A Question For Sorters..

BoxPusher

New Member
Hey everyone..glad i found the site..anyways i have a question. Sorters, do you actually ENJOY when the unloader you are assigned to rolls out? Do you prefer a fast pace or steady pace, or would you rather for them to go slow? I work at a large Hub in the southeast states on noonday, and the way that the supes push our unloaders is borderline rediculous. I hate it when they tell them that the volume is 180,000 and we have 40 doors, but we're gonna aim to get 46, and all we get out of it is a headache, and 3.5 not even 4 Hours...I just don't see how the unloaders justify rolling out, increasing their work load, and in reality making less money because of it...
 

Fnix

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone..glad i found the site..anyways i have a question. Sorters, do you actually ENJOY when the unloader you are assigned to rolls out? Do you prefer a fast pace or steady pace, or would you rather for them to go slow? I work at a large Hub in the southeast states on noonday, and the way that the supes push our unloaders is borderline rediculous. I hate it when they tell them that the volume is 180,000 and we have 40 doors, but we're gonna aim to get 46, and all we get out of it is a headache, and 3.5 not even 4 Hours...I just don't see how the unloaders justify rolling out, increasing their work load, and in reality making less money because of it...

Most are beginners and dont think. And the other ones just want to get out ASAP.
 

Pollocknbrown

Well-Known Member
Personally as long as the unloader gives me the labels and isnt putting 20 boxes on the belt at one time he can go as fast as he wants....but when i start getting no labels, and its obvious that hes grabbing 3 4 5 or even 6 at the same time thats when i go into dick mode and hold him up, and if he dont stop, the whole aisle goes down....aisle sup doesnt care, unload supe rides me like seabiscuit for it. I actually got a guy moved out of the unload for that....I purposely would sort him because not many other people will kill the aisle when their guy wont hold up, eventually the unload sup got sick of it and talked the FT guys into moving him back to the load where no one wanted him anyways...mind you he was a sorter till he got kicked from the aisle (would rarely sort anything except to the belt that ran all the metro stuff). and 180K on 40 doors? do u mean your hub has 40 unload doors or it was 40 turns (trailers) with 180K? last time i saw 180K was christmas and it was like 150 turns....got a 13hr day that day :D (the 180K was from the extended twi sort, and then we did our 80K on the nite).
 

Nitelite

Well-Known Member
I take a medium/fast person. This way there is always work around me and I am not asked to slide up to bail out someone else that is not working hard. I don't mind helping others if they are working hard, but if they are not putting in the effort, I am not going to do it for them. In the instances that I get a really fast guy, especially one that has been there a long time, I just go at my own pace and if stuff falls and gets missorted, oh well. Management doesn't want the belt off and has a hissy when you hold up an unloader, so whatever, I am just working as directed.
 

hiro

Active Member
When I was a sorter, I preferred a slow unloader but only because it was less work. I was always told to sort the faster guys and it didn't really bother me as long as the labels were up. I'd rather sort at 2000 pph with almost all labels than 800 with barely any labels.

When I unloaded, I usually went as fast as I could because the sorter would start to get buried and that would give me a 1 or 2 minute break every 5 minutes. Anything else was just boring. At least in the sort aisle there are people to talk to.
 

lost

Well-Known Member
Personally as long as the unloader gives me the labels and isnt putting 20 boxes on the belt at one time he can go as fast as he wants....but when i start getting no labels, and its obvious that hes grabbing 3 4 5 or even 6 at the same time thats when i go into dick mode and hold him up, and if he dont stop, the whole aisle goes down....aisle sup doesnt care, unload supe rides me like seabiscuit for it. I actually got a guy moved out of the unload for that....I purposely would sort him because not many other people will kill the aisle when their guy wont hold up, eventually the unload sup got sick of it and talked the FT guys into moving him back to the load where no one wanted him anyways...mind you he was a sorter till he got kicked from the aisle (would rarely sort anything except to the belt that ran all the metro stuff). and 180K on 40 doors? do u mean your hub has 40 unload doors or it was 40 turns (trailers) with 180K? last time i saw 180K was christmas and it was like 150 turns....got a 13hr day that day :D (the 180K was from the extended twi sort, and then we did our 80K on the nite).
180k is normal for day sort here a lot of the time its higher than that. We have 40 bay doors, 13 pd's, 4 boxlines. Its easy to get lost in our place if you are new.
 

