To Trace or Not to Trace

[helenofcalifornia]

Never heard a driver say he had blisters. It must be those new shoes of yours. First lesson to learn is not to break in new shoes when you are a new driver. You won't do this again, I bet. You must be in agony!

Originally Posted by UpstateNYUPSer

I asked them to print my DOL, made changes/corrections while on lunch/break and, yes, at home, and then sat down with them for about 1/2 hour or so as I had given them all that they needed to work with. I was more than willing to sacrifice some of my personal time to ensure that my days would go that much smoother.

Same here, except I got them to teach me how to make the changes myself in EDD on their computer. I took the printout of the entire loop, hundreds of streets, as well as any areas that are typically adjusted to me. I broke down shopping centers in the order the stores were delivered, that helps a lot. Doing that also helps get your stop count right so everything with same address doesn't count as one stop. I spent a lot of my personal time on it, and took a lot of grief from other drivers, but it has been worth it. When splits are pulled to my rte, they are loaded exactly where fit them into my trace. Swing drivers call me and tell me how easy my rte is to run compared to others, they hardly ever have to break trace. Learning to make the changes in EDD myself was key because I knew the guys who were there to set it up would be gone soon, and I had no confidence that my sups would make changes later; they never have time. I don't regret spending so much of my own time on this, it made my job much easier and if someth ing changes, I can fix it in EDD myself.

[helenofcalifornia]

And UPS is cool with you making your own changes?

[big_arrow_up]

If IE and the PAS/EDD teams would do their jobs correctly, or at least a better job, the first time then no one would have to spend their own personal time on doing IE's job. And like I said....they didn't really listen to those of us that were able to voice our concerns and opinions about how the routes should be set up. One driver did actually come in one day during his vacation and sat there with them for several hours and set up his route perfectly. Or so he thought. When we finally went live it was apparent that that they hadn't agreed with what the driver had wanted. They went back in and completely changed it. You'd think the knowledge from that driver (who has been on that route for over 12 years) would be excepted. But then again.....what would he know about it? LOL!

[UpstateNYUPSer]

Originally Posted by helenofcalifornia

And UPS is cool with you making your own changes?

That was my first question when I read his post. My involvement with the computer is to check my stop count and planned day when I punch out at night and then check it when I punch in the following day--other than that I don't bother with it.

[1989]

When pas came to my center I did the dol changes on 50 routes and another driver did the changes on the other 50 routes.

Originally Posted by helenofcalifornia

And UPS is cool with you making your own changes?

Have you ever met a sup who would mind you doing their job for them?! It just turned out I was good at it, I am sure if I screwed it up my days of computer work would be over. I had some experience doing loop work from when DIAD first came along.

[UpstateNYUPSer]

I am impressed.

Originally Posted by UpstateNYUPSer

That was my first question when I read his post. My involvement with the computer is to check my stop count and planned day when I punch out at night and then check it when I punch in the following day--other than that I don't bother with it.

If I waited on my sups to make the changes, they wouldnt get made. When doing loop work a few years ago, I sat at home and put thousands of streets in order, gave it to my sup, and he promptly lost it. So when the system was being put in, I made sure I learned how to enter streets, change order myself. Like I said in another post, if I was screwing it up, they would stop me. I did this for my rte so I wouldn't spend years digging down the shelves for my next stop and I wouldn't have to listen to trace % complaints from sups. I had a few ask me to make changes for them after they saw me doing mine, I don't mind.

[UpstateNYUPSer]

Believe me, I am not dissing you. I am truly amazed that your mgt team would let you do that and I commend them for recognizing and utilizing talent when they see it. Again, I am in now way putting you down.

Originally Posted by UpstateNYUPSer

Believe me, I am not dissing you. I am truly amazed that your mgt team would let you do that and I commend them for recognizing and utilizing talent when they see it. Again, I am in now way putting you down.

I know, you dang yankee! But just wait, I will probably hear it on this one. Some of the guys in my bldg who called me arse kisser were the same ones who ended up asking me to make changes!

[UpstateNYUPSer]

Isn't it amazing how their tune changes when they need something from you?!

Originally Posted by UpstateNYUPSer

Isn't it amazing how their tune changes when they need something from you?!

LOL! Yeah, they would walk up and strike of a conversation about something totally different and then say something like, "Hey man, you think you could show me how to change my DOL?!"

[trplnkl]

Hell, in our center you could get fired just for asking a sup to show you how.

[tourists24]

Originally Posted by trplnkl

Hell, in our center you could get fired just for asking a sup to show you how.

depending on where you are working, you are right about this. I have no problem if someone wants to spend their free time working on their route. Same should go for someone like myself though. I dont care how EDD tells me to run the route; I know the route and will run it the way it needs to be run. Ive told my whole mgt food chain that it is messed up and needs to be changed. If they want my input I will be more than happy to tell them on the clock. If not then I will continue to run the route in a manner that gives my customers the best service I can provide. If mgt gives me a hassle and tells me to run it in trace, then I can do it that way also, service failures and all.

