Misload help, what works for you?

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westsideworma

Guest
I'm just curious what people do in other buildings to avoid misloads? Don't tell me read the label lol, I know that much. This is more for preloaders, I'm just curious what works for you guys. I have guys using the crayons and using the first letter of the PAL (provided they're all different). It was working great, but seems to be slipping a little lately. Granted pickoff thats been having issues has been getting slammed lately, but I'd still like to help him out.

Our dispatch supe also seems to be doing it smart (having neighboring routes loaded together for the most part) and I think that helps alleviate some of the packages not making service, but thats kind of just a safety net.
 
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ups1990

Well-Known Member
Your last sentence is the best choice. In our center, here in So Cal. tries to use this method of having trucks parked together by loop. It seems to work the best, for eliminating service failures. It all depends on the loader working in conjucture with having the correct pals on packages. This is the million dollar question.
 

sano

Well-Known Member
Good thread.
It seems to be pretty random on our dock. Sure we have certain loaders that go weeks without a misload, but then others tend to be streaky. We have one loader that will go 2 days with none and then lay down a 5 misload day.

The methods are important, but I think the rhythm is just as key. If a preloader is stopping to think all the time, he doesn't have the rhythm. When I am at my best, presorting thru lip loading is completely instinct. Very little stopping to think.

Of course if they are cutting and consolidating routes, and I have trucks I am unfamiliar with, then I need to slow down and be more careful.
 

upsgrunt

Well-Known Member
Some people can talk and do that job, and some can't. It's the ones who can't that have the misload problems IMO. If a preloader has a problem with misloads, try having them shut their mouth while they work and see if that helps. The problem may be in finding the tact to tell them.:happy2:
 

outamyway

Well-Known Member
Not loading four trucks at the front of the belt behind a ****ty splitter helps some.

The training I got for loading no longer applies today. It is all, stack, stack, stack, when you have time, load a few. Repeat for 3 hours.

Three of the drivers come in a bit early and go through their trucks. They each throw out a couple misloads everyday. Never had this problem loading three trucks with a REASONABLE amount of work.

It's not about the volume, it's about the flow. It looks the same as it did 3 years ago, except there are half the trucks and 1/3 the loaders.

I have no idea how to avoid misloads with what I'm doing. I only give half a **** anymore.
 

Up_and_at_UPS

Coffee box sniffer
-Do not load when a sup. is talking to you, stack out. If they ask why, tell them, "I do not want a mis-load and need to be focused. I'll load when you quit distracting me(respectfully)". I seem to always catch myself walking into the wrong car when I am talking.

-Stack out if you are too rushed. I have tossed misloads into car because the flow was too heavy to recheck the pkg before I put it on the shelf, which leads to my next tip.

-Always recheck the label before you place on the shelf or floor, I catch several potential mis-loads a day by simply rechecking the label. I know it sounds like it will slow you down, but it is worth it to not have the dreaded mis-load talk the next day. Overall, it may cost you 5-10 extra minutes at most, and probably not even that, over the corse of the sort. That's pennies next to a NDA mis-service. Most center managers would rather pay an extra 5 min. than have a mis-load IMO.
 

Solidarity413

Well-Known Member
I'm just curious what people do in other buildings to avoid misloads? Don't tell me read the label lol, I know that much. This is more for preloaders, I'm just curious what works for you guys. I have guys using the crayons and using the first letter of the PAL (provided they're all different). It was working great, but seems to be slipping a little lately. Granted pickoff thats been having issues has been getting slammed lately, but I'd still like to help him out.


Around here the imprinter has killed our misloads for our dock. What are the truck names? Most of the time the preloader always says they hate the truck names and want them changed. I have a tote for air around my 8990 or 6990 depending if I'm on the outside or inside and I tape another route ID paper to the tote. It really helps because sometimes you just don't look up to see what truck you're in. It also helps me to get to know my drivers, so when I grab a package out of the cage it's not just 'oh this is going to the 33a truck but rather this is going to mikes truck'.

The number one killer for us is when they cut routes and add them to other preloaders who've never preloader that truck before. For example, they'll cut one of the preloaders 4th trucks but then add someone else's truck to their pull. This messes up their routine and usually results in misloads.
 

Kraetos

Preload, Loader
All 3 my drivers come in early and check through all their packages, problem solved no misloads! I have a clean slate every week because of it! LoL
 

PaidDriveTime?

Active Member
I load 4 at the end of the belt. I start this exact same process when the flow first starts to get to me. Walk a little ahead and grab all packages for your first truck. Once loaded, come out and grab all for the second, and then the third, and then the forth. I feel most misloads come from people jumping truck to truck with no specific order to it. But if you just got done loading packages into your first truck, you know you should be grabbing stuff and going into your second. ANd so down the line, and once your done you start it all over again. Obviously this doesnt always work when the flow picks up, but preloading is all about thinking ahead and making adjustments, so you should be able to come up with a plan.
 

