Damaged Packages Out of Control!

[soberups]

The reality is this; it is simply more profitable for UPS to ram an impossible amount of freight through an undersized and understaffed system and then cut a few checks to pay for the resulting damage. There isnt any point in even trying to prevent damages...just stuff 'em through the grinder and mop up the blood at the other end, we have to get the preload off the clock and the drivers out of the building.

 

[outamyway]

The reality is this; it is simply more profitable for UPS to ram an impossible amount of freight through an undersized and understaffed system and then cut a few checks to pay for the resulting damage. There isnt any point in even trying to prevent damages...just stuff 'em through the grinder and mop up the blood at the other end, we have to get the preload off the clock and the drivers out of the building.

then they pay for it by paying excessive overtime, contributed by bad loads and miss loads.

 

[JustTired]

Here's the problem.

A preload shift is allowed so much time to do the job. If they pay over that, the center gets dinged and the center manager catches it.

Damages show up as a charge to the center.....but can be disputed. They can say the incoming load was a mess and damaged before it got there. They can play the "blame game" with damages, but they can't blame another center or hub for their overallow on the preload (except in a few cases -late load, etc.).

All this chasing of numbers results in costs being shuffled around to other areas. Bottom line....a cost is a cost regardless of where it shows up on the reports. As a matter of fact, I would guess that the more shuffling that's done, the more costly it gets. For example: Instead of having a p/ter fix a damaged pkg, they load it out and force a driver to fix it before he delivers it (if he can). More costly? You bet!

But......it looks good on paper!

 

[feeder53]

Last week I received a package from DHL and one box was ripped open, and it looked like they loaded it with a snowblower. I checked it out for damage and it was OK....Am I a fan of receiving damaged packages...no, but stuff happens.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

One of the replies above said we should try to control damages at the source. I pickup at a MBE store and I had a pkg last week which just did not sound right when I picked it up, so I opened it and there were 6 birthday presents, all wrapped, sitting in the box. No packing material/peanuts/newspaper--nothing. Just 6 presents sitting in a box. I tactfully told them that I could not take the pkg but would be more than happy to pick it up the following day after they have had a chance to repack it. Actually, there are 2 of us who P/U at this MBE and the other driver will simply take whatever they put out there, load it in his pkg car, and is off to the next stop so it makes it that much harder on me when I give each pkg a quick once-over and refuse to P/U bad packs.

I also had a shipper try to send out a pkg using a box with hazmat markings that had been crossed out with a magic marker. When I told him that I couldn't accept the pkg due to the markings, his reply was "that's the same box they delivered it in". Again, tactfully told him I would be more than happy to pick it up the following day after he had a chance to repack it in a new box.

Finally, had another shipper who tried to send out a high value ($1,750) that had absolutely no packing material whatsoever. I think you know what my response was and where the pkg remained.

We are the first line of defense and while it is not easy and you will catch some grief it is to our benefit to do all that we can to keep these potential service failures out of the system.

 

[LKLND3380]

Right now I think I'd be some what content if preloaders would just stop loading opened packages. That would be a good start. Maybe if they can get that right we can start worrying about all of the other stuff I mentioned.

DON'T BLAME THE PRELOADERS... In my building, we are WORKING AS DIRECTED... Several times I have had a supe tell me to load a package and if it is damaged the reciever/shipper can file a claim...

I guess UPS figures it is a 50/50 and they are willing to bet no claim will be filed...

 

[LKLND3380]

Since our company seems to be in cost cutting mode, I believe more pressure is put on the unloaders and pre-loaders. I have seen pleanty of packages being thrown to save time. UPS seems to be saving a nickel and spending a dime.

Next to our time clock where the drivers have their PCM they would list the claims and one time I looked at the cost and thought: that is the price of a new Mercedes.

 

[Hangingon]

We've had so many damages being brought back center manager instituted a new policy. No drivers are allowed to sheet a pkg as damaged until they call the center and get an OK from a sup.
So now if we want to do the right thing and bring a package back to be rewrapped or checked, we need to call in, wasting our phone minutes, wait on hold for a sup to pick up, then explain over the phone what the package looks like and why we think it should be brought back. Or we can just leave it on the porch and walk away a bit more briskly then normal, and get credit for another stop when we return to pick it up on a damage CT.

 

[LKLND3380]

Recently, one of our PCM's was about preload not loading damaged pkgs. "They are not to load anything that appears to be damaged". HAH!!!!!!! That lasted all of 1 day. It was business back to normal the next day. LOL Damages and all. It doesn't help either when preload puts heavy pkgs on the top shelf and they fall off during the day and land on the small that is on the floor.

When you have a supe that does a check and says: you have pacakges loaded out of sequence. Those three 69lbs packages can go 3450 section on the top shelf.

Now chances are the shipper may have lied about the 69lbs weight but after the preloader and the Supe do a team lift to get those packages liploaded on the 3000 shelf.

 

[LKLND3380]

Our supes really only care about damaged packages at PCM. Like when I first started a supe gave a PCM about not loading damaged packages, then right after break he was splitting the belt and a 50 inch tv came down in a horribly molested box, it had holes instead of corners, there was no packing or styrofoam in it(it was in the box you buy it in so I know it started with packing), and to top it off the remote fell out when I pulled it off. It went right by him and he didn't pull it off to the clerk station. The front end supe probably tells them not to pull them off, when I cover the clerk station there are almost no packages for me to damage check or repack, until the drivers get on the clock and pull them out of their trucks. The front end doesn't apply O/70 tape to packages either. Last week I had an unmarked 140 lb box, about 1'x1'x3' with a tear around 3 sides of it, so the 2 halves were only being held together by 12 inches of cardboard. Had to stop the belt and tape it up so 140 lbs of whatever didn't fall drop onto the floor when i picked it up. I asked the supe why he didn't have an unloader spend a minute tapping it up rather than have the center shut down for a minute while a loader tapes it up, he looked at me like I was speaking french.

