SPORH Harrassment

Squint

No more work for me!
I remember the first day of my three day ride. She looked over her shoulder into the back of my rural P-500 and asked me if it were a normal day. I said yes and she said something like "this is gonna be a tough ride". She bought me lunch and we also stopped for ice cream at the end of the third day. My average was 14.7 for the three days. I never heard anything from management about my numbers ever, period.
 

BigUnionGuy

Got the T-Shirt
True but, management will alter the load in most cases also. Like give you easy side streets. When they ride with you. Where on a normal day they won't. Just to make themselves look better. On paper. It also gives them ammo to try to use against the driver. This is why the driver should have a book. Write down all your info everyday. Especially when they are actually with you.

I know drivers that meticulously document their everyday events.

Am/Pm time.... Stops.... pieces.... hours.... unusual events or delays.

They do that, on their own time.


Here, is a helpful tip.

If you are subject to a 3-day ride.... and the load looks "groomed"....


Get your steward involved, before you leave the building. At least.... to witness the load condition.

Talk with the preloader. They can confirm if any "special attention" has been paid to the load.


These are just some of the basics.



​-Bug-
 

TBH

An officially retired Oregonian .
In my center, when they get onto us about sporh, I just say, come ride with me. I invite it. When they have rode with me... I go the speed limit and no more. Usually on some of the back roads I drive, I will go over the speed limit (at a safe speed). Example would be I have some streets that are labeled at 20 MPH. I will go 30 on it simply because there are no dangers on that particular road. Some other backroads have 45 and ill do 50 or so. But when they ride with me for sporh, when I am in that old person community and it says 5 MPH on the building.... you know how fast i go? =) I always end up with worse sporh than the day they were onto me about.. So now they don't bother me at all! =)
I know this is an old thread,but just noticed it. Couldn't agree more. Had my center manager tell me that my numbers were better when I was alone. I thanked him and said"I guess I just work better by myself!" I heard he was fired this last year. I was sorry, while he was a bit arrogant, he was a pretty nice guy. I learned the lesson long ago, always slow down just a little during a ride along! I did not want to set myself up to fail!
 

member6045

Well-Known Member
Since sporh is an based on a weekly average and every Monday is an early start day. Talk to me on Tuesday about why I didn't maintain last week and I will remind you about extra work! Or not enough work because your training a person in the loop
 

Dracula

Package Car is cake compared to this...
Slowing down during an OJS is the worst thing you can do.

Nothing wrong with that advice. You don't have to be deliberate. Use your two-wheeler every chance you get. Make sure every DR is flawless, even if that means back door deliveries. Indirect all signature required stops. Make sure your customers know not to help you if you have a sup with you. Obey the speed limit at all times--it's amazing how many drivers don't. Take your bathroom breaks when you need to. Hydrate when you need to. Don't rush just because your sup has a clipboard.

The point isn't to screw the company. The point is to protect yourself. I've never not known a supervisor to go through your load on the days when you will be ridden with. It's amazing how the stops are lower, the misloads are gone, the out-of-the-way NDA's are off your load and how the shelves are stop for stop on your OJS days, isn't it?

What they seem to forget, is that, perhaps, your numbers would be BETTER if your load looked like that everyday. Your point in being very deliberate on your OJS rides is to even the field a little bit. They're judging your numbers on days when your load is rigged. So you need to balance that out.
 

Orion inc.

I like turtles
And why is it the worst thing to do? Evening the playing field is exactly what I"m talking about!
Don't get Dave started. Here comes the unions promote mediocrity speech....

You have to remember the BOG is not like your UPS or mine. It's a magical place of candy coated perfection.

You can't rationalize the BOG or Dave.
 

brownmonster

Man of Great Wisdom
I know drivers that meticulously document their everyday events.

Am/Pm time.... Stops.... pieces.... hours.... unusual events or delays.

They do that, on their own time.


Here, is a helpful tip.

If you are subject to a 3-day ride.... and the load looks "groomed"....


Get your steward involved, before you leave the building. At least.... to witness the load condition.

Talk with the preloader. They can confirm if any "special attention" has been paid to the load.


These are just some of the basics.



-Bug-
These guys should do more working and less thinking.
 

Dracula

Package Car is cake compared to this...
And the problem with these management "kids" now....

