misloads, exaggerated issue?

TooTechie

Geek in Brown
There are two types of misloads. misloads into feeders and misloads into package cars. misloads into feeders can delay a package 3-6 days if its ground and that's a huge delay. These days with the scanners telling feeder loaders about a misload it is unacceptable to have any misloads.

As for misloads into package cars, ideally preloaders should have scanners too but that would add a huge burden to them as they load multiple trucks and are already pushed too hard in my opinion.

Some preloaders don't understand the on-road ramifications of misloads and packages loaded on the wrong shelves. I'll provide a real world example. I had a next day air thrown on the 7000 shelf of a packed bulked out load the other day. i couldn't get to the 7000 shelf until noon and it resulted in the next day air being over 2 hours late and took me 30 minutes extra minutes each way of driving.

Now, that's bad but only the tip of the iceberg...The air was the biweekly paychecks for an entire dental practice which closes at noon on Fridays. That means that over a dozen people didn't get paid until the following week. Also we can't mark a business as closed in the noon hour so I was forced to take my lunch early and stay there until after 1pm so I could sheet the package.

That means i had to work an hour later, the company had to pay an extra hour of overtime pay plus the time spent digging in the morning and the consignee, a business didn't get their paychecks.

Still think loading errors don't really matter? Even if that had been a ground instead of an air it still would have resulted in all that extra driving and inconvenience to all parties except the loader.

Having missing packages on your truck which are in your diad also take a ton of time as we are searching for them wasting time only to never find them or to have to meet another driver later in the day to get it then backtrack to deliver it. I can't stress enough how important the job you do is to our day. A good loader can literally save us hoursor cost us hours and make our day smooth or unnecessarily difficult.
 

BrownArmy

Well-Known Member
A good loader can literally save us hoursor cost us hours and make our day smooth or unnecessarily difficult.

I'm cover...when I see that xxx-xxxx is my loader for the day, I know I'll be out two hours extra, easy.

(wasn't my truck that day, but I think the record for xxx-xxxx is 15 misloads :surprised:)

I cover a route where the driver and loader often take the same vacation weeks...

This particular loader is tops...easily the best in the building, my guess he's in the top five for the entire state. HE'S THAT GOOD.

I think the driver coordinates his vacations with the loader because he simply can't DEAL with another loader.

The loaders make or break a drivers' day, no doubt.
 

Indecisi0n

Well-Known Member
I'll never forget that during the lead up to EDD/Pass we were told that the preloader would be able to tell which truck the package should be loaded on,and even where in the truck to load it! Mis loads would be so rare they would be pretty much non existent!

VkENWqV_zpsb04d6b81.gif

The sad part is it could be true.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
If the delivery is late by a day then the shipping charges are waived, of course the shipper would have to monitor this, but there are companies that will do that for them. They check every delivery to make sure it was done in the correct time window.

We had several of these business up along the Canadian border----they spent all day tracking packages on a commission basis. This "cottage industry" is part of the reason the company now limits the number of packages that a customer can track on ups.com to 25 at a time.

Are you sure about the GSR on late ground packages?
 

konsole

Well-Known Member
What percentage of ground misloads get delivered the same day by that wrong driver, and what percentage of ground misloads get brought back to the building and delivered the next day?

I honestly don't see the problem with bringing back almost all ground misloads to the building and shipping them out the next day. Plus I don't see that many customers making a big deal about a day late ground and seeking reimbursement for the shipping charge. If a driver finds a misload and is within a few miles of the address then deliver it, if not then bring it back for delivery the next day. Its rare a customer will make a big deal about it, it will be minimal burden on the driver because they are delivering it if its close to their route, or simply bringing it back to the building, and the amount of money that UPS will lose is negligable. If manangement is forcing the driver to drive way out of their way to delivery it then to me that seems like more of a fabricated problem then it needs to be. All the examples I have seen about how a ground misload is a problem have all been rare cases, the "what ifs" if you will. You can't use these rare examples to prove your case. Things that rarely happen cannot have a significant influence on everything afterwards and if they do then I contend that its an artificially created situation that the higher-ups have created for their own personal gain.

Now when it comes to bad load quality as some have mentioned, this is something that should be addressed. You can do something about a preloader loading packages improperly and crushing packages underneath or loading packages vastly out of order. This I completely agree with and a preloader can be trained to do this better. However you can't train a preloader to not ever misload and you can't point the blame on misloads on simply preloader error alone, or perhaps even at all. A poorly loaded truck can almost always be traced back to a preloader not caring about the load, though there still are other factors involved out of their control, a preloader can still try and do a pretty good job. In my many years preloading for UPS I can't remember ever hearing bad loading quality every get more then a brief mention and even that was so rare I can't recall the last time it happened, but they make it well known each time there is a misload. So if poor load quality and misloads both create problems, why is load quality generally ignored and misloads are kept in tight check? I'm pretty sure I know the answer but I think its better to ask the question to find out.

