Telematics-day one

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
We went live on Telematics yesterday, and this morning my sup took me aside to show me my report.

He had a clipboard with various Mapquest maps of my delivery area, with colored lines denoting the route my package car took and times for every delivery and pickup I made.

It showed 3 "incidents" of my package car moving with the bulkhead door open. 2 of them were prior to me leaving the building, which is due to the fact that I need to leave the engine running during pretrip to defrost the ice off of my windshield. The other one occured when I backed up to a dock out on route. The Telematics report shows how many miles were driven with the door open, which in my case was zero.

It also showed 2 incidents of the vehicle moving without the seatbelt being buckled. Again, the total miles driven was zero. For 21 years I have been buckling the belt at the same time I start the wheels rolling, in one smooth motion, which can result as a "blip" on the telematics report if the buckle doesnt fully latch before the vehicle moves. I am working on developing a new routine to prevent this from happening. Old habits die hard.

My sup told me I did pretty well compared to some of the other drivers on my center.

I can see now how this is all going to play out. They cant use the report itself for any sort of disciplinary action, they have to actually go out and make observations, so a driver who shuts his door and wears his belt isnt going to have to worry about a couple of "blips" here and there.

Its actually somewhat empowering to know that there will be a printout showing the exact route you followed. If you wind up with a bunch of misloads, or a wierd cut from EDD, you will be able to show your sup exactly what sort of impact it had on your route.

The driver who is geting harassed over production can use this to his advantage, also. He can just shut his brain off, run the route 100% by trace according to EDD, and when he winds up backtracking and driving in circles he will have a handy visual aid that can show his management team just how screwed up their system really is.

I'm OK with Telematics. The bottom line is that the vehicle belongs to UPS and they can put whatever gadgets they want to on it. I have never had any expectation of privacy in a package car, and I have always tried to do my job as though I was being watched anyway. For the driver with nothing to hide, its no big deal.
 

ol'browneye

Well-Known Member
The things that make the boss look bad will be cleverly left out of the equation.

Just like a copy of any threatening or innappropriate diad message you my get. Good luck getting a copy of that. It will conveniently be deleted and nobody knows anything about sending it. That's when a camera phone comes in handy:wink2:
 

sendagain

Well-Known Member
It seems that this is another item for sups to look at everyday which has little to do with actually delivering packages. Here boys, spend an hour of your morning trying to make all these guys drive it our way, when most of them are trying to be as time saving as they can be. Nobody remembers that if you can catch that big bulk delivery early, it will save you tons of time by not having to work around a large obstacle in your truck half the day, not to mention catching someone when they are there.
 

brownrodster

Well-Known Member
Nice report on telematics. I don't see it as much of a problem. Bring it on.


My center has a bunch of older new automatic trucks which are wired with the black box. And a lot of brand new trucks without the black box. I'm pretty sure that black box is for telematics, but no telematics in sight here. They scrapped the idea of PAS again and sent all the IE guys working on it home. Keepin it old school.

Had the center manager and his boss and a third unknown person spying on me yesturday. Afterwhich they approached me and told me what I did wrong and right. My first time that has happened. The wrongs were relatively minor and easy to correct. (pull a cart instead of push and mirror not folded, one bad back that I justified).
 

sexyupsman

Well-Known Member
I would hate to think that the day you have a large amount of packages to pick up and it takes an extra second or two becasue the customer wants to discuss his order or shoot the breeze. I have seen customers want to chat with the drivers. What are you supposed to do, blow them off? Customer relations are key to the success of any company and all the drivers are excellent representatives of UPS. Without the driver they have nothing.
 

wily_old_vet

Well-Known Member
Brownrod-Can you explain pulling a cart instead of pushing? Seems to me that twists your back when pulling which can't be good in the long run.
 

stevetheupsguy

sʇǝʌǝʇɥǝndsƃnʎ
I would hate to think that the day you have a large amount of packages to pick up and it takes an extra second or two becasue the customer wants to discuss his order or shoot the breeze. I have seen customers want to chat with the drivers. What are you supposed to do, blow them off? Customer relations are key to the success of any company and all the drivers are excellent representatives of UPS. Without the driver they have nothing.

