Calculated Gamble

[Covemastah]

Ever feel like the slave on a Roman Galley ship ????

 

[Covemastah]

ROW WELL LIVE LONG JUDAH BEN HUR !!!!!! [video=youtube;rfA371zhfHo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfA371zhfHo[/video] The I.E Dept. !!!!

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Ever feel like the slave on a Roman Galley ship ????

I would be the one asking "Are we there yet?"

 

[Jones]

It's all in how you work. On my rural route, I would sort my car after my last big bulk stop. I would my stops lined up in my head, and if I saw one of my out of town stops in town, I would give them their package. Save time. Then on the way home, I would take which ever route that would give my my miles back- BUT I WAS HEADING TOWARD THE CENTER. This gave me an avg of 7 tenths under every day.

I'm sure a lot of us have taken the long way home at some point, but if you get busted it's pretty indefensible. And these days that's an easy bust to make.

 

[whiskey]

UPS does not gamble. Gambling on property will get you fired.
By viewing the daily reports, you are allowing yourself to be brainwashed. However, brainwashing , in some instances, can be perceived as a positive action. Whatever floats your boat. Personally, unless the building is out of TP, I have no use for daily driver performance reports.
And after more than thirty years, I still think of myself as a team player.

 

[Old International]

Yup- Couldn't do it in todays world with the GPS tracking. That's why I went into feeders........

 

[soberups]

Of course, the math works exactly as you say. 9 drivers skipping lunch means one less driver on road than is necessary.

Then again, the math also works the other way. 9 drivers taking just 30 seconds more per stop than is required means one more driver on the road than is necessary.

I have never accused drivers of purposely slowing down. I know that some do, but the majority work hard.

Its funny how others just asume the opposite when it comes to the company and management.

The company has the tools (GPS, telematics, etc) to monitor a drivers performance down to the minute. A driver who fails to follow proper methods and wastes 30 seconds per stop will be followed and observed and ridden with, and if he fails to correct those methods he will be fired. In such an instance, UPS will solve the underlying problem.

But when a driver does follow the methods...and does do the job correctly....and is still overallowed due to a "flawed" allowance....the company will not solve the underlying problem.

"Accountability" that only goes in one direction is not accountability at all...it is corruption and dishonesty.

 

[AKCoverMan]

I don’t look at the numbers for any reason except to compare how I ran a particular route one day vs. how I ran it previously.

It’s obvious that some routes have correct time allotments and others do not. One thing that sticks out in particular is the fact that split car routes are impossible to come in scratch on. I am not sure but my guess is that the time study model has to do with a certain amount of time to get to and from area and then a certain amount of time for each mile driven “on area”. However on a split car, you often have several areas with big gaps between them. I think of it as “island hopping”. I do not work any differently on these routes and do my best to plan out my day to work efficiently but routinely come in nearly two hours over allowed while there are many bid routes I cover where I can come in near scratch every day.

So be it. Not my problem. I am going to worry about safety first, service second (yes I said “service”) and productivity third. I don’t care if it adds a little time to my day I am going to get businesses off the car as early in the day as possible, and I am going to shag misloads if at all realistic to deliver.

 

[dcdriver]

time studies are being done now so all drivers will run sratch.

 

[UpsguyDGAF]

My thought is that the Company wants us to basicly "Lie". When we do these things to help out our paid day, the company can always get us for Dishonesty,lying etc. They want us to be our own worst enemy, so at any time they can point the finger and the blame is ours. When I do Everytrhing by the book , Im usually about 2 hours over and get a talk the next morning. This from 10 years driving. Anyone agree or dissagree??

 

[menotyou]

Agree.

 

[TechGrrl]

ok, you seem to grasp the whole concept that there are flawed time studies and flawed dispatches,, problem is,the vast majority of drivers have to carry this burden,, really,, whose fault is it?? at what point is it okay for the drivers to have to deal with flawed system? You blame operations,, the dispatcher,, but the only person being penalized in the real world, not paper,, is the driver , on a side note,, as a bonus driver runner pro management person,, its getting bad,, real bad

Time studies are a statistical analysis of something that is variable on a daily basis. IF the time study was done on a route that doesn't really change much from day to day, the allowances would be 95% accurate. Even IF the exact same stops occurred day after day, there are still going to be variances due to traffic and other things. (receptionist not at desk, more COD's than usual, forklift not available at bulk stop, etc.) IE used to be pretty clear on the concept of "the time study is 95% accurate 95% of the time", which means +/- 15 minutes on an 8 hour day.

Unfortunately, it is apparent that all that real, statistical process control stuff seems to have evaporated in today's world. And I have no clue how accurate a "virtual time study" can be. I DO KNOW that a real, knowledgeable human being observing the driver and the reality of the driver's day makes a huge difference in accuracy. Too bad that seems to have been thrown under the bus.....

 

[soberups]

My thought is that the Company wants us to basicly "Lie". When we do these things to help out our paid day, the company can always get us for Dishonesty,lying etc. They want us to be our own worst enemy, so at any time they can point the finger and the blame is ours. When I do Everytrhing by the book , Im usually about 2 hours over and get a talk the next morning. This from 10 years driving. Anyone agree or dissagree??