You are lucky he didn't write you up for not following proper methods. THE ONLY TIMES YOU STOP A BELT ARE: 1. BREAK A JAM, 2. MOVE A DIVERTER, 3. WALK THE BELT AT THE END END OF SORT...

We had a Preload Supe say he was going to fire the next person who stopped the belt...

 

[outamyway]

When you have a supe that does a check and says: you have pacakges loaded out of sequence. Those three 69lbs packages can go 3450 section on the top shelf.

Now chances are the shipper may have lied about the 69lbs weight but after the preloader and the Supe do a team lift to get those packages liploaded on the 3000 shelf.

So, they'll have to pay workers comp when the driver gets injured pulling it off the shelf.

 

[outamyway]

You are lucky he didn't write you up for not following proper methods. THE ONLY TIMES YOU STOP A BELT ARE: 1. BREAK A JAM, 2. MOVE A DIVERTER, 3. WALK THE BELT AT THE END END OF SORT...

We had a Preload Supe say he was going to fire the next person who stopped the belt...

So what about a leaker?

Hell, we had a guy at the end of one of our belts who used to stop it, then REVEARSE it, just to mess around with the splitters. This was a time when we has one part time sup for two belts and a preload load sup that was nowhere to be found, all day.

Aww, I don't miss that at all

 

[LKLND3380]

So what about a leaker?

Hell, we had a guy at the end of one of our belts who used to stop it, then REVEARSE it, just to mess around with the splitters. This was a time when we has one part time sup for two belts and a preload load sup that was nowhere to be found, all day.

Aww, I don't miss that at all

We had a leaking Haz Mat come down a slide and this was near the end of ground or in the middle of airs. Stopped the belt and but that does not stop all the belts in the building so the sort aisle keeps going and the unload keeps going. Eventually the sort aisle gets shut off but not the unload so the belt gets stacked...

Eventually the Center Manager comes to see why the belt is stopped... He calls the safety supe (no longer working at UPS) and directs her to remove the package. No protective gear the safety supe takes the package and places it off the belt next to the rear tire of a package car. Our two "hourly" designated responders work in the unload and it was left for them to place in a spill tray.

The belt starts back up and a three foot stack of comes down because they stacked out the belt in the back. Guess how much missed work went down the belt...

 

[Harley Rider]

We have been shorthanded in the last few weeks so I went in to help with the preload. I can't believe the way that the trailers are being loaded nowadays. I use to wonder how we got so many damages.......... not anymore. There were more crushed and mutilated packages than I could count.

Alot of these are due to faulty packing on the shippers part. Even more of them are due to the loaders part. Do they not care any more or are they having the packages come at them at such a rate that they cannot effectively load them?

I also think that the current pay rate of a new p/t loader has alot to do with the equation. It's hard to hire someone that will gives a crapola about anything when you are paying them 8.50 to 9.50 an hour for back braking work. Would I go in to unload or load a trailer unless I was basically making 42.00 an hour at time and a half? I think not.

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

Again....the source of the problem (customer counter and pickups) is where to solve this. If a damaged, or package likely to get damaged due to crappy packaging, makes it past those two points then its up to the loaders/unloaders to put a stop to them. Don't let them go any further until they are rewrapped. When a supervisor says "work as directed" so that you'll have to load that crap then remind them that loading damaged or opened packages isn't following the methods.

 

[paidslave]

Part timers are smashing the packages...Simple....Ever watch them unload your truck? Fire em........Hand to surface.......


It is the people who smash them. We are all to blame....


Next package you pick up show some care as if it was yours! If everyone did this packages might wind up at your door pristine!

Just like fed ex as you claim!~

 

[Boku41]

Our center now has us sheet up packages that are damaged as, 'missed', and in the remarks type in 'damage'. Is this standard procedure everywhere, or just in our center? We no longer have the 'other-damaged' option in our diad. By doing this, they no longer give us credit for a stop.

 

[dilligaf]

Our center now has us sheet up packages that are damaged as, 'missed', and in the remarks type in 'damage'. Is this standard procedure everywhere, or just in our center? We no longer have the 'other-damaged' option in our diad. By doing this, they no longer give us credit for a stop.

As far as I know we sheet stop as DAM and bring it back. Haven'y been told otherwise. LOL

 

[dilligaf]

Our center now has us sheet up packages that are damaged as, 'missed', and in the remarks type in 'damage'. Is this standard procedure everywhere, or just in our center? We no longer have the 'other-damaged' option in our diad. By doing this, they no longer give us credit for a stop.

As far as I know we sheet stop as DAM and bring it back. Haven't been told otherwise. LOL


OOPS DUPLICATE

 

[Forty6and2]

this morning when i was loading trucks, my p/t supervisor told me i had one misload on x car. she explained that the package was actually in the correct car, but the driver had called it in as damaged. she then explained to me that it made its way to the misload report because UPS was trying to blame the mistake on me- because i apparently loaded the package in the car when it was damaged.
she explained to me that from now on any type of missed revenue that they can blame on a preloader will count as a misload.
in my center, they aren't allowed to write up the preloaders for misloads anymore because we had too many of them who were about to lose their job over misloads. instead we have "documented talk withs" for every day that we have a misload.
i refused to sign this "documented talk with" sheet today- because
1...my opinion of a damaged box is going to differ from that of a driver.
2...how does UPS know that the driver didn't dump his load while on route and another box fell on the "damaged" box and the driver actually had damaged it and not me?