OMG Has peak started? - Brown Cafe

Lobofan5 · 10-25-2007, 07:25 AM

Just came home from preload.. I cannot get over the increased volume of packages.

This my friends..is going to be a hard peak.

Fredless · 10-25-2007, 08:49 AM

perhaps making up for last years peak..which was very nice at my hub.

Fnix · 10-25-2007, 02:51 PM

I got 5:30 hours today

Ucfmanic · 10-25-2007, 03:30 PM

This will be my first peak season, our center has actually slowed down and cut hours due to the hiring of new hires to cover peak, but the past two days, I have worked on two different PD's and the belt lines have been blown out from start to finish.

Pollocknbrown · 10-25-2007, 04:07 PM

ha ha, PD 1/2 in my hub (Trucks due for niagara falls, texas, florida, and mid-atlantic states) are ALWAYS blown out, regardless of how many people are in the PDs or unloading/ sorting, In my 5 months of being there, i havent seen that belt not stop during the night. Doesnt exactly help when they refuse to put a loader in the texas truck(s). They just let them build up and then take people out of their trucks and have them load texas then send them back to w/e they have to do, even tho the area is staffed to have at least one person per truck.

local804 · 10-25-2007, 05:16 PM

its time...

scratch · 10-25-2007, 05:42 PM

It started officially for me today. I got my Helper. We ran 100 stops in four hours together, thats 25 SPORH compared to my usual 17.7 I do myself. The stop density still isn't there yet, we should do 30-35 per hour after Thanksgiving. The Supervisor told me to work her for two hours only, which is ridiculous. I called the OMS and kept her for four, and still had a 10.5 day. Normally I run 130 stops, it was 177 today.

When I came back to the building, I noticed about ten empty Package Cars that had sat there all day after some Cover Drivers got sent home. Its nice of the company to stick Helpers on Drivers in October so we can get worn out before Thanksgiving. I don't know who comes up with these idiotic ideas.

longlunchguy · 10-25-2007, 06:14 PM

I was told, a long time ago, that we don't hire helpers until Nov. 15th. I haven't used a helper before December EVER! Yet, you're right, by the time it hits the fan the last two weeks, I'm already fried.:confused1 Down here in South Fla, the snowbirds are flocking in and stops are up. They always are this time of year. But help ain't on the way.

brown bomber · 10-25-2007, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scratch

It started officially for me today. I got my Helper. We ran 100 stops in four hours together, thats 25 SPORH compared to my usual 17.7 I do myself. The stop density still isn't there yet, we should do 30-35 per hour after Thanksgiving. The Supervisor told me to work her for two hours only, which is ridiculous. I called the OMS and kept her for four, and still had a 10.5 day. Normally I run 130 stops, it was 177 today.

When I came back to the building, I noticed about ten empty Package Cars that had sat there all day after some Cover Drivers got sent home. Its nice of the company to stick Helpers on Drivers in October so we can get worn out before Thanksgiving. I don't know who comes up with these idiotic ideas.

Bloodybrown · 10-25-2007, 06:40 PM

You are right Scratch. October is a time to lower the dispatch so drivers are well rested for peak. Helpers are ok to, as long as they are used to lower the dispatch and get trained early. Giving drivers a day off if they want it at this time of year is a good way to train seasonals early and help drivers get time off if they want it. What is going on where your at is not the right approach in my opinion.

LKLND3380 · 10-25-2007, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lobofan5

Just came home from preload.. I cannot get over the increased volume of packages.

This my friends..is going to be a hard peak.

I was told our center is not going to do early start times unless the really REALLy have to...

Blow out the belts and stack out the egress

Always nice to go on break around 6:45 and find out there is 800% left plus airs...

Pollocknbrown · 10-26-2007, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LKLND3380

I was told our center is not going to do early start times unless the really REALLy have to...

Blow out the belts and stack out the egress

Always nice to go on break around 6:45 and find out there is 800% left plus airs...

800%? so u have 8x your original amount of work left after you start???:confused1:confused1:confused1:confused1:c onfused1 ha ha

xDELETEDx · 10-26-2007, 03:05 AM

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wornoutupser · 10-26-2007, 04:30 AM

Hey Lakeland,
From what I was told we have not seen ANYHING yet!
The entire division is now being dispatched through Orlando. The managers are not allowed to ad runs-or helper hours-without Orlando approval. The suits are furious. Micro management at its best!
Could this be the payback for Orlando being one of the lowest profit operations last year?

Fredless · 10-26-2007, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wornoutupser

Could this be the payback for Orlando being one of the lowest profit operations last year?

And after the praised Central Florida on UPSers for hiring the most helpers in the country. Peak was not bad last year, almost EVERY driver in our hub had a helper, for at least 4 hours. It was their goal to get every driver in by 9pm last peak, and for the most part it worked. I remember them saying for this year, every driver will be in by 8pm.

Guess thats out the window in order to bring up profits.

westsideworma · 10-26-2007, 08:27 AM

[quote=LKLND3380;258602]I was told our center is not going to do early start times unless the really REALLy have to...

Blow out the belts and stack out the egress

Always nice to go on break around 6:45 and find out there is 800% left plus

800%?!!? good god man thats crazy! We average 400% after break at the most currently.