[mikestrek]

Originally Posted by Cobra Agent

I am going into my fourth week of driving and need some good solid info. I have read other posts and most all of you say stick to trace. I am delivering to a college area where i have to walk most of my stops from corners (college kids cant park worth a hoot). I can not drive down most streets. My center mgr said that i need to be delivering 18 pcs per hour but according to trace it can not be done. My one road sup says the same thing. Last tues i delivered 158 stops and was back in the building at 7 and still ran an hour and thirty min over!! My sup is telling me not to follow trace for me to "run the route in a more logical way". I have yet to make my 30 days, do should i stick to trace or make up my own route. I thought that the pas system did away with drivers having to do this. I am unsure on what the more "logical" thing is to do. If i stick with trace i will be way over my alloted time but if i run it my way and i am still over i cant win.

Hey guys, I suggest you run your routes with pas or by the ed order in your diad. Corporate has beat it into the sup's and management that this is the fastest way to run and $ millions $ of dollars has been spent to set up this new pas system. With that much money spent corporate knows they better make all this work.

As long as you don't run in the high 80's or low 90 percent on your ed, Sup's are programed to tell you your not running your route correct.

Always run your route per the ed system even if it's not accurate.

If it's not accurate, Let your Sup know that you need to make changes in the street patern that you run.

What Corporate wants to believe is that in a perfect world you can just pull to the curb, Open your bulk head door, Grab the next stop on the shelf, Close your bulk head door, and deliver your package, Same with the next stop.

Correct, Miss loads, Miss positioned packages, or a bad load are never a factor to corpoerate.

Guys, Corporate is on a mission and they don't want to hear "But" You need to have your route set up as closely as possible to perfect ed order and run it that way everyday.

When your in the 90 percent range and your still running 1 1/2 hour late then let the sup's know how bad the numbers are on your route.

Also, Run your route by the book. You probably wont see many 3 day rides any more because a driver can be monitored day to day from the diad information and GPS.

Change is scary guys but hang in there, YES, we all know were all correct but Like I said Corporate is on a mission and is gonna ram this down our throats, If you get in the way, You could pay the price.

I run my rout about 97% each day. and always by the book. Yet, I also run at least an hour late each day. Sup's just ignore me now.

Originally Posted by trplnkl

Hell, in our center you could get fired just for asking a sup to show you how.

Maybe so! But it makes no sense to have to dig around in your car looking for the next stop if you don't have to. If some guys want to be hard headed and not change their EDD, they can continue to dig! My route falls off like dominos, makes me happy, makes swing drivers happy, makes sups happy, and thats the order I worry about!

[slowdriver]

Wow he wants you to do 18 stops an hour, that sounds like alot to me, also sounds like that may not be a training route, so if you do get dq u can file. good luck sounds like they want you to work off of the clock to make it, most drivers do so, its just part of the job around here..

[big_arrow_up]

Originally Posted by mikestrek

Hey guys, I suggest you run your routes with pas or by the ed order in your diad. Corporate has beat it into the sup's and management that this is the fastest way to run and $ millions $ of dollars has been spent to set up this new pas system. With that much money spent corporate knows they better make all this work.

As long as you don't run in the high 80's or low 90 percent on your ed, Sup's are programed to tell you your not running your route correct.

Always run your route per the ed system even if it's not accurate.

If it's not accurate, Let your Sup know that you need to make changes in the street patern that you run.

What Corporate wants to believe is that in a perfect world you can just pull to the curb, Open your bulk head door, Grab the next stop on the shelf, Close your bulk head door, and deliver your package, Same with the next stop.

Correct, Miss loads, Miss positioned packages, or a bad load are never a factor to corpoerate.

Guys, Corporate is on a mission and they don't want to hear "But" You need to have your route set up as closely as possible to perfect ed order and run it that way everyday.

When your in the 90 percent range and your still running 1 1/2 hour late then let the sup's know how bad the numbers are on your route.

Also, Run your route by the book. You probably wont see many 3 day rides any more because a driver can be monitored day to day from the diad information and GPS.

Change is scary guys but hang in there, YES, we all know were all correct but Like I said Corporate is on a mission and is gonna ram this down our throats, If you get in the way, You could pay the price.

I run my rout about 97% each day. and always by the book. Yet, I also run at least an hour late each day. Sup's just ignore me now.

Here we are expected to run 85% or better. Unless of course a driver has a negative number under the over/under portion of the OR. Then it doesn't matter if that driver ran the route at 10% trace.

[mikestrek]

Originally Posted by big_arrow_up

Here we are expected to run 85% or better. Unless of course a driver has a negative number under the over/under portion of the OR. Then it doesn't matter if that driver ran the route at 10% trace.

That, I do agree with. We all know it's all about numbers now.

[1989]

Last I heard I usually run between 65 an 75% trace on any route I do.

[govols019]

We had one guy they kept beating on about running trace a couple of years ago and he finally got fed up with it. He went out and ran the route exactly in trace. He normally runs 175 miles with 105 stops averaging a 9.5hr day. Running trace put him at almost 300 miles and over 13hr day.

They never mentioned running in trace again and they never tried to fix it.

[wyobill1956]

1.5 over qualifies you in our center.