360waves

Member
sounds exactly like our hub..we have 14 pds, 3 boxlines 44 bay doors...and they crush us with work on noonday...one day the unload supe on my sort aisle got the record in the hub for turing 15 doors in an hour..including a drop frame and like 3 or 4 of the long doors i forgot the name of them..but yeah i hate how much work they push on us, yet the unloaders don't seem to understand..
 

Pollocknbrown

Well-Known Member
180k is normal for day sort here a lot of the time its higher than that. We have 40 bay doors, 13 pd's, 4 boxlines. Its easy to get lost in our place if you are new.

Ha ha everytime i see a smalls bag for your hub i curse you guys and the small sort bagger out because they go to the belt above my head (on the nite atleast, different belt on the twi, go figure, same trailer, different PD (for some reason they take 2 trailers off of PD2 from the twi (MESTX and MEANJ, and put them on PDs1 for MES and PD7 for MEA for the nite, the two busiest PDs already during the nite load having BURMD, NEWPA, ERIPA NIANY, and one other truck. and PD7 which is run with half the amount of ppl that a normal PD gets (6 and 7 are staffed like 1 PD but they get north cali, new jersey, worma, and half the centers surrounding buffalo, and they wonder why that PD is down ALL NIGHT LONG)....and the bags honest to god are always as heavy as an over.
 

dillweed

Well-Known Member
I don't mind sorting fast, in fact I like the rush. However the unloaders are not taught to send large and long pkgs label first so we must flip those suckers around which knocks other things off and slows us down.

Also, the sticker slappers don't give a hoot what's going on. If we are backed up they are oblivious. Have to hollar at them several times to shut the door down. I just use that big red button and shut the whole sort down. Then the slappers hollar at us to get going. grrrrr
 

360waves

Member
Thanks for the input fellas..I searched through and didn't see many sorter related topics. I like the sort aisle..I have been with UPS 2 years and 2 months and have been on the sort aisle for just under 2 years. I spent the first year demolishing every unloader, because when i first got up there all of the higher seniority people refused to sort the faster guys, so fast was the only pace I learned. Now that I have been there for 2 years and the quality of the unloaders and training they are provided has tremendously gone down, I dont see the need to roll out everytime. When the unloaders do attempt to roll out, they don't give labels, send up longs and over 70's..its horrible. I will still roll out for a cocky new guy that needs to be brought back down to earth (as i did last week), or one of the guys that used to bust my behind and that made me faster sorter, but as for these clowns that dont care about labels, and supervisors that flat out yell at us "KEEP MY DOOR ON, NOBODY CARES ABOUT LABELS UPSTAIRS WE NEED PRODUCTION" THey get the big red button and the stoneface...
 

lost

Well-Known Member
Ha ha everytime i see a smalls bag for your hub i curse you guys and the small sort bagger out because they go to the belt above my head (on the nite atleast, different belt on the twi, go figure, same trailer, different PD (for some reason they take 2 trailers off of PD2 from the twi (MESTX and MEANJ, and put them on PDs1 for MES and PD7 for MEA for the nite, the two busiest PDs already during the nite load having BURMD, NEWPA, ERIPA NIANY, and one other truck. and PD7 which is run with half the amount of ppl that a normal PD gets (6 and 7 are staffed like 1 PD but they get north cali, new jersey, worma, and half the centers surrounding buffalo, and they wonder why that PD is down ALL NIGHT LONG)....and the bags honest to god are always as heavy as an over.

I know!! I did irregs for my PD with hardly any problems, But I actually had to have help with some of our smalls bags. I got the sort manager involved and asked him how we were supposed to put the bags on top when you cant friggen move them? Of course ther was no real answer, just follow the mwthods.
 
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