Focus courier

[!Retired!]

I've never heard of this but I'll tell you what, there are a few couriers in my building who may need a "focus route". Frankly I don't know how they continue to get away with what they are doing.

 

[Purple no more]

God I am going to sound old, but back in the day, it was "get it done, no matter what". Now what that has done is push the expectations so high that you can not meet those goals without getting "creative". Also, once you meet those goals, they are pushed higher. So where does it stop? Your guess is as good as mine...

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

God I am going to sound old, but back in the day, it was "get it done, no matter what". Now what that has done is push the expectations so high that you can not meet those goals without getting "creative". Also, once you meet those goals, they are pushed higher. So where does it stop? Your guess is as good as mine...

Where does it stop? When there is a major accident w/fatalities caused by someone's creativity.

Do you remember when Domino's promised 30 minute delivery or your order was free? Do you know why they stopped doing that? Too many accidents.

 

[Purple no more]

All I am saying is at some point you start to hit diminishing returns. The closer you get to 100 percent, the harder and more effort you have to put into getting there. And then once you hit it, then what?

 

[dex 84]

I've never heard of this but I'll tell you what, there are a few couriers in my building who may need a "focus route". Frankly I don't know how they continue to get away with what they are doing.

One guy has a downtown city route, just downtown mind you there are 2 other routes who cover other parts of the city, yet he makes a 10-11 hour day out of it everyday. But yet when a swing covers that route they barely make 7.5 hours

Yeah, they'll come in and say the downtown route is too busy and give some of his work to the other two routes, adding an hour to each of their days. He'll still roll in after 10-11 hours.

 

[outtatime]

All I am saying is at some point you start to hit diminishing returns. The closer you get to 100 percent, the harder and more effort you have to put into getting there. And then once you hit it, then what?

Management 101, always set goals higher than can actually be attained. The theory is that people will work to their best to get to that goal. Managers are happy with a 95% goal when they set them at 100%. If they set the goal at 90% they would only get an 85% out of people. That's why nothing really happens to couriers who don't hit 100% all the time.

 

[outtatime]

Yeah, they'll come in and say the downtown route is too busy and give some of his work to the other two routes, adding an hour to each of their days. He'll still roll in after 10-11 hours.

Those are the type of couriers (usually the topped out close to retirement) I despise. No matter how many stops they have, could be 80 or 100, they will still get done at the exact same time everyday just to get their 11 hours they want. I despise them because I'm the type who will go out with 120 stops and be done by 4pm (also following the rules/laws) but then get a message to go help the old-timer who's taking their sweet time. This is the same type who will complain before even leaving the building at 8am that they will have SOS lates with all the stops they have. Really....you can look into the future 7 hours and know you wont make 3pm commits? Common sense tells you to do straight SOS after P1 and lunch if that's the case.

 

[Purplepackage]

Yeah, they'll come in and say the downtown route is too busy and give some of his work to the other two routes, adding an hour to each of their days. He'll still roll in after 10-11 hours.

Yeah that's exactly right, the same people who always want help but would never help anyone else in a million years.

And if you want to talk about idiot management, our saturday manager asked for 14 routes on the road today, they let him have 11. A few routes left with 40 or more stops, I'm sure we had so many lates today it isn't even funny. But of course the senior manager knows best and he says it can be done with 11 routes

 

[fedupforsure]

i was a focus route for months just before the station sent our routs to the new super station. The last few weeks just before the split i had a check ride just about every week and met all standards but the senior mgr just wouldnt accept this. I was harassed constantly and finally went to the senior manager and told her that i was seriousley considering filing harassment charges on her she said to go ahead and call dist director and I said oh thats ok I have a lawyer already. she turned pale. It just so happened that a few years later just before I retired I hurt my back badly(my back had been hurt many times since 1985) and i could not even walk. I went on disability 2 weeks befor I was due to retire. They tried to cut off my disability because I had put in writing the date I was going to retire, on the day i had said I was going to retire(Never put in writing you retirement intentions)I went for 6 months without a penny of income and had to have back surgery due to the injury. I will never have to worry about money again people!!!!!!!!!!nuff said

 

[Cactus]

How about a focus manager process where we evaluate them as to their effectiveness and push them to be more productive and efficient?

