Dropboxes Now Take Ground?

[thom1842]

In our PCM today, we were told to start stocking our letterboxes with GSDs in addition to the usual 1DA and 2DA ASDs. Apparently people kept leaving ground in the boxes and now UPS has decided to allow ground to be shipped via a box. My manager said that all the boxes will have an early pick up by ground drivers and then the usual late pickup by us Air drivers.

I have read on here and heard from co-workers that if Air Drivers p/u ground they can get paid the ground driver rate, any word on if this changed with the new contract for UPS to get around it?

 

[Babagounj]

Here is how they get around it.
They will state that as air drivers you are the last pickup persons still on the road thus its legal for them to not pay you the higher rate. I do not about your area but here in NE we have been picking up grounds ( ARS, RS, and anything else dropped into the boxes ) for quite some time.
Except a few air drivers will just leave the non-airs in the bottom of the boxes until someone else bothers to grab them.

 

[currahee]

At least you have air drivers they did away with the one that used to pick up my boxes.

 

[over9five]

Here there are signs on the letter boxes that tell customers they can now leave ground in the box. Has been for some time now.

 

[over9five]

.......however, when you go to UPS.com:

"Note: Dimension restrictions apply. UPS 3 Day Select® and Ground service packages are not accepted at Drop Boxes (other than those sent via UPS Returns)."

 

[dilligaf]

.......however, when you go to UPS.com:

"Note: Dimension restrictions apply. UPS 3 Day Select® and Ground service packages are not accepted at Drop Boxes (other than those sent via UPS Returns)."

wow I don't know what you were reading, we were told and the only restrictions that are listed on the site you posted are dimensions, hazmat and hi value. Says nothing about 3day and ground service

 

[tieguy]

I think someone jumped the gun on the ground packages. we got an email pulling the ground in air boxes plan.

 

[brett636]

Here is how they get around it.
They will state that as air drivers you are the last pickup persons still on the road thus its legal for them to not pay you the higher rate. I do not about your area but here in NE we have been picking up grounds ( ARS, RS, and anything else dropped into the boxes ) for quite some time.
Except a few air drivers will just leave the non-airs in the bottom of the boxes until someone else bothers to grab them.

That reasoning is BS because then they can just leave you with a bunch of ground pickups, and since your the last person still on road why don't you make these ground deliveries too. I am an air driver and I am curious how the company will approach this. Before ground was picked up at the letter boxes using the reasoning that we cannot control what the customers put in the letter boxes. Now that they are encouraging it the game changes quite a bit. As an air driver should I just leave ground packages (except ARS, and RS packages) in the boxes for the day drivers to pickup? Or just pick them up and request ground pay for them?

 

[trplnkl]

Or just pick them up and request ground pay for them? File a grievance for the gound pay, a simple request will be stonewalled..

 

[IDoLessWorkThanMost]

yesterday air drivers were out sticking WILL ACCEPT GROUND PACKAGES IN THIS BOX stickers on the boxes.

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

When I was picking up letter boxes I never changed my pay code to a cover driver for picking up ground in letter boxes because UPS couldn't control what customers would put in them. The other air drivers and I would change our code to ground for picking up ground at the UPS store or other businesses though. That didn't last very long because every time an air driver does that it puts an extra full-time driver on a report. We all know that management doesn't like their reports to be screwed up. LOL! If UPS would have been advertising that it's ok to put ground in the drop boxes I would have been changing my code everytime.

 

[worldwide]

"All UPS service levels are accepted at UPS Drop Box locations."

 

[DS]

I have 2 letterboxes with a 6:00PM cutoff,so at that point I`ll take whatever they throw in it.Sometimes one is so full I have to use my knee to hold it shut or the combination wont work...then I put the mail and the fedex pkgs in the right boxes....another one I have is at a major auto manufucturing plant....they leave 70 lb boxes beside the LBX...no problem...

 

[trplnkl]

As far as I know, we don't have any air drivers picking up LBXes it's all done by regular drivers. We have been accepting GSD packages in the LBXes ever since they started the service.

 

[thom1842]

We just had stickers put on all our boxes that say "Ground Accepted at this box". The plan is for ground drivers to stop by the boxes sometime around 1600 and the Air Drivers to do their regular p/u times. I'm just curious if as an Air driver I should take the ground that will be in there, or leave it until tomorrow for the ground driver to p/u.
People at the air gateway are not happy about the change, and I can understand it. Our volume will go up and for a center with severe deadlines (plane departures) I wouldn't think they would want us filtering through all the ground.

 

[filthpig]

Why shouldn't drop boxes take ground packages?

 

[trplnkl]

Why shouldn't drop boxes take ground packages?

In some areas the people picking up the boxes are air only drivers that make a lower wage than regular ground/air drivers. If an air driver transports ground packages they are supposed to be paid at a higher rate and are counted on the daily operations report as an on road driver unlike the air driver.

hmmmm, I hope that all made sense.

 

[BigBrownSanta]

I wonder how long this will last after the grievances. Or how much NDA volume will be lost when those ground packages jam the letter boxes and people can't get their letters in the box.

 

[browniehound]

In some areas the people picking up the boxes are air only drivers that make a lower wage than regular ground/air drivers. If an air driver transports ground packages they are supposed to be paid at a higher rate and are counted on the daily operations report as an on road driver unlike the air driver.

hmmmm, I hope that all made sense.

Trplnkl,
That makes total sense! To me at least. People outside our organization might not "get it". I also think it hurts our reputation when an air driver tells a customer he can't take his grounds because "UPS will have to pay me a higher wage for the day and it will screw up the manager's numbers because it forces another route to be added to the numbers wether the driver makes 1 ground stop or 150.

Try explaining that to our customers when our company is based on service and not making certain numbers. We are talking about numbers that make absolutely no sense in this situation. Let's break it down.

The customer needs a ground pick-up at 8pm and it can only be made by an air driver because he is the only one working. If we want to be know for our excellent service than the center manager must allow the air driver to make the pick-up.

The manager is not really concerned that he will have to pay an extra $8 per hour for the day to the driver. What kills him is the fact the air route now becomes a ground route in his numbers, meaning on his operation report it shows an extra route for the day, when there really isn't.

This is where I laugh at UPS. The numbers "show" an extra route-meaning labor,fuel,wear and tear on the vehicle, benefits, etc. But the only thing hurting the bottom line would be the higher labor cost. The route was going out to make pick-ups to begin with. Now, it will be a tad less profitable because of labor cost. It won't, however, be as damaging as the operation report will show. Why UPS does this to themselves, I will never understand

 

[old levi's]

It's not the ground I'm worried about but rather the internationals. People will address a pkg. to France and drop it in the box. No documentation, no invoices, no international waybill. Nightmare.