Peak season perspective

Babagounj

Strength through joy
Customer Counter .
We were open 9-5 , very heavy day ,
Being jr man , I had to lock up and return the diad boards to the center office.
 

The Other Side

Well-Known Troll
Troll
I thought all 90 of your drivers ran out of hours?

We did, we had drivers from another hub come in and drive us around. We were the helpers. It was a shameful display of management by UPS. Two full time drivers in a package car delivering 35 stops at 96 dollars an hour on a saturday. How this can be described as "management" is beyond belief.

peace.
 

The Other Side

Well-Known Troll
Troll
In some cases, our trucks were being sent out with over 600 stops on car! Thats right, 600 stops!

Thats how you end up with drivers over 200 stops left at 6pm at the air relays. Then, for kicks, 5 drivers have to be sent to break up all the stops and stay out till 930 or 10PM.

We have never had this happen in the 21 years ive been a driver. This was the first and probably the future of UPS planning.

Saturday morning, we got the stupid speech from the DM how we came together as a team and made it happen. He started clapping as if we were going to join him, but all he heard was crickets!

Peace
 

hembone

Well-Known Member
In some cases, our trucks were being sent out with over 600 stops on car! Thats right, 600 stops!

Thats how you end up with drivers over 200 stops left at 6pm at the air relays. Then, for kicks, 5 drivers have to be sent to break up all the stops and stay out till 930 or 10PM.

We have never had this happen in the 21 years ive been a driver. This was the first and probably the future of UPS planning.

Saturday morning, we got the stupid speech from the DM how we came together as a team and made it happen. He started clapping as if we were going to join him, but all he heard was crickets!

Peace
How can they get 600 stops on a car! Last year we had a driver doing 450 stops a day..One dat the airs were late and I went to look at his car. HE WAS STRESSED. I said "how do you get this done?". He replied "this is my first car, they bring me my second one at 4:30". They tried (no lie) to discharge him on Christmas Eve 2010.
 

The Other Side

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How can they get 600 stops on a car! Last year we had a driver doing 450 stops a day..One dat the airs were late and I went to look at his car. HE WAS STRESSED. I said "how do you get this done?". He replied "this is my first car, they bring me my second one at 4:30". They tried (no lie) to discharge him on Christmas Eve 2010.

Hembone, out here, we drive p12's, the largest package cars in the fleet. Its a solid brickload, no organization, just stacked from top to bottom from front to back, from side to side. No matter how it was argued, the cars went out like that and FAILED. Five to six drivers had to be sent out of there areas to assist these trucks after 6 pm and all drivers involved in this ONE trucks dispatch worked 12 to 13 hours on those days.

Its pathetic.

Peace.
 

The Other Side

Well-Known Troll
Troll
In our mall route, they only used ONE furniture truck instead of the usual 3 package cars. This mall route would have anywhere between 90 to 100 stops left in the MALL at 6pm! The company opted to put 4 helpers with one driver from a standing position and this took FOREVER and a DAY with the ridiculous amount of pieces crammed into the truck.

Logistics? Dont make me laugh.

Peace.
 

union4life

Well-Known Member
I hate to think it but unfortunately I think TOS may be right. This could be the "planning" model for the future. We run an average of 48 drivers per day which includes a couple of TCDs.

This is the first peak in which not a single seasonal driver was hired. The center user "driver helpers" instead. We had plenty of drivers run out of hours. The hours aren't that big of a deal. To me, that is part of the job. The part that is frustrating to me is knowing it doesn have to be this way. OH, and for thse who are thinking "go into management and fix it if it is so easy", make sure to slap yourself. If you think you are going into management to "make a difference" you will conform to "their" way of thinking or be joining a couple of my fellow sups in the unemployment line.

The only thing this company understands is service failures. Just do your job to the letter and save plenty of money. This company will be following all the big collapses sometime in the future unless people at the top wake up.
 
Our peak was a complete disaster. Starting the week of thankgiving, we were already rolling packages. The company did not plan to run what we have normally run in years past. (90 cars) and instead, kept it at 80 cars.

This led to service failures daily and the next days dispatches kept increasing on top of normal volume. As the days extended week over week, we got to peak week with all drivers in jeopardy. Yesterday (friday) the company had to gather supervisors from HR, Loss Prevention and Safety to brown up with on road sups and go out at 8 pm and take over routes with 100 stops left!

YES, I said over 100 stops left at 8pm!

When I was relived, and returned to building, we were only 10% in and drivers were buried and most likely going to bring stops back. We ended up rolling so many stops this week, we are ALL mandated to work today (saturday) to clean out the hub!

This is what happens when you put management without the benefit of actual driving experience in charge of centers and allow some IE person ( i wanted to say geek, but knew it would be removed) to destroy a centers productivity.

This years peak exceeded the worst peak on record for us and that was 2007.

Peace.

Just don't say anything Joax-ummm,I mean Hoaxter can't handle....or your entire post will disappear!
 

gman042

Been around the block a few times
Our center manager was angry Friday. That was the day that they decided to changed the start times of 5 drivers......that morning. The idea was to keep them out later so they could clean. That did not fly. He stated that we were using more drivers that ever before and still not cleaning up. All drivers were nearly out of hours. You know what, though? We got clean. Glad this one is over. In some ways it was easier......in others it was more stressful than those outrageously high stop count days.
 

union4life

Well-Known Member
If you think you are going into management to "make a difference" you will conform to "their" way of thinking or be joining a couple of my fellow sups in the unemployment line.
Oops...bad choice of words. I am not a supervisor. I just meant supervisors that work in my center.
 

brownboxman

Well-Known Member
This was my 25th peak season at UPS. There have been worse(10 days of snow) and there have been better(less hours). This year I worked 54 to 59 hours per week starting the week after Thanksgving. We have a new Center Manager who just with his forthright attitude seemed to make it bearable. I still feel the change in the direction UPS has taken by not hiring extra drivers has made our job (driver) that much harder. One driver in our loop actually had to manage a small army, one helper for her and two helpers on bicycles. My loader asked me if I would do it again. I said no but after thinking about it, I would but have an earlier exit strategy. Have a plan to move into another field after maybe 15 - 20 years. But I also feel our position has/will become a real non-thinking job. And will become less fullfilling as a proffession. Every corporation in American has cut costs, by cutting staff, UPS is no different. The diff is the toll it takes on our bodies to work more hrs and more hours. So peak wore me out I have spent the last couple of days trying to just get back to feeling like being active. I have to do this one more time and I will retire, will it be a lot? No. Will it be enough? I will make it so. So Merry Christmas to all of you UPS warriors out there, and a Happy and healthy New Year!
 

tre305

Well-Known Member
reporting from 3311
slowest
peak
EVER

although i was getting more than 8 hours most days (and yes i am part time and yes i do realize you lose your OT after 8) it still was pretty tame than past peaks. i dont even think we topped over 25k on the preload.

i did hear about our friends over at MIA airport one day were forecasted for 90k and got hit with 125k.....i would have loved to have been one of the boxes jammed up on one of the belts during that sort!
 
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