What was driving like back when...

[burrheadd]

-Pens were black ink only, because carbon copy is blue.
-Bulkhead and rear doors were secured with a padlock that was ice cold in winter.
-6 cubes had wood shelves for slivers under your fingernails.
-Beepers were not invented yet.
-0 missed stops for the first 5 years I drove...really.
-Chain to measure packages too large for UPS+50 lb limit
-Call tags only for packages originally sent UPS
-"ready customers", Call tags, Metro pickups the only ways to ship
-manually total stops, pkgs etc at end of day
-Perfect sheeting or void the whole line
-Fur tag pickups for stinky old ladies
-Your route/streets were well defined, anything else had to be cut to you.
-Paper delivery records sucked in the rain
-Manual transmission with a choke, manual steering, hard clutch.
-Bankers clip secured records to clipboard, cut COD tags and had a hundred "MacGyver" uses
8:15 start, 5:30 punch out most days unless you ran and got it in at 4:00

COD tag wedged in the bulkhead door would keep it open all day

 

[oldngray]

COD tag wedged in the bulkhead door would keep it open all day

A rubber band over the latch so it would close but not lock.

 

[Packmule]

Driving before all of this technology BS had both its pros and cons, much like today. The pros were pretty much what Photog said----once you left the building you were pretty much on your own. The cons were their inability to get in touch with you in the event of an emergency. My son fell and broke his wrist while playing on the monkey bars----my ex was working on the other side of the lake so her father had to take our son to the ER. I didn't find out about it until I was off road.

Agreed. My son blacked out once and by the time the manager found me I had only one stop left. TGFCP! That's cell phones. Don't need any of their other stuff.

 

[728ups]

Everything was loaded in the same place every day,and customers could set their watches as to when we'd deliver. When i was on preload we used charts to load the trucks,and had to know street names,as well as the streets that ran off the main streets. We had to hit a stop counter and woe be the loader who couldnt get the stop count right: he'd be put back to unloading the trailers until he quit.
Unless it was peak season it was VERY uncommon to work past 6-630,and Driver Supes werent allowed to leave until all of the drivers were in.

 

[OVERBOARD]

Where I first started there was no preload, had to load your own pkg car then go out and del for 6 hrs and you didn't have to clean, there was no customer sitting on his laptop tracking their deliveries.
Start my day at 7 and be done by 1600. Info notice had the center number on them. The first two years it was a great job.

 

[OVERBOARD]

Everything was loaded in the same place every day,and customers could set their watches as to when we'd deliver. When i was on preload we used charts to load the trucks,and had to know street names,as well as the streets that ran off the main streets. We had to hit a stop counter and woe be the loader who couldnt get the stop count right: he'd be put back to unloading the trailers until he quit.
Unless it was peak season it was VERY uncommon to work past 6-630,and Driver Supes werent allowed to leave until all of the drivers were in.

In the morning I would put my things in my pkg car and on my way out I would hit the stop counter a couple of times.

 

[scratch]

COD tag wedged in the bulkhead door would keep it open all day

A delivery notice folded and crammed into the bulkhead door lock did the same thing, most of us just used rewrap tape and taped the door open on area. If the car was 100% blown out, sometimes we left the building with the cab crammed full. Those P-600s were a trip to drive, I was thrilled when I got a P-500. Power Steering and Brakes??? lol

 

[The Milkman]

Where I first started there was no preload, had to load your own pkg car then go out and del for 6 hrs and you didn't have to clean, there was no customer sitting on his laptop tracking their deliveries.
Start my day at 7 and be done by 1600. Info notice had the center number on them. The first two years it was a great job.

Gee you must be a real old timer............

 

[burrheadd]

A delivery notice folded and crammed into the bulkhead door lock did the same thing, most of us just used rewrap tape and taped the door open on area. If the car was 100% blown out, sometimes we left the building with the cab crammed full. Those P-600s were a trip to drive, I was thrilled when I got a P-500. Power Steering and Brakes??? lol

2 wheeler sittin on the step slam on brakes 2wheeler cracks window tell mechanic nobody says a word
Ahh the good old days

 

[The Milkman]

It's a good route, I don't run.. Deliver less than 250 pieces a day and pickup 20-30. Very laid back run, I work smart not especially hard. I look at these bricked out 1000's and 1200's in the morning and cringe.

Just make sure you play the game wisely. CYA at all times..otherwise things could backfire on you somewhere down the road..I saw a lot of losers of "BROWNOPOLY"

 

[OLDMAN3]

A delivery notice folded and crammed into the bulkhead door lock did the same thing, most of us just used rewrap tape and taped the door open on area. If the car was 100% blown out, sometimes we left the building with the cab crammed full. Those P-600s were a trip to drive, I was thrilled when I got a P-500. Power Steering and Brakes??? lol

Wow you must be one of those new drivers who started after they started installing core locks in the bulkhead.

 

[clarnzz]

Just make sure you play the game wisely. CYA at all times..otherwise things could backfire on you somewhere down the road..I saw a lot of losers of "BROWNOPOLY"

Not new.. We can do it "my way", reasonable amount of work, work safe, take care of customers, do the things they really want me to do, get off in time a few days a week to make it to my kids activities, or we can do it "their way", so much work I can't make it to my kids activities, work super safe, do everything they tell me to do and attempt to bankrupt the company. We both seem much happier with "my way", but they do still insist on having it "their way" at times.

 

[OVERBOARD]

Gee you must be a real old timer............

No, I just started at a small satellite center with 7 drivers

 

[OVERBOARD]

We had to wash pkg car every day and if you wanted to clean the inside you just drove around with the back door open.

 

[OLDMAN3]

We had to wash pkg car every day and if you wanted to clean the inside you just drove around with the back door open.

If you try that you will soon learn that the air streaming by the side doors sucks the air in from the back and fills the cab with dirt/dust and anything else in back... Not that I have ever tried it.

 

[dumbmuthertrucker]

9.5 was strictly adhered to. Drivers seldom missed cut-off. It was rare to ever work past 8pm except during peak. On-car sups had to stay until all their drivers were back in the center. You could "teach your sup a lesson" by staying out late when dispatched heavy and you were almost always guaranteed an easy day the day after.
If you were light, sups would tell you to "make sure you have enough work", which translated to "run your miles up".

 

[scratch]

If you were light, sups would tell you to "make sure you have enough work", which translated to "run your miles up".

I called it "Taking the scenic route back in". Running up miles was a good way to makeup the magical "Planned Day" numbers. Opposite of the present day.

 

[dumbmuthertrucker]

I called it "Taking the scenic route back in". Running up miles was a good way to makeup the magical "Planned Day" numbers. Opposite of the present day.

Yep, I had a route back then that took 115 residential stops and 85 miles to make 8 hours. The same route now goes out with 180+ stops daily and only 60 miles!

 

[rod]

Yep, I had a route back then that took 115 residential stops and 85 miles to make 8 hours. The same route now goes out with 180+ stops daily and only 60 miles!

we had a couple of high mileage routes (300+) that were dispatched at no more than 25 stops per day.

 

[dumbmuthertrucker]

Those days are definitely gone!