The numbers game has gotten worse

[BlackBluenBrown]

Now if your numbers don't look good, they go after the small things. Open bulkhead door, chain off coming in, you didn’t grab the handrail. Now all are major offences if your numbers look bad. We got a guy who is looking at a 10 day suspension for an open bulkhead door, first offence. It’s the same thing all over the center. Trips that for years were way over now have to be under an hour over or you had better be perfect. I had a sup follow me one day and I saw him first thing. He pulled me over after twenty mins and told me the things I did wrong. I told him I saw him and made sure I did nothing wrong. He said company policy is "no driver is perfect. He is right. They can watch or print out something wrong on any driver on any day. So now any driver not under an hour over with a poorly timed trip better show up early for work and sort his truck off the clock. It’s standard operation procedure. If you take an hour lunch and don’t work any of it, expect to be called in the office and reamed because you didn’t put the year on an info notice. It’s getting really bad.

 

[soberups]

With the current downsizing, your management team is basically locked in a game of musical chairs to the death.

They are no longer concerned with running the business. They are only concerned with their own survival, which they are desperately trying to ensure by spoon-feeding their immediate superior whatever metric happens to be the current flavor of the week.

The only way they have to justify their jobs is to generate an unending stream of reports, observations, and warning letters in order to make themselves look busy. I'm pretty sure that every Friday, each management person is graded by how many pounds of paper he/she has been able to spew out over the previous week. It doesnt have to mean anything, or be relevant, or even make any sense; it just has to meet the quota when they plop the pile down and weigh it on the scale.

 

[Not IN Trace]

Same thing is happening in our center, routes that I ran a year ago that would be a scratch day are now always hour plus over, its clear two things are going on. One is UPS wants you to think no matter how fast you work, not good enough, so they keep cutting the time allowed to make you think you suck, and to be able to scare you with discipline for performance. Also you now get no time for deliveries, its all about volume picked up, run your route monday and be hour plus over, run it tuesday, same day but get a 200 package skim your now a scratch driver. Its all mind games, just follow the methods and they can't say crap if you are 3 hours over every day.

 

[Signature Only]

Same thing is happening in our center, routes that I ran a year ago that would be a scratch day are now always hour plus over, its clear two things are going on. One is UPS wants you to think no matter how fast you work, not good enough, so they keep cutting the time allowed to make you think you suck, and to be able to scare you with discipline for performance. Also you now get no time for deliveries, its all about volume picked up, run your route monday and be hour plus over, run it tuesday, same day but get a 200 package skim your now a scratch driver. Its all mind games, just follow the methods and they can't say crap if you are 3 hours over every day.

It's the same out here. I had a time study 14 months ago and gained 45 minutes. Until 6 months ago I was under at least 30 minutes every day. Now I'm over at least 45 minutes and my load/trace/average pieces/miles are exactly the same.

 

[purplesky]

Yes and now the preload is sent home early everyday so your load sucks and you will waste time looking for stops. This is really getting old. Its pretty obvious now the big boys at the top in the union have been bought because they should be all over this crap. Its just total harassment for production now. Everyone knows the numbers are a joke. It must be strange to be in management now and hand a report to a driver and pretend like they are not doing a good job when you know they are running their ass off for you!

 

[Matthew]

lmfao they cant make you sort your truck on unpaid time!
can you guys please untighten the short shorts and grab what was once your balls???

 

[Just Numbers]

BBB, look at what you refer to as the small things. Open bulkhead, I used ro deliver that way until I learned my lesson: Kid ran into the street, I hit the brakes, pkgs flew thru the door, one hit front winshield and bounced off hitting me in the shoulder. That was the last time I rode with that door open. Second chain off. I guess your talking about the rear door chain. Ever see what happens on the highway when your rear door comes open, I have as I passed it and it wasn't a pleasant site. Finally the grab rail. Let's face it this is put there for one reason and one reason only. I've seen all this before. Maybe it's just the flavor of the month or the intensity has been kicked up a knotch. Reports, production standards and holding drivers accountable has been around for decades, nothing new. Did someone call in a customer complaint on you because you failed to put the year on the notice?

 

[Re-Raise]

Did someone call in a customer complaint on you because you failed to put the year on the notice?

You really believe someone called in a complaint because the info notice didn't have the year on it?

How would someone that stupid be able to actually operate a telephone and have a sufficient grasp of the english language to put their complaint into words.

 

[Just Numbers]

No, and that was my point.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

In the past, if someone did actually call in this kind of complaint, the UPS employee who took the call would explain the procedure and the complaint would have been resolved. Now, with the 1-800# outsourced, they simply type what they are told and forward to the center.

I have a hard time believing the 10 day suspension for an open bulk head door.

 

[Re-Raise]

No, and that was my point.

I thought the rest of your post was defending the legitimacy of the infractions.

What was your point on the info notice not having the year on it ?

 

[over9five]

I thought the rest of your post was defending the legitimacy of the infractions.

What was your point on the info notice not having the year on it ?

I thought it was sarcasm.

 

[Re-Raise]

I thought it was sarcasm.

His whole post or just the last line?

