thedownhillEXPRESS
Well-Known Member
I know little about ROADS itself, but I know our lates spike when used.....
A small nugget of what is sure to be many changes in the coming weeks
- Thread starter northeast swing driver
- Start date
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
Does ROADS break down the packages by commit time or are they in sequential order with no commit time given?
thedownhillEXPRESS
Well-Known Member
We just use it on saturdays, everything is due by noon...
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
...if everything is due by noon and the stops are all in sequential order the only reason for lates would be too many stops...
This is where you would use ROADS in combination with your area knowledge to get the work off most efficiently and, more importantly, on time. ROADS, much like PAS/EDD, is not a Bible--it is simply a guide.
Goldilocks
Well-Known Member
DRA, maps out your entire route. It prints out a manifest and maps. Some if it does not make sence the way it wants you to run your route. You bypass stops. If you have a First Overnight pkg then it will make that your first stop. My suggestion would be to run it the way the manifest plans, that way you cant get written up for changing it. It plans your leave bldg time and your return. As long as you are within that time frame you made goal. Some days I like it but other days it makes no sence. I think it is suppose to go live by January. FYI it cuts routes!!
HomeDelivery
Well-Known Member
this & Goldilock's comment about this system being implemented with time commits will have them breaking trace most of the time because they'll try to load each courier with as many stops as possible... setting them up to fail.
at HD, i just had another bad dispatch with the dispatcher making me go around in circles (another 13 hour day). I serviced some towns that share the same zipcode & caught a few "misplots" that the previous driver had coded 03 (unable to find address) & that added to 1 hour. I'll gross about $150 for that day
the program in my division goes in stop order with no time commits. But, the "appointments" or evening deliveries will show on the map, but will not have a sequential # given; it'll be a "zero" with you scanner beeping at you 30 minutes before the time commit.
CJinx
Well-Known Member
You should be well aware of your appt and evening deliveries before going on the road... If not, the qa clerk needs to be fired.
LTFedExer
Well-Known Member
If you have to many stops and it calculates you'll finish after 12:00, it'll take stops away from you to keep you from being late and give to the person next to you. If now that person is over, it drops to the next, etc etc. Until it gets to the last person. The way it's setup now (no DRA), the last driver in the loop should be the ONLY one to have lates or, if there's an extra route, it'll drop to that person.
HomeDelivery
Well-Known Member
yes we are aware when we load/sort our own vehicles; they put them in a side pile & let us know about them.
I load them to the side for easy access for appointment stops.
for evening delivery stops, they're going to the back of the vehicle since we have until 8pm to deliver them...
Goldilocks
Well-Known Member
Our Station went live on Saturdays only, but by September our entire station will be using the DRA. It is set up to balance all routes. So the couriers who like getting off early will have to work later. The baseline routes will be cut when volume is lighter. When your manager is setting DRA up in the mornings its all about the Sort down time they put in the system. Say they put in 0745 am sort down time but the sort went down at 0800, then DRA will create enough routes for 0745 not 0800. It created less routes and more stops. Its very important that the managers enter the correct sort down time. Some days I will go out with 40 stops and other days 14 stops. I do like the way it sorts your packages. On the yellow tag you will see your first stop to your last stop and your quadrant order. I do like that part. You can get out of the bldg is less than 5 min. Thats another important fact, you must leave within 5 min of the fine sort or you wont make your goal. But thats very easy to do with DRA. The thing I dont like about it is that it blows up some routes with stops and the base line routes with few stops.
LTFedExer
Well-Known Member
DRA is just an extension of ROADS. No reason it couldn't. But, what do I know, I'm just a courier.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
PAS/EDD works regardless of the dispatch or number of days the route is on.
whenIgetthere
Well-Known Member
When my previous station switched to DRA, all 4x10's were eliminated. They all went back to 5x8's.
No matter what happens now, when Express is strictly an overnight service seems unlikely there will be 4X10's. Not only will there not be enough work, but current 4X10 cover drivers will get their own rts, further reducing other 4X10 rt areas. More likely 5X7's. Could still have Tues-Sat rts to cover Sat, or PTers only on Saturday. Doubt it'll be cookie cutter uniform but rather each station shaped to meet local needs.
Ricochet1a
Well-Known Member
From what I understand, Dynamic ROADS cannot function with the way Express does its pickups - it doesn't have the capability to adapt to late in the day oncalls with early closure times. There is just too much potential variability in how pickup routes are run to have a program attempt to generate a stop ordering of pickups - only to be potentially thrown completely out of "whack" when an oncall comes in.
Since Dynamic ROADS is all about micromanaging route functions (precise stem times, calculated times between stops, etc.), the "logic" of the program just wouldn't work with trying to integrate a pickup route within a delivery route - all the supposed precision would be lost.
This would mean that when fully enabled, there will be delivery routes and pickup route (which are separate). Since most 4x10s have a PU route tacked on at the end of their delivery function, that scheduling format won't really work under ROADS.
There are obvious exceptions for rural routes, but for typical routes, I think you will see a gradual phasing out of combined delivery and pickup routes - they will be SPLIT. You may have the same Courier doing each "separate" route, but they most likely will have to drive back to the station, then take their split shift, then log in for the PU route (separate number), and go back out.
A lot will be determined once Express Saver is purged from the system and a better picture of just how much time can be saved by Couriers as a result.
The end game (2+ years from now) will occur when 2nd Day dissappears from Express delivery operations. Take a look at just the overnight volume that comes into the stations for delivery, and you will easily see that Express AM sort times will be a fraction of what they are now and the time it takes to get that volume off and have the Courier back into the station will be a fraction of what it is now. Shorter AM sorts and shortened delivery cycles mean that part-timers will be able to get everything accomplished in well under 6 hours.
The "question mark" right now, is just how fast is Express going to unveil their plan. If they were to roll out the big picture all at once, even those that bleed purple would quickly figure out that their careers are going to either come to an end or become part-time employment. Given the track record of FedEx in bringing out change, they will do it incrementally, as not to raise alarm among the employees. By the time the majority realize what is happening, it will be too late for them to do anything other than accept working for full-time minimums with a long split between routes, going to part-time status, or just holding out for enough in some buyout or early retirement to aid in leaving.
Thanks for the explanation.
Our station was going gung-ho with making 4/10 routes then abruptly stopped with no explanation. We have vacant routes that are not being covered and our Grummans are all being replaced with Sprinters. It's small stuff that very few people are noticing. It's the boiling frog scenario.
Our station was going gung-ho with making 4/10 routes then abruptly stopped with no explanation. We have vacant routes that are not being covered and our Grummans are all being replaced with Sprinters. It's small stuff that very few people are noticing. It's the boiling frog scenario.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
Express drivers have a superiority complex that will come back to bite them when they become part-time couriers.
Yes. It has been a source of many of my laughs here on BC over the years. Theirs and some of the UPS folks as well.
