2nd day on preload.. a few questions.

Ucfmanic

Member
Man, today was my second day in pre-load, and I have to be honest.. this stuff is HARD WORK!! I have done landscaping, construction, and a few other manual labor jobs, but this is by far just as, if not more challenging. Just a few questions though, because I dont see how UPS does not just have people quit on the spot... My first day being in the center was yesterday, and they threw me on the line.. Never packing a box a day in my life.. I guess we are really short handed because they have myself, and two other people, loading 9 trucks. I load trucks 88A, and 88B, so i am not only responsible for that, but basically splitting the load off the conveyor between my side (the 5 trucks on 88, and the other side of the line 4 Trucks 86 A,B,C,D, which they only have 1 guy loading all 4 trucks) Now I am not the kind to cry and moan, I can do the work.. its hard, but hey, from what I see from everyone on here, as long as you work hard there are mad rewards... My question however is was I thrown to the wolves... The other guy on my line said he was in training for two full days before he hit the floor.. Also, we preload out of a trailer type set up VS the way everyone else does out of the red, blue, green, yellow, carts... Will this be a disadvantage for me in the long run?? Oh and to everyone at UPS... 2 days on preload, and it makes my day job look like a day at the beach.. you guys ROCK!!
 

solitarysiren

Happiness in Slavery...
At a hub with PAS it seems more common to just let a new hire work on their own in the first week. hopefully your superviser will do some 'fine tuning' and work with you when you need it. loading out of an mdu is kind of a nice spot, so you lucked out, depending on who you talk to. the job gets easier, i promise! just do your best and don't take things personally.
 

huskervi

Active Member
No the type of line you are on will be much easier then the type I currnetly work on which consists of the metal cages "boxline" i dont know what they call it. A guy in my area got switched to that format and he said after you get used to it it is a hell of alot easier. I think you do more stacking but you also get alot more free time to organize and load your trucks and check for misloads. I am surprised that they threw you in that early are they still training you or are you on your own. On your line I dont think you have deal sorters as much as we do. And sorters on our/all boxlines are d****/morons and do not care about preloaders or anyone else but themselves.
So I think you have it good. The work will seam easier after 3 weeks. Plus it keeps you in decent shape. Good Luck
 

preloader

Bleeding Brown from ears
from what I see from everyone on here, as long as you work hard there are mad rewards...

there sure are....for your center manager
 
W

westsideworma

Guest
Just quit already.

wow thats a little harsh man.

Preloading is hard work, the hardest job on the shift really with the most responsibility. Yes PAS helps new hires, but not as much as you might think. No offense but I've sorted to the boxline and its cake compared to loading brownies and I don't think anyone else who's done both will disagree with me.
 
Hi Westsideworma...I've worked in your building. I worked a number of different shifts. I will tell you, the preload is by far the hardest shift in the building for a number of reasons. I've escaped there now (thank god) and I don't know if it's changed any with PAS, but I'm sure not all that much:bored:! I will tell you, if I started on that shift, I probably wouldn't have lasted a month, so props to all of you that did and stuck it out.
To our new hire friend, I know it's hard, especially waking up so early, but please stick it out. You are right that there is plenty to be gained just a little while down the road.
 
W

westsideworma

Guest
Hi Westsideworma...I've worked in your building. I worked a number of different shifts. I will tell you, the preload is by far the hardest shift in the building for a number of reasons. I've escaped there now (thank god) and I don't know if it's changed any with PAS, but I'm sure not all that much:bored:! I will tell you, if I started on that shift, I probably wouldn't have lasted a month, so props to all of you that did and stuck it out.
To our new hire friend, I know it's hard, especially waking up so early, but please stick it out. You are right that there is plenty to be gained just a little while down the road.

yeah its really something....mass chaos. No not even organized chaos as our superiors like to call it...just chaos. PAS hasn't really helped anything except new hires and their ability to think they can now demand more from us because of it.