A better analogy might be to say that the goal of any manager is to put his employees into a "lose-lose" situation. This is accomplished by placing expectations onto them that cannot possibly be met except by cutting corners. If they fail to meet those expectations...they are held responsible. If they live up to those expectations but get caught taking the shortcuts that made it possible in the first place....they are held responsible. The managers hands stay "clean" either way because as long as he can show on paper that "the employee has been instructed in the proper methods" then the blame for anything that goes wrong can be shifted onto that employee.

 

[dannyboy]

There is one item that has not been mentioned.

While I was doing cover work, I noticed several times that two people running the same route, with very close packages, stops, miles etc (less than 2% variance on items) would be as much as 45 minutes or more difference in over/under.

I realize that items such as O/70 etc factor in, but 45+ minutes?

So if all the measurable metrics are that close, how can the report say they are that different.

I really suspect the social security number (the driver) impacts the standards.

So "Sometimes it is the driver" might have more meaning that just the speed that is worked by either.

d

 

[packageguy]

Today, I go in the office with a driver, ojsed for 3 days. Average 165 a day 250 pieces average a day
, was over 1 hour 40 minutes. they said it was a 7.7 dispatch. So they dispatched him today at 190,
tell me how that is logic. P.S. I think he will be over today to.

 

[soberups]

Today, I go in the office with a driver, ojsed for 3 days. Average 165 a day 250 pieces average a day
, was over 1 hour 40 minutes. they said it was a 7.7 dispatch. So they dispatched him today at 190,
tell me how that is logic. P.S. I think he will be over today to.

The logic is actually quite simple. The company is counting upon the fact that a certain percentage of drivers will simply cave in to the production harassment and start working through their lunches and breaks in order to "make standard." UPS's entire business model is designed to maximize productivity by screwing as many people as possible out of their personal time through rigged time allowances. 9 skipped lunches equals one route eliminated, one less car on the road, one less fulltime employee with benefits on the payroll. On a nationwide basis we are talking about many millions of dollars per year. UPS may be admired as an "ethical" company in terms of how it deals with customers and other businesses, but in terms of the expectations it places upon its employees it is devoid of any ethics at all.

 

[Coldworld]

Something is seriously wrong if the route driver who knows where to go and isn't spending excess time taking to customers is over by 2 hours.....and I would guess 90% of the time it isn't the driver. When mgt goes out and can't find where the excess time has gone why isn't mgt then forced to go to ie and correct the time study. This whole thing has totally become out of hand. Why isn't anything being done about it..it's wrong on so many levels. I sometimes wish the union would reconize the time study because ups would have to open up their book of secrets and I would bet the bank there would be many issues with the time study system...

 

[Coldworld]

The logic is actually quite simple. The company is counting upon the fact that a certain percentage of drivers will simply cave in to the production harassment and start working through their lunches and breaks in order to "make standard." UPS's entire business model is designed to maximize productivity by screwing as many people as possible out of their personal time through rigged time allowances. 9 skipped lunches equals one route eliminated, one less car on the road, one less fulltime employee with benefits on the payroll. On a nationwide basis we are talking about many millions of dollars per year. UPS may be admired as an "ethical" company in terms of how it
deals with customers and other businesses, but in terms of the expectations it places upon its employees it is devoid of any ethics at all.

Your last sentence sums it all up perfectly....corporations are all the same and ups is no exception but what sets them apart from the rest is they are one of the worst on the ethics front.

 

[soberups]

Something is seriously wrong if the route driver who knows where to go and isn't spending excess time taking to customers is over by 2 hours.....and I would guess 90% of the time it isn't the driver. When mgt goes out and can't find where the excess time has gone why isn't mgt then forced to go to ie and correct the time study. This whole thing has totally become out of hand. Why isn't anything being done about it..it's wrong on so many levels. I sometimes wish the union would reconize the time study because ups would have to open up their book of secrets and I would bet the bank there would be many issues with the time study system...

The myth of "fairness" must be maintained at all costs. That is why it is against policy to ever correct a flawed timestudy. To correct a timestudy means admitting that it is flawed in the first place, and if you do that for one route it opens the door to having to do it for all of them which defeats the entire purpose of the timestudies to begin with...which is to create performance "standards" that are impossible to meet without working off of the clock. There is is nothing to be gained by having our union recognize a system of measurement that was never intended to be realistic in the first place.

 

[pretzel_man]

The myth of "fairness" must be maintained at all costs. That is why it is against policy to ever correct a flawed timestudy. To correct a timestudy means admitting that it is flawed in the first place, and if you do that for one route it opens the door to having to do it for all of them which defeats the entire purpose of the timestudies to begin with...which is to create performance "standards" that are impossible to meet without working off of the clock. There is is nothing to be gained by having our union recognize a system of measurement that was never intended to be realistic in the first place.

Or.....

The myth of "conspiricy" must be maintained at all costs.

That is why many don't recognize the countless variances put in to correct a improve timestudies. To recognize that, means means admitting that no systems are perfect which defeats the entire purpose of perpetuating the conspiracy theory....which is to create the illusion that a 50 year plan has been in place to force drivers to work off of the clock.

There is is nothing to be gained by having the union recognize a system of measurement that may actually point out performance issues.

I'm just saying....