Does sort management get in trouble for misloads? Do they get in trouble for bad load quality?

My guess is that missloads do show on their performance reports seen by building management, but poor load quality doesnt. So if true then obviously they are going to make a big deal about every misload while poor load quality gets minimal attention at best.
 
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konsole

Well-Known Member
If I have about an 800 package day on the preload between 3 cars, and a I tried hard and did a very good job of loading the packages on the truck... I fit all the packages in nice and neat, nothing is being crushed, as many of the labels are facing up or out, I caught a handful of packages with wrong labels, as little as possible is laying in the middle of the truck, and I even had time to make the driver aware of a few changes on their truck... I am very happy with the job that I did. I made the drivers day as easy as I could while they where on the road, and I helped minimize their job related aggrevation. Less time the driver spends on the road the more money UPS saves and the less grief they get from the driver. Unfortunately what happens the next day is no word is said about the mislabeled packages I caught or the good load quality I had. The only thing I hear is "todays safety tip is" and "you had 1 misload yesterday so focus some more on your misloads" When I finished the job the prior day and I saw that my hard work resulted in a well loaded truck, then I am happy about what I did and I could honestly careless about that misload.
 
If I have about an 800 package day on the preload between 3 cars, and a I tried hard and did a very good job of loading the packages on the truck... I fit all the packages in nice and neat, nothing is being crushed, as many of the labels are facing up or out, I caught a handful of packages with wrong labels, as little as possible is laying in the middle of the truck, and I even had time to make the driver aware of a few changes on their truck... I am very happy with the job that I did. I made the drivers day as easy as I could while they where on the road, and I helped minimize their job related aggrevation. Less time the driver spends on the road the more money UPS saves and the less grief they get from the driver. Unfortunately what happens the next day is no word is said about the mislabeled packages I caught or the good load quality I had. The only thing I hear is "todays safety tip is" and "you had 1 misload yesterday so focus some more on your misloads" When I finished the job the prior day and I saw that my hard work resulted in a well loaded truck, then I am happy about what I did and I could honestly careless about that misload.
Welcome to UPS!

You can do 10000 things right....screw up one thing and you are a cornhole!!Just do the best you can do,,,,,,,,,,,,,and u will be fine!!
 

bleedinbrown58

That’s Craptacular
800 package day and only 3 cars? That is a loader's wet dream. I have 4 cars and 1200-1400 packages a day. Management doesn't care about load quality until a driver gets hurt because of it...say a 60 lb open box on the top shelf falls on his foot. Other than that, the truck could look like a blind man loaded it with a snowblower and the sups don't care. I care, i take pride in my work and keep my drivers happy. Which explains why they practically throw tantrums when I'm off and some kid loads their trucks like ***** and gets 10 misloads.
 
I'll never forget that during the lead up to EDD/Pass we were told that the preloader would be able to tell which truck the package should be loaded on,and even where in the truck to load it! Mis loads would be so rare they would be pretty much non existent!

VkENWqV_zpsb04d6b81.gif
That is the way I remember it. And we were paid $.50 an hour less than drivers. You get what you pay for.
 

'Lord Brown's bidding'

Well-Known Member
Preloaders, ya'll need to check out UPS' facebook page and see how people feel when the package "Out for Delivery" on a particular day still hasn't been delivered at 9pm, and how they'll swear off using UPS, and will post this on their FB page (and even on the UPS page you see their friends/families commenting on their post.."Ya'll done messed up now!" "No one survives Sarah's wrath!", etc.) and make sure to encourage their relatives not use UPS but rather FedEx instead.

When I first hired on as a preloader, I was taught in operations everyone has TWO customers to focus on: the person most directly affected by their work, as well as the end receiver. Your driver is your customer; treat him as such. Having been in your shoes, loading 4, 5, 6, several times 7 cars at one time, with thousands of pieces (I exaggerate not; thankfully, it was a belt I had to myself and could set the speed such to give me time to handle it all, but I still got backed up, of course) but doing the best I can, I feel the same about you as I do the person taking my order at the fast food joint who has the nerve to have an attitude: you are in the wrong field, regardless of your pay. At least in fast food, however, they can just throw you in the back to drop fries. In UPS, you always come face-to-face with a "customer"; man up and act like it (and you ladies....check out[is it dili's?] sig about being a kind of woman...]
 

konsole

Well-Known Member
A couple people here have mentioned that they preload 4+ trucks with as high as 1400 packages. Can you elaborate more on this? Is this everyday? How long is your shift? Do most people in your building do this? Are you able to keep up with it? Do you load an unusually high number of smalls? Your talking about preloading and not just loading the trailers?

