Old Time UPS.

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
Hey I remember on those old time cards ( that we carried in our shirt pockets) if we ran bad the sups would draw sad faces on the backs of them the next morning. The GOOD OLD DAYS!!

I remember being a cover driver at Peak. You'd have to staple 8 of those time cards together to get all your areas on them!
 

Old International

Now driving a Sterling
I remember the old P400's the most. Only Package car that went FASTER when you hit the brakes. Paper records, and sheet writing contests with the other centers in the divison. CASH cods, and leaving Barnwell SC with over 11 Gs in my pocket, and not stopping for anything. Bankers clasps the you rubbed on concrete, till it was sharper than a knive to cut COD tags off. Carrying 4 pens, and rotating them on cold days so you had one the would always write good.
 

spif91

Well-Known Member
One of our really old 1000s has some sort of metal box with a slot under the shelf where the 2000 section is. Is that a box for cash or COD?

I picked up 3200.00 and change on my route 1 day. The county fair was in town and of course all the pkgs to the carney's at the fair were cash only. One of them paid me 872.00 dollars in 1 dollar bills. Set there and counted them for what seemed an hour. Called my center manager and ask if I had to take them and he said yes. My turn in that night was 192.00 short and I turned in like 20 something cash envelopes. Guess who paid the 192.00 the next day and the fair had packed up and left town? Me. Those were some great times huh?
 

lazydriver

Well-Known Member
As a feeder driver before the IVIS we had tachographs that recorded your speed and on road time. You had to wind the clock and set the time. At the end of the day you turned it in with your paper log sheet and time card with slic locations. I still use my bankers clips to hold the seal controls to the visor. I remember when the shop used to rebuild the friend-model tractors and saw a rebuilt motor on a pallet the tag listed only 190horsepower and maybe 900lbft. of torque. It would pull a heavy set up some hills of the PA turnpike at 20mph. Now the new Vision Macks I think are 430hp and 1300lbft. and can maintain 45 50mph up those hills.
 

Covemastah

Hoopah drives the boat Chief !!
I remember driving an 1100 with air brakes & power steering.. Next Day airs we called 'REDS" 2nd day BLUES no 3 days. Complete kayos when we went to DIAD with those poor guys that were near the end of their careers{hired in early 60's trying to learn that.I remember those heavy House of Lyod pkgs & every one got
encyclopedias & delivering Diet Pepsi 6 packs when they came out. How bout those stupid 3rd party billing green tags,had to punch in tons of numbers,that sucked if you had a Barnes & Noble on your route .. How about live Christmas trees?? Anybody remember those?????
 

trouble maker

Well-Known Member
The old 600's with wood shelves, and 400's too. Cheating on the old nda tags with your delivery times. Remember when the bulk head doors had the locking mechanism on the top of the door? I used to fold up a delivery notice and wedge it in the lock so you never had to use the key. A supervisor taught me that trick. Going to the cemetery and taking the names off of head stones when on paper to pad your stop counts. Yeah, the good old days.:happy-very:
 

tarbar66

Well-Known Member
As a feeder driver before the IVIS we had tachographs that recorded your speed and on road time. You had to wind the clock and set the time. At the end of the day you turned it in with your paper log sheet and time card with slic locations. I still use my bankers clips to hold the seal controls to the visor. I remember when the shop used to rebuild the friend-model tractors and saw a rebuilt motor on a pallet the tag listed only 190horsepower and maybe 900lbft. of torque. It would pull a heavy set up some hills of the PA turnpike at 20mph. Now the new Vision Macks I think are 430hp and 1300lbft. and can maintain 45 50mph up those hills.

I used to see if they were checking the tach charts closely other than the monthly audit by substituting a tach chart that I would find in the tach head from another driver. I also worked for another company that used tach charts so sometimes I would trade them. Usually they looked for speeding so some guys had a plug that they would stick in the speed needle groove at about 57 mph.

Back then we were told the tach chart was for our protection if involved in an accident or to fight a speeding ticket. I did beat a speeding ticket that my on road sup took to a JP hearing and explained how they worked. I told the cop that I was paid by the hour so why would I speed. The JP ruled in my favor.