Where do I even begin?:wink2: Hey sexy, is "your driver", actually the driver that delivers where you work? No need to get into sordid details. A simple yes or know will suffice.:happy-very:

And on the telematics note. We have one car that's wired. It's a brand new, um, 500? It's really small and supposedly has a V-8. Saw the wires as I was cleaning the windshield. Has a snazzy flat screen monitor, as well.
 

sexyupsman

Well-Known Member
Where do I even begin?:wink2: Hey sexy, is "your driver", actually the driver that delivers where you work? No need to get into sordid details. A simple yes or know will suffice.:happy-very:

And on the telematics note. We have one car that's wired. It's a brand new, um, 500? It's really small and supposedly has a V-8. Saw the wires as I was cleaning the windshield. Has a snazzy flat screen monitor, as well.
Yes he is. Why?
 

pretzel_man

Well-Known Member
Sober,

I'm happy you posted your first day experience. Again, you gave a fair and balanced representation of the situation.

I said in a previous post that information is power for BOTH UPS and the Teamsters. I hope that your first day showed that.

I assume your supervisor told you that you have nothing to improve on? There is always the fear that a poor management team tries to eliminate the "blips" that are meaningless.

P-Man
 

Red Dawn

Well-Known Member
Where do I even begin?:wink2: Hey sexy, is "your driver", actually the driver that delivers where you work? No need to get into sordid details. A simple yes or know will suffice.:happy-very:

And on the telematics note. We have one car that's wired. It's a brand new, um, 500? It's really small and supposedly has a V-8. Saw the wires as I was cleaning the windshield. Has a snazzy flat screen monitor, as well.

our fleet has been getting all the new work horse trucks and min-vans.. they are calling them 5700 series or 57's. the 57100 are diesel and had a lot of design flays.(campaigns) they are all prewired. if you look under dash of 57100's and some of the 57200(regular gas) their is a flashing red light.Telematics. info can be seen anywhere in the U.S. for the newer 57's the black boxes is right down from e-brake and just right of vent on driver side. the only thing i don't like is that the seat belt light has a tendency to flash even though you have it on. and they have had design flaws on these new trucks. other than that i love my 57 can make a u-tune like a minivan! And sounds like a harley..well that part no so good in neighbor hoods..sounds like your going a lot faster than you really are!
 

stevetheupsguy

sʇǝʌǝʇɥǝndsƃnʎ
our fleet has been getting all the new work horse trucks and min-vans.. they are calling them 5700 series or 57's. the 57100 are diesel and had a lot of design flays.(campaigns) they are all prewired. if you look under dash of 57100's and some of the 57200(regular gas) their is a flashing red light.Telematics. info can be seen anywhere in the U.S. for the newer 57's the black boxes is right down from e-brake and just right of vent on driver side. the only thing i don't like is that the seat belt light has a tendency to flash even though you have it on. and they have had design flaws on these new trucks. other than that i love my 57 can make a u-tune like a minivan! And sounds like a harley..well that part no so good in neighbor hoods..sounds like your going a lot faster than you really are!

I noticed the seat belt light stayed on when I moved this car. However loud it is, it beat my 800.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
Sober,

I'm happy you posted your first day experience. Again, you gave a fair and balanced representation of the situation.

I said in a previous post that information is power for BOTH UPS and the Teamsters. I hope that your first day showed that.

I assume your supervisor told you that you have nothing to improve on? There is always the fear that a poor management team tries to eliminate the "blips" that are meaningless.

P-Man

I wouldnt call my management team "poor"....but they (or someone right above them) are hell-bent on eliminating the "blips" and getting straight "zeros" for the whole center.

During the winter, I have no choice but to idle in the AM until my windshield defrosts. During this time, I try to be productive by going in the back and sorting packages. This means my door is open. Its a blip they are just going to have to deal with. UPS made a decision to overcrowd our facility and load a bunch of us outside, so they will have to accept some of the consequences of that decision.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
I noticed the seat belt light stayed on when I moved this car. However loud it is, it beat my 800.

We were told in our meeting that the dashboard seatbelt light is not connected with the Telematics system, it is just an idiot light that was installed at the factory.
 
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