Green Pickups are not a concern to drivers?

[soberups]

Drivers will not be disciplined for stop completing pickups in the 30 minute window while away from the actual pickup. We are told almost daily to stay within the compliance window. .

Ask your management team to put it in writing that you wont be disciplined for the dishonest act of hitting stop complete when you are away from the actual pickup. I have a feeling that you will get a bunch of double-talk and mumbo jumbo...but nothing on paper. Are you willing to gamble your career that your management team will back you up if Loss Prevention gets involved? At that point, their only concern will be to cover their own asses, not yours.

 

[helenofcalifornia]

Worldwide, is all your info about the price comparisons between UPS and Fedex ground accurate? My shippers keep telling me how much more expensive UPS is. Where can we get that info? And if you tell me talk to the sales guy then I am out of luck. He is about as remote and incognito as our business agent. Literally haven't seen either in months.

 

[Catatonic]

Hoax, it seems that we can save money by doing things more inefficiently, when it comes to issuing call tags. I'd think with all of the well educated folks we have working in the IT department, we could find one who could design and maintain our call tag programs. The shipping documents are a joke. Maybe they look good from a corporate office, but on the ground they are inefficient, revenue is overlooked as the call center no longer questions about additional handling or oversize issues, they fail to utilize the 1Z format, which should be part of every package in our system. When you figured the cost of using the shipping docs, did you figure the cost inside the hubs and centers where the packages could not be PAL'd? Did you figure the additional cost while the driver delivering the package strains to look for a shipping number which is not there? I'm sure it looked like a real good bargain, kind of like a lot of things we do. Heck, we could go back on paper and eliminate the cost of the DIAD.

I doubt if the cost analysis included lost efficiencies other than that of the driver at time of pickup. Everyone, including myself, questioned the degrading of the "Smart label" on the packages and recognized it as being a compromise and as "usual", the driver got stuck with dealing with the effects of this compromised label.

Another restored feature is the ability of the customer to pay for pickup charges using check or money order when the customer does have a computer generated smart label with 1Z. I received feedback during focus meetings with the call center agents during January - March 2008 that many of our customers complained about no longer being able to pay for pickup charges using a check.

 

[trplnkl]

<snip>
It's funny that I read a lot of comments on here about long days and wishing the days could be shorter. Along comes Smart Pickup that only requires a driver to go to a customer to pickup when they actually ship something. This will reduce part of the work day, yes? Isn't that what many people on this board have been asking for?
<snip>

Actually it will do nothing to reduce a drivers on road time. What it will do is give the driver more stops to deliver in the perceived "saved time" from this new service. If you don't already know this, you haven't been paying attention.

Ask your management team to put it in writing that you wont be disciplined for the dishonest act of hitting stop complete when you are away from the actual pickup. I have a feeling that you will get a bunch of double-talk and mumbo jumbo...but nothing on paper. Are you willing to gamble your career that your management team will back you up if Loss Prevention gets involved? At that point, their only concern will be to cover their own asses, not yours.

You've hit the nail on the head Hammer.

I doubt if the cost analysis included lost efficiencies other than that of the driver at time of pickup. Everyone, including myself, questioned the degrading of the "Smart label" on the packages and recognized it as being a compromise and as "usual", the driver got stuck with dealing with the effects of this compromised label.
<snip>

Of course they didn't include that in the analysis, it would hurt their chances of selling the new concept they wanted to promote.
Good for you and anyone that questioned this, I wonder what they used to defunk your questions.

 

[JustTired]

I'm all for saving money. But when it comes to some of the hairbrain schemes this company attempts, I tend to think of "Newtons Law". You know...."For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction".

Save a dollar here...expect to spend a dollar somewhere else. Achieve your numbers here.....numbers can't be met elsewhere. It's a shell game.

If you're going to achieve anything close to a realistic metric, you have to "get the big picture". Take into account what effect a specific action will have on everything (and everyone) else. I really don't think this happens in most cases.

 

[rushfan]

UPS, like many other companies, are scared to death about the cap & tax legislation. They are positioning themselves, so if the legislation is passed, they can say that UPS is in compliance with the cap and tax garbage.

Call me a denier, etc. I am a conservationist, yet I have never fallen for the "green" BS. It's not my religion.

 

[pretzel_man]

Actually it will do nothing to reduce a drivers on road time. What it will do is give the driver more stops to deliver in the perceived "saved time" from this new service. If you don't already know this, you haven't been paying attention.

If you have less pickups to make, should I not expect you to either come in earlier or get more stops?

I certainly understand that there are some circumstances where not all of the pickup time saved can be realized, but in general the eliminated pickup means should equate to reduced UPS cost.

If I add a pickup to you, I'm sure you would argue that it will take you more time. If I take one away....

P-Man

 

[some1else]

\Dusty, from what I have read here I know that you would do the right thing and take the package. You can simply add it to a later P/U stop.

upstate you are big on falsifying records arent you? if you pick-up a package a 123 elm street you record the pickup 123 elm street. why would you put it under someone elses p/u?

