Question: Loading for a Cover Driver

[jibbs]

The driver has no business sorting the car before his start time, this is working off the clock and is a contract violation.

I wouldn't sweat it, a lot of cover drivers go out blind and run way over-allowed, the Preload is used as a scape goat. Load by sequence and keep the labels out where the driver can see them, I don't know any drivers that look at crayon numbers on a box.

I peel and re-apply PAL labels on outward facing sides of packages. Shelves and floor, and only when I can't maneuver the box so that the label's barcode or bullseye is facing outward. That's why it's so damn easy to load in sequence.


Hell, I don't even read the numbers when I write them on the boxes (after writing them, I mean). It's like once I write on it, I'm done with that box. Not moving it ever again, no way. The PAL labels are hard as hell to ignore, though, and it only took a few weeks for my hands to get get used to peeling stickers fast enough while I walk to my truck with the packages. Hands are always stupid dirty after work because of it, though..

 

[oldngray]

If it had the old great healthcare with little to nothing out of pocket then min wage isn't that bad, but that went away.

 

[oldngray]

I peel and re-apply PAL labels on outward facing sides of packages. Shelves and floor, and only when I can't maneuver the box so that the label's barcode or bullseye is facing outward. That's why it's so damn easy to load in sequence.


Hell, I don't even read the numbers when I write them on the boxes (after writing them, I mean). It's like once I write on it, I'm done with that box. Not moving it ever again, no way. The PAL labels are hard as hell to ignore, though, and it only took a few weeks for my hands to get get used to peeling stickers fast enough while I walk to my truck with the packages. Hands are always stupid dirty

PAL is for loaders and drivers seldom look at them. More importantly a driver normally wants the address label where it can be seen and not face down on shelf.

 

[jibbs]

PAL is for loaders and drivers seldom look at them. More importantly a driver normally wants the address label where it can be seen and not face down on shelf.

PAL has address on it. You would prefer the label out even if it means rearranging the box and losing the shelf space for the last 4 packages on the shelf, leaving them dropped on the floor amongst bulk and irregs?


Seems pointless to prefer me to write a PAL number but then say it's irrelevant to peel and re-apply a PAL label.

 

[oldngray]

PAL has address on it. You would prefer the label out even if it means rearranging the box and losing the shelf space for the last 4 packages on the shelf, leaving them dropped on the floor amongst bulk and irregs?

Address on PAL is not always correct so drivers don't trust them. And there are situations where you can't load label out or facing forward but you should try to do that as much as possible.

 

[jibbs]

Address on PAL is not always correct so drivers don't trust them. And there are situations where you can't load label out or facing forward but you should try to do that as much as possible.

See, that makes sense. I hear you on that last part, that's usually the gameplan.

I might seem like kind of an a-hole but I really do try to give my driver's decent loads. Sometimes the irregs/bulk stops just will not let that smile* go down, though...


Worst part is when the shelves are near-perfectly sequenced but you've got a ton of irregs that go in at the last moment. Driver comes in and thinks his truck is loaded like complete just because loaders were told to get everything in the trucks and clock out, but in actuality all he/she's gotta do is off a rear-door stop or two and their entire walkway's cleared.

^^THAT's actually why I was pissed when the cover driver tried to say I bricked out his truck. Blatant lie, I just didn't have pictures to prove it...

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Screw the cover driver.


Resident know-it-all.

 

[oldngray]

Screw the cover driver.


Resident know-it-all.

Is she cute?

 

[bleedinbrown58]

Hey, that's the flavor of the month here too! Well, no stacking on stackboards... we don't have a slide for every truck/pull. My thing is, if we can't stack, we shouldn't have these things at our disposal that are referred to as "stackboards."

But yeah, before all this went down I was *dun dun dunnnnnnn* stacked out/piled up at the top of the belt. The center manager walked by (this was before our little chat with the cover driver) and was like "Alright, I know you didn't do this right? Like, you stacked them and those boxes fell over, right?"

I was like yeah, that's the only way to pull my boxes when the split moves down the belt to the last truck in my set. I asked him how I should go about it when the split moves so far down the belt, and he told me that at that point "you need to start yelling at the splitter to do his job better." I was just like "oh... okay...."

Lol, it's like a culture of deflecting blame and doing work with no accountability. "Yeah, I loaded that, but [insert random excuse]." It pissed me off when the center manager actively encouraged that kind of smile* by telling me to yell at coworker when I'm backed up, that was the most retarded smile* I've heard this week-- it's only Tuesday, though...







Absolutely, only the driver didn't initiate this. Our new center manager came through and started the conversation, which led to a two-player Blame Game with the center manager reffing.