They should take their own advice.


Do you realize, you quoted (my) post that's a year and 1/2 old ?


And it still holds up. :biggrin:



-Bug-

It's always wise to document your day, especially when things are out of the norm. When management asks you what happened three or four days ago, how are you going to remember what happened. The days of these jobs flows from one day to the next. If you have a little notebook, always carry it with you. So when they drag your ass into the office, you can tell them exactly what they want to know. It won't be what they want to HEAR, but that's on them. They count on you saying, "Ummm," or "I'm not sure."

In feeders, I even had a sup asked me if I was writing in my notebook on the clock. I asked him if his questions were about my time on the clock. He said yes. Well, I told him, then if you're asking about it, I'm writing it down, so you'll know. Never heard another thing about writing my stuff down again.
 

Mugarolla

Light 'em up!
It's always wise to document your day, especially when things are out of the norm. When management asks you what happened three or four days ago, how are you going to remember what happened. The days of these jobs flows from one day to the next. If you have a little notebook, always carry it with you. So when they drag your ass into the office, you can tell them exactly what they want to know. It won't be what they want to HEAR, but that's on them. They count on you saying, "Ummm," or "I'm not sure."

In feeders, I even had a sup asked me if I was writing in my notebook on the clock. I asked him if his questions were about my time on the clock. He said yes. Well, I told him, then if you're asking about it, I'm writing it down, so you'll know. Never heard another thing about writing my stuff down again.

I don't keep track of anything. We are not obligated to meet their numbers.

If my sup asked me what happened 4 days ago because my numbers looked like crap, my response is "I don't know, did it rain?"
 

Dracula

Package Car is cake compared to this...
I don't keep track of anything. We are not obligated to meet their numbers.

If my sup asked me what happened 4 days ago because my numbers looked like crap, my response is "I don't know, did it rain?"

I don't keep track of my numbers. Never have. I keep track of things that happen out of the ordinary. If I have to go to the shop, if I have to go back in and get seals, if I have to wait on the hub to get done...anything that is out of the ordinary, I write it down. It's been my experience that they ask drivers like me questions about my different times. Or, they used to, anyway. They don't ask me too much anymore, because they know I always carry my notebook around with me. They would seem to rather ask the questions when they know you don't have an answer to.
 

TBH

An officially retired Oregonian .
Ya know island, these principles may have worked for you in 1949, but this is 2013 where route values have been cut so drastically the norm is no longer "scratch", but an acceptable day is one hour in the hole. This is 2013 bro, a "new" UPS. A UPS where preload will cut the hours of a kid making 9.50 an hour to "dump" the load in the package car just to get the slides clean, then force a driver at 55 bucks an hour to fix it in the PM for two hours, or having to drive an extra 10 miles just to deliver the off area packages that always end up in the cars.

In todays UPS, we fail more packages than ever before. We have more misloads per 100 than ever before, we drive more miles than ever before. NO matter what P.O.S. technological system UPS deploys, it makes it worse.

History: back in 1991 i took my route. It was a P8 with 110 stops mostly business, small residential and about 175 to 200 piece day with 39 industrial pickups that would see 350 to 500 pickup pieces. In 1991, the route could be done in under 9.5 paid day and thats working a sweat and staying on target. It planned out at 10.5 to 11.5 a day depending on COD's and pickups.

Over the years leading up to the strike, I made production bonus from working hard and beating the planned day. Over those same years, UPS cut the value of my route as they "whittled" down my time per stop per area.

In 1998, I was moved into a P110, my delivery stops increased to 155, my miles extended by 10 per day, my pickups remained the same and the planned day was reduced to less than 8 hours a day. This has remained the same since.

Everyday, I am at least 2.5 hours in the hole, and even if I sacrificed my lunch and breaks and did not have any chit chat time, that would still leave me 1.5 hours in the hole.

The extra work added to the car is signature only condos and apartments where my spohr went from a solid 16.55 to less than 14 stops an hour. You see island, some genious figured out that reducing my "planned day" would somehow force me to RUN, JUMP, SPEED my way to under 9 hours, and that just aint going to happen.

