I Did'nt Get Off Before 8 O' clock

[outta hours]

All peak long. Ok the early drivers have their 6 o clock thread this one is for the rest of us. I'll start, our center did a horrible job planning for peak. Not enough trucks, drivers, DIADS, or helpers. Don't ask me how a company that's only service offered is to deliver or pickup pkgs. could not have enough trucks to do so. But mine managed to do just that. It's our first peak on PAS so maybe they had better performance expectations for us, but the dispatch was horrible. We had many drivers including myself that worked over 12 hrs. most days. And this started Nov.1st. I would post a pic of my truck's load but the quality is poor due to the lack of lighting since it was full from front to back and no light could get through from the bulkhead to the back door.

 

[wadep]

It was the same way here in Edmonton. Mind you it has been this way since early September. We are in a building designed to handle between 10 and 12 thousand packages a day. In Sept, we where processing 25 a day , and one day during peak we hit 40.
We have every rental van, 1 ton, and 5 ton the city have to offer. U.P.S. has spent countless MILLIONS of dollars flying in, hoteling, and feeding drivers from throughout Canada, ust to help us get through this.

 

[trplnkl]

Geeez this sounds just what was happening here also. I agree that possibly they expected things to go better because of PAS. However that was NOT the situation. We had several extra cars that ran cuts from the regulars, I rotated on three different runs. Each one had stops from at least 3 separate areas. PAS had me running the stops in a pattern that you could use moves from a checker game to follow. Friday I was in one of the new P57s, sections one and two were empty with 170 packages crammed into the rest and the middle of the floor. Yep, wees gots geenyacis runnin our place.

 

[The Brown Santa]

Not enough rentals here, not enough diads, coupled with a pretty substantial snow storm just made everything wonderful! I would tell myself every morning not to get demoralized because that's what they want. Instead, I paced myself, worked safely, took my hour lunch, and grabbed all that time and a half.

 

[trplnkl]

oh yeah, we had lots of helpers for the intown drivers. The helpers we either on diad1s or on paper. Here the helps are set out on the street with a push cart with 20 to 30 stops, the driver then runs off businesses for an hour, comes back and gives the helper more stops, ...repeat the process over and over.
Wanna know what a shotgun being chambered in the dark sounds like?
We had rural rt drivers pulling into long driveways at farm and ranch houses at 9pm in rental trucks.

 

[old brown shoe]

Each day I come to work knowing that you can only work 12 hrs. a day and 60 a week. This time of year the hours go up but after working long hours the rest of the year it doesn't seem like that much more. The weather and bad roads can make peak a whole lot more grueling than the extra hours and can add allot more time to your day. This is our time of year to shine and hopefully get all the packages delivered on time and in one piece. I realize they took service out of our name but it is the only thing we provide. The last day before Christmas has always been my favorite. When you pull up in front of someones house and they are thinking that their package may not make it .To see all the little kids bouncing around when you come up the sidewalk with a package. Most everyone greats you with smiles and are so glad you made it in time. It's hard work but it comes with the job. It bugs me more in the summer to work the long hours when there is so much to do and it is still light out.

 

[edd_tv]

i joined the not off before 8 club this year. same stories as above too many cheifs and not enough indians. that did seem to make my day friday when my last stop was to an elderly lady who was recieving a gift from her grandson stationed overseas. to see her reaction after waiting all day on this pkg and giving up thinking it would come was priceless. made a really crappy day less crappy.

 

[DorkHead]

Normal for me this peak also. But I also noticed that I didn`t see the Fedex green truck hardly at all in my area this peak. But then again I was 1 hr to 1.5 hrs. behind in my normal deeliveries. Maybe I just missed them. Note, I did see the Fedex red driver one day and he complained to me he had 160 pkgs. in his van. I opened the overhead door of my truck and his jaw fell open. The look on his face was priceless. I think I made his day much better.

 

[Dirty Savage]

U.P.S. has spent countless MILLIONS of dollars flying in, hoteling, and feeding drivers from throughout Canada, ust to help us get through this.

Gotta love UPS Alberta!

For my own experience, this being my fourth peak season, well, it really was the worst, Jerry, THE WORST! Thinking about it in terms of the shenanigans at my own centre, I think peak was a disaster for us because:

1. The Canadian dollar trading at parity since the beginning of November. Winters are brutal here on the Canadian prairie and people like to stay at home and surf the internet looking for deals. And boy, did they find them. I mean, I can literally count on one hand the number of packages I delivered this peak that were obviously Xmas gifts. The rest was just the same old crap, computer and automobile parts, health-food junk, etc.

2. As always, there was an issue with staff shortage. We hired two guys in October and one quit after a couple of weeks. Ok, that's fine. This month, though, we had one veteran driver leave to explore better career opportunities, one guy's wife passed away from a long fight with cancer, and another guy got sent to another city desperate for help. So three vets off the road during peak.

I mean, morale was the lowest I've seen it in four years. All of us stopped caring about what happened during the day. Delivering EAM's at 4:30 in the afternoon? Gee, sir, you're lucky you're getting it AT ALL! I mean, today, Xmas eve, was the first day in the entire month that I didn't have any late air. I worked three Saturdays in a row and, here's the best statistic . . . for the week ending December 14th, I was paid for a total of 67 hours! I know damned well that we violated Canadian labour laws with these insane hours. Last year our sup sent us the message every day that no one was to work over 12 hours. Not so this year. I just made it my own personal choice to refuse to work past 13 hours a day, and at 6:45 every night I would just stop what I was doing and go home. Last year I had three missed packages for the entire duration of peak. This year I had hundreds! I really found it hard to believe that UPS even made any money this year, with the wages running rampant and all the service failures and such. Poor planning on their part?

You betcha!

 

[UPSycho]

Heck Peak hasn't stopped in Texas since last peak

All peak long. Ok the early drivers have their 6 o clock thread this one is for the rest of us. I'll start, our center did a horrible job planning for peak. Not enough trucks, drivers, DIADS, or helpers. Don't ask me how a company that's only service offered is to deliver or pickup pkgs. could not have enough trucks to do so. But mine managed to do just that. It's our first peak on PAS so maybe they had better performance expectations for us, but the dispatch was horrible. We had many drivers including myself that worked over 12 hrs. most days. And this started Nov.1st. I would post a pic of my truck's load but the quality is poor due to the lack of lighting since it was full from front to back and no light could get through from the bulkhead to the back door.

 

[dannyboy]

Latest I ever worked on christmas eve was a return time of 12:30+. That one was before diads and cells. Sent me out after cutting all the nearby routes, crammed three routes on a 1000, much of it rural. Center manager, delivery sup were waiting on me when I got in. They did not have much nice to say. Went through the send agains to see if they could find one that I did not attempt. hehehe, fools.

Many other drivers got in under 8 that day.

Many others christmas eves I have worked to 11 or so.

As has been mentioned, keeping drivers out late during peak is to be expected. But not working 60 hours all year long because someone wants to look good on paper.

d