Excellent suggestion.

 

[Cactus]

Yeah that's exactly right, the same people who always want help but would never help anyone else in a million years.

And if you want to talk about idiot management, our saturday manager asked for 14 routes on the road today, they let him have 11. A few routes left with 40 or more stops, I'm sure we had so many lates today it isn't even funny. But of course the senior manager knows best and he says it can be done with 11 routes

I'm sure there was either some kind of bonus in it for him or was just trying to look good on a report all at the cost of customer service and the couriers of course.

 

[outtatime]

Has anyone had the pleasure of a day when NO managers were in the station for the sort due to vacation/sick/required meeting? I have and I couldn't believe it was possible to get the sort down on time, all loops working together and everyone out of the building within a reasonable time. I just hope that never happens again....

 

[Purplepackage]

I'm sure there was either some kind of bonus in it for him or was just trying to look good on a report all at the cost of customer service and the couriers of course.

I wonder which report he wanted to look good on because I'm sure he showed up on a report for having mass sdr lates

 

[dezguy]

Has anyone had the pleasure of a day when NO managers were in the station for the sort due to vacation/sick/required meeting? I have and I couldn't believe it was possible to get the sort down on time, all loops working together and everyone out of the building within a reasonable time. I just hope that never happens again....

Used to happen quite a bit at one station I worked at. Unfortunately, that meant the senior couriers (Floating couriers in the U.S.) were in charge and most of them were power hungry and thought they had some ultimate power over the rest of us. Made for an interesting sort with a lot of shouting matches and swearing. BUT sorts did usually go down early. Not sure if it was worth it though.

 

[59 Dano]

BS... I was running well over 100% everyday and became a focus rte. nothing changed. same rte. same numbers

OK, I guess I was lying because they use it in the way I described only 99.9% of the time.

 

[59 Dano]

I've never heard of this but I'll tell you what, there are a few couriers in my building who may need a "focus route". Frankly I don't know how they continue to get away with what they are doing.

One guy has a downtown city route, just downtown mind you there are 2 other routes who cover other parts of the city, yet he makes a 10-11 hour day out of it everyday. But yet when a swing covers that route they barely make 7.5 hours

That's because the swings work through break and falsify everything because no courier would ever slack while on the road. That's the only reason that could possibly happen. Or so I've been told 98347598345793487 times here.

 

[59 Dano]

I'm sure there was either some kind of bonus in it for him or was just trying to look good on a report all at the cost of customer service and the couriers of course.

What report would that be? You seem to be the expert on these reports.

 

[59 Dano]

I wonder which report he wanted to look good on because I'm sure he showed up on a report for having mass sdr lates

There isn't one. Cactus heard someone else say something about reports and now he says it all the time, too. He doesn't know what it means or anything, but he likes the sound of it even though it doesn't make any sense.

 

[Cactus]

What report would that be? You seem to be the expert on these reports.

On road hours dumba$$

There isn't one. Cactus heard someone else say something about reports and now he says it all the time, too. He doesn't know what it means or anything, but he likes the sound of it even though it doesn't make any sense.

Oh so now there's no such thing as reports which is why managers talk about them all the time so they must be imaginary, just like you being a courier.

 

[59 Dano]

On road hours dumba$$

I see. So he cuts routes to look good on an onroad hours report. In turn, he would have massive service failures, and the first question his boss would ask is, "Why the hell did you obliterate service to save a few hours onroad???" and he would probably have a nice little performance reminder to sign, too.

You're really, really smart, Cactus. You really put a lot of thought into these things.

Oh so now there's no such thing as reports which is why managers talk about them all the time so they must be imaginary, just like you being a courier.

I never said that there weren't reports.