When the sups ride on car, we go even slower. Im folding in my mirrors, im parking on clear curbs, im not putting that car in red zones, Im not blocking driveways, Im clearing every intersection by the methods, Im not running, im not crossing on grass or cutting driveways. Im using proper lifting devices and calling for help on ALL over 70 pkgs.

You see, in 1949, there were no heavy packages. NO workout equiptment, NO big screen tv's, NO 150 lbs furniture and NO large bulkstops.

Today, its a blown out package car loaded from top to bottom from left to right with an isle that buried in assorted bulk that came down the slide at different times forcing me to handle and touch the same packages over and over for the first 4 hours of my day.

I will agree though, that there are "some" that seem to go a bit faster when a sups on the car, but the majority of drivers are honest people who are fighting a system that is failing to provide a good work day.

In the companies eyes, everyone is stealing time, thats the only answer they want to accept. They refused to believe they are responsible for destroying not only operation of the company, but the loss of profits.

Its an ugly monster. Preload cuts its hours to save pennies, the loads are compromised, then the package centers cut cars, cramming extra splits onto shelves where the only option is to compromise the D.O.L. because of double and triple stack brick loads, then the package center brings its drivers in late, after 9pm compromising the twilight causing the feeder trucks to delay pull times, once feeder delays pull times, that delays arriving times at other hubs or switches, once that happens, trailers get to the preload late and the cycle starts again.

Nothing in that scenario leads to profitability ISLAND, and yet, rather than FIX this practice, the company believes its going to save itself by harrassing drivers to EEK out 15 mins of street time.

Im in feeder now, and believe me, watching the unload wait for drivers because they buried the entire crew is a pure comedy of errors.

UPS has bigger fish to fry, like its own management, before it attempts to eliminate "the paycheck of a driver".

Guys like you ( in your day ) had it easy. Envelopes and smalls. WOOO HOOO. Everyone in before 7pm. Today, staying out till 9pm in a large corridor like WLA is the norm. Our drivers dont make over 100K out here because UPS hands it to us, we earn it fixing the very mistakes you call "CONCEPTS", only we fix it while earning 55 dollars an hour.

IF UPS was smart, they would eliminate the business manager, and allow the most qualified senior driver to dispatch the center in coordination with PDS and allow that person to add/cut where needed after "problems" were identified that would cause a driver to stay out late and interfere with twilight.

Unfortunately, today, managers ( like yourself) drink from the same "kool aid" jug and believe that the directive to cut cars coming from atlanta is in the companies best interests even though you know well ahead of time that you will fail packages, pickups and customers.

The only "kool aid" drinking people at UPS are the jug heads of IE who come up with "a plan to fail" everyday.

I caution the drivers not to listen to a "relic". Someone so removed from UPS reality that they can offer no realistic advice on todays operation.

I hope this helps you.

TOS
Ya know island, these principles may have worked for you in 1949, but this is 2013 where route values have been cut so drastically the norm is no longer "scratch", but an acceptable day is one hour in the hole. This is 2013 bro, a "new" UPS. A UPS where preload will cut the hours of a kid making 9.50 an hour to "dump" the load in the package car just to get the slides clean, then force a driver at 55 bucks an hour to fix it in the PM for two hours, or having to drive an extra 10 miles just to deliver the off area packages that always end up in the cars.

In todays UPS, we fail more packages than ever before. We have more misloads per 100 than ever before, we drive more miles than ever before. NO matter what P.O.S. technological system UPS deploys, it makes it worse.

History: back in 1991 i took my route. It was a P8 with 110 stops mostly business, small residential and about 175 to 200 piece day with 39 industrial pickups that would see 350 to 500 pickup pieces. In 1991, the route could be done in under 9.5 paid day and thats working a sweat and staying on target. It planned out at 10.5 to 11.5 a day depending on COD's and pickups.

Over the years leading up to the strike, I made production bonus from working hard and beating the planned day. Over those same years, UPS cut the value of my route as they "whittled" down my time per stop per area.

In 1998, I was moved into a P110, my delivery stops increased to 155, my miles extended by 10 per day, my pickups remained the same and the planned day was reduced to less than 8 hours a day. This has remained the same since.

Everyday, I am at least 2.5 hours in the hole, and even if I sacrificed my lunch and breaks and did not have any chit chat time, that would still leave me 1.5 hours in the hole.

