Peak is here?

[old brown shoe]

Thought that helpers were not suppose to be used after the first of the year. Those should be teamster jobs and added routes. Seems like it is always an emergency because of poor planning and dispatch. Then the hourly people get the brunt of the work.

 

[bad company]

According to some of the other supervisors in various centers throughout my division, the entire Ga District got slammed as a whole. Everyone seems to be blaming it on P'dale. Way to go Jack!!! I had about 45 more stops than I normally do during non peak season. Left the building an hour late. Drove in all kinds of circles to get my business stops off, since I have a lot of bus/resos mixed in together. Had to get my bulk p/u covered since I was going to be in late. Clocked out with exactly 12 hours. Not enough volunteers to work tomorrow, so based on seniority, I'll be doing it all again tomorrow! Hooray me!

 

[Iowan]

friend'N buried here, had a helper and still didn't punch out until 7:20. Heard all centers are heavy...wondering why??

 

[toonertoo]

With the new and improved contractI think they can use jumpers all yr. You will see few driver jobs open up, with that IMO. W, T, friend just like another day of peak. Punch out at 10.5 or later, get home at 9pm or later. Working for UPS is like having Christmas all yr, without the tips, and food at customer places. Pack a lunch friends, 2 words, GIFT CARDS, I expect it will continue til they are all spent, and then Chrismtas in July will start.

 

[Harley Rider]

Heavy here as well. We were short preloaders so I went in the last three days to load cars. Started an hour late yesterday and today. Had to miss stops to get back to the building under the 13 hour mark.

 

[DS]

We were heavy Wednesday,light since then.....except the mall guy,it wont stop there....he says theres still lineups at the apple store...I'm sure it will be back to busy for the rest of us on Monday...

 

[Cementups]

We were busy Wed., then were pretty busy on Thursday, and today we were really busy. I was in in 9.5 all thru peak and now today I had a 11.33 day......!?!?!?

 

[HEFFERNAN]

Somethings going on here !!
I know that sometimes we think January is gonna be easy but It never is, but the last three days It has been crazy
The last three days I have seen the center and district manager walking around with looks on their face like the worlds ending
How in this day and age can we not know the forecasts are up and they cant make arrangements with staffing
It just makes everyone look like idiots when we've been doing this for a 100 years
Job security is great but I don't want to see us working 11 hours when WE ALL KNOW that we need more routes
Just My Opinion

 

[25yrvet]

What a week---only 3 days! Everyone is talking about fileing 9.5 grievances. I saw alot of stuff with a ship date of 12/27. Lottsa Cabela's, Quixstar & Melaluca. The weather has been uncooperative the past month also. Sup & ctr manager were delivering today. It wouldn't be so bad if the district hadn't abused us so much during peak, no gas left in the tank. I wanna find some IE pencil necks & drag 'em around with me next week.

 

[Jim Kemp]

Got in at 10:30 tonight had about 10 other drivers in bldg recording missed stops. Some had as many as 80 missed.
On the way home saw other cars headed in.
Why would drivers be out at 11: pm in January?
With all this technology how can they miss their projections by 4000 pkgs. We were projected to have 5000 but we got 9000.

 

[govols019]

Been ugly here too. Thank God I'm on vacation next week. I knew this was coming just like every January. This ain't my first rodeo.

 

[outamyway]

We were off by 15000 or so. Everyone did routes today. Supervisors, air drivers, even a couple preloaders who have a some driving experience. It's pretty ed up here as it is but when something like this happens it's a complete disaster. I did 186 stops. All residention. I didn't get to my fisrt stop untill 10:00 because I still had to do my 10:30 air deliveries. I punched out about 6pm. The money will be nice, but I don't know how you guys/gals do it everyday.

 

[brownmonster]

Spanked the last 2 days. Today was my latest day of extended peak. Bosses say IE didn't forecast this much volume. Big surprise. The answer.....we start later next week. Idiots.

