Have you heard of the Orion System, what do you know?

[soberups]

I agree completely it just gets so frustrating when you know how to run it. Then they tell you run it 85% then you run extra 10 miles. Then they say ok don"t run it by odo reduce the miles .So then you reduce the miles hit 69% trace then someone in atlanta says he has to hit 85% after you just proved it doesn't work. Then they'll tell you ok then just use your common sense.

Hopefully if my management team starts catching too much heat they will give me the phone number for the idiot in Atlanta so that I can discuss the issue of common sense with him personally. They could get in trouble if they told the idiot in Atlanta what a dumbschitt he is, whereas I cannot.

 

[didyousheetit]

So what happens if you just ignore the damn thing and do what you need to do to get the job done right?

I remember when PAS/EDD went in and they were bitching at us to run 85%, all I had to do was threaten to go into robot mode and run 100% and they shut up and let me do it the right way. Thats how its going to be for me with ORION too.

I had my edd set up the way I wanted it so running it 100%was no problem. As far as not using it and getting job done, if you run under allowed miles your probably ok, although i've seen where a driver would run 37 miles but run it in 67% trace. because he was delivering his res stops at their place of employment and still wanted him to get closer to 85%. I know makes no sense!

 

[didyousheetit]

I'm technically in feeders now, but do have the option to bump back into packages since my senority doesn't dovetail in till annual bid in May. So yes I have ran the route as little as two weeks ago. It's not my route any longer since I'm classified as a feeder driver.

Every plan they run on that route may not be the same, but it's close enough. I still run the same stuff in the morning I always have. My last air stop is usually up on a busy road with all business. At the north end of the route. It still brings me back down south after my last air stop. Not like it keeps me on the busy road where a majority of my business are. They are usually seq. 3000-4000 some on 5000. Orion doesn't have me run those shelves before the 1000-2000 sections.

Ill put it this way so maybe you can understand. By 2pm most of my 1000 - 5000 sections are done. I'm left with 6000 - 8000. I never have all my 1000 - 5000 shelf left late in the day. Orion still runs the bulk of the route 1000 - 8000.

When you talk about a sliding scale, I have no idea what the hell you are talking about. What the hell does it mean?

I'll find out tomorow what its called for sure it's on the ocs computer. I had a real stupid trace today they checked the trace importance scale. On the computer they can adjust the importance from 1 to 10,when they do this it will completely change how you are sequenced. For instance after my business today I started res in 7000 worked through 8000 while at the same time jumping in and out of the 6000. then after pickups all I had left was my 5000 shelf.But it actually came off nice this time thats the thing with this you never know what your getting

 

[728ups]

We have been informed our center is scheduled to go live with Orion in the fall. Of course it's being touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread...................................

I can only think back to the times when our center was being prepared for EDD/PAS and we were told our routes would be set up stop-for-stop............there would be no more mis loads as the pre loaders would know not only which truck to load the package but where on the truck the package went..................... heavy dispatches would be a thing if the past as the Center Team would know in the morning the true stop counts.................and we all know how THAT turned out

 

[Big Babooba]

We have been informed our center is scheduled to go live with Orion in the fall. Of course it's being touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread...................................

I can only think back to the times when our center was being prepared for EDD/PAS and we were told our routes would be set up stop-for-stop............there would be no more mis loads as the pre loaders would know not only which truck to load the package but where on the truck the package went..................... heavy dispatches would be a thing if the past as the Center Team would know in the morning the true stop counts.................and we all know how THAT turned out

My grandparents had a bakery. Their bread slicer was always breaking down........

 

[scratch]

My grandparents had a bakery. Their bread slicer was always breaking down........

Was the bread slicer you?

 

[Wally]

Shouldn't EDD be fixed first? When EDD was implemented, many drivers really didn't understand it, so stops are out of order to this day. Over the years, some sups have "changed things" even more and routes change. A "stop for stop" audit is needed.

I told my sup I could fix this, stop for stop, but he said no one has time to input the information.

 

[soberups]

Shouldn't EDD be fixed first? When EDD was implemented, many drivers really didn't understand it, so stops are out of order to this day. Over the years, some sups have "changed things" even more and routes change. A "stop for stop" audit is needed.

I told my sup I could fix this, stop for stop, but he said no one has time to input the information.

They are spending so much money on new paint and curtains and windows for their pretty house that they cant afford to fix the rotten, collapsing foundation.