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

\Dusty, from what I have read here I know that you would do the right thing and take the package. You can simply add it to a later P/U stop.

upstate you are big on falsifying records arent you? if you pick-up a package a 123 elm street you record the pickup 123 elm street. why would you put it under someone elses p/u?

If you had bothered to read the thread up to this point you would have read that this stop only has a P/U on certain days. Dusty was making a delivery there on one of their non-P/U days and there was a prepaid sitting there. He was asking if we let the pkg sit there until one of their P/U days or do we do the right thing and take the pkg. I said that we take the pkg and simply add it to another P/U stop (probably one of my dropboxes) for the purposes of securing a scan and taking care of the customer. If you want to go to all of the trouble of creating an unscheduled P/U stop then go right ahead and knock yourself out. There is no falsification in what I am doing. The pkg was not one being shipped on their account number. It was probably an ARS or RS. Just take the damn pkg and add it another P/U stop.

You can really be a dick sometimes.

 

[dilligaf]

If you had bothered to read the thread up to this point you would have read that this stop only has a P/U on certain days. Dusty was making a delivery there on one of their non-P/U days and there was a prepaid sitting there. He was asking if we let the pkg sit there until one of their P/U days or do we do the right thing and take the pkg. I said that we take the pkg and simply add it to another P/U stop (probably one of my dropboxes) for the purposes of securing a scan and taking care of the customer. If you want to go to all of the trouble of creating an unscheduled P/U stop then go right ahead and knock yourself out. There is no falsification in what I am doing. The pkg was not one being shipped on their account number. It was probably an ARS or RS. Just take the damn pkg and add it another P/U stop.

You can really be a dick sometimes.

Why not just add it to the ARS counts? Why create an unscheduled or leave it for a letter box p/u? We get handed prepaids all the time, that is why we have a separate prepaid count.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Why not just add it to the ARS counts? Why create an unscheduled or leave it for a letter box p/u? We get handed prepaids all the time, that is why we have a separate prepaid count.

That works as well.

 

[worldwide]

Worldwide, is all your info about the price comparisons between UPS and Fedex ground accurate? My shippers keep telling me how much more expensive UPS is. Where can we get that info? And if you tell me talk to the sales guy then I am out of luck. He is about as remote and incognito as our business agent. Literally haven't seen either in months.

For daily pickup accounts, UPS Ground and Fedex Ground rates are EXACTLY the same rates from 1-70 lbs. Fedex Ground is $0.05 less per package over 70 lbs. Look at the rates online. The key is to make sure you are comparing DAILY rates. Customers often compare UPS Retail with Fedex daily rates. The big difference in 2010 will be the $10 for Smart Pickups vs. the $20 that Fedex Ground will charge for a daily pickup for small (under $75/week) accounts. UPS will gain more small business accounts from Fedex Ground because of this.

UPS Retail rates (i.e. The UPS Store and Customer Centers) are more expensive than Fedex Kinko's.

In 2010, UPS next day air rates will be 7% LOWER than Fedex Express (published rates).

 

[brownmonster]

Why not just add it to the ARS counts? Why create an unscheduled or leave it for a letter box p/u? We get handed prepaids all the time, that is why we have a separate prepaid count.

+1

 

[purplesky]

Ask your management team to put it in writing that you wont be disciplined for the dishonest act of hitting stop complete when you are away from the actual pickup. I have a feeling that you will get a bunch of double-talk and mumbo jumbo...but nothing on paper. Are you willing to gamble your career that your management team will back you up if Loss Prevention gets involved? At that point, their only concern will be to cover their own asses, not yours.

I have been instructed to do it for over a year. So yes I do have it in writing in my daily delivery and pickup records. On thousands of pickups nationwide customers are picked up on delivery and as you know we are not at the same spot at same time every single day. So it would be impossible to achieve this. I have atleast 4 pickups call my cell to let me know when they want their pickup and delivery. My center manager and team are fully aware and its common knowledge so no I am not worried. I dont care either way. Like I said missed commercial stops is the issue. We just dont have the time to break route 3 or 4 times a day. This new pickup setup could help me because I have mostly small occasional shippers so now i might just be notified by board if they have something. Before EDD routes ran on schedule but we have now trained alot of our customers to expect your delivery at the end of the day when we pick you up. At first they were angry but now they just joke about Fed EX getting there first and how they are delivering more and more stuff. Go Figure! I tell all to call my cell if you have a hot package so I can get it to you early.

 

[soberups]

I have been instructed to do it for over a year. So yes I do have it in writing in my daily delivery and pickup records. On thousands of pickups nationwide customers are picked up on delivery and as you know we are not at the same spot at same time every single day. So it would be impossible to achieve this. I have atleast 4 pickups call my cell to let me know when they want their pickup and delivery. My center manager and team are fully aware and its common knowledge so no I am not worried. I dont care either way. Like I said missed commercial stops is the issue. We just dont have the time to break route 3 or 4 times a day. .

