Just knocked my first week as a Express swing driver out. Did a flex P2 route mid day and a pickup route after that all week. Did the pickup route blind and DRA helped a lot during deliveries even though I went away from it little. Worked 10-9 everyday this week. Coming from ground it's sure nice to get ot!
Good deal! I start soon and have to go through the whole two week defensive driving class and all before they turn me loose on the road. Sure ill learn all the terms and vocabulary as I go but what are P1's and P2's I keep hearing everyone on here mention? More time sensitive pickups and deliveries? I'm used to being on a time limitation route from experience with my last job, just assuming the P stops are supposed to be within a certain time. We'll have to keep in touch considering we're both starting around the same time in the same position.
P1 is before 1030 and p2 is everything after. Class wasn't as bad as I thought. We were getting done early a lot of days. Lucky for me I didn't have to travel as it was held in my city.
Not sure if your station has DRA but it is a big help for us new guys, especially being swing drivers. Basically when packages come in during the morning they get scanned and yellow sticker is placed on the package. That sticker has your route # and the stop # on it. You also get a manifest with the stops in order and they give you a map with all the stops circled with the number in which the system thinks you SHOULD run the route(Even I made a few changes lol). If you can read a map, you will be fine. The part it doesn't tell you is which doors to deliver too! My pickup route I did blind on Monday. I had a little bit of knowledge of the area but not a ton so they had another driver in the area who took a few stops. I think I did too good the first 2 days because by Wednesday I went from having 23 p2 deliveries to 47 today. I was a driver at ground for 4 years doing 100-130 stops daily and hitting 170-180 this last peak!
P1 is before 1030 at many locations, but 1200 in extended areas and 1630 in remote locations. I got yelled at by a customer last week because his SOS package (due by 1630 in that area) wasn't delivered until 1300. Apparently, the shipper told him it would be delivered by 1030.
At that point you write down the toll free number, hand it to them and tell them to enjoy the rest of their day.
Yes our branch has DRA. When you say it doesn't tell you which door to deliver to do you mean that it doesn't tell you back door, front door, dock, front of store, etc? I could see that wasting valuable time if your in a hurry and for instance, pull to the back of a grocery store only to be told to drive around and drop it off up front. Anyways, great thread, nice to see someone experiencing the same type of work I'm going into and sharing it with us.
Almost exactly what I did, I just pointed to the phone number on the side of the truck instead of writing it down.
It's not a matter if understanding DRA. It just doesn't make sense a lot of times. For instance, one day DRA told me to deliver a pkg in a strip shopping center, stop 2. Leave there and deliver a few stops elsewhere, stops 3-5, then COME BACK and deliver a package immediately next door, stop 6. You're a smart man, tell me, do you understand that?
Operational needs, we had this happen all the time at my last job delivering drinks. They may route you downtown for several stops then send you further and further away from town only to end your day back where you started! If I knew I could get them off and still hit my time stops I would usually get it off the truck while close by and that's only if I didn't have to climb through a dozen pallets 8' tall to get to it. We also had instances where other routes would overlap your own. I remember on several occasions waving at another driver across the street wondering wtf is he doing RIGHT THERE?! They couldn't have just have this one to him or vise versa? LoL They would route us from Atlanta and the person doing the routing had never even visited this state, so had no clue what the traffic is like or what door times were at specific locations. Such a ridiculous way of doing things.
Exactly! People are sensitive about little things like that. "That's supposed to go to this area or we don't take that up here." That's why I like residentials! Lol
I know I trust Ground to complete DRA when they cannot differentiate the words "if" and "of". You still have time to fix it...tick-tock!
I understand DRA being a tool and giving drivers the ability to use common sense. Especially if the scanner displays the next six stops or so, why be a slave to idiocy?
Good to hear MJ. I drove HD today just for something to do. They have all their deliveries in order in the scanner, and I really didn't deviate from it. But for all intents and purposes big "D" should have paid me time +1/2. However it was an easy cruise through Waukesha and it got me out of going with the wife to shop for shoes, get her hair and nails cut, etc...
DRA still need to be fine tuned. I find it does'nt catch all "ride alongs" (shipments going to the same stop but delivered by two different couriers). Many times I've gone to a P2 stop only to find a whole bunch of P1 letters delivered earlier by a different courier. So, right now it's not as efficient as they think it is. Same with Dex 3 shipments (Bad addr, no suite number, etc...) still showing up on your DRA next morning while it's still being researched; so its a stop that doesn't exist but its got you thinking it does. But you new couriers have it easy. All of us remembers having to route your whole truck before heading out when we first began, what a stress knowing clock's ticking away and mgr's on your back to get the heck out. But just remember we've all been there so after you get the hang of it you can laugh at the next new guy or gal.