At least it will look pretty, and thats whats important.

 

[Griff]

Long time friend of mine who works in the suburbs from here already gave me the lowdown on the orion system. According to what he said the center he works out of was one of the first in the nation to be the guinea pigs for this latest mensa project.

How it is intended to work
-- It uses algorithms to calculate the most efficient (less miles) way to do the route.
-- Make it so anybody can jump in the seat and run the route.
-- The driver has a goal of 85% effective daily trace.

How it works in the real word
-- It makes you run more miles. Most drivers can beat the projected mileage.
-- It does NOT recognize one-way streets properly.
-- It has you working unsafely.
1) If you follow it stop for stop, it has you using reverse 40+ times per day into driveways, etc.
2) Delivering to both sides of the street, regardless of traffic density.
3) It takes you through more dirty intersections, increasing chance for intersection accidents. This is mainly through altering your TO/RETURN area building route, they have you taking a direct line to your area instead of using existing highways. (side roads, back roads)
-- The system does not redo the SPA system in the way it shows it to be delivered in the board. So you could be told to start in your 5000 section at 10:30AM. Good luck finding your stuff when your middle aisle is packed to the ceiling!
-- It also does not take into account which stops are businesses and have certain close times. Especially if these businesses are located in odd areas near residential areas that get add/cut often. I was told from the source that UPS management response to these businesses is "we have to make a profit, just like you. If you want your stuff early, we have a service to have your stuff there by a commit time (for a fee)".
-- They are removing everything but RDR and RDL. Say goodbye to the days of keeping your business stops on FL1-4. They will now be located above that shelf, mixed in with your house stops because it "reduces selection time". $$$Cha-ching$$$

In closing, this is second hand from a personal friend of mine who has experienced it. Take it for what it's worth. I'll never have to worry about it because I work inside a major city.

It sounds almost laughably bad. Especially on the safety front with requesting drivers put the truck in reverse more than necessary. What happened to safety first and all that crap? I guess saving 3 miles per truck on paper is more important to Scotty.

 

[soberups]

It sounds almost laughably bad, especially on the safety front with requesting drivers put the truck in reverse more than necessary. What happened to safety first and all that crap? I guess saving 3 miles per truck on paper is more important to Scotty.

Its being implemented in my center as we speak. My route is scheduled to go live on it in a few weeks.

I'm probably going to wind up shutting it off (you can do that) and keeping my DIAD in standard EDD mode. Let them bitch about my complance %, I dont care. Any action I take to get off of one of their reports will simply cause me to show up on a different one. No matter what choices I make they still will wind up having something to bitch and whine about, so I will just focus on doing the job as safely and efficiently as possible. Its really not that hard to tune out the bitching, I've gotten pretty good at it over the last 25 yrs.

 

[serenity now]

Its being implemented in my center as we speak. My route is scheduled to go live on it in a few weeks.

I'm probably going to wind up shutting it off (you can do that) and keeping my DIAD in standard EDD mode. Let them bitch about my complance %, I dont care. Any action I take to get off of one of their reports will simply cause me to show up on a different one. No matter what choices I make they still will wind up having something to bitch and whine about, so I will just focus on doing the job as safely and efficiently as possible. Its really not that hard to tune out the bitching, I've gotten pretty good at it over the last 25 yrs.

marriage, or job, or both

 

[ibleedbrown]

what did you guys think of EDD before it came out? in your opinion has it helped or made your jobs harder?

 

[soberups]

what did you guys think of EDD before it came out? in your opinion has it helped or made your jobs harder?

PAS/EDD has made by job slightly easier because, in theory at least, I know what stops are in my truck and what shelf they are loaded on.

It has also made my job considerably harder because of the utterly incompetent manner in which my center was relooped. 5 years later, our PAS/EDD has basically become one big pile of patches, Band-Aids and work-arounds. The desperate and often asinine measures that the company takes to generate the Stops Per Car metric that IE demands pretty much negate the potential advantages of the PAS/EDD system as a whole.

Garbage in, garbage out.

