Ownership

[denverbrown]

Everybody wants the Union play the heavy and put management in its place. But there are times when a Union Steward needs to tell his people things they don’t want to hear. I think that time is coming around again. The problem is mis-deliveries. The solution is ownership.
The company is taking a hard stand on mis-deliveries. Drivers are getting warning letters and even suspensions. Someone is going to get fired.
Every Steward who represents a driver who is in trouble for leaving packages at the wrong address hears the same story. “Why is this all my fault? Why isn’t the preload being held accountable?”
The preloader makes $9.50 an hour and the driver makes almost $30 an hour. The driver’s job is to verify the address on every package he delivers. Even if the preloader mis-loads every package in the truck, the driver still has to deliver them all to the right address.
Ownership means taking responsibility for your actions, not blaming your problems on someone else. In the case of mis-deliveries, it is the driver who takes the package out of the car and gives it to the wrong customer. It’s not the preload, it’s not the management team. The driver needs to own up. One of the methods we must all be using is to verify the address on every package we deliver. Mis-deliveries are a sign of bad methods.
No driver who is facing discipline wants to be told that he has a problem. He wants the Union to get him off the hook. But until the driver understands the concept of ownership, there isn’t much the Steward can do for him.
George

 

[helenofcalifornia]

That sounded just like a management PCM!

 

[trplnkl]

Everybody wants the Union play the heavy and put management in its place. But there are times when a Union Steward needs to tell his people things they don’t want to hear. I think that time is coming around again. The problem is mis-deliveries. The solution is ownership.
The company is taking a hard stand on mis-deliveries. Drivers are getting warning letters and even suspensions. Someone is going to get fired.
Every Steward who represents a driver who is in trouble for leaving packages at the wrong address hears the same story. “Why is this all my fault? Why isn’t the preload being held accountable?”
The preloader makes $9.50 an hour and the driver makes almost $30 an hour. The driver’s job is to verify the address on every package he delivers. Even if the preloader mis-loads every package in the truck, the driver still has to deliver them all to the right address.
Ownership means taking responsibility for your actions, not blaming your problems on someone else. In the case of mis-deliveries, it is the driver who takes the package out of the car and gives it to the wrong customer. It’s not the preload, it’s not the management team. The driver needs to own up. One of the methods we must all be using is to verify the address on every package we deliver. Mis-deliveries are a sign of bad methods.
No driver who is facing discipline wants to be told that he has a problem. He wants the Union to get him off the hook. But until the driver understands the concept of ownership, there isn’t much the Steward can do for him.
George

Mr. Denver,
I don't disagree that a driver should be held accountable for misdeliveries. No sir I am not disagreeing.
What I think should happen and I'm pretty sure it doesn't, is the off area misloads should be on the person that loaded it as much as the driver. I don't care how much difference there is in wages for the two positions, they are both paid to do a job.
The problem with mis delivering a package at a bulk stop(lets say 50 pieces) is the driver is in a hurry and becomes complacent, assuming the loader has done his/her job correctly. To hang this on nothing but bad methods is over simplifing the situation. One package at a bulk stop misdelivered by be nothing more than one package not looked at out of 50.
On the other hand, if a driver is mis delivering a single package, that would be a different matter all together.

 

[sano]

Mr. Denver,
I don't disagree that a driver should be held accountable for misdeliveries. No sir I am not disagreeing.
What I think should happen and I'm pretty sure it doesn't, is the off area misloads should be on the person that loaded it as much as the driver. I don't care how much difference there is in wages for the two positions, they are both paid to do a job.
The problem with mis delivering a package at a bulk stop(lets say 50 pieces) is the driver is in a hurry and becomes complacent, assuming the loader has done his/her job correctly. To hang this on nothing but bad methods is over simplifing the situation. One package at a bulk stop misdelivered by be nothing more than one package not looked at out of 50.
On the other hand, if a driver is mis delivering a single package, that would be a different matter all together.

Just playing the devils advocate here. It is often stated as a black an white issue "how can a preloader misload, just look at the label"
As a preloader (who frequently receives awards for perfect service weeks) I would submit that if we were serious about misloads we would ad an extra loader or 2 to the dock. With very few aberrations, the amount of misloads our dock has tracks the volume. When I load 4 cars with 800 pieces I have time to double check every label and time (and room) to build a nice load for the drivers. When I load 5 cars and 1200 pieces, I just don't have the time or space.
We are told over and over that a misload cost the company over $60.
What am I missing? ad an extra loader to each side of the dock and each loader loads 3-4 cars instead of 4-5.
I would sure think that would save more than 2 misloads a day.

(the above is my opinion based on a very small world view of one dock at one center in one building)

 

[1989]

Always look at the label before you deliver it. Just as you did before PAS.

 

[Kraetos]

Ya same here it all depends on how many trucks I have and how much bulk stops for the day whether I have time to check or not.

Most of the time I skip the 10 minute break before pre-loader pcm to check all my trucks. Some days though I'm worn out because of heavy volume and have to take the break and cannot check everything. I never get a wrong truck misload, but sometimes fail to catch flips or just plain bad scans.