Preloading 1400 packages in a ~4 hour shift with an average mix of packages just seems absurdly high to me.

Whatever you can say to help me understand your situation more please do.

I hope where not confusing trailer loading with package car preloading.
 

Random_Facts

Well-Known Member
Alright I agree misloads are a problem these days in every hub from big to small. From all the years I've been at UPS, there is just zero motivation on the ground floor. If you do a great job, you never hear about it. If you show up every day, you don't even hear about it. If you don't misload for over a month, guess what? Nothing. Now management has been drilling in our heads, "everyone pulls the same amount of work". Which clearly isn't true, but always makes me laugh when they say it out loud. People who are pulling 3 trucks and 800 boxes or lower, should be getting 1 misload max. (zero of course would be a lot better). Then you have those people who are pulling 4 trucks sometimes 5 trucks with a piece volume level of 1700-2000. Which is a mind boggling number I know. But when they get 2 or less, the supervisors go all ape on them. Oh you cost the company extreme money! Then they go on their usual rant. Not to mention if you have a mean/negative driver. Yes they do exist. The ones that come in and literally as soon as they step onto their package car it's: "My load quality sucks, why is my loader stacked out?, and my personal favorite I'm going to have to redo this all over (chucks out boxes left and right).

Want a better load quality? Try being more polite to your low wage loader, more than likely they are doing everything in their power to do a great job and succeed at it. Granted their are some who could care less about anything and everything, you know the kind. Throw it in now, later, and more. But if you see your loader doing his/her very best, encouraging words and helpful tips will make life easier for you and us in the long run.
 

bleedinbrown58

That’s Craptacular
Hey konsole...allow me to elaborate. I work in NY. I load the same four cars everday. 3 of them are 1000's....average around 280-325 packages (120-140 stops) a day...the 4th is a 1200 which averages 150-160 stops and about 380 to 425 packages daily. So my total # of packages i get to play with is around 1300 depending on the day. This does not include the numerous times a day i have to help the loaders next to me load their trucks lol. I average about 2 misloads a week. Today i worked 4am-915am.
 

bleedinbrown58

That’s Craptacular
I don't expect motivation from management...i don't need them to tell me oh you're doing a good job...in fact i'd be more than happy for them to leave me the (bleep) alone altogether. Just let me do my job and don't talk to me. The guy who posted about treating your drivers like customers in terms of load quality is 100% correct. My motivation is knowing my guys had a decent day because i loaded their trucks the way they want them loaded...not the way management sets up the load or necessarily where the PAL tells me to put the package. I can't make it stop raining, i can't change your 200 pickups a day but i can make sure you have totes, make sure
you can easily find everything stop for stop and you'll never find an air on your 7000 shelf lol. That's what they pay me for.
 

Love2back

New Member
Alright I agree misloads are a problem these days in every hub from big to small. From all the years I've been at UPS, there is just zero motivation on the ground floor. If you do a great job, you never hear about it. If you show up every day, you don't even hear about it. If you don't misload for over a month, guess what? Nothing. Now management has been drilling in our heads, "everyone pulls the same amount of work". Which clearly isn't true, but always makes me laugh when they say it out loud. People who are pulling 3 trucks and 800 boxes or lower, should be getting 1 misload max. (zero of course would be a lot better). Then you have those people who are pulling 4 trucks sometimes 5 trucks with a piece volume level of 1700-2000. Which is a mind boggling number I know. But when they get 2 or less, the supervisors go all ape on them. Oh you cost the company extreme money! Then they go on their usual rant. Not to mention if you have a mean/negative driver. Yes they do exist. The ones that come in and literally as soon as they step onto their package car it's: "My load quality sucks, why is my loader stacked out?, and my personal favorite I'm going to have to redo this all over (chucks out boxes left and right).

Want a better load quality? Try being more polite to your low wage loader, more than likely they are doing everything in their power to do a great job and succeed at it. Granted their are some who could care less about anything and everything, you know the kind. Throw it in now, later, and more. But if you see your loader doing his/her very best, encouraging words and helpful tips will make life easier for you and us in the long run.