Its not enough for you to just "write it down"...you need to have your management team sign and date something to the effect that they are instructing you to falsify your records. Your center manager and mgmnt team arent from Loss Prevention, and if the poop hits the fan and LP starts asking questions, they will throw you under the bus in a heartbeat in order to cover their own asses.

You are 100% correct that it "would be impossible to achieve" the pickup compliance time they are after. Unfortunately, by falsifying your pickup records you are enabling the company to live in a state of denial about this fact, thereby perpetuating the problem rather than forcing them to actually solve it.

As far as "not having time to break route 3 or 4 times a day" to make service on commercial stops...if the company places this expectation upon you then it is their responsibility to make the time available...by hiring additional drivers if needed. If they dont want to hire extra help, then they simply need to adjust their expectations accordingly. Its not rocket science.

You have the best of intentions. Unfortunately, your actions are counterproductive. What you are doing is no different than a doctor taking white-out to the X-rays in order to hide a tumour and avoid having to give his patient the bad news. By hiding the problem you prevent it from ever being fixed.

 

[purplesky]

Its not enough for you to just "write it down"...you need to have your management team sign and date something to the effect that they are instructing you to falsify your records. Your center manager and mgmnt team arent from Loss Prevention, and if the poop hits the fan and LP starts asking questions, they will throw you under the bus in a heartbeat in order to cover their own asses.

You are 100% correct that it "would be impossible to achieve" the pickup compliance time they are after. Unfortunately, by falsifying your pickup records you are enabling the company to live in a state of denial about this fact, thereby perpetuating the problem rather than forcing them to actually solve it.

As far as "not having time to break route 3 or 4 times a day" to make service on commercial stops...if the company places this expectation upon you then it is their responsibility to make the time available...by hiring additional drivers if needed. If they dont want to hire extra help, then they simply need to adjust their expectations accordingly. Its not rocket science.

You have the best of intentions. Unfortunately, your actions are counterproductive. What you are doing is no different than a doctor taking white-out to the X-rays in order to hide a tumour and avoid having to give his patient the bad news. By hiding the problem you prevent it from ever being fixed.

Lets go ahead and close this subject. Like I said I have been performing my job this way for over a year because I am instructed to do so. Loss prevention is well aware of this scenario as they are in daily contact with my center manager. Back in the day we had split cars so that would help with your rocket science stuff but on earth UPS IS NOT ADDING DRIVERS. IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE SPLIT CARS AGAIN BUT I JUST DONT SEE IT. IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE AIR DRIVERS AGAIN BUT THOSE DAYS ARE LONG GONE. My actions are all about service. You have to go with the flow at UPS and thats my philosophy. If they want to mess with me they will regardless of this issue.

 

[soberups]

Back in the day we had split cars so that would help with your rocket science stuff but on earth UPS IS NOT ADDING DRIVERS. IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE SPLIT CARS AGAIN BUT I JUST DONT SEE IT. IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE AIR DRIVERS AGAIN BUT THOSE DAYS ARE LONG GONE.

Its not rocket science. Its called honesty, and its real simple.

You are right about the split cars and air drivers never coming back...as long as there are enough people who are willing to falsify records to hide the need for them.

You are concealing the problem, therefore it will never get fixed.

Peace.

 

[DS]

Brownie:

Please, please, properly record pickups at the time you are at the stop.
I do this


In essence, if drivers really tried to get to every pickup within a 30 or 60 minute window, we will greatly increase time and miles. When a driver misrecords the pickup time, corporate thinks they can have their number without the additional cost.
tell them to follow me


There are core accounts that should have pickups at a designated pickup time. They should be monitored for compliance.
thats why its smart to input every unsceduled pickup

There are on area pickups that should be monitored to see they are picked up on trace only.
this is a no brainer with gps

There are normal customers that just need a pickup after 2:30 and before their close time.
this is true

UPS stores need a pickup 30 minutes before close time.
Wrong...ups stores need to be open till 6:30 every night
and have an empty p1000 there if necessary

Finally, drop boxes need to be picked up anytime after the scheduled pickup time.
how is this even an issue?


P-Man

 

[some1else]

//There is no falsification in what I am doing. The pkg was not one being shipped on their account number. It was probably an ARS or RS. Just take the damn pkg and add it another P/U stop.
//
obviously ars goes into that spcl count screen. the op was asking if the customer with a fri only p/u had a package ready to ship earlier in the week what to do; it was implied it was generated through the shippers account.

claiming you picked up a pkg somewhere you didnt (letterbox or another account) is the definition of falsifying records btw. and yes you do seem to go out of your way to do so...

 

[purplesky]

Its not rocket science. Its called honesty, and its real simple.

You are right about the split cars and air drivers never coming back...as long as there are enough people who are willing to falsify records to hide the need for them.

You are concealing the problem, therefore it will never get fixed.

Peace.

Man you are really blowing this out of proportion. Do you think it makes sense to send out another route with just 10 stops so I can go drive to a shipper that doesnt need their pickup everyday in the 30 min window. No ofcourse not.