FromBluetoBrown · 10-26-2007, 09:42 AM

Its actually been a little light these past few weeks here. There have been a few nights where I go on break at 3am and come back at 4 to start loading my trucks and find out that we have been out of work since 330 and the next feeder isnt due for another 45 minutes.

CFLBrown · 10-26-2007, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pollocknbrown

800%? so u have 8x your original amount of work left after you start???:confused1:confused1:confused1:confused1:c onfused1 ha ha

It's the count of trailers. At 800% there is 8 trailers that need to be unloaded.

LKLND3380 · 10-27-2007, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pollocknbrown

800%? so u have 8x your original amount of work left after you start???:confused1:confused1:confused1:confused1:c onfused1 ha ha

Each full trailer is 100% so when you start at 4:20 and they tell you we have 2050 that would be 20 full trailers and 50% of another...

So at 6:45 you go on break for ten minutes and find out there is 800 left... So in 2:25 the unload blew out twelve and a half trailers...

Now the Supes like to blow out the belts for the first hour and run 6 on 6 which is 6 unloaders to 6 sorters. The second hour they may run 5 on 5 and have some one do tape ups and irregs... Occasionaly a supe will jump in the back of a trailer and unload with another supe sorting so they have 7 on 7 going... This is a big NO NO as supes can not do hourly work BUT the supe tells them if we get through 12 trailers by break there will be gatorades, McDonalds for them the next day...

So they work like animals and send the wrong packages down the belt and cause a pile of mis sorts at the end of the belt. Plus it is near impossible to split the ins and out on the belt because you have a two foot pile packages going down the belt and that equals missed work. Now the people who can grab their work often get hit and pile the work outside the package car and that leads to egress issues...

Now when you ask a supe why we are starting at 4:20 and have 2050 they say it is because they wont allow us more time...

Then when 7:45 rolls around there may be 200% and waiting for airs to arrive at 8:20 they start sending people from the unload home. Never mind supes did hourly work, The guys in the unload are happy because they get out of work early and get food the next day during break.

So each person they send home equals $8.50 an hour but they are rewarded with a $1.50 Gatorade OR a $2.00 Sausage biscuit..

LKLND3380 · 10-27-2007, 03:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by westsideworma

800%?!!? good god man thats crazy! We average 400% after break at the most currently.

I would say we average about 500 to 600 at break but those are the day we go on break around 7:00

LKLND3380 · 10-27-2007, 03:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fredless

And after the praised Central Florida on UPSers for hiring the most helpers in the country. Peak was not bad last year, almost EVERY driver in our hub had a helper, for at least 4 hours. It was their goal to get every driver in by 9pm last peak, and for the most part it worked. I remember them saying for this year, every driver will be in by 8pm.

Guess thats out the window in order to bring up profits.

Can you cut over time by increasing drivers?

You can have 50 drivers at top scale doing 11 hour days or have 200 drivers out there with 50 at starting pay. Then having all the drivers get below 9 hours...

LKLND3380 · 10-27-2007, 04:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wornoutupser

Hey Lakeland,
From what I was told we have not seen ANYHING yet!
The entire division is now being dispatched through Orlando. The managers are not allowed to ad runs-or helper hours-without Orlando approval. The suits are furious. Micro management at its best!
Could this be the payback for Orlando being one of the lowest profit operations last year?

It would be interesting to give each building what ever they needed to be successful and and then see how it pans out... Too many things look good on paper but do not play out in the real world...

Dirty Savage · 10-27-2007, 09:56 PM

I would have to agree with this as our volume has been going up lately. I think, though, that this has a lot to do with the fact that the Canadian dollar has been trading almost on par with the U.S. dollar as I have noticed a huge increase in stuff from the U.S. If this keeps up I forsee a horrible, horrible December.

RockyRogue · 10-28-2007, 01:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LKLND3380

It would be interesting to give each building what ever they needed to be successful and and then see how it pans out... Too many things look good on paper but do not play out in the real world...

It would be very interesting to see what happened if every operation were given what it needed to be successful. Unfortunately, that will probably never happen for one reason: $$$. And the 'paper' does have a purpose IMHO. This goes as far as projections but really needs to cease being how an operation is run. I refer to over-reliance on paper as micro-managing and I can NOT abide that--as a worker or as a member of management. -Rocky

beentheredonethat · 10-28-2007, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scratch

It started officially for me today. I got my Helper. We ran 100 stops in four hours together, thats 25 SPORH compared to my usual 17.7 I do myself. The stop density still isn't there yet, we should do 30-35 per hour after Thanksgiving. The Supervisor told me to work her for two hours only, which is ridiculous. I called the OMS and kept her for four, and still had a 10.5 day. Normally I run 130 stops, it was 177 today.

Scratch, the stupid thing is that UPS doesn't consider what you did a 25 Sporh during those four hours it considers it a 12.5 Sporh, 100 stops /(4 driver hrs + 4 helper hrs). I for one thing this is ridiculous, since with this method it looks worse to have a helper. They don't take into consideration that a helper makes about $10/hr and a driver at OT makes more then 3 x that amount. Starting helpers this early only makes sense in a high density area or in an area like a mall. What we should do is to have more vacations allowed in Oct and beginning of Nov to give the veteran drivers some time off and then put on peak drivers. This will give the drivers time to learn the methods and when peak really hits you have a full complement of drivers.