the madness continues

wornoutupser · 02-10-2006, 03:35 AM

Our building is now leaving around 10:30 in the morning.
The preload can not wrap, the airs are late, it is one excuse after another.
We have 12:00 commit and the next days are being hammered by late delivery times. This is an extended building.
It is almost as though the company wants to see how far back they can push the time and they are learning that the drivers will stay out as late as necessary. I was off after 9:00 last night and there was still 20 drivers out in a building of 47 runs. One driver still had over 50 left to go at 9:00P.M.
Oh.. and we have a majority of drivers that have over 9 1/2 greivances so UPS will be paying even more for keeping us out late. Will this place ever learn?

trickpony1 · 02-10-2006, 06:56 AM

............no.

trickpony1 · 02-10-2006, 07:29 AM

All humor aside, perhaps an anonymous letter to the fine people in Atlanta, making them aware of the situation, would produce results.
I've found that extended centers tend to be more laid back, aloof and detached than a center in a major hub.
I'm curious how your center manager is concealing this from the district manager.
A reasonable person could easily assume that this altered start time, leave time, return time etc. would have a ripple effect and thereby impair the entire operation. Who ultimately suffers here?

A)the customers
B)the company's reputation
C)the driver's
D)the service
E)all of the above.

But then, if the numbers look good I guess it doesn't matter.

tieguy · 02-10-2006, 09:43 AM

You have listed the end result but what is causing the problem? Is it late loads into the preload or is the preload running poorly due to staffing or mismanagement?

As a management person I am also curious as to how your relationship is with your managment crew. What do they tell you as to why you're getting out late? Do you have dialogue with them where they explain causes of these problems and what they are trying to do to fix it?

All the 9.5 grievances are nice for your pocket but it really is a penalty not a fix for anything.

Keep in mind managements financial incentive is to run the sort less hours and go home sooner. Why then are they running so late on your preload?

quebec_driver · 02-10-2006, 04:39 PM

we are having the same problems up here, our previous manager used 2 waves to settled most of the problems. the first wave left early and then the second wave would meet the first wave with the late airs. no hour and a half waiting for late air, a lot of volume does get delivered on time.

wornoutupser · 02-11-2006, 09:12 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You have listed the end result but what is causing the problem? Is it late loads into the preload or is the preload running poorly due to staffing or mismanagement?

Hi Tie!

Our largest problem is the physical setup of the building. We can not even park all of the employee cars at one time on the premises.

We have 4 unload bays, but only one can handle flatbed feeders. The other 3 are set up to have the older drop frame feeders. We all are aware that UPS is phasing out the drop frames at an accelerated pace, and we have more flatbeds than we can unload.

IE has already made it clear that we will have to continue to use roller stands and an extra person in the middle of the roller to unload the flatbeds that are positioned in the 3 drop frame slots. We do not even have enough rollers to get to the nose of a drop frame to roll the packages out of the trailer.

IE has also made it clear that we will not get a 5 foot wide belt (we have a 4 foot wide belt now) to handle the extra flow that they insist has to be run. This results in major jams all morning long on the preloaders that have to sort too much flow as they load and also results in the belt being shut off constantly. The preloaders have already called in safety complaints because they can not walk behind some cars due to the stacks.

The next day airs are coming in at a decent time but they can only be unloaded in the flat bed unload. They have to wait every day until that feeder is pulled offline before they can run...and that is usually at or after start time.

The solution to the problem is to enlarge our building or start over in a new one. Our facility is not considered a priority for anything in our area, yet the growth here has exploded. We were down to 25 cars at one point and we ran almost 50 yesterday. We are running too many rentals with no shelves that slow down the delivery process, yet the company has not fixed the 4 cars outside that have blown engines. I am told that the auto manager (NOT the mechanic) is upset at our center manager and that we have to wait for the repairs. Did I also mention that we have 1 mechanic for 51 vehicles? How many other buildings have that ratio, especially in an extended center?
Our mechanic is top notch, but he is so far behind that anything not running related can not be repaired in the time that he has alloted to work. He is as frustrated as the rest of us.

Please understand that I DO NOT hold our center manger responsible for the majority of this mess. This is a long standing problem for our building that has existed for the 20 + years that I have been here. We have a new district and division manager here, yet we have not seen either one in the building yet. We simply are not a priority-It sems that we are too far away for them to be concerned.

Many may wonder why I put "HELLO ATLANTA" on so many posts-this is just the tip of the iceberg here!
--Just my honorable opinion!

speeddemon · 02-11-2006, 07:24 PM

we leave the building at 930, have 1030 air commits. Air is late EVERYDAY. We have missed NDA everyday. Atlanta doesnt care because its been this way for 2 years now. Way to go ........

