Area Knowledge > ROADS

[HomeDelivery]

well, I took over someone's route for a full week.

following the ROADs program (or PAS/EDD for UPS terms), I was avg 12-13 hours on the 1st 2 days.

then, i started going off trace at certain zip codes so i don't loop back to the same streets 2-3 times...

by day 3, i cut down my on-road hours by 1.5

the last day, i had 7 hours on-road.

too bad i start a new area tomorrow & it's going to be one of the hottest days of the year to boot!

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

PAS/EDD is a tool designed to increase productivity and efficiency. The key is to combine PAS/EDD with area knowledge.

For example, if I were to follow trace, I would be delivering to a school as the kids are being released. We all know how much fun that can be. When I am delivering that residential area I will break off and deliver low to high on that street and then come back up high to low on the adjacent street (which is where I live) before going back on trace. PAS/EDD does not tell you what time the trains run or when traffic will be busiest on my main streets.

Blindly following trace would make for a very long day.

 

[HomeDelivery]

Blindly following trace would make for a very long day.​

Agrees, but as a swing/cover driver who has a new area to start blind every week, it gets old that the regular driver didn't maximize his service area.
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I know there are target zones in our program to prioritize what areas to cover 1st... from what i recall, the regular driver can prioritize up to 10 zones within his service area. You think they would maximize their efficiency because we don't get paid by the hour...

I'll talk to the driver last week of why doesn't he re-organize his area so it can be done in the fastest time; and he didn't know that you can do that.

others that I ask about doesn't follow trace as well. "the turn-by-turns are stupid sometimes..." well, talk with your dispatcher & they can modify your area!

and I like how they won't have certain "area knowledge" info for you, like gate codes, where to dock at certain business stops, customer's preferred DR area, etc...

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PS: bbsam said they're going to implement something similar over there by mid-July... waiting to see how that goes. would love your input on that in case I want to branch out to that division (some pay by-the-piece on top of by-the-stop?)

 

[MrFedEx]

Agrees, but as a swing/cover driver who has a new area to start blind every week, it gets old that the regular driver didn't maximize his service area.
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I know there are target zones in our program to prioritize what areas to cover 1st... from what i recall, the regular driver can prioritize up to 10 zones within his service area. You think they would maximize their efficiency because we don't get paid by the hour...

I'll talk to the driver last week of why doesn't he re-organize his area so it can be done in the fastest time; and he didn't know that you can do that.

others that I ask about doesn't follow trace as well. "the turn-by-turns are stupid sometimes..." well, talk with your dispatcher & they can modify your area!

and I like how they won't have certain "area knowledge" info for you, like gate codes, where to dock at certain business stops, customer's preferred DR area, etc...

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PS: bbsam said they're going to implement something similar over there by mid-July... waiting to see how that goes. would love your input on that in case I want to branch out to that division (some pay by-the-piece on top of by-the-stop?)

ROADS (in any form) will never be a substitute for expert courier knowledge and experience. FedEx probably already knows that, but they are banking on the new lower cost employees to be good enough to make it cost-effective. You mentioned gate codes, location knowledge etc., which cannot be properly entered into software.

The really good couriers are the ones that know how to manage their customers, as in the courier is always in-charge of the situation instead of the customer. My customers know from Day 1 that I don't wait for pickups, and that if they ask me to that they'll be directed to a drop box or other FedEx location. On deliveries, I walk after 1 minute without a signature. "I'll be back when I can" works very well, and you usually only have to do it once. If you're good, you already know what I'm talking about.

 

[bbsam]

Maybee ROADS is just supposed to help bring newbies up to speed.

 

[Cactus]

Maybee ROADS is just supposed to help bring newbies up to speed.

Then why don't they just use it for new hires? The system is so flawed and some of the people who implement the program are hopelessly lost, that it's just gonna confuse any newbies.

 

[bbsam]

Then why don't they just use it for new hires? The system is so flawed and some of the people who implement the program are hopelessly lost, that it's just gonna confuse any newbies.

Because over time the information entered by vetrans will be used to further tweak the program. It will continue to "learn".

 

[HomeDelivery]

On deliveries, I walk after 1 minute without a signature. "I'll be back when I can" works very well, and you usually only have to do it once. If you're good, you already know what I'm talking about.​

yeap, I whip out the Sorry, we missed you door tag & start filling it out as I say, "FedEx going once... FedEx going twice... GONE!" & slap the tag on the door

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Because over time the information entered by vetrans will be used to further tweak the program. It will continue to "learn".

​

that's just it, bbsam... some of these vets don't give the info to the dispatcher so they can tweak it to maximize the routes.

So when it comes time for me to cover their areas, i'll be out there up to 14 hours on some days. A smart dispatcher should reduce the load a bit to counteract the slower stops-per-on-road hour or at least have a common-sense trace of the area so i don't loop back to the same streets over & over in the same day.

Maybe ROADS is just supposed to help bring newbies up to speed.​

I think it's made so that anyone can jump in & do the route when the regular/vet driver calls out sick or quits. I've been doing that since 2006.

your division's program may be different because you'll have pickup deadlines & we don't... so you may need to have to loop back to certain areas in a given day. we just need to have every package in our vehicles accounted for by the end of the day

 

[Goldilocks]

ROADS (in any form) will never be a substitute for expert courier knowledge and experience. FedEx probably already knows that, but they are banking on the new lower cost employees to be good enough to make it cost-effective. You mentioned gate codes, location knowledge etc., which cannot be properly entered into software.

The really good couriers are the ones that know how to manage their customers, as in the courier is always in-charge of the situation instead of the customer. My customers know from Day 1 that I don't wait for pickups, and that if they ask me to that they'll be directed to a drop box or other FedEx location. On deliveries, I walk after 1 minute without a signature. "I'll be back when I can" works very well, and you usually only have to do it once. If you're good, you already know what I'm talking about.

