UPS feeder school in RoadKing magazine

[lazydriver]

Saw this Magazine article today. http://www.roadking.com/story.php?id=1273

[bubsdad]

Interesting.

[ajblakejr]

Thank you for posting the link.

[cachsux]

Interesting how the article states a 45 minute period to pretrip a set of doubles yet at our facility 15 minutes is more standard before you start having supervisors (dts trained mind you) start claiming your screwing off and stealing time.

[pickup]

Originally Posted by cachsux

Interesting how the article states a 45 minute period to pretrip a set of doubles yet at our facility 15 minutes is more standard before you start having supervisors (dts trained mind you) start claiming your screwing off and stealing time.

yeah, ain't that the truth.

[pickup]

Originally Posted by lazydriver

Saw this Magazine article today. http://www.roadking.com/story.php?id=1273

It scares me sometimes when the different sups of different backgrounds and ways of talking start sounding exactly the same, with same pitch ,same tone, and same cadence when reciting the gospel that was obviously beat into them when attending this school.

I am suprised they also referred to it as the Smith System in this article.The sups never refer to it as the smith system here. A few sups even go on to state that Mr. Smith stole the system from ups.

[lazydriver]

The magazine is available at TA truckstops and shows a few more pictures than the website shows.

[pickup]

Originally Posted by lazydriver

The magazine is available at TA truckstops and shows a few more pictures than the website shows.

Thanks for posting the link here, very good read.

[Hoaxster]

Originally Posted by pickup

It scares me sometimes when the different sups of different backgrounds and ways of talking start sounding exactly the same, with same pitch ,same tone, and same cadence when reciting the gospel that was obviously beat into them when attending this school.

I am suprised they also referred to it as the Smith System in this article.The sups never refer to it as the smith system here. A few sups even go on to state that Mr. Smith stole the system from ups.

It is the Smith system. I actually attended one of his schools that he personally taught back in the mid-80s ... a real no non-sense fellow as I remember.
He did not steal it from UPS but UPS has certainly adopted his system.
As a note, some go-getter wanted to sell the "Space and Visibility", 5 seeing habits, 10 point commentary, etc. as a UPS product but that had to be abandoned once Legal stepped in.

[Mike23]

Originally Posted by Hoaxster

It is the Smith system. I actually attended one of his schools that he personally taught back in the mid-80s ... a real no non-sense fellow as I remember.
He did not steal it from UPS but UPS has certainly adopted his system.
As a note, some go-getter wanted to sell the "Space and Visibility", 5 seeing habits, 10 point commentary, etc. as a UPS product but that had to be abandoned once Legal stepped in.

No, it's UPS that made it. They said they did so it has to be true. I'm a brainless peon manager who says so...You WILL listen to me! ALL HAIL UPS AND IT'S GREATNESS!

[Hangingon]

Is UPSFreight sending their sups to DTS?

[JonFrum]

Originally Posted by Hoaxster

It is the Smith system. I actually attended one of his schools that he personally taught back in the mid-80s ... a real no non-sense fellow as I remember. . .

Oh. That Smith.

I always thought UPS got its ideas from the other Smith. The one played by Hugo Weaving in the Matrix.

[pickup]

Originally Posted by Hoaxster

It is the Smith system. I actually attended one of his schools that he personally taught back in the mid-80s ... a real no non-sense fellow as I remember.
He did not steal it from UPS but UPS has certainly adopted his system.
As a note, some go-getter wanted to sell the "Space and Visibility", 5 seeing habits, 10 point commentary, etc. as a UPS product but that had to be abandoned once Legal stepped in.

Thank you Hoax. The moment I was exposed to it years ago, when I first got trained, the supe was asking me if I knew the 5 seeing habits. And I said "Uh , I don't think so". And then he started rattling them off. And as soon as he said the second one, I said " oh the smith system!" And then he shot me a look as If I we in a Harry Potter book and I had muttered the name "voldermort" .He then went on to angrily state how smith once worked for ups and then left and tried to market the ups ideas as his own.

And the thing is , he probably got this "gospel" from the feeder school he attended.

[orangputeh]

Thanks for the link. very interesting, especially the 45 minutes and the $50,000 price tag.

[bluehdmc]

Originally Posted by cachsux

Interesting how the article states a 45 minute period to pretrip a set of doubles yet at our facility 15 minutes is more standard before you start having supervisors (dts trained mind you) start claiming your screwing off and stealing time.

I believe thats the entire pretrip including the tractor, putting the set together including spotting the dolly in front of the trailer, without lifting the trailer or pushing it back, hooking up the air lines applying and releasing the brakes to make sure the spring brakes work, etc. Has a sup tell me that he ruined all his brown shirts with grease doing that.

(funny they don't show us that way to do it, I suppose if you hooked up to a trailer with bad spring brakes and caused some sort of damages then it would be "your fault for not using the proper methods")

Originally Posted by pickup

It scares me sometimes when the different sups of different backgrounds and ways of talking start sounding exactly the same, with same pitch ,same tone, and same cadence when reciting the gospel that was obviously beat into them when attending this school.