The thing that I hate is that I have to hurry to check everything, take care of any splits they give me at the end of the day, load all my bulk stops, and make sure the load is reasonable so that the driver can deliver it easily; before 9, even though unload still has not finished sending everything down, air is coming down, and datacap idiot helpers keep putting stuff on the belt (Sometimes wrong belt, because the 's can't read which belt to put boxes on) With all this in consideration, and i'm just venting lol, I do what I can.

As long as the worker is making an effort to improve and doing his best, he is never at fault.

 

[trplnkl]

The more time you take, the more time you get paid.
I know it's hard to get that many packages loaded properly in the amount of time they give you. It's just as hard to get them delivered in a given time, especially when they are not where they are supposed to be and when you have packages that you are not supposed to have. The simple part is, you get paid to load packages where they are supposed to be, I am paid to deliver them to the correct address. If either or both of us don't do what we are paid to do, something needs to be done about it.

 

[BigBrownSanta]

The company also has a responsibility to help prevent the misdelivery of misloads while delivering bulk stops. When you get EDD in the morning, the diad stores all the tracking numbers that are supposed to be on your truck for that day. If you try to deliver a package from a different address on your route, the diad will prompt you to confirm if you want to add the package to that delivery. If the barcode has not been stored in the diad that day, the diad will not prompt you, but rather will accept it as another package for delivery.

I understand the company can say it's the responsibility of the driver to confirm each address before delivery, but if the diad will allow a driver to deliver a package that is not stored in the diad, then the company has not done all it can do to prevent that situation from happening. All is needed is a simple software update that prompts the driver to confirm the address if a barcode is scanned that was not stored in the diad. If the package is a misload, it should prompt the driver to send a message and then sheet it as missed. If it is a package that was not put in EDD that day but goes to that address, then the driver could override it and deliver it.

The ownership issue is not a one-way street for the company. The company also has a responsibility to help prevent the misdelivery. If the company chooses not to, then it is passing the buck and, in a way, condoning the misdeliveries.

 

[brownmonster]

BigBrown, excellent idea. I always wondered why the technology didn't work that way. Maybe the Pretzel Man can get the ball rolling on this update.

 

[barnyard]

One of the driver's in my group got his 1st driver follow up in over 5 years. He takes pride in not only delivering to the correct address, but also in an area where the customer will get it, undamaged (cut drivers have had claims on the same route because they left packages where dogs got them.)

I have caught myself a couple of times (I deliver to an area that is streets and avenues, the town is divided into NE, SE, NW and SW) I am delivering to the wrong house (generally going to NE instead of SE or vice versa), I need to stop, take a break and eat. My concentration drops off proportionately to how hungry I am.

A half sandwich almost always fixes it.

TB

 

[1989]

The resposibility comes down to the employees that perform the work. People don't want management to micro-manage yet it is the companies job to prevent misloads? A misload is just an error made by a human. Responsibility comes from the unloader, to the spa person, to the loader, to the driver...The driver is just the last and final defense to preventing a misdelivery and should take resposibility for their own mistake regardles of any mistakes made up the line.

 

[over9five]

The problem is, as soon as they find that they can blame a driver, no effort is made to follow the mistake "up the line".

 

[Bubblehead]

The company also has a responsibility to help prevent the misdelivery of misloads while delivering bulk stops. When you get EDD in the morning, the diad stores all the tracking numbers that are supposed to be on your truck for that day. If you try to deliver a package from a different address on your route, the diad will prompt you to confirm if you want to add the package to that delivery. If the barcode has not been stored in the diad that day, the diad will not prompt you, but rather will accept it as another package for delivery.

I understand the company can say it's the responsibility of the driver to confirm each address before delivery, but if the diad will allow a driver to deliver a package that is not stored in the diad, then the company has not done all it can do to prevent that situation from happening. All is needed is a simple software update that prompts the driver to confirm the address if a barcode is scanned that was not stored in the diad. If the package is a misload, it should prompt the driver to send a message and then sheet it as missed. If it is a package that was not put in EDD that day but goes to that address, then the driver could override it and deliver it.

The ownership issue is not a one-way street for the company. The company also has a responsibility to help prevent the misdelivery. If the company chooses not to, then it is passing the buck and, in a way, condoning the misdeliveries.

You are exactly right. The company continually attempts to treat symptoms instead of fixing problems. There are many issues that the DIAD could assist in preventing or eliminate completely. Off the top of my head issues like:

1. Sheeting commercial stops closed or NI from 12-1 and after 5. If the DIAD wouldn't let you, problem solved.
2. COD's that are cashiers check or money orders only could easily have a prompt screen and in fact is provided for in the new contract yet has not been implemented. Why not? Because they are to busy retrofitting trucks with telematics instead of 3 point seat belts.
3.DIAD could assist in helping drivers with a list of exception packages for turn in. Scannable check off.

Taking ownership is a two way street and as usual management has been exposed as hypocrites.