UPS Story

jack4ever · 06-27-2008, 01:43 PM

Hey Everybody,

I'm a long time reader, but a first time caller. Anyway, the funniest thing happened the other day. I work in a center in a small town, and so the local sort operation is simply unloading package cars strait into a feeder, with only one destination. Well I was on load duty that day, and I got the trailer maybe half way filled up, when the feeder driver comes in and says something is leaking out of it. So, naturally, we ask the supervisor what to do. Now, as I recall, my training was to "don't touch, leave the area, and notify the supervisor". So we do this. Well one guy, a chemistry major no less, says that the first rule of identifying substance is to taste it. We all know he's joking of course, and we go out into the yard to watch the stuff leak out of the feeder.

Well everyone decides to start smelling it, and touching it to find out what it is, because apparently if it were just water we wouldn't have to worry about it. We could already tell it wasn't water because it didn't smell like water, but one guy decides to taste it just to make sure. I don't know what he was thinking, but he takes a taste of it (it sort of smells like orange cleaning solution). We all start getting on him for consuming it, and he said he didn't swallow, he just tasted it, and spit it out.

Well our supervisor talks to the F/T supe, and she says that since we can't identify the substance, we got to get the leaker out of there. So we start tearing all the walls down, 'til we get to the back of the feeder, and we find the leaker. It was on maybe the second wall that was stacked, and it was some kind of saline solution, so the guy that ate it was going to be alright. Well we get it out of there.

They got the air driver to help us, because we were seriously behind schedule at that point, and the feeder driver helps us out too, and we re-stack the boxes in the trailer, and about the time that I'm coming out of the feeder, I notice some boxes of pizza. Turns out that the F/T supervisor decided that since we killed our progress by loading a leaker, we deserved a reward. I didn't complain. We all agreed, that if we wanted pizza in the future, we would need to load more leakers.

Peace out.

Leftinbuilding · 06-27-2008, 04:15 PM

Things kinda quiet in your neck of the woods are they?

j/k way to follow "the book". (except for the tasting part)

UpstateNYUPSer · 06-27-2008, 04:17 PM

Good, I didn't want to be the first to respond to this "story".

looper804 · 06-27-2008, 04:25 PM

Amazing,you can't make this stuff.Some idiot sticks his hand in it and tastes it but didn't swallow.Must be a friend of Bill Clinton.(I didn't inhale)

helenofcalifornia · 06-27-2008, 04:25 PM

It sounds like the "good old days" where management really did care. I know they wouldn't unload half a trailer in my center to find a leaker if it was going to put them behind schedule. And the pizza...well, that's just a nice touch. It must be nice to work in a small center where big time UPS hasn't affected life there too much. I liked the story. Old times. Does Opie still live there?

moreluck · 06-27-2008, 06:15 PM

Opie now runs the re-hab frequented by old man Otis.

mattwtrs · 06-27-2008, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by helenofcalifornia

It sounds like the "good old days" where management really did care. I know they wouldn't unload half a trailer in my center to find a leaker if it was going to put them behind schedule.

The center that I worked out of was right off a major interstate and it seemed like every week in the hottest part of the summer there would be a leaker in a thru load. The management team & feeder drivers would have to open the trailer & find the leaker & clean it up. The schedule didn't matter cause the safety of the driver and the public came first!

Leftinbuilding · 06-27-2008, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattwtrs

The center that I worked out of was right off a major interstate and it seemed like every week in the hottest part of the summer there would be a leaker in a thru load. The management team & feeder drivers would have to open the trailer & find the leaker & clean it up. The schedule didn't matter cause the safety of the driver and the public came first!

So, how was life over there at Fedex?

j/k

cachsux · 06-27-2008, 06:26 PM

When you found the leaker you should have yelled to the taste tester "yea,here it is. It says something about sperm samples on the box". See how many Pepsi challenges he volunteers for after that.

PassYouBy · 06-27-2008, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by myback

is that jack***4ever?

Why be rude?

UpstateNYUPSer · 06-28-2008, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PassYouBy

Why be rude?

His limited schooling and vocabulary leave him few options.

toonertoo · 06-28-2008, 05:10 AM

Thanks guys, you beat me to it.
I dont know why some newbie, or unknown thinks they have to jump on here and start being rude.

raceanoncr · 06-28-2008, 05:32 AM

What happened to, so-called, Haz-Mat Responders? I thought, or at least that is what the forced annual video says, that they were the only ones qualified to identify a leak, isolate it and clean it up?