To the newhire, hang in there, your body will get used to the "fun" in a week or so. Don't work TOO hard, they'll only give you more work. Sad as it sounds but they promote laziness by this practice. I used to go as fast as possible so I could go home...they fixed that..I now have the heaviest pull in the building lol. If you can handle the BS its not a bad job really.
 

Ucfmanic

Member
Just quit already.

haha.. its funny that you said that. The second day on the job, i was like man this is some bull for what they pay... but I was raised a lot different from a lot of people who have the luxury to just stop and do something half assed.. not to mention, if I had just walked out... what would the guy who was loading 4 trucks on my line do.. or the girl loading the other 3. what goes around comes around twice fold, and i have been screwed like that before, and would not wish it on anyone.. I am DEF. a team player... Today, the load was killer, but I just did my best i found a happy meduim of splitting the load off untill they get backed up, then i have a bit of time to load my trucks before going back to splitting.. i think that works for me... , my driver came in today and let me know i had one misload yesterday.. he was cool about it, and i respect that... Trust me, I dont mind hard work.. Hopefully soon enough, i can be one of the career posters on here too thats seen it all...

Thanks again
UCF
 

lost

Well-Known Member
haha.. its funny that you said that. The second day on the job, i was like man this is some bull for what they pay... but I was raised a lot different from a lot of people who have the luxury to just stop and do something half assed.. not to mention, if I had just walked out... what would the guy who was loading 4 trucks on my line do.. or the girl loading the other 3. what goes around comes around twice fold, and i have been screwed like that before, and would not wish it on anyone.. I am DEF. a team player... Today, the load was killer, but I just did my best i found a happy meduim of splitting the load off untill they get backed up, then i have a bit of time to load my trucks before going back to splitting.. i think that works for me... , my driver came in today and let me know i had one misload yesterday.. he was cool about it, and i respect that... Trust me, I dont mind hard work.. Hopefully soon enough, i can be one of the career posters on here too thats seen it all...

Thanks again
UCF

Its ALWAYS great to find team players, keep it up and good luck
 

#1angelfan

Well-Known Member
i preloaded 9 years. very tough job. you don't get much respect from management for working your ass off, but the way i looked at it was . that i was not working for them , but i was working for my drivers. i did a great job for them and got rewarded at the end of the year with tips. i hope all drivers take care of there preloaders the way mine took care of me.
 

govols019

You smell that?
This is how you don't load a truck.


0803070945-1.jpg
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
This is how you don't load a truck.


0803070945-1.jpg

WOW was that yours? That looks like my load from yesterday and the day before only my two wheeler "hand truck" had been stolen from me while I was out running EAMs. It's quite a shock to ride the easy money train walking EAMs then to come back to the building and see a load like that waiting for me....and not even have a two wheeler. Three school bulk stops as well as other bulk stops and no two wheeler to show for it! LOL!

My advice to a new preloader is to please not load long packages behind the rest of the packages. Whether it be on a shelf or floor. Especially when the long package is supposed to be delivered before the packages you load it behind. It's kind of hard to dig those out. Especially if the load looks like govols019's picture. And please load all packages securely. For example: don't load square or rectangle shaped packages on top of bags of clothes.
 