Doug Heffernan · 02-12-2006, 04:05 AM

What happened to the policy of letting part-time air drivers/pre-loaders deliver next day air? I remember browning down every day after the pre-load and delivering 10-15 stops of nda's. The drivers basically only kept the nda stops that could be hit in trace with thier bulk stops 3-4 stops. It not only help the drivers get in but also gave experience to the part-timers.

spidey · 02-12-2006, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug Heffernan

What happened to the policy of letting part-time air drivers/pre-loaders deliver next day air? I remember browning down every day after the pre-load and delivering 10-15 stops of nda's. The drivers basically only kept the nda stops that could be hit in trace with thier bulk stops 3-4 stops. It not only help the drivers get in but also gave experience to the part-timers.

If one delivery is made by an employee, that is considered a car on road. If you have a part timer deliver 10 packages that car and 10 packages will be averaged into the others, bringing the numbers down to a level where things start rolling downhill.

Fredly000 · 02-13-2006, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spidey

If one delivery is made by an employee, that is considered a car on road. If you have a part timer deliver 10 packages that car and 10 packages will be averaged into the others, bringing the numbers down to a level where things start rolling downhill.

But numbers roll downhill? is that what matters?
When will the customer matter again?

Came in this AM to find my truck looking not bad,
till I looked through and saw Mt Everest behind my
truck... It wasn't even a stack, just a PILE.
So I worked at picking through it, finding
only about 10-15 boxes that were mine.
The rest, 30-40 were for a variety of other vehicles
probably 10 other vehicles... absolutely amazing.

But then again this preload performance is something
we have grown accustom to, and its nothing new.

PAS is coming soon... oh boy.. I'm excited..
maybe we'll run 50 cars too(we can only fit 38-40 on the belt)

spidey · 02-14-2006, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fredly000

But numbers roll downhill? is that what matters?

Do not blame your center managment team for any of this, they have their jobs hanging over their heads every minute of every day. The numbers is what it all comes down to.

dannyboy · 02-14-2006, 07:47 AM

Spidey

Cars on road, that was never addressed here. It was always that the air driver had to drive 30 minutes to get to the area, and 30 minutes back, ans would only be able to deliver for 30 minutes. And several times when they did allow them, it would seem that the air driver also had late air.

So no, they do not ever allow air drivers in our area.

But then of course, in our center things are really screwed up. We have areas that are 35-40 minutes drive time from the center that are 1030 commit, but yet a large area that holds walmart, lowes, Sams, home depot and many other stores is a 1200 commit, and it is less than two miles from the center, fact is, we have to drive through that area to hit the interstate to get to our areas. Actually named the fasted growing exit east of the Mississippi. 12:00 commit?

Go figure

d

over9five · 02-14-2006, 06:34 PM

"Do not blame your center managment team for any of this, they have their jobs hanging over their heads.."

Agreed. Any management team member with any self respect (and balls), who might stand up and say the right thing to upper management, won't have his job for long.

(Stay on your knees and say, "Yes, sir!")

wornoutupser · 02-14-2006, 06:45 PM

Do not blame your center managment team for any of this, they have their jobs hanging over their heads every minute of every day. The numbers is what it all comes down to.

Hmmmmmmmmm- can you say "Enron"??????????

toonertoo · 02-14-2006, 09:26 PM

Im finishing up my three day ride for being soooooo overallowed..... tomorrow. I will either be vindicated or fired. Either way I will be fine. I was just happy to have someone with me who got to see what I go through every day. Him.. Well lets go here and do this,,,...ME no we dont have time we have to be here, Him, well why cant you do this now...ME, coz when you were in BD you told them we would be here at this time....HIM, Well let me go talk to the big guys, Ive got a great relationship with them... answer: nope we cant get here any earlier......Him You go too many miles, lets cut them, ok... ME we went 11 more. Me, I have too many air....Him, well we will give them to the other guy, on the way out of the P lot, another supervisor, "he cant take these, he has too many" Him, why did you take them back. Me, coz the other boss said to, while I was out here waiting on YOU.

Later in the day.........Him, why dont you take your lunch, as he is mowing down his, Me, coz I dont have time unless you want me to call for help.

