comparing uk to us operations

[jamesdowninguk]

joined brown cafe to see what life working for the big brown machine is like in the USA, AND TO MEET AND CHAT TO FELLOW UPSers. Peak period is in full swing and we're run ragged. Freight is turning up late and we're all expected to deliver the same amount in less time. I drive 1 1/2 hours to area and then have to deliver 80 deliveries then collections then same back.
Long day yes, tiring yes, job satisfaction, most of the time.

please post comments to this

many thanks

up the hammers (thats west ham united fc)

james

 

[Failure Boy]

I drive 1 1/2 hours to area

Damn, are you kidding ?!?
I can't imagine that much of a drive here in France, except in remote mountain areas...

What brand of package cars do you guys drive ?

 

[Tiny Panda]

Before the Lynx integration i had close to an hour and half drive to my area (52 miles), since then the Lynx depot near us closed and we took their volume and therefore lost one postcode are to another depot. Now i have a 30 mins drive on a good day and do 40-50 more drops.

One thing that annoys me is that we aren't allowed to leave any packages without signature unless authorised by the centre of the shipper unlike the US where almost every residential package is released without sig. If we had this then the drivers could get soo much more done instead we waste so much time trying neighbours etc. I guess the problem is here that UPS isnt that well known still with people outside of big businesses, you go out to the residential parts of town and i might have 2 dels for the same street whereas in the US that would 8-10 on almost every street. I can drive out to one village and do one delivery and that might take 20-30 mins

 

[Failure Boy]

One thing that annoys me is that we aren't allowed to leave any packages without signature unless authorised by the centre of the shipper unlike the US where almost every residential package is released without sig.

It started out like 2 or 3 months ago in France and, damn, it's good !!!
I did 4 driver release stops today...
We made bootleg copies of "postman keys" so now, we can open mail boxes, put the parcel in & get the hell out...
Really cool.

Which area of UK do you deliver ? Do you drive from the Tamworth hub ?

Just to know...