Peak Season

[stoni24]

Thank God peak season is here! The only time of the year that us preloaders have enough workers on the belt. Enough routes in that each car isn't crammed beyond max! And we get an earlier start time so we have more time to load the cars. The next 24 days will be great! But after Xmas, back to hell!

 

[Anonymous 10]

Thank God peak season is here! The only time of the year that us preloaders have enough workers on the belt. Enough routes in that each car isn't crammed beyond max! And we get an earlier start time so we have more time to load the cars. The next 24 days will be great! But after Xmas, back to hell!

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

 

[UPSGUY72]

Thank God peak season is here! The only time of the year that us preloaders have enough workers on the belt. Enough routes in that each car isn't crammed beyond max! And we get an earlier start time so we have more time to load the cars. The next 24 days will be great! But after Xmas, back to hell!

What do you mean each car isn't crammed full how in the hell do you go from 140-150 stops to 230-250 and not have the car crammed full.

I guess your building is the only place where you get less stop per car during peak.

 

[dillweed]

I feel it varies from building to building. At this point we seem to have enough preload help and the sort aisle is beefed up so we can do all the smalls up there. The are not starting us much earlier considering the volume so we aren't done when the drivers are ready to leave. I don't think they'll ever learn.

I don't know for sure what's happening on the belts as far as driver stops. I don't see many happy faces in brown lately and have heard some grumblings so our center is probably squeazing the heck out of drivers.

This time of year the darned residentials go up so much that it really fouls a drivers day. They cut routes when the economy flopped in our heavy manufacturing area so our drivers have been stressed as it is. Add to that the gifts and it can't be a pretty picture.

 

[haydendavid380]

What do you mean each car isn't crammed full how in the hell do you go from 140-150 stops to 230-250 and not have the car crammed full.

I guess your building is the only place where you get less stop per car during peak.

That's what I was thinking....We already have more this year then we had last year.

 

[stoni24]

That's what I was thinking....We already have more this year then we had last year.

an average of 6 additional routes with only 150% increase in volume here so far, plus alot of retail bulk is now being loaded on pups(malls and such) Shelves still crammed yes, but frees up the middle of cars here. Just my opinion, flame away

 

[bigbrown1UPS]

sarcasm?

 

[UPSGUY72]

an average of 6 additional routes with only 150% increase in volume here so far, plus alot of retail bulk is now being loaded on pups(malls and such) Shelves still crammed yes, but frees up the middle of cars here. Just my opinion, flame away

Ya the isle is free form all the packages you guys try to cram on the shelves have some where to pile up when they all fall off. Just becasue you can stuff all the packages on a shelve when the car is parked doesn't mean that they will stay there when the truck is moving.

 

[stoni24]

Ya the isle is free form all the packages you guys try to cram on the shelves have some where to pile up when they all fall off. Just becasue you can stuff all the packages on a shelve when the car is parked doesn't mean that they will stay there when the truck is moving.

"You guys try to cram on the shelf"?? I guess the loader decides how many stops you have to make. Glad I don't load for you. You make more in a day, than I do in a week and still you fuss like my wife!

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

"You guys try to cram on the shelf"?? I guess the loader decides how many stops you have to make. Glad I don't load for you. You make more in a day, than I do in a week and still you fuss like my wife!

I like this kid.

First two days haven't been that bad. PC blown out--bulk stop left out each day. Punched out and gone by 1800 each day thanks to an awesome helper.

 

[UPSGUY72]

"You guys try to cram on the shelf"?? I guess the loader decides how many stops you have to make. Glad I don't load for you. You make more in a day, than I do in a week and still you fuss like my wife!

No the dispatch determines how many stops I get just like they so for the other 130 plus routes in my building. You be bitching too when you reached your first stop and find half of your 200 plus stops on the floor.

The problem with most loaders is that they have no clue on exactly what happens after a package car leaves the building. Sure they know we deliver packages. But in order to deliver the packages we have to find them that means we have to sort them that takes time and when everything falls on the floor it just takes longer. IF wecan't find a package and have to go back when we find it later that is a waste of time that we don't have.

 

[brownmonster]

Just the opposite here. Loaders start too late, loads come in too late, cars still blow out. Got 2 loads from the CACH hub today just before 8. Left building at 9:20. Pretty much kills your day.

 

[slantnosechevy]

"You guys try to cram on the shelf"?? I guess the loader decides how many stops you have to make. Glad I don't load for you. You make more in a day, than I do in a week and still you fuss like my wife!

Had a loader like you a few years ago who chirped like you. He signed up to be a runner. I told the center manager that he's running off the mess he put in the PC. center manager said he's all yours. After 3 days he was so enlightened that he became one of the best loaders in the building not to mention a new respect for how hard drivers work. I ended up with with 3 bottles of Crown from the other drivers he loaded for.

 

[DS]

Had a loader like you a few years ago who chirped like you. He signed up to be a runner. I told the center manager that he's running off the mess he put in the PC. center manager said he's all yours. After 3 days he was so enlightened that he became one of the best loaders in the building not to mention a new respect for how hard drivers work. I ended up with with 3 bottles of Crown from the other drivers he loaded for.

This proves what I have always said.Preload training should include at least one day ON ROAD as a helper

 

[brownedout]

This proves what I have always said.Preload training should include at least one day ON ROAD as a helper

Same here. This should be an absolute requirement.

 

[soberups]

This proves what I have always said.Preload training should include at least one day ON ROAD as a helper

Its a nice idea, but the reality is that most preloaders fail because they have been set up to fail by an incompetent management team who expects an inadequate number of preloaders to cram an impossible number of pieces into a inadequate number of undersized cars inside of an overcrowded facility...and then wonders why their "plan" doesnt seem to be working the way they want it to.

 

[dillweed]

"You guys try to cram on the shelf"?? I guess the loader decides how many stops you have to make. Glad I don't load for you. You make more in a day, than I do in a week and still you fuss like my wife!

Great response, I like you too. Felt an urge to defend your opinion until I read this and then knew you could take care of yourself.

Since PAS there are no more custom loads. If the stinkiing label says it goes on the shelf, it goes on the shelf. Not the loaders fault. I loaded in the pre-PAS days and the drivers would tell me how to load the car. Listened, loaded and we had mutual respect. I feel for the loaders now.

If a loader can do better for you, show him/her. Let them know what they can do to make those pkgs stay put if it's possible. Most people do give a darn about the kind of job they do, even us inside grunts.

It's also true that drivers make big bucks. Yes, it's hard work but the money and benefits are certainly there. Don't crap on the loaders if they are doing the best they can.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

It is still possible to build custom loads. My previous loader, who is now a corrections officer, had no problem taking what came down the belt and building an optimal load and, yes, this was with PAS. He would move bulk stops and load stops with multiple addresses together. I had no problem with the $100 tip he received each Peak.

Sadly my current loader has no clue what a custom load is. He does try but fails miserably.

DS, I can recall a time when a new loader would ride with a driver for a day

 

[c23jmp]

Where the heck do you work?We don't have enough preloaders and theres never enough routes in and every truck is loaded to the max,we already have guys going out with 400 plus stops and it's only the 2nd day of peak!!!Where do you work again?I need to be in that center..LOL

 

[soberups]

Preload management's corporate motto ought to be..."out of the building and off the clock".

They dont care about what happens to that package or what that driver has to deal with once the car leaves the property. The only thing they care about is generating whatever PPH metric is being demanded of them. Get the package out of the building, get the preloader off of the clock, and anything that happens after that is someone else's problem.

I dont waste time or energy getting angry at the $9.50-per-hour worker bee who has been given the impossible task of trying to implement an impossible plan.