The extra work added to the car is signature only condos and apartments where my spohr went from a solid 16.55 to less than 14 stops an hour. You see island, some genious figured out that reducing my "planned day" would somehow force me to RUN, JUMP, SPEED my way to under 9 hours, and that just aint going to happen.

When the sups ride on car, we go even slower. Im folding in my mirrors, im parking on clear curbs, im not putting that car in red zones, Im not blocking driveways, Im clearing every intersection by the methods, Im not running, im not crossing on grass or cutting driveways. Im using proper lifting devices and calling for help on ALL over 70 pkgs.

You see, in 1949, there were no heavy packages. NO workout equiptment, NO big screen tv's, NO 150 lbs furniture and NO large bulkstops.

Today, its a blown out package car loaded from top to bottom from left to right with an isle that buried in assorted bulk that came down the slide at different times forcing me to handle and touch the same packages over and over for the first 4 hours of my day.

I will agree though, that there are "some" that seem to go a bit faster when a sups on the car, but the majority of drivers are honest people who are fighting a system that is failing to provide a good work day.

In the companies eyes, everyone is stealing time, thats the only answer they want to accept. They refused to believe they are responsible for destroying not only operation of the company, but the loss of profits.

Its an ugly monster. Preload cuts its hours to save pennies, the loads are compromised, then the package centers cut cars, cramming extra splits onto shelves where the only option is to compromise the D.O.L. because of double and triple stack brick loads, then the package center brings its drivers in late, after 9pm compromising the twilight causing the feeder trucks to delay pull times, once feeder delays pull times, that delays arriving times at other hubs or switches, once that happens, trailers get to the preload late and the cycle starts again.

Nothing in that scenario leads to profitability ISLAND, and yet, rather than FIX this practice, the company believes its going to save itself by harrassing drivers to EEK out 15 mins of street time.

Im in feeder now, and believe me, watching the unload wait for drivers because they buried the entire crew is a pure comedy of errors.

UPS has bigger fish to fry, like its own management, before it attempts to eliminate "the paycheck of a driver".

Guys like you ( in your day ) had it easy. Envelopes and smalls. WOOO HOOO. Everyone in before 7pm. Today, staying out till 9pm in a large corridor like WLA is the norm. Our drivers dont make over 100K out here because UPS hands it to us, we earn it fixing the very mistakes you call "CONCEPTS", only we fix it while earning 55 dollars an hour.

IF UPS was smart, they would eliminate the business manager, and allow the most qualified senior driver to dispatch the center in coordination with PDS and allow that person to add/cut where needed after "problems" were identified that would cause a driver to stay out late and interfere with twilight.

Unfortunately, today, managers ( like yourself) drink from the same "kool aid" jug and believe that the directive to cut cars coming from atlanta is in the companies best interests even though you know well ahead of time that you will fail packages, pickups and customers.

The only "kool aid" drinking people at UPS are the jug heads of IE who come up with "a plan to fail" everyday.

I caution the drivers not to listen to a "relic". Someone so removed from UPS reality that they can offer no realistic advice on todays operation.

I hope this helps you.

TOS
You hit the nail right on the head with this post! I hope the Titanic called UPS can change course before it"s too late. I don't see how what they're doing will work as a long term plan. From what I've been reading, compared to the billion plus dollars already wasted on Orion, the cost of wasted money on the very small percentage of drivers that are truly slackers doesn't even pale in comparison! Somehow, Atlanta needs to get back to the square called reality. Please, just let the majority of drivers do what they were hired to do. They do know what they are doing. A great start would be to cut IE loose and run this business the way it deserves to be run.
 

TBH

An officially retired Oregonian .
It's always wise to document your day, especially when things are out of the norm. When management asks you what happened three or four days ago, how are you going to remember what happened. The days of these jobs flows from one day to the next. If you have a little notebook, always carry it with you. So when they drag your ass into the office, you can tell them exactly what they want to know. It won't be what they want to HEAR, but that's on them. They count on you saying, "Ummm," or "I'm not sure."

In feeders, I even had a sup asked me if I was writing in my notebook on the clock. I asked him if his questions were about my time on the clock. He said yes. Well, I told him, then if you're asking about it, I'm writing it down, so you'll know. Never heard another thing about writing my stuff down again.
 
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