Brown OUT today!!!!!!

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fedxsux

Guest
Well looks like a few drivers were upset today. After a few weeks of over dispatching, it came to a head today. 18 sick calls! 5 routes sitting! They called in Supes from surrounding cities and they couldn't finish. I don't know how they couldn't cause with "edd" any so called joe blow of the street could do our job!!!
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over9five

Guest
But these weren't any Joe Blows.... These were supervisors!

(Note for next Friday: Have some Joe Blows standing by)
 
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proups

Guest
Is it overdispatching, or underperforming? Calling in really does the people that show up a lot of good.
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spidey

Guest
I understand the reasoning, but please remember their are other people affected when you do this sort of thing. The guy who needed parts to do his job this weekend isn't going to have them. Wedding and birthday gifts didn't arrive. I know when you have more work on your car than you can phyiscally do for the upteenth day in a row it's hard to remember that those packages on your car mean something to the people on your route, but they do. I hope that every one of those 18 drives has filed a recent grievence. If they just got huffy and took a long weekend they let their customers down.

Not saying I disagree, just that it's about much more than watching a center manager from another center trying to squeeze into his old browns (as entertaining as that might be...)
 
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over9five

Guest
"...when you do this sort of thing."

I hope you are talking to UPS management. Because you're right. Other people ARE affected when you over-dispatch to the point that your tired, overworked drivers are unable to work a fifth day. Could it be, perhaps, that Thursday night you go home with 45 hours in already?
 
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fedxsux

Guest
Let me first say I don't 100% agree with it but what are we suppose to do.

I know of at least 4 of the drivers already had 50 plus hours on thursday night.

We all understand about the customer needing their packages and we hate that they don't get them on time, but on that same note we have been on a 10 1/2 curfew and have been instructed to bring back stops. our loop alone at least 30 stops a day are brought back. It has been hot as hell 100+ for the last 3weeks and no reprieve from management. I talked to a ON-CAR and he knew it was coming..
 
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sendagain

Guest
The bad thing about this is the drivers who realize they're needed in their job, show up at work and find so many drivers aol that they have to take a split off another truck. That's what really happened, your fellow drivers took off and left you holding the bag.
 
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trickpony1

Guest
Think what would happen if every one actually stuck together and called in sick one Friday.
Think that would convey a message to management?
 
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ok2bclever

Guest
I am not saying I am supporting this move, but I can certainly empathize with drivers this frustrated and why.

Regarding letting down fellow drivers that did come in. . .

Nice try, although not a very original, management always uses this line as a guilt trip.

Not to mention it is a line a BS in this case.

If an entire center is being overworked and bringing back multiple stops per driver every day it wouldn't have had any effect on those drivers that chose to come in as it would just be another overdispatched day where they couldn't deliver everything.

Personally, I actually didn't mind the occasional ridiculously overdispatched day as I could admit to myself there was just no possible way to get it all done and could just relax and plug away till the hour I was supposed to stop and come back to the building in.

That was always much easier than the gut twisting inner turmoil days of trying to get it all done on just a heavy day.

Of course, running into this everyday has it's own pressure and frustration as this action by so many drivers is showing.

The true problem with this is management will probably just turn the screws even tighter with personal one on one pressure on those that called in rather than fixing the root cause.
 
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over9five

Guest
"...your fellow drivers took off and left you holding the bag."

Wow....My supervisor said the same thing. I believe it was constant over-dispatching that left us "holding the bag".
 
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dannyboy

Guest
While I dont support the "brown out", I co understand the reason behind it.

I, like so many drivers have "reached back" and pulled out days that I was slamed. It at times was part of the job, and two or four times a month could be expected.

Nowdays it is every day. Each day we are dispatched with stops that are over what should be placed on the truck. While I kow there are some drivers that are slackers, like some posters here would have us believe we all are, they are not in the majority.

I can and do respond do emergency conditions with my utmost best and give 120% or more.

But the saying goes true today just like it was years ago

LACK of proper planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.

So even though those boys with the calculators and slide rules say we should be able to deliver 60% more now than 5 years ago in the same time, sorry. What can be done under controled situations for one day is much more difficult to reproduce day after day out in the field.

Kinda like news blurbs. With enough editing, I could produce a blurb that has W saying he was lying about every one of the reasons we went to war in Iraq. While far from reality, it would seem that it had been said and done.

It is so funny how something as simple as time studies have evolved the way they have. And with a few strokes of the computer keyboard, time allowances can be cut at will to render the studies worthless.

So tell me why would UPS, who has allways bragged about having one of the hardest working people, want to show on the computer and on all the internal reports that we are too slow, lazy, under productive etc. Thoughts that too many management here on this board seem to want to echo.