I hear the same things from loaders in my building. They want credit for doing the bare minimum. you want someone telling you "thank you" for coming to work. This isn't grade school anymore. Do your duty, what you are paid to do. IMO zero misloads is the least you should aim for. raise the bar for yourself. doing your job, whether it be misloads/tape ups/etc, is not reason to expect a trophy. is loading a truck correctly going above and beyond? no, its what you are paid for. loaders have no idea the expectation for drivers to be productive and 100% on every box in our truck. we are here to make money, not be polite and hold your hand. I see my loader and myself in a football analogy, the team expects the kicker to be 100% every kick, the entire team depends on us. If I am the kicker, my loader is holding the ball. if you don't hold it straight, how can i kick a 50 yard field goal? your job is to set me up to also do my job. if you guys fail, my job is just that much harder. its not ONE misload that kills a drivers day. what drivers do, is very similar to loaders. we do the same thing over and over all day. when a loader makes the same mistake throughout the load. its not just one mistake, its one mistake repeated hundreds of times per day. seconds lost due to a single mistake are multiplied hundreds of times throughout the load and the day. a 9 hour day quickly becomes a 10 hour day when small details are not adhered to.

truth is my loader doesn't give a ****. and drops the ball everyday. and its up to me to come through while the person i rely on the most, fails.

its not just a loader problem, its a management problem. my loader is female, her sup is female. two very sweet people i always get along with. but they are both lazy and don't give a **** and don't know what being professional and dedicated really means.

example: my truck is not finished loaded daily. the sups explanations is "oh she had to leave early to go to work, her other job" i get into the truck and its loaded extremely poor. again i ask the sup why this is allowed daily. sup has the balls to say "she doesn't have time to reorganize the load and as more things come down, she just puts it anywhere" you mean to say that everyday you let your loader leave early to go to another job, but she doesn't have time to finish the job she has with ups? on what planet does that make sense? our priority is UPS, not her job at mcdonalds! let me tell my center manager "you know what, i cant finish delivering my route today because i want to leave work early" i wouldn't have a job the next day.

i was a loader for 2 years. way before the current load system was in place. we had to know every address, every street of the trucks we load. sups didn't shuttle around misloads for 5 hours a day, because we didn't have more than 1 a month. preload needs to realize that they are so bad currently that a new, almost full time, job had evolved to clean up their mistakes everyday. that's three sups on road moving around misloads at about 5 hours a day each. that's 15 hours spent fixing mistakes each day. how can the preload be proud of that? it all comes down to attitude. a severe lack of work ethic.

i hate the way ups management behaves. i've been at ups for 12 years and i am seriously thinking of going into preload management. i am actually considering going to the darkside because the preload seriously lacks proper leadership. they need proper leadership, not someone who is a hypocrite or harasses but someone who leads by example.
 

rudy5150

Well-Known Member
Alright I agree misloads are a problem these days in every hub from big to small. From all the years I've been at UPS, there is just zero motivation on the ground floor. If you do a great job, you never hear about it. If you show up every day, you don't even hear about it. If you don't misload for over a month, guess what? Nothing. Now management has been drilling in our heads, "everyone pulls the same amount of work". Which clearly isn't true, but always makes me laugh when they say it out loud. People who are pulling 3 trucks and 800 boxes or lower, should be getting 1 misload max. (zero of course would be a lot better). Then you have those people who are pulling 4 trucks sometimes 5 trucks with a piece volume level of 1700-2000. Which is a mind boggling number I know. But when they get 2 or less, the supervisors go all ape on them. Oh you cost the company extreme money! Then they go on their usual rant. Not to mention if you have a mean/negative driver. Yes they do exist. The ones that come in and literally as soon as they step onto their package car it's: "My load quality sucks, why is my loader stacked out?, and my personal favorite I'm going to have to redo this all over (chucks out boxes left and right).

Want a better load quality? Try being more polite to your low wage loader, more than likely they are doing everything in their power to do a great job and succeed at it. Granted their are some who could care less about anything and everything, you know the kind. Throw it in now, later, and more. But if you see your loader doing his/her very best, encouraging words and helpful tips will make life easier for you and us in the long run.

Ups takes advantage and abuses its whole workforce especially the younger ones. They intimidate and harass and they dont have any union back up. Right in the contract is says a fairs day pay should equal a fair days work. loading 4-5 trucks is worker exploitation. Plain and simple. thats the new ups!
 

Bagels

Family Leave Fridays!!!
Had one driver today with 15 misloads on his car. Anybody beat that?

Two peaks ago, we had a seasonal loading the 26B, 26C and 26D cars and misloaded something like 120 / 1200 packages, including 50-something on one car. It was his first day and we were too busy/short staffed to have somebody work with him all day (he received a half-hour of training at the most). He didn't bother to show up again, so UPS didn't get the gratification in terminating him.

(I still don't understand why we keep many areas as 26B,26D ... the numbers do begin to look alike when you're loading 1200 pieces in just over 4 hours.)
 

BrownArmy

Well-Known Member
(I still don't understand why we keep many areas as 26B,26D ... the numbers do begin to look alike when you're loading 1200 pieces in just over 4 hours.)

In my center, they've taken to changing the route #'s to the drivers last name; if it's SMITH, the pal will read SMIT-1274, whatever.

Still have a crap-ton of misloads...doesn't help that they move the routes/loaders around all the time...

:knockedout:
 
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