How many trucks do you load?

WhatPCM

Insubordinator
I work in a small center in central NY. We only have one belt. During this time of year we have an average of maybe 38 areas running, maybe 40 on a Wednesday. Where I load is at the end of the building in a trailer that was added on for expansion about 10 years ago. Its cold it leaks it doesnt have a belt just metal rollers so i have to push everything down on my own(we call it the doghouse). But so anyway there are 5 slots for trucks on my side of the rollers. I usually have all spots full using them most everyday, but so they have cut back on the number of people on the preload. so now loaders on the moving belt are loading 4 instead of 3. Its a big mess everyday. Just wondered what some of the other loaders on here do during the morning.
 

Phil800101

Well-Known Member
I work in a doghouse at a center as well, except the one I am in is an actual add-on and it has a belt...still is small as hell though. We have an add-on to that, which we call the outhouse, which is even smaller and just has rollers. I load three trucks, with an average of 650-700 pieces dailly between the three of them.
 

1989

Well-Known Member
I would Usually have preloaders load about 800 to 1100 pcs a day in a 4 to 5 hour preload shift. Could be 2 to 5 trucks depending on the volume. If you loaded 2 industrial trucks you usually ran irregs too. Expected about 200-220 pph. Before pas
 
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westsideworma

Guest
I work in a small center in central NY. We only have one belt. During this time of year we have an average of maybe 38 areas running, maybe 40 on a Wednesday. Where I load is at the end of the building in a trailer that was added on for expansion about 10 years ago. Its cold it leaks it doesnt have a belt just metal rollers so i have to push everything down on my own(we call it the doghouse). But so anyway there are 5 slots for trucks on my side of the rollers. I usually have all spots full using them most everyday, but so they have cut back on the number of people on the preload. so now loaders on the moving belt are loading 4 instead of 3. Its a big mess everyday. Just wondered what some of the other loaders on here do during the morning.

yeah we've got a few of those running at our center in additon to a long skinny trailer with about 12 on each side. That on top of the 80 or so cars inside our hub as well. Needless to say we've outgrown our building.

Most people load 4 cars, but since its "light" right now many have 3. On the boxlines 4 is common, on the belt/roller to car areas its usually 3 (though one of our doghouses has 4 on each side).

When I was a loader the most I had was 5 during peak. 4 on the boxline dock and 1 on a set of rollers out in the middle bay....1300-1700 pieces daily, but surprisingly it wasn't that bad as we were given plenty of time then as opposed to now.

My last pick before going into management was 4 cars 1100-1200+ pieces which they wanted done in 4.5 hours then, now they want it done in 3.5...near impossible. I could do it 4 days a week, friday I was just worn out and didn't even bother busting my butt for it, it was never good enough anyway. I don't know how the new loader puts up with it. They're always yelling at him for stacking, but what else is he supposed to do? I mean I had to load at 270 an hour (which some days I could, most days I could not...tired, just didn't feel like it, etc) to wrap that pull, he would have to pull over 300 an hour to load it which is to say, impossible for loading package cars.
 
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westsideworma

Guest
I would Usually have preloaders load about 800 to 1100 pcs a day in a 4 to 5 hour preload shift. Could be 2 to 5 trucks depending on the volume. If you loaded 2 industrial trucks you usually ran irregs too. Expected about 200-220 pph

I wish thats how it was for us now, a 5 hour preload shift is a thing of the past for us (regardless of volume). We used to do it all the time though our manager insists otherwise (I have paystubs that prove it but why bother?). Now they want us to "motivate" our people to load at ridiculous speeds....and they wonder why we're having staffing issues creep up again.
 

looper804

Is it time to go home yet
I work in a doghouse at a center as well, except the one I am in is an actual add-on and it has a belt...still is small as hell though. We have an add-on to that, which we call the outhouse, which is even smaller and just has rollers. I load three trucks, with an average of 650-700 pieces dailly between the three of them.
Too funny,doghouse,outhouse what comes after that?
 

1989

Well-Known Member
I wish thats how it was for us now, a 5 hour preload shift is a thing of the past for us (regardless of volume). We used to do it all the time though our manager insists otherwise (I have paystubs that prove it but why bother?). Now they want us to "motivate" our people to load at ridiculous speeds....and they wonder why we're having staffing issues creep up again.


Back then, if the preloaders averaged 210 pph. as a center. (About 60 routes in each center.) We ran 90-94% effective. 5 or 6 misloads a day.
 

WhatPCM

Insubordinator
wow some of those numbers are just nuts. I the truck that i get is for the outlet mall. Most of the year they are super busy, 400-500 pieces a day. Right now its slow, but i cannot wait for it to pick back up again. I am way to OCD about the truck its a lot of fun to deal with. Everyone that is in my center hates working in the doghouse. I enjoy it, managment doesnt come down there that often they leave me alone. There is no button to shut the belt off so when i get backed up i have to walk up to the next area and shut it down.
 

HazMatMan

Well-Known Member
1st day on the job (1988) I was loading 4 pkg cars (p1000's) on a spur section (roller section) then it turned into 8 trucks, with help when I got blown out, during peak a makeshift wooden platform was added at the end of the line for 2 more trucks, once again, only got help when I got blown out. Accurate stop counts and proper loading methods were applied also..
 
