Severe Service Failure Investigation?

[bigmistake]

Has anyone ever heard of this.

Scenario: Saturday Air Driver, received an on call air p/u. Arrived as scheduled, pieces are not ready, was asked to return in 1 hour. Sent a text message to my center, I advised I could not return, doing so might cause late air. I was sent a message to call the center, which I did.

Reiterated my point, I was heavy, It was 11:00am and I had 10 stops left. I was told by the clerk (is that what they are, the girls who work in the office) she would try to find someone else. She never called me back or made mention of it. She didnt tell, I didn't ask. I returned to the center and ended my day as usual.

Now I learn among the pieces scheduled to be picked up was a NDA. It was a bid for a Government contract. The p/u was never made, the company was not able to bid and UPS lost a $100,000.00 + account.

I have been scheduled to meet with a "team" on Wednesday, I have been told a full-time Driver Steward will be made available.

Is there anything to worry about?

Why is a Steward being made available?

I have been told "deliveries first, then worry about P/U's, But I have also been told "P/U's today are the reason you have work tomorrow."

 

[over9five]

I hope you did not accept the OCA. If you denied it, and they never sent it back to you, I would guess they would be after the person who sends the OCAs.

You did the right thing. You put it in the hands of the management person on duty. Sounds like they dropped the ball. Good luck and let us know what happens.

 

[tieguy]

Has anyone ever heard of this.

Scenario: Saturday Air Driver, received an on call air p/u. Arrived as scheduled, pieces are not ready, was asked to return in 1 hour. Sent a text message to my center, I advised I could not return, doing so might cause late air. I was sent a message to call the center, which I did.

Reiterated my point, I was heavy, It was 11:00am and I had 10 stops left. I was told by the clerk (is that what they are, the girls who work in the office) she would try to find someone else. She never called me back or made mention of it. She didnt tell, I didn't ask. I returned to the center and ended my day as usual.

Now I learn among the pieces scheduled to be picked up was a NDA. It was a bid for a Government contract. The p/u was never made, the company was not able to bid and UPS lost a $100,000.00 + account.

I have been scheduled to meet with a "team" on Wednesday, I have been told a full-time Driver Steward will be made available.

Is there anything to worry about?

Why is a Steward being made available?

I have been told "deliveries first, then worry about P/U's, But I have also been told "P/U's today are the reason you have work tomorrow."

there is always something to worry about. The fact a team has been sent in to investigate tells me they are interested in getting to the root cause.
It sounds like your center management team is the one on the hot seat.

 

[dilligaf]

I agree with Over. You did the right thing. Even if you did accept the OCA, you called it in and that puts the responsibility right back on the center. Talk to your steward, prior to saying anything more to mgt. If you have to ask why a steward is being made available I take it you are not familiar with your rights and the companys responsibility. They have to let you have a steward present and it sounds like they may try and push disciplinary action. This is a progresive discipline issue. If this has never happened before you should only get a slap on the hand. If you get a warning letter ask you steward to fight it. In either regards do not worry about it.

You're air deliveries should always be #1 priority. The center should have made arrangements for you to come back after you got your deliveries done or should have sent someone else to do the pickup.

 

[pretzel_man]

Has anyone ever heard of this.

Scenario: Saturday Air Driver, received an on call air p/u. Arrived as scheduled, pieces are not ready, was asked to return in 1 hour. Sent a text message to my center, I advised I could not return, doing so might cause late air. I was sent a message to call the center, which I did.

Reiterated my point, I was heavy, It was 11:00am and I had 10 stops left. I was told by the clerk (is that what they are, the girls who work in the office) she would try to find someone else. She never called me back or made mention of it. She didnt tell, I didn't ask. I returned to the center and ended my day as usual.

Now I learn among the pieces scheduled to be picked up was a NDA. It was a bid for a Government contract. The p/u was never made, the company was not able to bid and UPS lost a $100,000.00 + account.

I have been scheduled to meet with a "team" on Wednesday, I have been told a full-time Driver Steward will be made available.

Is there anything to worry about?

Why is a Steward being made available?

I have been told "deliveries first, then worry about P/U's, But I have also been told "P/U's today are the reason you have work tomorrow."

Based on what you said, you did nothing wrong. Your management is in trouble, and rightfully so.

P-Man

 

[Sick of Intimidation]

Has anyone ever heard of this.

Scenario: Saturday Air Driver, received an on call air p/u. Arrived as scheduled, pieces are not ready, was asked to return in 1 hour. Sent a text message to my center, I advised I could not return, doing so might cause late air. I was sent a message to call the center, which I did.

Reiterated my point, I was heavy, It was 11:00am and I had 10 stops left. I was told by the clerk (is that what they are, the girls who work in the office) she would try to find someone else. She never called me back or made mention of it. She didnt tell, I didn't ask. I returned to the center and ended my day as usual.

Now I learn among the pieces scheduled to be picked up was a NDA. It was a bid for a Government contract. The p/u was never made, the company was not able to bid and UPS lost a $100,000.00 + account.

I have been scheduled to meet with a "team" on Wednesday, I have been told a full-time Driver Steward will be made available.

Is there anything to worry about?

Why is a Steward being made available?

I have been told "deliveries first, then worry about P/U's, But I have also been told "P/U's today are the reason you have work tomorrow."

Based on what you've told us, you shouldn't be in any trouble since you put the ball back in their court in order to make your deliveries on time. However, if management feels they are in the hot seat, they'll come up with something to make it your fault.