 

[island1fox]

Just some food for thought. people say numbers do not mean anything.
I believe the majority of UPS people Management and Hourly would agree that close to 90% of the the people do a great --not perfect --but great job every day.
Not the 80 --20 concept --more the 90 --10 --10% of the drivers in each center and division cause the majority of the overallowed hours ---always have --
70,000 drivers---10% --7000 drivers ---overallowed hours at 2.00 = 14,000 hours per day @ 40.00 = 560,000 dollars per day --times 282 work days = 15,792,000. 00 .
Lots of money going out the door each day.
These ten % are consistently bad --never have a good day --come in the same time each night ---run the SAME spor each day --until they are OJSed.
We all know this is true ---makes it hard on all drivers when MGMT -does not PROFILE.
Minor infractions are enforced on all to avoid the charge of targeting ----This is hard for most people to accept ---but it is the reality of the situation.

 

[whiskey]

I don't find the numbers any worse than usual. I do see center manager's and DM's taking on much more responsibility in the form of an expanded geographical area. It will be hard for them to continue to micro manage. In fact, it will be impossible. I was never a big fan of micro managing. Whatever happened to delagating? Did that end with Ron Reagan?
There is an expression that aptly describes micro managing. "Can't see the forest for the trees".

 

[Just Numbers]

I thought it was sarcasm.

The last line was sarcasm...when was the last time anyone on BC was hauled into the office for not putting the year on a notice. But, that was what was stated so I reponded.

 

[tieguy]

Now if your numbers don't look good, they go after the small things. Open bulkhead door, chain off coming in, you didn’t grab the handrail. Now all are major offences if your numbers look bad. We got a guy who is looking at a 10 day suspension for an open bulkhead door, first offence. It’s the same thing all over the center. Trips that for years were way over now have to be under an hour over or you had better be perfect. I had a sup follow me one day and I saw him first thing. He pulled me over after twenty mins and told me the things I did wrong. I told him I saw him and made sure I did nothing wrong. He said company policy is "no driver is perfect. He is right. They can watch or print out something wrong on any driver on any day. So now any driver not under an hour over with a poorly timed trip better show up early for work and sort his truck off the clock. It’s standard operation procedure. If you take an hour lunch and don’t work any of it, expect to be called in the office and reamed because you didn’t put the year on an info notice. It’s getting really bad.

there have to be other infractions if the guy is up to a 10 day suspension. Don't discount the open bulkhead door. It can lead to serious injury in an accident or when stopping suddenly and it can lead to stolen packages.

 

[tae111]

I used to challange my management to do my route for a week and I would match any time they posted. I even said I would sign a document saying I would forfeit my job if I didn't. The only stipulations were they had to not speed, not run, and take a full lunch. No one ever took me up on it. Much easier to target minor infractions. The best thing any driver can do is really learn the methods. Practice them every day until they become second nature. It takes some time and effort but in the long run the benefits are amazing. You will not be intimidated by OJS rides. The numbers will be managements problem not yours.

 

[BlackBluenBrown]

OK, yes the bulkhead door open is a minor infraction, but 10 days? That’s a stern warning for the first offence. Maybe a one day if it was flagrant (not a side street), but 10 days? I see guys with the door open all day long, but they are fast so no one says anything except close the door. The chain off, same thing it depends on who is doing it. My point is they can find something on any driver, but only find and punish severely the drivers who are taking full lunches, not sorting trucks off the clock, and not literally running. If you are an hour under you can drive all day with the door open, chain off, and jump in and out of the truck. Even the best driver is not 100% every day, every week, every month all year perfect. So time is being punished, just not as time, but as other things that everyone does once and a while. I believe in a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, and I believe in service and safety. But this small infractions leading to big suspensions has got to be looked at by the Union. And the Union is looking the other way. As for the year missing on an info notice. If someone has a bad enough day I would not put it past management. And it would be an infraction, a small one but I would not put it past them, it has gotten to that point.

 

[Omega man]

OK, yes the bulkhead door open is a minor infraction, but 10 days? That’s a stern warning for the first offence. Maybe a one day if it was flagrant (not a side street), but 10 days? I see guys with the door open all day long, but they are fast so no one says anything except close the door. The chain off, same thing it depends on who is doing it. My point is they can find something on any driver, but only find and punish severely the drivers who are taking full lunches, not sorting trucks off the clock, and not literally running. If you are an hour under you can drive all day with the door open, chain off, and jump in and out of the truck. Even the best driver is not 100% every day, every week, every month all year perfect. So time is being punished, just not as time, but as other things that everyone does once and a while. I believe in a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, and I believe in service and safety. But this small infractions leading to big suspensions has got to be looked at by the Union. And the Union is looking the other way. As for the year missing on an info notice. If someone has a bad enough day I would not put it past management. And it would be an infraction, a small one but I would not put it past them, it has gotten to that point.

You say that you believe in a fair days work for a fair days pay yet you say that you have to sort your truck off the clock and work through part of your lunch because of production harassment. UPS is able to harass employees for production because of people like you who are influenced by it. If nobody worked for free when harassed the management tactic would not work. If you worked in my center I would file for the time you are working off the clock. Sometimes people need to be protected from themselves.