Cheating in the North Jersey district.

[Channahon]

Imagine a huge snowstorm in any part of the country. Then the region who has the overall perspective of moving packages, let the district know, Hub A, B or C etc. will not move any packages, due to roads being closed ( interstates) so, then the conference calls begin, the IE dept tells you what volume to expect, and based on the forecasted weather conditions: How many drivers do you think will make it to work, what roads will be open, etc.

So there you have a short synopsis of how to cut costs on a day where the weather may not make it feasible to put all routes on the street. If I remember right, Upstate NY was getting hammered recently will 36 inches of snow, now how can anyone make it to work - UPS or not UPS. Just my experience over the years.

It's not a matter of cooking the books, it's a matter of doing the best you can with the information provided. And just so you all know, these conference calls go on until all hours of the night for updates. So you may be at home, watching the snow come down, having some family time, perhaps an adult beverage, and the updates keep coming until the preload starts.

Now most of you will say, this is the price for being in mangement, and it is. However, the most gratifying part is getting as many package delivered on these types of weather conditions, as to not to have a snowball effect ( no pun intended) and get back to business as usual.

 

[Brown Dog]

Channahon, You sound like a good person who really cares about people and service. In my 28 yrs at UPS I met very few mgmt people like you. I'm not saying none, just very few. There have even been a few who were quite honorable and I had much respect for. BUT, they were in the minority. Most of my supervisers and managers were like what most of these posters are saying. Make it look good on paper, appease your superior, damn the truth. I was instructed several times this winter to sheet as "emergency condition" when it wasn't the case at all. Because of not enough routes leaving the building, some packages were sheeted as EC 3 and 4 consecutive days, mind you we were on the road every day for 9,10, 11 hours but some packages didn't get delivered until 4 days later. Maybe you had some control over your center, my manager does not, he does what the division mgr tells him to do,right or wrong, ethical or not. And for the most part we drivers, work as directed for 9-11 hours a day. I've met some very arrogant "bosses" who would just as soon throw you under a bus than have a pkg sheeted as "missed" even though that's exactly what they are-"missed"

 

[beentheredonethat]

In my 35 years I found out that if it was a heavy snow storm 10-20 inches, it was easier to deliver because so many people stayed home and were not out on the road. beentheredonethat: Where do you rate the safety of your people? I hope it is before the metric for on time delivery.

For a while now, I've been away from ops and don't have union folks reporting to me. So this question right now doesn't apply. When I was younger I didn't see the light on safety since it wasn't in culture. As I've gotten a littler more experienced and wiser. I've realized for a while now, that safety makes sense for two main reasons. One it's the right thing to do for our people. Two, it makes economic sense. An injured employee costs the company a huge amount of money, way more then savings a couple of clicks on a drivers performance. Run and gunners look good on paper, but eventually something happens and they either get in an accident or they hurt themselves which cost way more then that run and gunner saved the company. I know, many people won't believe me since I'm in mgmt. But that's the way it is.

 

[JustTired]

driver (on phone): I won't be in today.

sup: What?.....why not?

driver: Well let's see. Two foot of snow on ground. Call it "emergency conditions". After all, you called it "emergency conditions" when we got an inch of rain last summer. See you tomorrow.....weather permitting!

 

[beentheredonethat]

Imagine a huge snowstorm in any part of the country. Then the region who has the overall perspective of moving packages, let the district know, Hub A, B or C etc. will not move any packages, due to roads being closed ( interstates) so, then the conference calls begin, the IE dept tells you what volume to expect, and based on the forecasted weather conditions: How many drivers do you think will make it to work, what roads will be open, etc.

So there you have a short synopsis of how to cut costs on a day where the weather may not make it feasible to put all routes on the street. If I remember right, Upstate NY was getting hammered recently will 36 inches of snow, now how can anyone make it to work - UPS or not UPS. Just my experience over the years.

It's not a matter of cooking the books, it's a matter of doing the best you can with the information provided. And just so you all know, these conference calls go on until all hours of the night for updates. So you may be at home, watching the snow come down, having some family time, perhaps an adult beverage, and the updates keep coming until the preload starts.

Now most of you will say, this is the price for being in mangement, and it is. However, the most gratifying part is getting as many package delivered on these types of weather conditions, as to not to have a snowball effect ( no pun intended) and get back to business as usual.

No offense Channahon, but if there is issues across the country for example train derailment, then an exception scan can be applied to a whole trailer and all pkgs in it. If a train slowdown may effect the operation, then although I agree that we try to plan and we should you mention cost as the reason, and truthfully it is the reason. HOWEVER, that has nothing to do with service aspect. If we guess we need 30 drivers and we really needed 33 and because of the lack of drivers we have 300 pkgs that don't get delivered due to lack of drivers. IT's Missed, not EC. The EC may have been a piece of the reason of why we missed it, but the miss was due to lack of staffing and worrying more about cost then about service. Remember we are UPS, not UPC (United Parcel Cost).

 

[brownmonster]

If we gave the customers we have good service and honesty when we don't we wouldn't be bugged all the time to try and find new ones. When you give the service, the profits follow.

 

[mattwtrs]

beentheredonethat: Thank you for the honest reply. Last month when I retired the Div Mgr & I had a talk about safety first. Why did it take so long to attempt to turn the ship toward safety 1st? If being safe is cost effective why is there not resources( $$ & people) used to truely retrain the least best!

 

[Don'ttouchleavearea]

I left four years ago, seven years prior to retirement due to similar integrity issues. It is very difficult to compete when you are reporting honest numbers. Once you cross the line you destroy any credibility you have with your people.
Sadly when you cultivate an environment for cheating, everyone looses including this former manager and current shareholder.