I think i know what you call stackboards...every pull doesn't have them though. Every pull on my line has a slide...you can use the ends of the slide for bulk and overweights....well until today...lol. If the PM insists on camping out in my center's collective ass in the middle of summer peak and a holiday week to boot....he might just find himself a lil short staffed on Monday.

 

[bleedinbrown58]

What I was saying was the cover driver would cry to PDS and get load charts changed to how he wanted it and everything would be all messed up for me when I got back from vacation because the changes would be "permanent" until I got them changed back to how they originally were.

Ohh....I see what you're saying.

 

[PT Car Washer]

I agree. I was always against it when they stated paying part timers so much less than full timers. One of those contracts UPS sold with a bonus which the part timers working then voted for. They took the quick money and ran, screwing over later part timers. And now benefits are not as good as they were then which was a major draw for part timers.

I don't think I remember any PTers voting for the two tier wage system when it was proposed. I know I didn't. Did you?

 

[oldngray]

I don't think I remember any PTers voting for the two tier wage system when it was proposed. I know I didn't. Did you?

I voted against it but knew many part timers who planned to be gone in a couple of years that voted for the bonus. I think it was in 1981 but not certain of the year. I was red circled in at old top rate (I was PT then) so didn't hurt me but I did think of future part timers.

 

[Fedex Guy]

I have a problem with this. I do understand that drivers work much longer hours and are under more pressure. However, that doesn't make getting bitched at by management about it any less stressful or annoying.

Typically, the third route I load in my "area" (or "set", as some of you call it) is a resi split route. The two drivers who used to run it never had a problem with the way I load it. One in particular has always told me she never has trouble finding a package when I'm the one who loaded it. A new guy has recently started running it every few days. Last week he was bitching to one of my sups that he can't find anything because the sequence numbers aren't written on the boxes. He never once actually said a word to me about it, and I've seen him multiple times before leaving. He probably isn't very familiar with the areas this route usually covers, so maybe the sequence numbers actually make a difference for him. If he had been polite and talked to me about it beforehand, rather than bitching to a sup... I might have been more accommodating. I didn't get in "trouble" for it, since I do good work and my sups seem to like me, but my feeling now is that the driver can suck it.

Drivers can't simply assume that their loader is a brain dead idiot who is incapable of absorbing information during a conversation- although there are many like that. A few words in a non-aggressive tone may have remedied the problem, but now I feel disinclined to do anything for this .

Does any driver use sequence numbers? I've never even looked at them.


Just to be clear, I don't work for FedEx. Crazy I know.

 

[IVE GOTTA PACKAGE 4U]

Does any driver use sequence numbers? I've never even looked at them.


Just to be clear, I don't work for FedEx. Crazy I know.

Only when I can't find a package

 

[PT Car Washer]

I voted against it but knew many part timers who planned to be gone in a couple of years that voted for the bonus. I think it was in 1981 but not certain of the year. I was red circled in at old top rate (I was PT then) so didn't hurt me but I did think of future part timers.

You may have known some PTers who said they wanted the bonus, $500.00 PT and $1000. FT, of which I took home $350.00. But to blame it wholly on the PT ranks is rewriting history.

 

[oldngray]

You may have known some PTers who said they wanted the bonus, $500.00 PT and $1000. FT, of which I took home $350.00. But to blame it wholly on the PT ranks is rewriting history.

Not really. The part timers could have voted down that contract but didn't. It was just an average contract for full timers which many did vote for (not by a large margin though) but as usual the majority didn't bother to vote.

 

[jibbs]

Does any driver use sequence numbers? I've never even looked at them.


Just to be clear, I don't work for FedEx. Crazy I know.

So loading in sequence makes no difference? I could just throw boxes randomly on their shelf and you'd have the exact same day?

 

[Fedex Guy]

So loading in sequence makes no difference? I could just throw boxes randomly on their shelf and you'd have the exact same day?

The sequence numbers are for loaders. What you're doing is loading the truck stop by stop. I'm looking at the label, not sequence numbers.


Just to be clear, I don't work for FedEx. Crazy I know.

 

[Fedex Guy]

So loading in sequence makes no difference? I could just throw boxes randomly on their shelf and you'd have the exact same day?

As long as all the boxes are in the right section I'm fine.


Just to be clear, I don't work for FedEx. Crazy I know.

 

[oldngray]

So loading in sequence makes no difference? I could just throw boxes randomly on their shelf and you'd have the exact same day?

That sounds like most of my loads. Things are supposed to be loaded stop for stop but that seldom happens. Usually a driver just hopes its on the right shelf close to where its supposed to be.