I like so many here take personal pride each day to do the best we can. First for the customer to surpass any service that any one else can give. Then to the company to run the routes in the most economical way possible. And on some days that means deviating from the planned delivery loop. Then also, personal pride in working with the others in your loop and delivery group. When one driver needs to get in early, he takes the air in for the others, and they stay out making the deliveries. And pride in not having to be told what the job is. I dont have to be told what to do, heck Ive done it for 30 years. Just remove barriers from my route and turn me loose. If you supported us in this mannor, the stops would increase as would the pieces per stop. IF you allowed that pride to build FDX ground and DHL would be a distant memory like so many others.

It seems a sorry lot for those of us that fit that mold, for the company to attempt through all these means to take that pride away from us. To turn us into some non-thinking bots that are totally controled by those with computers.

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pd109

Guest
Thats all true dannyboy,and after reading tooners posts,getting tortured with obsessive expectations after 21 years as a pkg driver,its a sad day at UPS when upper management becomes complacent in the belief that their computer generated PAS numbers,are situated somewhere in the realm of reality.We dont have it here yet,I hope they wake up before we get it.
I can`t believe that the ones in charge know about the problem but are charging recklessly ahead ....in the name of technology...
Surely they visit the brown cafe` now and then.
 
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over9five

Guest
"Surely they visit the brown cafe` now and then."

Maybe, but we're such a very small percentage (BrownCafe posters) of the workforce, I'm sure they think we're just the bad apples.
 
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pretender

Guest
"Maybe, but we're such a very small percentage (BrownCafe posters) of the workforce, I'm sure they think we're just the bad apples."

Ever since I started visiting this site, I have been struck by the good attitudes of the people who post here--So much so, that I have to sometimes tone down my postings or not say anything at all. If management believes that there is just a bunch of bad apples here, then they truly do not have a clue...
 
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wily_old_vet

Guest
I just got off the chat room and someone in there asked if it was just their imagination or was the board getting very negative. I pointed out to that person that negativity is to be expected when the drivers are getting killed with hours in what is historically the slowest month of the year and the month that is also the hottest. I just recently retired and listening to the horror stories on here makes me glad I got out when I did. It also makes me reluctant to post because I'm not going through the hell that you are. I hope mgt. gets their head screwed on straight soon for your sakes.
 
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fedxsux

Guest
Here is one scenerio of one of the drivers that was fed-up........He has been doing his route for 2 years now. before PAS 148-155 was good for eight on paper(not worked), now 184 is good for eight on paper!!!!!!
It is ridiculous!!
After going round and round with management and bring stops back cause he couldn't finish in 10hrs they decided to go on a 3-day ride. Here was the outcome....

day 1= 164 stops was in at 9.54 hrs worked
day 2= 169 stops was in at 9.71 hrs worked
day 3= 157 stops was in at 9.22 hrs worked

the on-car said methods were great and recommended to use the driver side to enter the vehicle to save some steps and also said that this route shou;d be at tops 155... the next 3 days he was dispatched with 187, 179, and 184.
 
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sendagain6160

Guest
I can still remember the days when the drivers would come to work each morn and there would be some super attitudes and we had a lot of fun compairing our routes with each other and even helping each other with any problems. Now everyone is so over dispatched, there is a lot of negative attitudes when they walk in the door.What happened??PAS is a good tool, but it is a managers tool and not a drivers.UPS has been good for me and the family, but i see some tough days ahead and the dispatch, we are been told will only get worse.
 
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speeddemon

Guest
Im afraid that the accident and injury picture is going to start to suffer, especially during peak season.
 
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proups

Guest
"Im afraid that the accident and injury picture is going to start to suffer, especially during peak season."

I love that one too. Dispatch is the root of all evil. Call in sick because of a heavy day. Wreck a UPS vehicle - blame it on dispatch. Get injured - blame it on dispatch!

I agree with OK2 - if you can't possibly do it, then scan what is left as missed, and come back to the barn. Don't let it bother you to the point of not following methods.

In this post by fedxsux:
day 1= 164 stops was in at 9.54 hrs worked
day 2= 169 stops was in at 9.71 hrs worked
day 3= 157 stops was in at 9.22 hrs worked
If this driver was taking his hour lunch, and works in a compact area (two things I didn't see in his post - just making an assumption) then this driver was running 19 stops per hour. That is a normal stop per hour count in an area that is compact.

If the Sup that rode with him said he should only have 150 stops, then this driver, working at the same pace, would have less than an eight hour day subtracting the one hour lunch - do the math. Is that likely?
 
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dannyboy

Guest
So pro, then why did they dispatch with 175-190 stops after that? See this is what is so disturbing. You (management, not you personally) make statements that yes, methods were followed and the driver did a good job out on road. The max is 155 stops. then for the next three days there were 30 stops added above the max recomended? Why?

Oh and one more thing. As usual, your numbers are a bit off. He delivered sporh of 17.19, 17.40, 17.02 respectively with an average of 17.2, and not 19 like you posted. With three days that close together, it would be reasonable to expect the driver to run about 136 and plan an 8 hour day.

With the three days after they pushed him out the door with 11, 10.5, and 10.82 hours each day.

Why?
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(Message edited by dannyboy on August 14, 2005)

(Message edited by dannyboy on August 14, 2005)
 
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