I guess we deliver phone books now...

[Jack4343]

The past few days in my center a couple of drivers have been getting slammed with phone book deliveries. I guess AT&T (I think it was their books) is using us to deliver them instead of hiring guys off the street. So far, it's only been apartment buildings. However, it's still a heck of a day since you deliver to every single unit in the each building. The apartments around here average over 100 units a day so imagine adding 100 stops to your route one day. Easy stops for sure but wow! I have 9 apartment buildings on my route. I'm waiting for my day to come. One of my apartment complexes has 76 buildings and 307 units. I might need a helper that day. LOL!

[UpstateNYUPSer]

Transwestern Publishing (Yellow Book USA) hires people off the street here to deliver their phone books. They give them $14/hr, a delivery route, minimal training, plastic bags (which they rarely use) and ask them to get the phone books as close to the front door as possible, which they do in the city but rarely do in the country.

I cannot imagine it being cost effective for AT&T to have us deliver their phone books, unless we gave them one heck of a discount. I guess this would be the textbook definition of "density".

[retired2000]

years ago we did deliver phone books once a year. all were dr's sure built your stop count up.

[rod]

better than delivering them damm phones like UPS used to

[scratch]

I remember about twenty years ago we delivered the phone books one year. They all had addresses on them and it took about a week to do them. We never did it again, its cheaper to just pay someone to ride around and throw them out at the driveway. The only phonebooks I see now are when somebody moves into a house.

[satellitedriver]

Originally Posted by rod

better than delivering them damm phones like UPS used to

Rod,
Good thing you are retired. Phones(cell) are big business.
People stop me on route (even though they live 20 miles away, but they know their cell is coming UPS and out for delivery and stop every UPS person they see.)
Reminds me of people stopping me 20 yrs ago asking, "You got my GutBuster Mister?'
They also are standing at the edge of the road when they see me coming.
I guess I am a dinosaur. I don't have that many people I want to talk to on the phone.
PAX

[rod]

Yes I will agree- It's a good thing I'm retired

[25yrvet]

Yeah, I remember phone exchanges. What a hoot that was.

[kenmei]

Originally Posted by satellitedriver

Rod,
Good thing you are retired. Phones(cell) are big business.
People stop me on route (even though they live 20 miles away, but they know their cell is coming UPS and out for delivery and stop every UPS person they see.)
Reminds me of people stopping me 20 yrs ago asking, "You got my GutBuster Mister?'
They also are standing at the edge of the road when they see me coming.
I guess I am a dinosaur. I don't have that many people I want to talk to on the phone.
PAX

because they no u will drop the "cell" infront of thier door lol

[Harley Rider]

Originally Posted by satellitedriver

Rod,
Good thing you are retired. Phones(cell) are big business.
People stop me on route (even though they live 20 miles away, but they know their cell is coming UPS and out for delivery and stop every UPS person they see.)
Reminds me of people stopping me 20 yrs ago asking, "You got my GutBuster Mister?'
They also are standing at the edge of the road when they see me coming.
I guess I am a dinosaur. I don't have that many people I want to talk to on the phone.
PAX

I probably have close to 1500 apartments on my route and none of them are DR addresses. Most of the apartments are rented by college kids so I wind up bringing alot of packages back with me everyday. I was so happy when we quit delivering cell phones and they changed over to FedEx but it looks like we are getting Alltels business now. The kids will cut class to be home and get their cell phones or go all over town looking for me.

I'm with you Satellite........... I never even carried a cell phone until a few months ago. No one has my number except my wife. She is the only person I talk to on it. We have a family plan with AT&T that has 700 minutes a month. We usually have a rollover every month of at least 400 minutes.

[UpstateNYUPSer]

I carry a cell and have found it to be both useful and a PITA. It is useful in that I use it to call ahead on CODs and to get clarification on bad addresses. I also have certain customers whom I have given the number to as they like to get their stuff earlier than I can get to them and they meet me on the road, which helps both of us out. My center team used to call me quite often until I asked them to limit the calls to emergencies and to use the ODS that they spent so much money on. I have 2 children (20 and 23) and we are all on Verizon phones so all calls between us are included. It is nice to know that they can reach me if they need to because, as some of the older drivers can attest to, calls to the center are not forwarded to us as quickly as we may like. I can recall once when my son was 4 he had fallen off the monkey bars and busted his chin open. My wife (now ex) had called the center but they didn't bother telling me about it until I got off the road. A fellow driver had the same thing happen to him, except that his kid had broken his arm. This is why my signature is:

[HazMatMan]

If UPS can deliver tires, mufflers, 12 gallon plastic drums full of liquid, Pottery Barn boxes bigger than a barn AND heavier, etc...etc... why not phone books????

[trplnkl]

Originally Posted by HazMatMan

If UPS can deliver tires, mufflers, 12 gallon plastic drums full of liquid, Pottery Barn boxes bigger than a barn AND heavier, etc...etc... why not phone books????

You don't deliver 100 "tires, mufflers, 12 gallon plastic drums full of liquid, Pottery Barn boxes bigger than a barn AND heavier" in one day.

Not a slam here, but HAZMATMAN..are you a driver?

[trplnkl]

Originally Posted by UpstateNYUPSer

I carry a cell and have found it to be both useful and a PITA. It is useful in that I use it to call ahead on CODs and to get clarification on bad addresses. I also have certain customers whom I have given the number to as they like to get their stuff earlier than I can get to them and they meet me on the road, which helps both of us out. My center team used to call me quite often until I asked them to limit the calls to emergencies and to use the ODS that they spent so much money on. I have 2 children (20 and 23) and we are all on Verizon phones so all calls between us are included. It is nice to know that they can reach me if they need to because, as some of the older drivers can attest to, calls to the center are not forwarded to us as quickly as we may like. I can recall once when my son was 4 he had fallen off the monkey bars and busted his chin open. My wife (now ex) had called the center but they didn't bother telling me about it until I got off the road. A fellow driver had the same thing happen to him, except that his kid had broken his arm. This is why my signature is:

GEEEEZ, all this sounds soooo familiar.