Your OSS can enter all the specific information you have about your route. I do not like the maps at all.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Your OSS can enter all the specific information you have about your route. I do not like the maps at all.

Our PDS (package dispatch supervisor) can enter specifics, such as gate codes, entry codes, dogs, etc., about a delivery stop using CPAD (I don't know what that stands for). I also have a list taped to my bulkhead door of all entry codes on my area.

 

[MrFedEx]

Your OSS can enter all the specific information you have about your route. I do not like the maps at all.

Our OSS has never been able to get the current version of ROADS to operate correctly.

 

[MrFedEx]

Our PDS (package dispatch supervisor) can enter specifics, such as gate codes, entry codes, dogs, etc., about a delivery stop using CPAD (I don't know what that stands for). I also have a list taped to my bulkhead door of all entry codes on my area.

Not the same. How about knowing which customer will sign rapidly, alternate routes when there is an accident or construction, or who to avoid at certain stops?

 

[BoxDriver]

that's just it, bbsam... some of these vets don't give the info to the dispatcher so they can tweak it to maximize the routes.

So when it comes time for me to cover their areas, i'll be out there up to 14 hours on some days. A smart dispatcher should reduce the load a bit to counteract the slower stops-per-on-road hour or at least have a common-sense trace of the area so i don't loop back to the same streets over & over in the same day.

It's not dispatches job to reduce the load, it's the contractors. Dispatch would galdly move stops off a heavy route if the contractor had another route to move them too.

I have not tried to update my HD route in a long time. The system is screwed up beyond what reorganizing the route would do. Frequently I come in to find the computer has for some reason routed me to the other side of the county for a few stops then back to the other side where I start usually then loops back to where it started. Every time I ask why they have no clue. Don't even get me started on the turn by turns telling me to drive down roads that don't exist or not knowing of ones that have been there for years. Also there seems to be no way for them to fix misplots which is a huge problem on rural routes. I always have a few, but here have been days where close to 10% of my route has been plotted to the wrong street, which is usually 5-10 miles away. My favorite is when it misplots a good address in my area to a road in another zip code not even covered by my station. That zooms my overview map out to the point where it's useless.

 

[bbsam]

Not the same. How about knowing which customer will sign rapidly, alternate routes when there is an accident or construction, or who to avoid at certain stops?

That all comes in time. ROADS just drastically reduces the time spent trying to learn other facets. Nobody is saying it is perfect, just a tool to help bring folks up to speed.

 

[Mr. 7]

I've decided not to give OSS any more corrections about my rt. b/c I don't wanna work myself out of a job.
You all need to think about that.

 

[MrFedEx]

I've decided not to give OSS any more corrections about my rt. b/c I don't wanna work myself out of a job.
You all need to think about that.

You know, you could feed them intentionally bogus information. They'd never know the difference. I've have not met an engineer yet that wasn't clueless about what we do. For them, it's an abstract concept, and as long as it works on the spreadsheet, it's all good. This will be a major issue when FedEx depends even more heavily on the newer version of ROADS. They won't be able to get it right.

 

[59 Dano]

You know, you could feed them intentionally bogus information.

That's a really smart thing to do.

 

[HomeDelivery]

It's not dispatches job to reduce the load, it's the contractors. Dispatch would galdly move stops off a heavy route if the contractor had another route to move them too.

agree... so when a contractor knows my limits, he does divert some off of the cover drivers' routes to adjoining routes. But, if the contractor failed to notify management & i'm stuck with no help = 14 hour day!

I have not tried to update my HD route in a long time. The system is screwed up beyond what reorganizing the route would do. Frequently I come in to find the computer has for some reason routed me to the other side of the county for a few stops then back to the other side where I start usually then loops back to where it started. Every time I ask why they have no clue. Don't even get me started on the turn by turns telling me to drive down roads that don't exist or not knowing of ones that have been there for years. Also there seems to be no way for them to fix misplots which is a huge problem on rural routes. I always have a few, but here have been days where close to 10% of my route has been plotted to the wrong street, which is usually 5-10 miles away. My favorite is when it misplots a good address in my area to a road in another zip code not even covered by my station. That zooms my overview map out to the point where it's useless.

your management team sucks big time; over at the 2 HD terminals i work out of; they will move those misplots to the correct areas. The system sometimes will move them back, but it's caught again.

the zeroes are now also caught and plotted to the correct routes for the most part; i haven't seen a sequence zero for a few years now (with the exception of appointment deliveries). Thanks to my local management of having competent workers that know how to use the system

I had one misplot on my map that was 30 miles away (address was incorrect on the box). they re-open my route, deleted that package, then I re-close it so the maps can be viewable... not that hard to do.

 

[bbsam]

You know, you could feed them intentionally bogus information. They'd never know the difference. I've have not met an engineer yet that wasn't clueless about what we do. For them, it's an abstract concept, and as long as it works on the spreadsheet, it's all good. This will be a major issue when FedEx depends even more heavily on the newer version of ROADS. They won't be able to get it right.

It won't matter. You won't even know what information you are giving them. It will be over time, a year or more. Constant computations taking into consideration original plotting, time of delivery, variation from original trace etc.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

You know, you could feed them intentionally bogus information. They'd never know the difference. I've have not met an engineer yet that wasn't clueless about what we do. For them, it's an abstract concept, and as long as it works on the spreadsheet, it's all good. This will be a major issue when FedEx depends even more heavily on the newer version of ROADS. They won't be able to get it right.

Intentional lates, decreased production and now this? You are a real piece of work.