MC4YOU2

Wherever I see Trump, it smells like he's Putin.
If u r using the big vinyl signs on the back of the pc, also try putting one over the bulkhead. Helps to remember where u r if u get in there and get turned around.
 

MC4YOU2

Wherever I see Trump, it smells like he's Putin.
All 3 my drivers come in early and check through all their packages, problem solved no misloads! I have a clean slate every week because of it! LoL

Well, don't look here for a solution. More like a pooper scooper approach.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
Our dispatch supe also seems to be doing it smart (having neighboring routes loaded together for the most part) and I think that helps alleviate some of the packages not making service, but thats kind of just a safety net.

It is an idiotic business practice to assume that any human being can do a perfect job 100% of the time. Human error is inevitable...and is only made worse under typical UPS conditions (impossible time standards, overcrowded facilities, undersized package cars, understaffed operations etc.)

A "safety net" is ideal, and ought to be a standard practice. Unfortunately it isnt always possible; due to overcrowding in my building, my route is loaded outside on an MDU next to routes from different cities. If I get a misload, it is for an address at least 30 miles away and there is no way for me to make service on it.

UPS's standard method for dealing with misloads has always been to just scream at the preloader to "work faster" while at the same time setting him up to fail. If you want to reduce misloads...set him up to succeed. Assign him a realistic number of routes to pull, run the belt at a realistic speed, design your facility to allow for adequate egress, and quit busting up entire routes 10 minutes before the end of the shift in order to placate some idiot from IE who wants a ridiculous number of stops per car.

There are no bad preloaders...only bad preload managers.
 

myback

Well-Known Member
when i p/u a pkg i leave the old spa label on it and count how many times it comes back before the machine figures it out.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
There are no bad preloaders...only bad preload managers.

As much as I would like to agree with you this is simply not true. There are some employees for whom the preload is beyond their abilities. We have two in my center who the dispatch/preload sup uses as a last resort and drivers cringe when they see them loading their pkg cars. One of them gets overwhelmed at the volume and simply gives up. The other gets them on the right shelf but forgets which pkg car he is loading. These two usually end up unloading trailers or driving the irreg tug.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
All 3 my drivers come in early and check through all their packages, problem solved no misloads! I have a clean slate every week because of it! LoL

Do you think they are coming in early (and off the clock) just because they love their jobs or do you think there may be a reason for them to do so? (If unsure, please find the nearest mirror for your answer.)
 

browniehound

Well-Known Member
I think Sober has the right idea. Let's slow things down a bit for the preloader. I'm not a business owner, but I have some common sense. Let's break it down to one pull.

This is our business. One preloader making $9.50/hour, 4 package cars to load that get about 10 miles/ gallon at $2.50, using drivers making 29.13/hour.

Under the current system the preloader is forced to rush and finish his pull in X amount of hours and is NEVER allowed to go over 5 hours because that would spell OT at $14.25/ hour for a short time (10-20 min.). Under this system, he/she can't check both the PAL and address, look at the load chart verifying the load and then write with a crayon the load name and HIN #. If she were allowed to do this it would eliminate 99% of misloads.

Let's say you need to give the preloader an extra 15 minutes at a cost of $2.35 to do it this way. It will hurt the preload numbers but will help our little "1 pull" business tremendously and I will explain.

My car gets misloads everyday. Its always more than one and as high as 5. Multiply that by 4 cars and we have 8-20 potentially unserviced packages/day. Right there the pre-load $2.35 savings is made negligible.

Lets take the low number of 8 and cut it in half to be ultra conservative. If we generate $5 in revenue from each parcel(I'm guessing ) we will lose $20 in revenue from the misloads if the driver doesn't deliver them.

Right here our pull is losing $17.65 by hurrying the preloader off the clock. However, it gets more complicated because UPS' reputation is at stake for delivering packages on time and I can't assign a price to that.

Most times, drivers are directed to deliver misloads. Most times it takes me 15 minutes at a minimum to break trace at the closest point to the misload and get back. Multiply that by two and its .5 hours of OT labor of $43/hour or $21.50 plus fuel to gain $20 in revenue.

In either case, each driver solution appears futile for our little example business.

I just have one question for the people that really know the numbers. Why not just slow down the preload a little when you are only paying them $9.50/hour? Why solve the problem with drivers making the deliveries at $43/hour plus fuel costs?

The preload business goal must get flushed down the toilet once a NDA gets misloaded?

I'm just asking here...
 
L

Loufan

Guest
I guess you guys are talking about loading the brown trucks that get deliver the packages straight to peoples house. I couldn't help with that. I load the semi trucks and I average one missort a month. Probably 1/25,000, I just make sure I read the labels and sometimes do a flip especially on the older, broken looking boxes for a double label. Can't catch them all though.

Although there is a guy on my belt that hasn't had a missort since last November. He is 0/200,000+ It's a building record, and I'm almost sure it's got to be close to a UPS record. Who knows though, there are a lot of people at UPS.
 
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