 

[serenity now]

what did you guys think of EDD before it came out? in your opinion has it helped or made your jobs harder?

for me, the two biggest benefits of EDD are: knowing the pkg. count for each stop and being able to visualize sections of your route just by looking through the diad

 

[728ups]

what did you guys think of EDD before it came out? in your opinion has it helped or made your jobs harder?

we went on EDD/PAS in 06,and for the first couple of years it was pretty good. PDS would actually work with the driver to improve the loop,misloads were low and stop counts stayed the same as pre EDD/PAS.

about 4 years ago routes were cut daily ,add/cuts were put on the car with no rhyme or reason,stop counts went WAY up,the trucks have been bricked out daily,Misloads have gone thru the roof and PDS really cant be bothered to help/fix the routes as He is obsessed with the SPC metric. The good parts of EDD/PAS have been null and void since

 

[serenity now]

the first day i went live on EDD there was a young, gung ho, know-it-all riding with me * i got ready to leave the bldg. and dropped the diad in the bucket * he turned it around and said it locks in like that * i said i don't want it to lock in and besides, if that diad comes out of that bucket by itself, you and me have a lot bigger problem than EDD * we didn't get along

 

[brownmonster]

My favorite part of going on Pas was we went from an 820 start time to 855 or later. Brilliant. Any mile saved was negated by running in circles trying to get air off and then going back to cover the ground.

 

[didyousheetit]

Long time friend of mine who works in the suburbs from here already gave me the lowdown on the orion system. According to what he said the center he works out of was one of the first in the nation to be the guinea pigs for this latest mensa project.

How it is intended to work
-- It uses algorithms to calculate the most efficient (less miles) way to do the route.
-- Make it so anybody can jump in the seat and run the route.
-- The driver has a goal of 85% effective daily trace.

How it works in the real word
-- It makes you run more miles. Most drivers can beat the projected mileage.
-- It does NOT recognize one-way streets properly.
-- It has you working unsafely.
1) If you follow it stop for stop, it has you using reverse 40+ times per day into driveways, etc.
2) Delivering to both sides of the street, regardless of traffic density.
3) It takes you through more dirty intersections, increasing chance for intersection accidents. This is mainly through altering your TO/RETURN area building route, they have you taking a direct line to your area instead of using existing highways. (side roads, back roads)
-- The system does not redo the SPA system in the way it shows it to be delivered in the board. So you could be told to start in your 5000 section at 10:30AM. Good luck finding your stuff when your middle aisle is packed to the ceiling!
-- It also does not take into account which stops are businesses and have certain close times. Especially if these businesses are located in odd areas near residential areas that get add/cut often. I was told from the source that UPS management response to these businesses is "we have to make a profit, just like you. If you want your stuff early, we have a service to have your stuff there by a commit time (for a fee)".
-- They are removing everything but RDR and RDL. Say goodbye to the days of keeping your business stops on FL1-4. They will now be located above that shelf, mixed in with your house stops because it "reduces selection time". $$$Cha-ching$$$

In closing, this is second hand from a personal friend of mine who has experienced it. Take it for what it's worth. I'll never have to worry about it because I work inside a major city.

It sounds almost laughably bad. Especially on the safety front with requesting drivers put the truck in reverse more than necessary. What happened to safety first and all that crap? I guess saving 3 miles per truck on paper is more important to Scotty.

yep! that pretty much sums it up. however I was able to keep flr 1 through 4

 

[SWORDFISH]

Hey guys I haven't posted on here in a long time. I wanted to bring this old thread back to life to see if anyone actually likes this Orion system seems UPS has decided that it is the way to go for the company? From what I have read on this thread it seems that its going to cause management a lot of headaches because Im sure not going to be digging packages from shelf 5 out at the beginning of the day and If Im going to be made to do that well they will have to give me a lighter load because that takes time and the 9/5s pile up fast. Anyway Im curious of what people think.

 

[TheBrownGuy]

It is making me allot of overtime. UPS is making a sad mistake implementing this system before it was even close to being ready. The problem is that the too many arbitrary "goals" are fed into the program without weighting them properly. The result on my route is excess miles to an extreme. The program is not smart enough to properly adapt to changes between days, let alone adapt during the day. Any driver with a few months of experience on a route can easily beat ORION on miles. Even when ORION gets close to looping the route with a reasonable amount of miles it does so at an extreme cost to service (delivering metro pickups at the same time as picking up) and safety (walking across 55 MPH roads, tripping over bulk to deliver a boxes from shelf 7 in the AM etc.). It seems that the implimenters have a great deal of latitude on how closely ORION mirrors your old EDD (now called RDO). So don't believe the hype that it automatically finds the shortest path everday based on your stops.