hoser

Industrial Slob
Man, today was my second day in pre-load, and I have to be honest.. this stuff is HARD WORK!! I have done landscaping, construction, and a few other manual labor jobs, but this is by far just as, if not more challenging. Just a few questions though, because I dont see how UPS does not just have people quit on the spot... My first day being in the center was yesterday, and they threw me on the line.. Never packing a box a day in my life.. I guess we are really short handed because they have myself, and two other people, loading 9 trucks. I load trucks 88A, and 88B, so i am not only responsible for that, but basically splitting the load off the conveyor between my side (the 5 trucks on 88, and the other side of the line 4 Trucks 86 A,B,C,D, which they only have 1 guy loading all 4 trucks) Now I am not the kind to cry and moan, I can do the work.. its hard, but hey, from what I see from everyone on here, as long as you work hard there are mad rewards... My question however is was I thrown to the wolves... The other guy on my line said he was in training for two full days before he hit the floor.. Also, we preload out of a trailer type set up VS the way everyone else does out of the red, blue, green, yellow, carts... Will this be a disadvantage for me in the long run?? Oh and to everyone at UPS... 2 days on preload, and it makes my day job look like a day at the beach.. you guys ROCK!!
Do the job to the best of your abilities, safely and properly. Don't try to impress anyone, because they won't get impressed. Go off your training. If you didn't receive anything, do it to the best of your ability (and again, safely and properly). They can't fire you (even on probation) because you did something wrong without even telling you that it was wrong. This is why UPS is such a gong show, everything is half assed. Once you get seniority, you can really have fun with working as trained, and quite frankly, northing's gonna change unless you load an entire trailer incorrectly because you were never told about how to properly load into it.

People quit on the spot all the time, you just haven't seen it yet.

WOW was that yours? That looks like my load from yesterday and the day before only my two wheeler "hand truck" had been stolen from me while I was out running EAMs. It's quite a shock to ride the easy money train walking EAMs then to come back to the building and see a load like that waiting for me....and not even have a two wheeler. Three school bulk stops as well as other bulk stops and no two wheeler to show for it! LOL!

Two wheeler? They don't give you the four wheelers?

I love it when I get loads like that, because I don't get stressed out very easily, I take my time, work safely and properly. They can't fire me because it took me (or you) longer to offload a truck stacked like crap. Then you can re-sort everything the way you like it because it wasn't sorted to begin with. This means more pay for you and a message is sent to management by means of lower productivity and possible service failures (and please don't give me the "we're here for the customer" crap. I am here for the customer, but if I get hurt, I can't be there for the customer. Management doesn't listen to us, which proves they don't care about the customer. Therefore, this is why I do what I do.) You can't resort your load if it's done right (on PAS) right?

This place is a game. If they give you that kind of crap, send a very clear message to them by working properly and within the standards. Nothing may change, and hey, if it doesn't, you're obviously doing something right. We have a new center manager whose pretty smart, so I do everything by the book, and this means I ask him what I am supposed to do and I work EXACTLY as directed. If he says "leave now, deliver it like that and don't re-sort your car", I'll do just that and I won't give lip. Then when I arrive on scene, I will call the center manager and ask him how I can properly work out of this unsafe situation. They talk to you condescendingly and angrily, but I love that because I am not doing anything wrong. If everyone did that, things WOULD change.

People quit because they don't know how to play the game. They just get so frustrated and think that if they can bust their asses off doing something for the company, they would be recognized. I'm in it for the pay, not the reward of a job well done. If I wanted that, I'd go back to FX Express.
 
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Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
Two wheeler? They don't give you the four wheelers?

I love it when I get loads like that, because I don't get stressed out very easily, I take my time, work safely and properly. They can't fire me because it took me (or you) longer to offload a truck stacked like crap. Then you can re-sort everything the way you like it because it wasn't sorted to begin with. You can't do that to your load if it's done right (on PAS) right?

I ended up grabbing a spare four wheeler, the type that are used in malls, but I still had a bad day. I spent more time sorting and re-arranging packages than delivering. Plus...there was a load quality issue so you can add picking packages up off the floor after every stop to the list. It's hard to adjust the mess in the middle of the shelf or back of the truck when the middle of the floor looks like the picture above. It's frustrating but I get over it quickly and remind myself that I get paid by the hour.
 

danlin

Well-Known Member
worked for UPS for 29 years now. 2 years part time and 27 FT, and let me tell you my friend, training people on anything has never been this company's strong point. Try to pick up pointers from some of your co-workers that have been doing it awhile.
 
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