 

[Dragon]

I agree with P-man. Your center team is in trouble not you.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

11 am, 10 stops left. That should put you at 1pm at the latest. What time do you have to be back with your NDA pickups, if any? Was there time for you go back to that P/U stop and still get back with your air? Did you ODS the center to make sure the OCA was covered? Does you center bring it's NDA pickups directly to the airport or do you have to shuttle them to another center?

As the others have stated you did the right thing by notifying your Saturday clerk that you would be unable to make service on the OCA. In hindsight it may have been wise to have checked back with her to make sure the OCA was covered.

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

Was the OCA completed as "Not Ready" or what?

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Was the OCA completed as "Not Ready" or what?

It sounds as though it may have never been reassigned.

 

[JonFrum]

It's irrevelant that this particular service failure resulted in such a big loss for UPS. You have no way of knowing what's in the envelope, or how a shipper will (over)react.

Sounds like you did everything right and others dropped the ball.

The Shipper waited until the last minute, and still wasn't ready.

Your UPS Dispatcher didn't make alternate arangements, or even get back to you, or double-check later on.

What was the bidding deadline? Why couldn't your management team salvage the situation by recomending the late NDA be shipped via UPS Early AM for Monday, or even UPS Express Critical service (possibly at UPS' expense) if needed sooner?

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Jon, he is a Saturday air driver. The missed OCA was on a Saturday.

 

[JonFrum]

Yeah, I know. I'm wondering what kind of a government agency has a bidding deadline of sometime Saturday or Sunday? Seems strange. That's why I asked what the deadline was.

If the shipper intends for the NDA containing the bid to be picked up on Saturday, then I assume they intend it to be delivered by Monday morning. So why can't UPS make that happen one way or another? Put the effort into delivering the letter, instead of into a failure investigation afterward.

And even if the NDA bid was late, can't the UPS management team attach a letter of apology, and take the blame so the shipper's slightly tardy bid is still accepted?

Are we a service company or not?

 

[SWORDFISH]

Did you put no ready for the p/up? The method for my area is that if they called it in they are supposed to be ready or have instructions saying they are not ready till such time. I agree w/ everyone else that you should be fine. However they told you that they will have union representation for you which means their is trouble. You shouldnt be subject to any disciplinary action. If they try to pin some on you just grieve it.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

The deadline for bid submission was not given but I have to assume that if the requested an OCA on a Saturday that it was the following Monday. UPS had the chance to make that happen but dropped the ball. We are a service company but did not provide the service for this customer and in the process lost a $100K account.

 

[whiskey]

Believe me, 100 large will not be missed. But the cardinal rule that I was taught is,"never miss a pick up". Good luck. Expect a few unpaid days off. Fishing is good this time of year.

 

[Just Numbers]

Has anyone ever heard of this.

Scenario: Saturday Air Driver, received an on call air p/u. Arrived as scheduled, pieces are not ready, was asked to return in 1 hour. Sent a text message to my center, I advised I could not return, doing so might cause late air. I was sent a message to call the center, which I did.

Reiterated my point, I was heavy, It was 11:00am and I had 10 stops left. I was told by the clerk (is that what they are, the girls who work in the office) she would try to find someone else. She never called me back or made mention of it. She didnt tell, I didn't ask. I returned to the center and ended my day as usual.

Now I learn among the pieces scheduled to be picked up was a NDA. It was a bid for a Government contract. The p/u was never made, the company was not able to bid and UPS lost a $100,000.00 + account.

I have been scheduled to meet with a "team" on Wednesday, I have been told a full-time Driver Steward will be made available.

Is there anything to worry about?

Why is a Steward being made available?

I have been told "deliveries first, then worry about P/U's, But I have also been told "P/U's today are the reason you have work tomorrow."

You did the right thing by calling in but, I think a lot of people are missing something here. According to you the clerk said she would try to cover the pickup. She never stated she would! Try to cover a pickup and will cover a pickup are two different animals. If someone would have made that statement to me, I would have contacted the center before traveleing back to the center.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

You did the right thing by calling in but, I think a lot of people are missing something here. According to you the clerk said she would try to cover the pickup. She never stated she would! Try to cover a pickup and will cover a pickup are two different animals. If someone would have made that statement to me, I would have contacted the center before traveleing back to the center.

This is why I asked if he had ODSed the center prior to coming back to make sure the OCA was covered.

 

[bigbrownhen]

Seems mis-communication is the problem here again. The air driver did his/her job, notified the office, and worked as directed. Yes, the driver could have followed up with the office to make sure the p/u was covered, but probably hasn't dealt with the office enough to know they don't always follow through. It takes a few times of picking up their slack to get this. Don't get me wrong, I am not slamming the people in the office, they have alot to deal with on thier own, several things going on at once. Mistakes will happen, we as drivers are the last line of defense.

In my opinion, communication is the number one problem at UPS, be it between corporate to the everyday operations, management to hourly, or dispatch to driver. One side doesn't always listen or care to listen what the other has to say.

There is also some blame on the customers part. They should have been ready to ship by the pick up time, and since they were not, then call the 800 number or dropped the NDA themselves by the center. Since this was such an important package, they could have made more effort as well.


This is not the drivers fault, he/she did their part. Lets see who actually gets the blame though.

To the OP, if they come down on you, talk to your steward and know your rights. I wouldn't sweat it too much, and don't let them intimidate you.

 

[rod]

Bottom line: Let the finger pointing begin. Lord have mercy on the lowly air driver.