I worked for another company, (a dealer for a manufacturer), when someone became a foreman they all went to "foreman school" a better name would be "clone" school. If you closed your eyes and listened to 1 you were listening to any or all of them.

[bubsdad]

Originally Posted by Hangingon

Is UPSFreight sending their sups to DTS?

Nope. They are using our supes to train the freight guys.

[UpstateNYUPSer]

Originally Posted by bubsdad

Nope. They are using our supes to train the freight guys.

Hopefully this training will include going to the bathroom in the restroom, not between trailers.

[over9five]

Originally Posted by UpstateNYUPSer

Hopefully this training will include going to the bathroom in the restroom, not between trailers.

And a short presentation: Handwashing for First Timers

[cachsux]

Originally Posted by bluehdmc

I believe thats the entire pretrip including the tractor, putting the set together including spotting the dolly in front of the trailer, without lifting the trailer or pushing it back, hooking up the air lines applying and releasing the brakes to make sure the spring brakes work, etc. Has a sup tell me that he ruined all his brown shirts with grease doing that.

(funny they don't show us that way to do it, I suppose if you hooked up to a trailer with bad spring brakes and caused some sort of damages then it would be "your fault for not using the proper methods")

I was talking about an entire pretrip also. Apparently the 45 min doesn`t apply when it`s a "hot load" or "late sort" or "that time of the month" or whatever excuse they want to use. I have been handed a set of tlrs,each on opposite ends of a 3/4 mile long building, at start up that have a 45 min cutoff at the railyard,which is 50 min away mind you, and I`m still waiting to be handed my keys. When I tell them there isn`t a prayer in the world that they`re going to get there on time then that makes me the bad guy. I guess maybe the dispatch mgmt team were the ones who didn`t pass DTS.

[tieguy]

Originally Posted by cachsux

I was talking about an entire pretrip also. Apparently the 45 min doesn`t apply when it`s a "hot load" or "late sort" or "that time of the month" or whatever excuse they want to use..

The 45 minutes includes a full explanation of every step in the pretrip. The actual pretrip would not take that long. There are approximately 260 demonstrations and explanations involved.

[bluehdmc]

Originally Posted by cachsux

I was talking about an entire pretrip also. Apparently the 45 min doesn`t apply when it`s a "hot load" or "late sort" or "that time of the month" or whatever excuse they want to use. I have been handed a set of tlrs,each on opposite ends of a 3/4 mile long building, at start up that have a 45 min cutoff at the railyard,which is 50 min away mind you, and I`m still waiting to be handed my keys. When I tell them there isn`t a prayer in the world that they`re going to get there on time then that makes me the bad guy. I guess maybe the dispatch mgmt team were the ones who didn`t pass DTS.

My response when I'm told there is a short amount of time to get to the railyard is, "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."
If I was to get into an accident speeding or something it would be my fault and the load wouldn't make the train anyway.
Sometimes it can take an hour to put a set together, lead at one end of yard, kite at another, then find a place to put the set together, dollies in the other corner of the yard, and yard traffic.
Just pretripping a tractor, air line drains in one place on a mack, 3 different places on sterlings and internationals, etc can cost seconds to the guy doing this on a stopwatch, plus does that allow you time to go find your tractor that's in one spot one day and another the next, that's if you get the same tractor everyday, or even the one you had yesterday LOL.

[Highwayman]

I was so lucky to be my new feeder supes first ride when he got out of DTS. Wow was he gung ho. I was too aggressive putting dolly in hook? Didn't check lights on dolly? When I said "i'm hooking up doubles and don't need lights on dolly" he was perplexed to say the least. I said "look at an older dolly lights don't work when used for doubles". He said "I never saw one". Oh Well!

[Old International]

Just had my supervisor sleep along ride. He watched maybe 5 hours out of the 10.75 I was on the clock. Wore my ass out about the safety triangles, and the fact I didn't check for a paper timecard and a HOS logbook(both in my personal grip that follows me everywheres). Oh well.
Then he started in on the 10 point commentery, which I only knew 4 of. Oh boy, now he wants me to know them verbaitem.....oh well, a bad day in feeders is still better then a good day in package car....

[broncobros1]

Originally Posted by orangputeh

Thanks for the link. very interesting, especially the 45 minutes and the $50,000 price tag.

The 45 minutes is not a secret...that is the time to beat when explaining and demonstrating every aspect of the pre-trip. Also, I don't see too many folks out there doing coupling awareness on empties and placing the dolly half way under the rear trailer.

[orangputeh]

Originally Posted by broncobros1

The 45 minutes is not a secret...that is the time to beat when explaining and demonstrating every aspect of the pre-trip. Also, I don't see too many folks out there doing coupling awareness on empties and placing the dolly half way under the rear trailer.

Before I was hired ( for peak ), i was told drivers were required to pretrip and put a set of doubles together in 24 minutes.

I can see how it would take much longer if you had to verbalize each step.