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Mike Hawk

Well-Known Member
We just call it "the hole". It's sort of nice in that you don’t have to worry about a moving belt, but the downside is that you get more trucks to load, no under the belt space or space between trucks for irregs and no room to stack. It's also pretty cold in the morning and when you turn the heater on half the time it trips the breaker so you have no lights for 10 minutes while a supe comes down to resets the breaker and the lights take like 5 minutes to "warm up", also it leaks, a lot.

Could be worse though during peak we have this thing called a "Milwaukee table" that they put like 5 U-haul rental trucks on. It's a raised platform with rollers down the middle outside connected to the building by rollers, there’s a leaky roof over it too. That really sucks because when it rains the rain pools on the trucks then a gust of wind sends 5 gallons of water into your face, or if it snows there is snow blowing into the trucks.
 

Phil800101

Well-Known Member
We just call it "the hole". It's sort of nice in that you don’t have to worry about a moving belt, but the downside is that you get more trucks to load, no under the belt space or space between trucks for irregs and no room to stack. It's also pretty cold in the morning and when you turn the heater on half the time it trips the breaker so you have no lights for 10 minutes while a supe comes down to resets the breaker and the lights take like 5 minutes to "warm up", also it leaks, a lot.

Could be worse though during peak we have this thing called a "Milwaukee table" that they put like 5 U-haul rental trucks on. It's a raised platform with rollers down the middle outside connected to the building by rollers, there’s a leaky roof over it too. That really sucks because when it rains the rain pools on the trucks then a gust of wind sends 5 gallons of water into your face, or if it snows there is snow blowing into the trucks.

Our heater kept going out or barely working in the winter, making it absoultely freezing back where I work. Plus, rain and snow will drip, pour, or blow in. I have some limited under-belt space in my area, but the outhouse has none. Stack space is all but nonexistent...if I get irregs that are too big or a large special or something I usually have to take it outside. My one truck has several warehouses, chemical plants, and an oil refinery on it, so this occurs fairly often. When it's raining they'll give me a spare truck outside to throw the stuff in...sometimes.
 
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westsideworma

Guest
Back then, if the preloaders averaged 210 pph. as a center. (About 60 routes in each center.) We ran 90-94% effective. 5 or 6 misloads a day.

some of our new picks require you to load at 250+ to finish in the amount of time they want us wrapped now. Even if the sheets call for a plan of 5 hrs or more...that time isn't given. The volume for these picks hasn't really changed, the time frame has. Maybe thats just me but that seems excessive. Especially when they want everyone pulling all the PALs (doesn't take a lot of time, but it adds up over the course of the day). Our boxline is on fast all shift now not normal. Fast was previously used during the air sort because there is not as much volume. However its much harder to pull the "required" 5-7 packages out of each cage, when they're stuffed full all day. You have to admit its easier to sort optimum carries when you have more time at the cage. Not to mention the way the trucks are laid out now (well were, we cut routes now so at least this part has improved..for us anyway) you are in someone elses work area if you meet the cages at the head of your work area.

The boxline I'm on currently averages about 11-12,000 packages a day currently (used to do more, they've added more cars in PDCs, helps us a lot). One line does about 60% of it, the other does 40% On my line, we have about 0-3 a day, sometimes there are meltdowns (add cuts that weren't pulled etc, loader half asleep or otherwise conflicted). Generally, we do pretty well. They're looking for 1/2000 (misloads) this up form 1/1000 when PAS started.

I don't have a problem with the methods, I have problem with how they blindly believe they solve everything. I especially have a problem with a manager who "doesn't get the big picture" and pisses off all my loaders when he comes down the line. It took photo evidence to prove my point because I was sick of the BS. Its just sad it had to come to that. Oh well life goes on.
 

1989

Well-Known Member
some of our new picks require you to load at 250+ to finish in the amount of time they want us wrapped now. Even if the sheets call for a plan of 5 hrs or more...that time isn't given. The volume for these picks hasn't really changed, the time frame has. Maybe thats just me but that seems excessive. Especially when they want everyone pulling all the PALs (doesn't take a lot of time, but it adds up over the course of the day). Our boxline is on fast all shift now not normal. Fast was previously used during the air sort because there is not as much volume. However its much harder to pull the "required" 5-7 packages out of each cage, when they're stuffed full all day. You have to admit its easier to sort optimum carries when you have more time at the cage. Not to mention the way the trucks are laid out now (well were, we cut routes now so at least this part has improved..for us anyway) you are in someone elses work area if you meet the cages at the head of your work area.

The boxline I'm on currently averages about 11-12,000 packages a day currently (used to do more, they've added more cars in PDCs, helps us a lot). One line does about 60% of it, the other does 40% On my line, we have about 0-3 a day, sometimes there are meltdowns (add cuts that weren't pulled etc, loader half asleep or otherwise conflicted). Generally, we do pretty well. They're looking for 1/2000 (misloads) this up form 1/1000 when PAS started.

I don't have a problem with the methods, I have problem with how they blindly believe they solve everything. I especially have a problem with a manager who "doesn't get the big picture" and pisses off all my loaders when he comes down the line. It took photo evidence to prove my point because I was sick of the BS. Its just sad it had to come to that. Oh well life goes on.

I bet you love the downtime when you break and have to replace a pin too. One time we broke a pin and destroyed a bin. We had to take the bin off.
 
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