New Manager - Brown Cafe

yeldarb · 07-11-2006, 07:43 PM

We have a new manager who is sending out everyone very heavy, cutting routes, etc. He has told the steward, it is cheaper to pay OT, and grievance pay, than have more drivers. Has anyone else heard of similar things?

DS · 07-11-2006, 08:00 PM

Its nothing new,just a new ******** that wants to get promoted.
Chances are he`ll piss off the wrong person and he`ll be off to Alaska to run the north northwest division within 6 months.My advice? Call for help every day at 12:00 noon.Take your break ,deliver an hour of businesses,call back with how many you will miss,then start your pickups.
After that, do your best and stay under 12 hours,this guy sounds like a prick.He will eventually go away,just like every other sup.

disneyworld · 07-12-2006, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yeldarb

We have a new manager who is sending out everyone very heavy, cutting routes, etc. He has told the steward, it is cheaper to pay OT, and grievance pay, than have more drivers. Has anyone else heard of similar things?

Haven't actually heard it but it is very obvious.

mrbill · 07-12-2006, 04:39 AM

Happens every where ,even more now with summer vacations. WE put more hours in the summer than PEAK.

rod · 07-12-2006, 08:42 AM

Some day you will realize they are ALL made it the same cookie cutter mold. They come in smokin and usually leave in the middle of the night after they get caught "cooking the books" (making up numbers) Seen it happen a dozen times in my 30 years.

tieguy · 07-12-2006, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rod

Some day you will realize they are ALL made it the same cookie cutter mold. They come in smokin and usually leave in the middle of the night after they get caught "cooking the books" (making up numbers) Seen it happen a dozen times in my 30 years.

Ms. More got any good "cooked books" recipes?

Actually Rod it is a sad fact of life that all management come in smokin and all management get fired after cookin the books. Its also a sad fact that all teamster locals and pension plans are managed by the mafia. Its clearly an evil, immoral world we live in.

roadking · 07-12-2006, 09:51 AM

Good post tieguy, been on both sides, no one has the ability to manage anymore. All (or most of the good ones leave in disgust, that is why the company in their infinite wisdom changed the stock plan and now holds their money hostage instead of improving working conditions for everyone) imagine what would happen if we would ALL row in the same direction. what a wonderful world that would be....

sendagain · 07-12-2006, 12:06 PM

After the new guy has trashed the center for about a year, they'll move him somewhere else and bring in someone to fix the damage. An occasional box of donuts or a barbecue is great for morale and might show the drivers that you care about them. Giving a manager a little leeway in his dispatch would do more to increase production than cutting routes and sending everyone out heavy. It is usually the people upstairs that dictate to the manager how many trucks to run. I always respected the manager that bucked the bean counters, who usually got it all wrong.

07-12-2006, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadking

Good post tieguy, been on both sides, no one has the ability to manage anymore. All (or most of the good ones leave in disgust, that is why the company in their infinite wisdom changed the stock plan and now holds their money hostage instead of improving working conditions for everyone) imagine what would happen if we would ALL row in the same direction. what a wonderful world that would be....

I am one of those who left after almost 20 years primarily due to my hands being tied and not being allowed to manage and take care of the business or my employees. I bled brown and still do but can attest to the fact that skilled UPS managers can thrive in the marketplace, make just as much or more money, and work 8 to 5.
Once you are "outside" you really can see just how crazy it is "inside".
PS - No offense to my hourly union friends out there.....but life is good for hourly and management without a union too. It is nice not to work in an environment of "us versus them".

07-12-2006, 12:59 PM

This is what they best.When you go in tomorrow look at your truck,tell the sup that ups is going to have a bad day but youre are doing great.T ake your breaks and your lunch at the right times,follow the methods and call for help at lunch time.Tell them to send help or eat the pgks.You have to get every one to do the same thing.If they get enough missed they will put in the overloads

yeldarb · 07-12-2006, 01:34 PM

I have been driving for 8 years, and this is the first one that has come out and said the things he has. It is also a big bldg. 4 centers. abt 225 drivers out of the building.

tieguy · 07-12-2006, 02:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sendagain

After the new guy has trashed the center for about a year, they'll move him somewhere else and bring in someone to fix the damage. An occasional box of donuts or a barbecue is great for morale and might show the drivers that you care about them. Giving a manager a little leeway in his dispatch would do more to increase production than cutting routes and sending everyone out heavy. It is usually the people upstairs that dictate to the manager how many trucks to run. I always respected the manager that bucked the bean counters, who usually got it all wrong.

great post.

rngri4 · 07-12-2006, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yeldarb

We have a new manager who is sending out everyone very heavy, cutting routes, etc. He has told the steward, it is cheaper to pay OT, and grievance pay, than have more drivers. Has anyone else heard of similar things?