You mentioned the lack of power in friend models on the Pa pike and low speeds. I was pulled over on the Pa pike for excessive smoke from my Diamond T especially if traffic backed up in the tunnels. I got a written warning and was told not to drive that tractor on the pike untill it was fixed.
 

Leftinbuilding

Well-Known Member
When I started there was no preload or local sort. Higher seniority drivers loaded the cars in the AM, and lower seniority unloaded the pickups in the evening. The aforementioned "release numbers" were the last three digits of the shipper number, reversed. We had a company magazine called "The Big Idea". It was MUCH more personal and informative than todays UPSer.com.
 

spif91

Well-Known Member
I remember when driver release started on the diadI. I got a driver followup on a pgk I delivered a few weeks earlier. The followup showed dr mcman(met customer man for those that have no idea what I'm talking about). I weant by there and talked to the lady and showed her the followup paper. She refused to sign it showing the pkg was delivered because she said there was no one at the residence by the name of Dr. McMan. She said she didn't even know anyone by that name. LOL!!!!!
 

rod

Retired 22 years
The old 600's with wood shelves, and 400's too. Cheating on the old nda tags with your delivery times. Remember when the bulk head doors had the locking mechanism on the top of the door? I used to fold up a delivery notice and wedge it in the lock so you never had to use the key. A supervisor taught me that trick. Going to the cemetery and taking the names off of head stones when on paper to pad your stop counts. Yeah, the good old days.:happy-very:

A few fake addresses and a half a dozen memorized driver release numbers would get the man off your butt anythime. They knew but it kept their bosses off their behinds so nothing much was ever said about it unless it was taken to extreams. I had a woman sup that showed me a few tricks to getting credit for an extra stop or two that I hadn't even thought of----or was brave enough to do.
 

ups79

Well-Known Member
The old 600's with wood shelves, and 400's too. Cheating on the old nda tags with your delivery times. Remember when the bulk head doors had the locking mechanism on the top of the door? I used to fold up a delivery notice and wedge it in the lock so you never had to use the key. A supervisor taught me that trick. Going to the cemetery and taking the names off of head stones when on paper to pad your stop counts. Yeah, the good old days.:happy-very:

My 6 cube had a hole in the wooden door large enough that I could get my hand inside and trip the lock. Never did use the key until one day they decided to put a 4inch by 4 inch square block over the hole. All it took was a screw driver to take it off the next day. A supervisor riding with me always thought it was a time saver to just reach inside and trip the lock with my hand rather than the time consuming key.
 

p1000

Free at Last
Back in the 70's you always knew when peek was. All you would see was those red and white boxes from Swiss Colony. The only thing that was good about them was they had a release numbers. Everything else was signatures.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
Back in the 70's you always knew when peek was. All you would see was those red and white boxes from Swiss Colony. The only thing that was good about them was they had a release numbers. Everything else was signatures.


I knew a driver that would check all his Swiss Colony pkgs and eat the ones that he concidered "chasers" (out of the way stops). He only lasted about 3 years.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
For rural drivers, there were a couple weeks in the spring that were almost as busy as Christmas season. Seeds and trees!

Seed Season! How could I forget about that. There were actually a few years that seed season was worse than Christmas- probably due to the fact that some drivers were on vacation and no extra help was ever hired. The whole truck was filled with scrawny bushes and boxes of seeds. I came to HATE Gurney Seed Co. Everyone had to order their Giant tomato seeds and orange trees that supposedly would grow in northern climates. Throw in a few cases of Zoiza grass and it was a for sure 12 hour day. Don't forget to throw in a couple of cases of onion sets (really made the truck smell nice) just to round out the day
 

spif91

Well-Known Member
038598 = Lands End I do believe.
I do have a couple copies of "The Big Idea" sitting around .

I made the front cover of the Big Idea back in 83' delivering out of an old bubbletop. If I can find it and scan it I'll try and post it. I was a good looking devil back then. LOL
 
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