Signs of............. PEAK!!!!

[soberups]

Originally Posted by UPS Lifer

SOBERUPS - You are on your way to a great peak!
Merry Xmas - Happy Holidays !!

You are probably right. Last peak I think I had less than 10 missed stops for the entire month. I worked 60 hrs, but at least I knew when I left the building in the AM that I had a fighting chance of getting done. As I stated earlier, having PLD forces management out of the fantasy and into the reality where the drivers work.

[UPS Lifer]

Just because you worked at a center that may have had issues does not mean it happened everywhere. There isn't any 20 year + UPSer out there that doesn't have a horror story about one of their bosses or a bad peak. Don't put all management into your neat little category of dishonesty just because your world had it.

As far as bringing back 200-300 stops ... How many stops did you go out with 350?

Your boss was probably just embarrassed for you!

[soberups]

Originally Posted by UPS Lifer

As far as bringing back 200-300 stops ... How many stops did you go out with 350?

Your boss was probably just embarrassed for you!

I had something like 600 stops. In a P500. Half of them were brickloaded in the car the other half were under the belt. I had to go out to a garage on route, empty, and go back to the building to reload because we had to get the belt "clean". I delivered most of the stops that I took out on the 2nd trip, but the ones in the garage from the first trip I just loaded up and brought back in that night. At least they got "dispatched." The next day I had even more and I gave up on bringing them back and I wound up leaving them in the garage for a week or so until I could get to them. The whole center was in the same boat, the genius from IE who had come up with our "plan" had apparently been hitting the crack pipe a bit harder than usual that year. I am sure he got promoted for his fine effort.

[1989]

Originally Posted by soberups

Prior to PLD there were several instances when I brought 200-300 stops back to the building at 10:30 at night, and was instructed by my center manager to unload them without sheeting them as missed. I was a rookie and didnt know better. I was there, and you werent. Call me a liar if you wish.

Prior to PLD, we often would not get all of of our Christmas packages off until New Years Eve, or even into January if we had weather issues. There would be hundreds of stops buried in sheds and garages. I'm not making this up. I have no need to, and nothing to prove by lying about it. It was the truth. Back in the late 80's/early 90's, it wasnt about service. It was about blindly following the Plan and making the numbers and maintaining the illusion of a functioning operation. As long as the Division Manager could gaze down from his office and see a "clean belt", it wouldnt have mattered to him if we were just dumping the stops off of a cliff.

Back in the late 80's/early 90's we didn't have guaranteed ground service so there was no need to sheet as missed. Hopefully you were smart enough to deliver the air.

[soberups]

Originally Posted by 1989

Back in the late 80's/early 90's we didn't have guaranteed ground service so there was no need to sheet as missed. Hopefully you were smart enough to deliver the air.

This statement is incorrect. We were required to sheet every package on the car, and if no attempt was made they were considered missed. Unless, of course, it was peak and your sup was afraid to rock the boat.

[Pkgrunner]

Originally Posted by barnyard

It might be a subject of a different thread, but my volume has dropped. Last week, I had 130+ stops everyday (usually dispatch at 115). PAS was implemented on Monday and I have had 103-110 everyday.

Monday and Friday weren't bad. Tues, Weds, Thurs all sucked as they 'tweaked' the route those days.

TB

I will become EDDucated tomorrow. I have been playing with the pre-live EDD for the past couple of weeks; and other than the trace being retardEDD, I like it. The last trace for me that I saw(its changed 5 times in the last 2 months) will be less stops and more miles than I formerly did. It looks to be only about 10- 20% of my former route with a lot of left turns and backtracking. They made a lot of corrections from our driver input, but then apparently erased them about a week ago---yipee, I'm psyched.

[outamyway]

Originally Posted by Pkgrunner

retardEDD...

[UPS Lifer]

Originally Posted by soberups

This statement is incorrect. We were required to sheet every package on the car, and if no attempt was made they were considered missed. Unless, of course, it was peak and your sup was afraid to rock the boat.

1989 is not incorrect. There was no national policy back before PLD. Each region, district, division and center ran the operation based on local practice.

You have a tendency to set national policy in your posts! I could be wrong, but I always thought that was up to the Management Committee! This is
one of the reasons I tend to jump right in there to refute what you say.

You present an implausible account of what is normal. I have stuffed P500s to the gills and never got more than 400 packages into one

Case in point ... 600 stops (not packages!) in a P500. Even at peak you probably averaged at least 1.2 packages per stop. This would be approx. 720 packages in a P 500. Over stated and over exaggerated!

This creates a credibility problem with everything you say. I had a bubble nose P 800 on my residential route right next to Beverly Hills and my route only blew up to 325 stops. The car was completely full - no such thing as a helper - I used to run and fling and I still couldn't get it all done. You are saying that they got 600 plus packages into your P500!!!! SURE they did!


I had the top producer in the district in my center. He would carry a 16-17 hour day and get it done under 11 hours. He would have his wife and teenage kids come out to help him and he only carried 475 stops and about 600 packages in a P800. This guy was the top producer in Southern California. So you can understand how it is hard to believe your story.
Now - this was consistent performance the last 3 weeks of peak. This was before helpers and driver release - After helpers and DR, his loads dropped to 12-13.5 hours. I believe that his methods were instrumental in formulating DR and helper routines throughout the Pacific Region.