Question is this, if this is a PAS center, the center manager cannot tell the dispatch sup which runs to cut etc, that is left to them period. If they are told to follow are idiot bean counters, they don't have a choice..period. Non-Pas centers dispatching is usally left to driver sups, not to a manager. Also, it would be cheaper to pay grievances etc than to pay full pay AND benefits for someone else.

yeldarb · 07-12-2006, 06:58 PM

We are PAS, it is not the center manager, it is the manager over the 4 centers....Supposedly. The PAS manager is telling us the new guy is telling him there isnt enough stops on car.

toonertoo · 07-12-2006, 08:32 PM

We had a nice mgr for about 2 months, he didnt worry about a 7.99 being under so give them 9.99 tomorrow, he lasted 3 months.

bisongolfer · 07-12-2006, 08:41 PM

It is I.E. that determines the number of routes to have in place and the number of cars to run. Their decision is heavily based on data history which have been collected for the past few years, and allowances given to each route. Many centers have not had a time study done in quite some time, so this already throws off the figures a bit.

The PAS or Dispatch Sup is the one responsible for making the appropriate add/cuts for each loop. They way loops are setup, the routes furthest away from the center are assigned the first letters in the alphabet, so route 48A is further away from the center than routes 48B, 48C, 48D, 48E etc... The dispatch sup is supposed to make add/cuts starting from the "A" routes, all the way down to the closest route to the center, which in our case we'll say is the "E" route. It is supposed to be a trickle-down effect. In some cases however, that route that is closest to the center gets slammed, but it will be easier to get them help, because they are closest to the center. They can usually also run more stops, because of less time spent driving.

But as we are all aware, this doesn't always work like it's supposed to. For one, the projected volume is consistantly inaccurate. Which means, the center could be lighter than projected, or heavier; usually the latter. But if you are lighter than expected, it just means that volume you were expecting today will be in tomorrow, thus creating a much heavier day than anticipated. As Forest Gump would say, "you never know what you're going to get".

So to compensate, the dispatch sups starts to look at possible add/cuts. If you have an idiot for a dispatch sup, they can ruin your day. Poor add/cuts are worse than simply being overdispatched. One must take into account the milage, number of pieces, traffic for area, pickups, and type of stops, i.e business or reso. Even if he is successful, the preload might forget to physically move the stops from one route to the other.

yeldarb, are you in the Atlanta area?

toonertoo · 07-12-2006, 09:10 PM

Bigsongolfer, all you say is accurate, but............
My center has NO clue what a loop concept was.........
A>B>C doesnt apply, instead of moving work back to a route they move it to another route and cut the a or the b. It is so badly aborted PAS may be welcome here. At least someone will have a clue as to what they are "trying" to do. I would bet my pay that they would not have a clue how to put any route back as they were. Old time studies, YES, but is that our fault? At least they made sense. Air help gets given to the closest drivers, or the biggest whiners. And they dont give air help anyway. I know how it was done, I was there when we did it the right way. Im on the driver side now and they dont do it even close to correctly. I guess they figure PAS will come soon and save the day. Til then they just make excuses given to them from the Atlanta robot, and tell us to go, and keep in touch, then try to fix it at 4pm. Makes no sense, and its too bad, we could be so much more efficient if given the chance to input what they have forgotten.............or in many cases never knew.

mrbill · 07-13-2006, 04:25 AM

The people that looped our building are in charge of work load .
WE have some people in 3 different towns every day.

