had a supervisor to get fired a few years back for shaving a few minutes a day off everyones timecard.

Same happened here, he's still here, how did you get rid of him? We got an apology, he's still here.

 

[IWorkAsDirected]

I have never kept a book before, but I am attempting to start one, beginning Monday. There is no telling how many times I have been shorted on hours and never knew. I've never really thought about the oddities that occur that I need to keep up with also. Maybe even keep record of what odd instructions I have been directed to follow from time to time.
Come to think of it I may need a secretary.

Very important to record everything just to cya.

 

[Covemastah]

They keep track of EVERYTHING (and you know how screwed up they can get sometimes)- it's to your advantage to do the same. The first time you get called into the office and your sitting there with no defense you will understand. It's always more exciting when you have some facts and figures to back you up. Remember- to them EVERYDAY is suppose to be a perfect day with dry roads, sunny skies, no traffic and customers that run out and meet you. They are judging the kind of day you had while sitting in an airconditioned office twirling around in their fancy chair.

Sounds like the old Clarksville Usa videos from the late 80/s early 90's lol

 

[dannyboy]

Rocket

I did mine when i took that 10 minute paid break at the end of the day, right before I punched out. That way, it gets done while everything is still fresh in your mind. And after a while, the colors were a bit different too, that adds to the legitimacy of the entries, showing you just didnt make all this stuff up.

Big, I just used a weekly or monthly planner. Any size can do, from pocket size to even the larger ones. The one I liked was the 5X9 with the zipper binder. Good place to store the contract book as well. Large enough for some decent information collection, and has pages you can insert should there really be some issues during the month.

I also entered the grievances presented, and kept a copy of all the unsettled ones in that binder.

It was nice having everything together in one place. Especially when your skills at organization are not that good.

d

 

[bad company]

http://www.tdu.org/node/1778

$4.00

 

[dannyboy]

That one is allright, walmart 2 bucks.

But the first time its on the shelf when the package car leaks, and there will be a lot of damage to it and the data.

d

 

[mattwtrs]

Back in the 70's & 80's I think every cover driver had a book that had a brief description of where they covered. It seemed as there were always new supervisors & managers coming to the center. We used to joke that we trained the most management in the entire District. It wasn't uncommon to cover 10 different area's in 15 days. That all changed with area bids.

We had a center clerk that kept a diary cause he was the only constant office figure in the building. He was in CYA mode also. We had drivers from the 1960's that helped with dispatch but not too much was said about paid over & the other usual crap of today. I only remember 1 driver being fired in my first 15 years & that was for dishonesty cause he was signing for packages before Driver Release was started. Oh for the good old days!

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Back in the 70's & 80's I think every cover driver had a book that had a brief description of where they covered. It seemed as there were always new supervisors & managers coming to the center. We used to joke that we trained the most management in the entire District. It wasn't uncommon to cover 10 different area's in 15 days. That all changed with area bids.

We had a center clerk that kept a diary cause he was the only constant office figure in the building. He was in CYA mode also. We had drivers from the 1960's that helped with dispatch but not too much was said about paid over & the other usual crap of today. I only remember 1 driver being fired in my first 15 years & that was for dishonesty cause he was signing for packages before Driver Release was started. Oh for the good old days!

Cover drivers in my center used to use index cards and had a card file for each area that they covered. This was back before the conversion of rural routes to 911, so you would see entries like "RD 2 Box 985 Red house up long driveway across from boat launch, can bring pkgs to village store during winter, uses side door, watch for dog." The conversion to 911, with street names and house numbers, has pretty much eliminated the card files.

The black book that is being discussed is used more for operational entries and as a CYA tool.

 

[dannyboy]

Upstate

Remember the tear off delivery notices?

I had a lot of plastic trays that fit into a file cabinet that were just tall enough to index those.

I had different routes organized by street name, and the delivery notices all in numerical order.

What I would do is while I was delivering and collecting signatures on the clipboard, I would get that same customer to sign several delivery notices while I had them there, for the next time they got a package.

After all, 90% of our home deliveries are to the same 10% of the people.

After the advent of DR, I kept them for about 4 years, and during one day of cleaning, over 10,000 signed delivery notices went out the door.

While others put me down for the practice, it helped. At that time we were on bonus and I could make an extra 250 a week because of the notices, which really did not take that much time to collect.

Average day I would collect probably 30 or so. Sometimes a lot more.

d

 

[leastbest]

I've been keeping detailed records since 1978. I use a palm pilot now. It has saved me a lot of trouble over the years. If I speak to a supervisor about a problem I document it. Later when it isn't resolved and I'm in the office I pull out my pda and say I spoke to Joe on Nov 3rd and 7th. Changes the tone immediately.

 

[anonymous6]

keeping track of hrs and other things can be invaluable.

ex. supe tells you something and you make a note of it in your book. months later they call you in the office and ask you "Why did you do such and such ?" you can whip out your book and say "So and so told me to do it that way."

do this a couple times and they learn fast to leave you alone.

 

[satellitedriver]

My being a sat driver punching out over the phone, I have always kept a log book. I have kept them over the years.
These daily extemporaneous notes came in handy 2 months ago.
I was the most over-allowed driver in the center and was going to have a "ride" by my sup.
So, I went back in my records and pulled the exact( or very close) days numbers ( miles, pkgs and stops) from the same month in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 (before PAS/EDD) and I was under allowed by 1hr on an average on these days.
These same numbers in 2008, showed me 1 1/2hr over.
The ride came and I showed the sup the facts. He rode with me only for 2hrs and said, "I can not see anything you are doing wrong."
I haven't heard a peep about being "over" since.
A good defense is the best offense, and knowledge is power.
These are old truisms that still apply today.

 

[BLACKBOX]

I've always seen other people use it but never me. I'm thinking it sounds like a good idea to note things about your route (like address breaks,new streets,etc..) that you can refer to later. I like the idea of the palm pilot. I just might stop by Best Buy and check out its features.

 

[satellitedriver]

I've always seen other people use it but never me. I'm thinking it sounds like a good idea to note things about your route (like address breaks,new streets,etc..) that you can refer to later. I like the idea of the palm pilot. I just might stop by Best Buy and check out its features.

Pen and paper never needs batteries or backup files.

 

[gded]

I remember seeing an ad for a "black book" on "makeupdeliver.org" a while back. They were selling a book that sounds much like the one being discussed here. Looked pretty cool. Or maybe it was another site. Either way I saw it.

all od u had such great reasins of why we keep those books. CYA is the main reason for me