Situation about misloads.

Returntosender

Well-Known Member
I don't care about the inside one bit. Put the packages on the car so I can get the hell out of the building on time.

Are you in the cirlce of drivers that never had an accident/incident in the 20 years or 25 years of driving?
I hope you are not standard UPS is using to evaluate the package drivers on preformance/production. It just seems like you can do no wrong in management eyes. You have an answer for every scenario/question.
 

jaker

trolling
That right there is why I spent my last 2 years back in the dog house , unloading trailers no pressure and you go home first and if you got more seniority you sometimes and just go back home if they are over

And that was before PAS so you really had to know what you where doing
 

Macbrother

Well-Known Member
We have a new (few months) full time sup in preload. I happen to be on one of the belts she reigns over. To put it kindly, she is a bossy, power hungry buddy*. She was hired into her position off the street and knows nothing about anything when it comes to loading. Pretty typical, I know.

This morning my pt time sup advised us that she will be writing up anyone who gets even one misload. By misload, I am referring to a package being on the wrong truck (not just loaded improperly). Whether it's a straight misload, a bad PAL, "off-sync", whatever.

Personally, I feel like this isn't going to get anywhere. It's probably just a scare tactic. But, if she proceeds with this... I have a few questions.

Can people legitimately be written up (warning letter?) for misloads? Can they be fired if misloads continue? If I am issued a warning or whatever it would be, for a misload, and asked to sign something, should I refuse to sign? I don't know what the contract states about any of this.

This is how it works in my building. Supposedly there is a "corporate standard" misload frequency of 1/5000. As long as you are better than the frequency, they cannot discipline you. Of course this is an absurdly high number but it is doable. Now, as to bad PAL's, doubles, flipped labels, and so on, even per corporate misload reduction training, you are only instructed to check one out of every five packages to make sure the address of the PAL is the same as the UPS label, so if they discipline you for this it's an easy grievance. They don't even attempt to write you up for this at my center. While yes, you technically could've gone above and beyond the call of duty and verified every PAL label, this is just not feasible under current production standards, management knows this, and this is technically the fault of either the scanner in the back or dispatch.

Now, as for termination to misloads. According to my union guy, it's virtually possible to get fired for misloads alone. I've only seen two preloaders fired in my tenure and both of them had numerous late days, no call/no shows, and the like. They will however harass you, give you progressive disciplines (warnings, Pittsburgh forms, up to and including suspensions, etc).
 

laffter

Well-Known Member
I'm slightly less "concerned" now.

I spoke to a loader/driver. He tells me that yesterday he got a misload, and queen supervisor came over to have a chat with him about it. Not sure what she said to him, but the other full time sup got wind of this and got her to leave him alone. So I've confirmed that this is simply a power trip that she is on. I don't think she has any real support from other management regarding this rampage. It's funny, this conversation I had with him began by him telling me how great my loads were the couple days he drove one of my routes the other week.

Someone on my belt also had a misload from yesterday. Queen supervisor came over to talk to her. She told her that she needs to speed up, that her production is too low. Is this woman out of her mind!? "Yes, you had a misload, now speed up so you can get more of them."

even per corporate misload reduction training, you are only instructed to check one out of every five packages to make sure the address of the PAL is the same as the UPS label

I'm curious where you got this information from. At my center we've always been told to compare labels on each and every package. One time even the center manager went around personally telling everybody this. I do agree that it is greatly impractical.
 

Macbrother

Well-Known Member
I'm curious where you got this information from. At my center we've always been told to compare labels on each and every package. One time even the center manager went around personally telling everybody this. I do agree that it is greatly impractical.

A few months ago management handed out sheets that strictly covered misload reduction. Things like circling the PAL label and so on. The one per five rule was on it. If it's different for you or you haven't heard it this may be center / region specific.
 

kingOFchester

Well-Known Member
"Scared" and "concerned" are two different things. The OP sounds "concerned" which means he takes pride in his work.

To the OP---continue to do the job the way that you are doing it now. Do not slow down--this will only serve to piss off the drivers.

As a driver, I could care less how slow my loader is. I would rather leave late then leave on time with missloads and a bad load. Leaving late does suck, but when the late airs start to show up on a report I can bet they will figure a way to get us out on time. Missloads do not affect reports as we are almost always required to meet the other driver or deliver the said package.

Leaving 10 20 minutes late sucks. Once I am out on road I am in control.

Having missloads and a crap load blows hairy man balls. Searching for a package that isn't even on the truck, fighting a load and finding missloads means I have no control out on the road.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
Upstates true colors shine trough yet again. Preload works hard and I respect those guys for the slave labor they give. If my loader needs an extra 15 mins then so be it. Who am I to yell at the loader or tell him to hurry up? I just take what air I can't deliver and give it to an air driver.

Where in my post did it say that I yell at my loader or tell him to hurry up??

BTW, we don't have air drivers.
 

browniehound

Well-Known Member
We have a new (few months) full time sup in preload. I happen to be on one of the belts she reigns over. To put it kindly, she is a bossy, power hungry buddy*. She was hired into her position off the street and knows nothing about anything when it comes to loading. Pretty typical, I know.

This morning my pt time sup advised us that she will be writing up anyone who gets even one misload. By misload, I am referring to a package being on the wrong truck (not just loaded improperly). Whether it's a straight misload, a bad PAL, "off-sync", whatever.

Personally, I feel like this isn't going to get anywhere. It's probably just a scare tactic. But, if she proceeds with this... I have a few questions.

Can people legitimately be written up (warning letter?) for misloads? Can they be fired if misloads continue? If I am issued a warning or whatever it would be, for a misload, and asked to sign something, should I refuse to sign? I don't know what the contract states about any of this.

Why can't you be written up for misloads? Your job is to get the right packages on the right truck. That's all you have to do. Period. If you don't then the company has to pay its drivers $48/hour to deliver a package with a revenue gain of about 5 cents. If it was your money you'd fire yourself after the first one.

But people make mistakes, its human nature. But 2-3 mistakes per day is unacceptable. On top of UPS hating you because you cost them $$, I hate you because it takes me 30 minutes to run off your misloads at the end of the night which means the difference of me seeing my toddler for 30 minutes before he goes to bed or not seeing him for the entire day.

And yes its 100% your fault. I get written up for more than 3 misdeliveries in 1 year, so you should get written up for your 6 misloads/week (its what I get on average) Can't you just get them on the correct truck? Its really not that difficult. You would hate me too if it was you who were getting screwed.

I bet you don't want to stay 5 minutes longer than your 4 hour shift demands. I'm sure you are itching to get out the door every morning at 845. Just imagine that feeling after a 10 hour shift and now you can't leave for another 30 minutes because some dope can't figure which truck he is in.

Keep up the good work.
 
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