As a feeder driver, I don't touch nuttin leakin and don't go in trailers that are leakin. Ain't trained in that area.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

dilligaf · 06-28-2008, 05:48 AM

Race, you are not wrong. Only 1st responders can deal with a leaker.

mattwtrs · 06-28-2008, 05:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leftinbuilding

So, how was life over there at Fedex?

j/k

Sorry that you think I worked at Fedex. I am a 36 year vet of Big Brown. UPS has centers & hubs, Fedex has stations.

Leftinbuilding · 06-28-2008, 05:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattwtrs

Sorry that you think I worked at Fedex. I am a 36 year vet of Big Brown. UPS has centers & hubs, Fedex has stations.

dilligaf · 06-28-2008, 06:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattwtrs

Sorry that you think I worked at Fedex. I am a 36 year vet of Big Brown. UPS has centers & hubs, Fedex has stations.

Matt, see the j/k in the bottom corner. Left was just kidding.

jack4ever · 06-28-2008, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by raceanoncr

What happened to, so-called, Haz-Mat Responders? I thought, or at least that is what the forced annual video says, that they were the only ones qualified to identify a leak, isolate it and clean it up?

As a feeder driver, I don't touch nuttin leakin and don't go in trailers that are leakin. Ain't trained in that area.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

We probably should have responders, but what they told me is that the only responder we have works on preload, so a apparently they would have had to have called him in. We did know that it probably wasn't a haz-mat, as the guy that was unloading the package cars is the haz-mat auditor (or whatever the guy that writes the date, his initials, and the other thing that they write the SLIC I think is what the video called it), and he hadn't audited any haz-mats yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cachsux

When you found the leaker you should have yelled to the taste tester "yea,here it is. It says something about sperm samples on the box". See how many Pepsi challenges he volunteers for after that.

It's interesting that you should mention sperm samples, and what not, as we are in a farming community, so there is quite a bit of those bull sperm barrels that are shipped out of here (some of you may know what I'm talking about, they're those odd cylindrical shaped, with the spherical top, shaped containers, I could describe them in other terms), that are always being shipped by companies called Geneti-Co and such. Well, it's probably a good thing, that it wasn't one of those that was leaking.

Big Babooba · 06-28-2008, 02:04 PM

Do Cheech & Chong work at your center?

Hey Cheborneck, come here."

"Ya"

"What that ?"

"Looks like dog s### ."

"Looks like dog s### to me too. Pick up."

"What?."

"PICK UP!"

"Eww"

"Feel like dog s###?"

"Ya feels like dog s###."

"Smell."

"what?"

"SMELL!"

" phew"

"Smell like dog s###?"

"Ya smells like dog s###."

"Taste!"

"WHAT?"

"TASTE!"

"ack, phoey"

"Taste like dog s###?"

" Ya, yech, Tastes like dog s###."

"Good thing we don't step in it. Let's go eat."

drewed · 06-28-2008, 03:53 PM

[quote=jack4ever;360807]We probably should have responders, but what they told me is that the only responder we have works on preload, so a apparently they would have had to have called him in. We did know that it probably wasn't a haz-mat, as the guy that was unloading the package cars is the haz-mat auditor (or whatever the guy that writes the date, his initials, and the other thing that they write the SLIC I think is what the video called it), and he hadn't audited any haz-mats yet.

Its an auditable item, anytime there is movement of packages a designated responder IS REQUIRED to be on shift. In our building of about 350 people we have about 30 responders, about 10 are management the rest hourlies. If a driver finds a leaker on the road what is he SUPPOSED to do, dont touch secure and wait for a responder; i know it doesnt always happen that way but you should always wait and your sup should be a trained responder too.

jack4ever · 06-28-2008, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drewed

Its an auditable item, anytime there is movement of packages a designated responder IS REQUIRED to be on shift. In our building of about 350 people we have about 30 responders, about 10 are management the rest hourlies. If a driver finds a leaker on the road what is he SUPPOSED to do, dont touch secure and wait for a responder; i know it doesnt always happen that way but you should always wait and your sup should be a trained responder too.

Maybe one of the supervisor's is trained as a designated responder, and now that I think of it, our clerk might be trained as a responder. Weird thing, is that the next day the package was sitting on the belt, so apparently preload didn't do anything with it either.

drewed · 06-28-2008, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jack4ever

Maybe one of the supervisor's is trained as a designated responder, and now that I think of it, our clerk might be trained as a responder. Weird thing, is that the next day the package was sitting on the belt, so apparently preload didn't do anything with it either.

ahhh the glory laziness lol i still cant believe he tasted it tho!!