Mind you, this driver was the top producer before I got to the center, no management person had anything to do with his initiative and ingenuity. He was so good that he kept all his numbers for every peak and knew exactly (within 5 stops) where the sequence range should break for him to take out his optimum load. I learned from him.

I guess if you say it long enough you will believe it to be true! LOL!

As far as peak goes - in the good ole days, I actually took the delivery records from the year before and plotted the stops on a map for all residential areas. I added routes based on the plot. It was very accurate.
It took me 6 weeks working at home on the weekends to get this done but it paid dividends to me and the drivers. I started this process in August.

All my centers were under-allowed at Xmas and 2 had less than a 10 hour paid day. We all worked and played as a team. We had center parties and pot lucks and good memories of peak season. I actually would get depressed when January hit and all the new goals put in place and the micro-managing would work back in.

[Mike Hawk]

Originally Posted by soberups

I had something like 600 stops. In a P500. Half of them were brickloaded in the car the other half were under the belt. I had to go out to a garage on route, empty, and go back to the building to reload

Lifer please read again.

[UPS Lifer]

Originally Posted by Mike Hawk

Lifer please read again.

Sorry... My bad!

I apologize Sober

Thanks for bringing it to my attention Mike!

[westsideworma]

Originally Posted by UPS Lifer

Case in point ... 600 stops (not packages!) in a P500. Even at peak you probably averaged at least 1.2 packages per stop. This would be approx. 720 packages in a P 500. Over stated and over exaggerated!

This creates a credibility problem with everything you say. I had a bubble nose P 800 on my residential route right next to Beverly Hills and my route only blew up to 325 stops. The car was completely full - no such thing as a helper - I used to run and fling and I still couldn't get it all done. You are saying that they got 600 plus packages into your P500!!!! SURE they did!
.

I dunno Lifer, we crammed a stupid amount into a 600/700 before.....I was newbie then, but I distinctly remember reading the driver communication sheet the next day for my neighboring loader and it said something like 497 stops, 634 packages. It was a residential split route. Course one of my trucks (p1000) got sent out with like 550+ stops that year...yea my car's shelves were all full up after I sorted the send agains the next day (we had a snow storm the day prior)...that sucked. I received another truck to use AFTER I filled up that one off a set of rollers out in the middle bay where the trucks exit...hahaha.

[stevetheupsguy]

Originally Posted by UPS Lifer

Sorry... My bad!

I apologize Sober

Thanks for bringing it to my attention Mike!

Man was I hypnotized by your, yeah right, speech. You had it all in there. I bet you were a heckuva guy to work with, lifer. Thanks for giving this rookie a glimpse of your life.

[Old International]

My web based shipper is really stocking the warehouse right now. I went from 250 deliver pkgs a day to almost 450 in one week! Last week, I had one day of 529 Pkgs! No all that stuff has to come back out and be delivered in December.

[soberups]

Originally Posted by UPS Lifer

I used to run and fling and I still couldn't get it all done. You are saying that they got 600 plus packages into your P500!!!! SURE they did!

The frustrating part for me was that, if management had given me a P-8 or a P-10 with a semi-decent load and made arrangements for a peak hire to shuttle the remaining stops out to me, I might have gotten it all done or at least gotten close. I did have a helper and most of the stops were DR's. Instead, I wasted at least two hours shuttling dead stops back and forth from the building just so that the Division Manager could look down upon a clean belt. I was basically wallowing in packages that I knew I wouldnt be able to deliver for days. It was probably the most frustrating experience I have ever had as a driver and it was caused entirely by my managements inability or unwillingness to deal with reality.

[chev]

I think the only peak planning I have seen in our building so far is the daily trooping in of fresh meat for pre-load and local sort. We definitely wont have any casual drivers in our feeder dept. Haven't had them in 3 or 4 years now. We still have drivers going back to package frequently, so they will all be called back. I just don't look forward to all the stinking rental trucks they bring into our already overtaxed building. It gets quite crowded around there.

[Mike Hawk]

Originally Posted by chev

I think the only peak planning I have seen in our building so far is the daily trooping in of fresh meat for pre-load and local sort. We definitely wont have any casual drivers in our feeder dept. Haven't had them in 3 or 4 years now. We still have drivers going back to package frequently, so they will all be called back. I just don't look forward to all the stinking rental trucks they bring into our already overtaxed building. It gets quite crowded around there.

It gets crowded in my building too, glad I get to stand under a heater and put stickers on boxes instead of loading 5 trucks outside in the snow like my first peak.

[outamyway]

There's a rumor going around here that they won't bring in any rentals.

[cosmo1]

Originally Posted by UPS Lifer

I had the top producer in the district in my center. He would carry a 16-17 hour day and get it done under 11 hours. He would have his wife and teenage kids come out to help him and he only carried 475 stops and about 600 packages in a P800. This guy was the top producer in Southern California.

His wife and kids helped him? We had a driver fired for allowing his mentally-challenged brother walk with him while delivering downtown.

[What'dyabringmetoday???]

Originally Posted by cosmo1

His wife and kids helped him? We had a driver fired for allowing his mentally-challenged brother walk with him while delivering downtown.

Management loves free help. Why do you think the poster praised the guy so much??