Ah hell well I just got hired in the last week of part times before they shift primarily to seasonal hires in preparation for peak. Not reassuring to hear you say this as the reality for me being a loader haha.
It's all good either way. You might have better mgmt there who knows. Here are some pro-tips
-Dont get into the habit of turning around and putting things on the shelf so you can come back to it later. You'll forget our get sidetracked. If you don't have the time to put it on it's correct shelf, put it in the middle of the floor or stack out and get to it when you can/have some down time
-Memorize the shelf locations.
-Before you even step foot in the truck to put it on a shelf, verify the bay number. There's no point in having a well organized truck if 15 of the packages are going to a city that's 50 miles away from that drivers route
-If the box is large (use judgement), put it on the floor under where it would have went on the shelf up top or close to. Will draw you some diagrams once I get out of bed to help
-If youre loading a truck that has multiple large bulk stops everyday, make sure the driver can get to at least one of them to unload it as a group and start making room for the next one. Try to keep things close together and not all over the truck. Won't always be possible but just communicate that with the driver
-Look at your load chart that they give you every morning. Under "bulk stops", if it's bold and in italics, that means they have next day air pieces mixed in also. Put all next day air under the belt and let the driver decide what to do with it unless they communicate otherwise
-Learn to recognize next day air. Usually spa'd to the 1000 shelf but not always. If it has a 1P, Next Day Saver, etc, not important. If it has just a 1, or a 1+ (extremely important to always put 1+ in drivers seat or in the drivers cab on the floor if it's large), then try to separate it from the rest
-Dont cram rolls of carpet against the wall and then bury them with boxes. It may seem unintuitive but it's easier to find a roll of carpet out in the middle of the walkway and the driver won't have to fight it out through a mountain of irregs
If you do these things and do a fairly good job at them chances are your drivers will give you tips during peak season. I know we do anyways. We try to give good loaders an extra $100 a week cash tip during peak. Some give giftcards, others bring them breakfast. Some are stretched like financially so they may just say thanks. Whatever. Still got a good job with outstanding benefits