Heavy forever bags?

[browncollar]

I'm an unloader on the safety committee in my hub. One of the recurring issues in the safety meetings is the weight of the forever bags we receive. The smalls belts in unload are at chest-height, so the bags have to be lifted up to get them on the belt. For some unloaders, they have to lift the bag out of their power zone.

Are other hub workers having the same problem? Are heavy forever bags a concern at other facilities? I'm trying to determine if ours is a unique situation and will greatly appreciate feedback.

 

[dannyboy]

What safe guards do you have in place to keep them from going over the 70 pound limits?


d

(Message edited by dannyboy on November 17, 2003)

 

[david]

Hello,
Overloaded bags are a problem for my hub as well. When smalls bagers are trying to keep up with the sorter, they tend to put as many packages in a bag as will fit. There is a lot of overhead involved with closeing a bag and opening a new ULD.
With the size of the forever bags, you can get a lot of weight sometimes. The old bags were sort of self limiting, when you got more then about 70 lbs in them, the bottom riped open!

 

[local804]

The supervisors want all the smalls in the bags everyday.When they do audits bi-weekly, they will ask why wasnt this parcel loaded in a foreverbag? To stay out of the UPS limelight, we all put anything and everything that looks like a small in the bags to keep from hearing the bs at 7:30 at night. If its screws or bolts or maybe even beads, we could give a rats because we are only doing as instructed.If there is a problem with the bags being to heavy, I think the suits backing off on what they call a small package would be a good idea.First it was less than 5 lbs, then it could be 10 lbs as long as it can fit through a hanger.Well sooner or later they will come up with a universal classification for a small package and we can prevent some injuries for our preloaders.Until that happens though, jam it in a small bag.

 

[over9five]

I have a company that I supply forever bags to. They put them on my car when I pick-up. When I get back to the building, its all I can do just to drag them off my car onto the belt. Never considered it might be a problem somewhere down the line. No ones ever said anything, but I will look into it.

 

[tieguy]

the smalls bag is a better way for the smaller package to travel. There will be less damages by using the forever bags. If you feel the bag is too heavy ask a sorter next to for a hand.

 

[pgraening]

Heavy forever bags. We get them, but only 2-3 to a feeder, most of the time maybe 3 or 4 trailers a night. Since most of the centers that send to our hub load the bags on the flaps, it's not a big deal. But forever bags, overfilled, under the flaps... not fun.

I forget the weight limit for smalls... eight pounds?

 

[feeder]

What I remembered when I worked inside, smalls are: envelopes and small packages(any box that you can put through the eye of a close hanger and weighs less than 5lbs.), anything other what I've mention is not a small.

 

[tieguy]

They have upped that size to 8 lbs anything you can hold in one hand.

 

[browncollar]

dannyboy:

As far as I know, there are none. I've unloaded some bags that have over-70 stickers or tape. The heaviest bag I have handled was at least 90 lbs. It took two of us to get it off the ground and even there we barely managed to get it on the belt. No sticker on that one.

The loaders at my hub are always making noise about the bags they get being too heavy. Our current solution is that they send the over-weight bags back to small-sort for rebagging. But of course that won't help us unloaders and debaggers.

If anyone's hub has any safeguards, I'd love to hear about it. Especially if you've got the Bullfrog system.

local804:

Do your sups also insist on forever bags being filled full? Would they be willing to let you put just six five-pounders in a bag? I'm curious here.

over9five:

Thanks a bunch. I appreciate your attitude.

pgraening:

Where are your smalls belts at? Do you have to lift bags to chest-level?

 

[pgraening]

Believe it or not, our smalls sort is incredibly out-dated. I'm not a sorter, but an unloader, but the belt that smalls bags that need to be sorted at our hub go onto is at about waist level. There are other belts above your head, and we do get bags that have to be sorted to them, but usually never the heavy ones.

One of the things we unloaders have talked about, is the fact that a lot of the heavy bags seem to come from the more automated hubs than our own. So the question is, is the difference between a more automated small sort, and our old-fashioned, person-filling-the-bag small sort a good one? When our small sort people are filling bags they're never overfilling them, because they still need to carry them six feet to a return belt. But in the newer hubs (our facility is nearing 50 years-and it's still standing) I would imagine everything is more automated. So, is the automation less sensitive to weight?

 

[local804]

Browncollar,
They do not say anything about filling the bags to the top. I am sure they will be happy with six five pound boxes in a bag.But one thing you have to understand,here in ELI district, we pick up an average of 200-500 per driver.If we were to put 5 or six in a bag, too much time would be lost on our hands and the preloads hands.

 

[brownmonster]

Company tried to get the drivers to use bags for picking up smalls instead of totes. No thanks. I do confess I put a little too much weight in the totes on occasion, but at least they have handles.

 

[pgraening]

On the topic of forever bags, has anyone else here scraped or cut themselves handling them? I had a nice little scratch on my cheek for about three days after the edge of a forever bag got me on the way out of a trailer.

 

[browncollar]

I have been told that the automated small-sorting system, the Bullfrog, puts no limit on the weight of bags. It fills them right to the top. Bags from hubs with the Bullfrog definitely tend to be quite heavy.

We have had several injuries in our hub, mostly minor, from forever bags. Hands get scratched and cut while opening them in debag, a couple of people have been hit in the eye when the top part of a nearly empty big flipped unexpectedly, and someone was cut to the bone when one of those synthetic strands snapped. They also tend to get caught in belts and, I have been told, occasionally catch fire when so trapped. But as tieguy said, they are cheap and do a much better job of protecting smalls. It would be extremely difficult to justify eliminating them, but perhaps there is a better design that might make them easier and safer to work with. I favor a more box-like shape.

 

[mb29577]

The one thing to keep in mind in filling up the RNC bags is that if one gets misloaded, all the pkgs in that bag get misloaded. If it came down to it, I'd rather have a misloaded bag with 25 pkgs in it than one with 50.

 

[browncollar]

Funny you should mention that, mb. My hub has a 25 piece limit for exactly that reason.

 

[Cementups]

I hate using the forever bags. I really prefer to use totes if possible.

 

[BrownTie]

In our facility, we provide gloves to our debaggers. As soon as their gloves are worned out, they can exchange them for new ones. If bags are too heavy, treat it like an over 70 and ask for help. Every facility I know has a safety program that involves both hourly and management committee. If bags are too heavy and unsafe, that committee would be the best place to voice out your concern.

 

[rod]

nothing like getting an eight year old thread going again