Eta, mine 730, his 630. Him, you can do 30 per hr now, oh sure, lets see..Ok get in at 7, check out and lunch with 10 other guys til 740, and it felt good to get in that early. And he bet me 10 bucks I would be on time and I know I am 1.5 late. He told me Im crazy, and yes I am, but I cant wait to see the reports......Big smiley.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr. Brown · 02-16-2006, 08:45 PM

Our center just got done relooping all our routes and we had supervisors ride along with a driver for three days asking what they can do to make our drive easier. The only thing is what we had told them went in one ear and out the other! In fact they messed up the delivery order in the diad! No matter how many times drivers tell them to fix this and that they never did anything. Instead they increased the total miles driven. Now they want us to deliver in trace! :confused1

psstdrvr · 02-17-2006, 01:30 AM

thats why they're called stupidvisers!!!!

wornoutupser · 02-17-2006, 02:13 AM

Tooner,
How did the ride go this week? Are you still employed?

toonertoo · 02-17-2006, 09:22 AM

Yes I think so. I went in this am and helped my loader with some things. So I only worked a few hrs. He asked how he could help me get in earlier, and I told him when he got tired of getting in at 8 he made some changes. So I demonstrated 14.7, 13.9, and 14.1. They want 15 sporh from me. Even with the changes, it cut my miles, I got done earlier, no problem getting commercial off. I did 14.3 after my time card error was fixed. But I was later. So he says I jammed it in his a#* the first day I was alone. But when we looked at my time card, my return to building time was not what I punched in, it was 15 min later. And my pm time was up, since it took me 20 minutes to get car in bldg. Had to move several cars that were where they didnt belong. I thought 14.3 looked like an average of the three aforementioned, but what do I know, Im just a dumb truck driver. Have a great weekend. Tooner

Hangingon · 02-17-2006, 11:48 AM

From what I understand, they are stuck with the demonstrated numbers. That is now your SPHOR, and you can't be disciplined for running that as an average over a week. I've been asking for one myself since we got our new numbers. I run an hour and a half over, and the cover drivers don't help when they skip lunch, run all day and end up with scratch.

toonertoo · 02-17-2006, 03:56 PM

Well they put the center runner boy on mine today. He averages 2 hrs early a day, on any route. So Monday, I will be expected to do what he did. Better lose 20yrs this weekend, and eat my wheaties. While I was out shopping today I got a call from one of my customers asking me if I could come back since whoever was there earlier picked up and left a note that they wouldnt be back til Monday. They are not an approved before 230 pick up. But the numbers will be all that matters.
I totally give up. I talked to my union VP today and he just laughed, told me to keep doing what ive been doing. Safe, efficient, keep customers happy, all that stuff that I thought mattered.
I cant go any faster safely, or unsafely. I dont know how. My ride did not produce any positive insight on how to move faster. Except he said I sheet too much in the car. At night in bad areas, which most of my route is, and even in the day if undesirables are around, I need to be aware of my surroundings. Not sheeting on the way, or on the way back. I need to watch for loose dogs, all pits, or rots, and bad people. Other than that I got no answer as to how to improve, just improve.

opt3 · 02-17-2006, 08:43 PM

2 weeks ago center manger takes vac leaves on road to run show . mon. 230am get the call we need you 2 walkouts this morning "take one for the team" and you have run your route . Tues same game but im sick as hell. by thurs day i was thinking runing out of hours ill preload friday and home to die . Fri. at the walkin clinic on my lunch break at onroads request 20 min till pickups i told the doc to give me some pills she says no im puting you in the hospt. you have ammonia and should of been in bed 4 days ago i call the onroad and her and him exchange words . next thing i know im getting shot up with all kinds of dope and ruing out of hours late for picups every thing is going bad. finish the day onroad says thanx . The next mon day the center manger has me in the office grilling me with the stewart about last weeks numbers and my performance . and the on road sat and watched me hang. "snakes in the grass " my friends

wily_old_vet · 02-18-2006, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by opt3

2 weeks ago center manger takes vac leaves on road to run show . mon. 230am get the call we need you 2 walkouts this morning "take one for the team" and you have run your route . Tues same game but im sick as hell. by thurs day i was thinking runing out of hours ill preload friday and home to die . Fri. at the walkin clinic on my lunch break at onroads request 20 min till pickups i told the doc to give me some pills she says no im puting you in the hospt. you have ammonia and should of been in bed 4 days ago i call the onroad and her and him exchange words . next thing i know im getting shot up with all kinds of dope and ruing out of hours late for picups every thing is going bad. finish the day onroad says thanx . The next mon day the center manger has me in the office grilling me with the stewart about last weeks numbers and my performance . and the on road sat and watched me hang. "snakes in the grass " my friends

Let's see on Friday you were being " shot up with all kinds of dope" because you had "ammonia" and doc wanted to put you in the hospital. Then Monday morning you were in the office with the mgr. Your story doesn't hang together at all but it was creative.