PAS

ENOUGH SAID

sendagain · 07-13-2006, 07:32 AM

The problem with the people who develop the new loops is they work off maps and load charts, never having any other information about the city except the numbers. They don't see the barriers in the street or islands that seperate the roadways. It is like someone with a topo map trying to command soldiers in a war zone; without the big picture, they fail miserably. The young twenty-something that looped my route was too full of herself to realize she couldn't get out of her own way. Like a graduate of West Point, she had plenty of talent but no experience, and in life, experience is often the best teacher. That is why they end up taking months to make the system workable when they just should have talked with the drivers to begin with.

happybob · 07-13-2006, 10:52 AM

The company will allways send out as much overtime as possible. This company has been around for almost 100 years now. They will not do what the employee thinks is best, they will do what makes the company the most money. They don't care if the employee feels they are overworked, miserable family life, body breaking down. The bottom line is, and allways will be, "profit". If you've been with the company any length of time, (nearly 20 years for me), you know all to well the mentality of upper management.

The most money to be made/saved is in the delivery area. They cut routes to make more profit. Cut three routes from a center and it adds up to more profit that day. Less trucks on the road, less bodies to pay adds up pretty quick. This isn't a new problem. It's been that way the entire time I've been with the company. And it's only a problem for the worker, not the manager.

You will some day find a manager that cares about the drivers being over dispatched, but they are few and far between. Ask yourself this, are you working to make money? You most likely answered yes. Well, so to does that manager work to make money, and he will make more money when he works you harder and longer.

Don't fool yourself into believing it will get better. When you find a manager that puts his workers above all else, thank him for careing and enjoy it while it lasts.

mittam · 07-16-2006, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tieguy

Ms. More got any good "cooked books" recipes?

Actually Rod it is a sad fact of life that all management come in smokin and all management get fired after cookin the books. Its also a sad fact that all teamster locals and pension plans are managed by the mafia. Its clearly an evil, immoral world we live in.

Tieguy you got this one dead up on the nail right that's a major reason we need to break from the teamsters now now is the time to get out and run time to vote in the APWA

mittam · 07-16-2006, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toonertoo

Bigsongolfer, all you say is accurate, but............
My center has NO clue what a loop concept was.........
A>B>C doesnt apply, instead of moving work back to a route they move it to another route and cut the a or the b. It is so badly aborted PAS may be welcome here. At least someone will have a clue as to what they are "trying" to do. I would bet my pay that they would not have a clue how to put any route back as they were. Old time studies, YES, but is that our fault? At least they made sense. Air help gets given to the closest drivers, or the biggest whiners. And they dont give air help anyway. I know how it was done, I was there when we did it the right way. Im on the driver side now and they dont do it even close to correctly. I guess they figure PAS will come soon and save the day. Til then they just make excuses given to them from the Atlanta robot, and tell us to go, and keep in touch, then try to fix it at 4pm. Makes no sense, and its too bad, we could be so much more efficient if given the chance to input what they have forgotten.............or in many cases never knew.

PAS has no loop concept to it you can have part or all of a section pulled only to get a different split back from the same truck your split went to, logic would say give back original split PAS has no logic just more screwed up #'s

helenofcalifornia · 07-16-2006, 10:33 PM

In our center, the center manager gets the call at 7 a.m. from the district managers office if a truck if to be cut. With PAS they know exactley what goes into what truck and what can be cut. Again, all the trucks are carrying at least 15-20 more stops. "Paycheck Assist System" is the honest to God truth. Never had checks this big in the summer.

bisongolfer · 07-17-2006, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mittam

PAS has no loop concept to it you can have part or all of a section pulled only to get a different split back from the same truck your split went to, logic would say give back original split PAS has no logic just more screwed up #'s

That is not the fault of PAS, but the fault of the dispatch supervisor using the system incorrectly. The idea that the dispatch sup would cut out a section to route 48A, only to get another section from 48a to your route, is ridiculous. The only time this would make sense is if one truck had too many business stops and the add/cut was a trade involving bus stops for resos.

dannyboy · 07-17-2006, 07:14 PM

In the 33 years, I had lots of managers come and go. You have to understand something. Managers are a lot like underwear, you take them off each day and a new one is waiting for you.

Understand something that helped me. I dont work for any one manager, or even two or three. I work for UPS, and this squirrel just happens to be passing through. Give it time, it will get better.

The only thing worse than a hell fire new manager is one that is within a year of hanging it up. Its then that they get bitter and some really become monsters. There is no talking to them, no settling grievances, make life hell for everybody around them. I think that for many, they begin to realize just what they have given up to get to where they are, and now that they are about to hang it up, they realize the price they paid was very very steep. Not all mind you, but enough to see a real pattern.

d