 

[tups]

Over 10 all three days this week. Probably wont be any easier next week either. Why can't they keep seasonal driver they use for peak a couple extra weeks into January to help handle all this. Oh I know why........1- That would make sense. 2- Some of them would actually make book and have to be hired full time. And UPS just cant have that can they. After 100 years they have to know how it goes. I just don't buy it that they 'missed' their projections. They know how much is coming. They just keep with the more with less attitude as long as they can and use band aids all around to make it work like having air drivers get paid more for delivering ground. In our group of 14 drivers, everyone stayed out over 10 last night. Some of them were trying to send a message, others were truly screwed. And management will keep this up all winter if they have their way. Dont give in, work safe, use methods, and get done when you get done, and go home.

 

[BrownPR215]

Philly was slammed. In my center we were busy Wednesday, Thursday & Friday. Wednesday was the worst with guys going out in the red and not having Friday (12/28) send agains accounted for in edd which meant some guys were out with 200+ stops with no help.

For me Thursday was the worst. We leave the building 45 minutes late and 20 mintues later before I reach my route and get to deliver even 1 package the engine on my truck goes . I'm down two hours had to unload a full truck and load onto new truck . At least one of our good guy sups gave me a hand (3 hours) so I could catch up. Still punched out at 7.

 

[mattwtrs]

We had helpers for the 1st time after Peak. The lineup looked like Peak also. The best thing was the air was on time and the preload wrapped. The volume spike is due to shippers that beat the 1st of the year rate increase. Thank God it was my last day!

 

[scratch]

Thank God it was my last day!

mattwtrs,You picked a great time to retire, you couldn't have timed it any better. By any chance, are you covered by Central States and did the new Pension Plan have anything to do with you retiring last week? Congratulations again on the well earned retirement.

 

[trplnkl]

I love UP$, same 'ole song, 4,598th verse, makes 99 bottles of beer on the wall seem not so quite redundant.
Friday, left building @ 9:50 with ten NDA stops spread over a 6 square mile densely populated residential area with cul-de-sacs on one end or the other on every friggin street. The 10th air delivery was late. Then 51 miles to the first regular stop. 85 stops. 298 miles, last stop @ 19:00, returned to building 20:00. I can't speak for anyone else but I call that a fair days (or more)work for a fair days pay.

 

[Jack4343]

I think I have an idea why the volume is so heavy. After Christmas, there were tons of huge sales on many websites. Amazon (which is one of our largest shippers) had a up to 70% sale. I even became a thorn in my UPS driver's side and bought something. Also, I think people used lots of gift cards online as well. I delivered lots of Amazon boxes yesterday as well as over 20 Harry & David fruit of the month gifts. Looks like I'll be doing that for at least once a month for the next 12 months. UPS were totally caught off guard by this increase in volume due to internet sales and gift card use. It's usually our slowest couple of weeks a year. The economy isn't good and the before Christmas shopping season was not good for retailers. People waited til the last minute and were rewarded with big discounts and sales.

Pleasantdale is one of the largest (if not the largest hubs) in the Southeast region. We have well over 300 routes and our hub sorts got slammed with trailers. Many trailers got rolled over on Thursday as well as Friday. Frankly, I'm suprised that we aren't running Saturday ground routes and full sorts today and tomorrow to catch up. I guess there wasn't enough time to arrange staffing. We will be destroyed on Monday unless the peak split routes go back in and we get enough helpers. I had over 20 stops missing from my EDD on Friday that will be on my truck Monday. These packages were processed but didn't make it to my load before we left. Add that to the trailers sitting in the yard that weren't even touched and it creates a big mess. Oh well, I'll get enough sleep on Sunday night and hope for the best.

 

[Anonymous GearJammer]

Talked with a hub sort sup. last night, he said Wednesday nights volume was higher than any day last year, blew peak out of the water. Center load trailers that went out 50% or less during peak were all pushing 100% or blowing out all together.