Package Car with a trailer

[Taco]

I saw this setup headed the opposite direction on the freeway the other day and found a pic on Flickr of an identical setup:




What are they used for? A bulky bulk stop? Routes with 500 resi stops? A route that has enough volume to use a Budget rental truck but needs a lower deck because the customer doesn't have a dock?

(And I tried the search function, but "trailer" is all too common)

 

[bumped]

Its used for a satellite route.

 

[Taco]

Never heard of those. Can someone explain?

 

[Catatonic]

I saw this setup headed the opposite direction on the freeway the other day and found a pic on Flickr of an identical setup:




What are they used for? A bulky bulk stop? Routes with 500 resi stops? A route that has enough volume to use a Budget rental truck but needs a lower deck because the customer doesn't have a dock?

(And I tried the search function, but "trailer" is all too common)

The UPS designation for a PC pulled trailer is a TP-60.
Typically used for satellite routes and also for bulk stops that will be delivered by walkers or helpers.

 

[bigblu 2 you]

mobile lounge/restroom ?

 

[Packmule]

used for bulk stops around here. Also for large shipper's as pick up device. They park it on the dock in the morning, and haul it in at night. Customer loads it all day and it saves drivers a lot of time later.

 

[MC4YOU2]

We had one a few years ago for the walmart rt, as they wanted to be picked up at delivery time, which was the first stop of that rt and they would typically ship as much or more than they got leaving no room to get to the next bulk. It was retired when we lost the acct and ups stopped worrying about making sense.

 

[idrivethetruck]

We have several going out every day for bulk stops. I have also seen them used at peak season to help with the loads. A couple of package cars are loaded with only 1000-4999 sequences numbers. Sequences 5000-8999 are loaded in the "pup". One driver pulls the pup to his area and drops it. When the package cars are empty, the drivers and their helpers go to where the pup was dropped and re-load their trucks with what's in the pup.

 

[Just Lurking]

Don't forget the five cent premium per hour for pulling a TP60.

 

[Cementups]

My route two routes ago was a mall route and during peak I would pull a TP-60 and park it outside of the mall with an extra DIAD in it. A helper would come by a few hours later and deliver the stores to the mall out of the pup. At the end of my trip I would then come back to the mall and pickup the trailer and return it back to the building.

I hated it!!!

 

[rod]

Actually its a pull behind trailer that every driver must use now days. In it they must store their common sense, street smarts, area knowledge and years of experience-- as they are no longer alowed to use these talents and are only robots programed to "work as directed" by someone sitting with his feet up on a desk in Atlanta. If your package is late or your driver seems to be working in a fog, teed off or running around like a zombie the reason is locked up in that trailer.

 

[BrownArmy]

No TP60's here - they just brickload the package cars to the nth degree.

No rhyme or reason, in my center if they can fit it on the truck they'll call it a day and let the drivers deal with the aftermath.

I couldn't open my bulkhead door until noon today...awesome!

 

[satellitedriver]

A TP6 trailer is my satellite center, just park that puppy in a WalMart parking lot.
Amazing how a 600sq/ft trailer can fill a 700sq/ft P7 pkg car.

 

[Kreative444]

We have like 8 routes with thoes in the south vegas building. But if you want to see something funny should see us during peak, half the resi routes pull uhaul trailers

 

[Taco]

No TP60's here - they just brickload the package cars to the nth degree.

No rhyme or reason, in my center if they can fit it on the truck they'll call it a day and let the drivers deal with the aftermath.

I couldn't open my bulkhead door until noon today...awesome!

You haven't seen a bricked truck until the loaders start putting boxes on your seat!

 

[Mike57]

Around O'Hare Airport,(Chicago) I've even seen a package car pulling a trailer with a air can onboard.

 

[rushfan]

It means more work.

 

[Johney]

Don't forget the five cent premium per hour for pulling a TP60.

10 cents here

 

[soberups]

Our building has about 16 of these "pup" trailers. I have been pulling one almost every day for 20 years. They are used to feed satellite routes and for bulk stops and pickups. During peak a bike helper will work out of one. The genius who came up with that idea as a method of "reducing miles" totally forgot to consider the fact that the driver who drops it off might be 15 or 20 miles away at the end of his day when he has to drive back to where he parked the trailer in order to retrieve it. He also failed to consider the fact that a driver who pulls a trailer cannot normally deliver any of his own committed Next Day Air...or much of anything else for that matter....until he has gotten that trailer empty and parked and unhooked. So whatever miles might be saved on one route are simply shifted on to another due to the logistics involved in getting the trailer out to and back from the delivery area. When I.E. forced some of our rural routes out onto "satellite" centers...over the objections of the center managers who would have to deal with them on a daily basis....total miles and paid days for the drivers in the affected loops increased. It was another typical example of someone with too much authority and too few brains having themselves a "bright idea" that looks great on Google Earth but fails miserably when you actually have to implement it in the real world.

 

[menotyou]

Our building has about 16 of these "pup" trailers. I have been pulling one almost every day for 20 years. They are used to feed satellite routes and for bulk stops and pickups. During peak a bike helper will work out of one. The genius who came up with that idea as a method of "reducing miles" totally forgot to consider the fact that the driver who drops it off might be 15 or 20 miles away at the end of his day when he has to drive back to where he parked the trailer in order to retrieve it. He also failed to consider the fact that a driver who pulls a trailer cannot normally deliver any of his own committed Next Day Air...or much of anything else for that matter....until he has gotten that trailer empty and parked and unhooked. So whatever miles might be saved on one route are simply shifted on to another due to the logistics involved in getting the trailer out to and back from the delivery area. When I.E. forced some of our rural routes out onto "satellite" centers...over the objections of the center managers who would have to deal with them on a daily basis....total miles and paid days for the drivers in the affected loops increased. It was another typical example of someone with too much authority and too few brains having themselves a "bright idea" that looks great on Google Earth but fails miserably when you actually have to implement it in the real world.

I would say "step away from the cupcake" normally, but in this instance, "Step away from the Google Earth!"