Instructed to call customer? What?

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
Slippery slope. If you tend to have lunch in the same area or same place every day, the customer will think it's ok to find you every day on lunch and have you go walk out to the truck every day. I love my hour lunch.
One of my customers is a veteran who sometimes comes looking for me if he wasn't home or couldn't come to the door when I tried to deliver his NDA meds from the VA. He left a big chunk of his leg behind in Iraq. So if I see his car pull in to where I'm eating...I walk out to the truck and give him his package.
 

dookie stain

Cornfed whiteboy
ImageUploadedByBrownCafe1458369126.110745.jpg
this :censored2: pisses me off...I don't have time to try different locations...be there or don't get your stuff
 

edd_tv

Cardboard picker upper
I don't meet customers on road. Invariably they never show up at the time that they say they will be there and I end up waiting for them.

I do what I can to take care of the customer but there has to be a limit.

I'll say meet me at 1515 knowing I'll be there at 15:30. If not there I go on my way.

OMS gave my cell to a customer who called all the time wanting to meet one time. I went nuts. This particular oms is known to throw us under the bus anyway. Our building has an unlisted number and at one point gave out warning letters for giving the number out. I gave them that number and told them to ask for this particular OMS every time. center manager apologized to me. As did the OMS.
Haven't heard from them since.
 

Whatbrownwontdoforyou

Well-Known Member
This is new to me. Today I was " instructed" to call a customer that wanted to meet me for their pkg. I told oms I'm way to burried to stop and call and deal with it but they could call the customer and let them know where I'll be and they can meet me. Apparently this wasn't good enough.
Should have told oms that you haven't been trained how to make phone calls from the diad yet
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
While I absolutely respect the right of anyone to refuse to use their phone for work purposes, there are also a couple of benefits that are worth considering.
1. It is a form of cooperation that your management team can become dependent upon--which you then have the power to withhold if and when they choose to be unreasonable. Power equals leverage.

2. Communicating important issues with your management team via text message creates a record that YOU have control over, as opposed to DIAD messages that THEY have control over. This can come in handy when the fit hits the shan and they start looking for someone to blame for the mess. Nothing says "I told you so" quite like a copy of the text message on your phone where you really DID tell them so. CYA!
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
Last one of our cover drivers was sent out with a ridiculous dispatch on a garbage route. I had a light day and after taking my lunch and break I let them know that I could help if needed. They sent me this driver's cell phone number and asked me to give him a call. We set up a meet and I took 10-15 stops off of him-----I wanted to take more but he said that he would be OK. After I ran those off I called him back and took another 15 from him. I punched out at about 1915 and he was just pulling in as I was walking to my car.

My point? Had we let the OMS set all of this up there would have been a lot of wasted time and effort and I would not have been able to take as many stops that I did.

As Sober said, there are times when using your personal cell phone for work can be advantageous.
 

boxthrower

Member
I keep telling management that I have tried dialing 9 on my diad to get an outside line when they message me to call in. I don't understand why they get upset when we don't answer our phones while working. It's ok to them now to answer a phone but don't dare touch the diad while the truck is running.
 

Johney

Well-Known Member
Last one of our cover drivers was sent out with a ridiculous dispatch on a garbage route. I had a light day and after taking my lunch and break I let them know that I could help if needed. They sent me this driver's cell phone number and asked me to give him a call. We set up a meet and I took 10-15 stops off of him-----I wanted to take more but he said that he would be OK. After I ran those off I called him back and took another 15 from him. I punched out at about 1915 and he was just pulling in as I was walking to my car.

My point? Had we let the OMS set all of this up there would have been a lot of wasted time and effort and I would not have been able to take as many stops that I did.

As Sober said, there are times when using your personal cell phone for work can be advantageous.
And by doing this you and him contribute to the dispatch problem. It's their mess make them pay for it so it doesn't happen time and time again. I use to refuse to use my phone when ODS'd to help a driver that we all knew was screwed from the beginning, not refuse to help, but just make them work to get the meet point.
 

oldngray

nowhere special
And by doing this you and him contribute to the dispatch problem. It's their mess make them pay for it so it doesn't happen time and time again. I use to refuse to use my phone when ODS'd to help a driver that we all knew was screwed from the beginning, not refuse to help, but just make them work to get the meet point.

The problem is the dispatch sup who created the mess went home hours earlier so an OMS that just got there is scrambling to get things straightened out.

And repeat the next day.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
And by doing this you and him contribute to the dispatch problem. It's their mess make them pay for it so it doesn't happen time and time again. I use to refuse to use my phone when ODS'd to help a driver that we all knew was screwed from the beginning, not refuse to help, but just make them work to get the meet point.

To be fair, our PDS was on vacation and the on-car who was doing the dispatching is not nearly as experienced.

I had seen the cover driver earlier in the day and when I asked him how his day was going he said that he had no idea where he was going so I had a feeling then that I would end up having to help him out.

Yes, I could have taken a longer lunch, wrapped up my pickups, punched out and gone home.

He was heavy with limited area knowledge. I was light and knew the areas that he had left to deliver. The hour that I spent helping him saved him at least two.
 

Johney

Well-Known Member
The problem is the dispatch sup who created the mess went home hours earlier so an OMS that just got there is scrambling to get things straightened out.

And repeat the next day.
As it always happens that way. But two drivers WAY over-allowed will always be questioned the next day in their meeting.

To be fair, our PDS was on vacation and the on-car who was doing the dispatching is not nearly as experienced.

I had seen the cover driver earlier in the day and when I asked him how his day was going he said that he had no idea where he was going so I had a feeling then that I would end up having to help him out.

Yes, I could have taken a longer lunch, wrapped up my pickups, punched out and gone home.

He was heavy with limited area knowledge. I was light and knew the areas that he had left to deliver. The hour that I spent helping him saved him at least two.
I completely understand what you did and I have done the same to help a fellow driver who happened to have a problem at home arise during the day and need to get done early. The problem you described could have most likely been handled in the a.m. by dispatch. They knew what he had and knew of his limited area knowledge. They didn't. They left it,went home and left someone else to fix their mess. Like I said above two drivers WAY over-allowed would have made someone ask why.
 
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