Misloads, a closer look

[konsole]

Here is something to ponder about misloads. Lets say the average preloader loads 750 packages a morning this equals...

750 per day
3,750 per week
15,000 per month

out of 15,000 packages a month that preloaders load, some preloaders may end up with say 10 misloads. This is apparently unacceptable to management. What exactly are they expecting people to do? Sure NO misloads would be ideal, and even a couple are usually accepted by management, but why the fuss over a handful of misloads? I understand the arguement about how all the misloads throughout a building add up and that number is a big deal, but what is it that should be expected from the preloaders?

If a preloader has 10 misloads for the month out of 15,000 packages then that preloader has misloaded 0.07% of all the packages they load. Yes thats right a little more then half of a half of 1% So the next time somebody comes down on a preloader for having a couple misloads for the week or month I think its only fair for the accuser to come to realization of how unrealistic zero or next to zero misloads really is. I know most drivers dont get upset about a misload here or there, so this is more geared to the people running the show.

New preloaders are probably forced the idea that a misload is a mortal sin so hopefully this will give some preloaders comfort when they misload a box or 2.

 

[Catatonic]

out of 15,000 packages a month that preloaders load, some preloaders may end up with say 10 misloads.
Sure NO misloads would be ideal, and even a couple are usually accepted by management, but why the fuss over a handful of misloads?

That's two handfuls.
Maybe one handful would be acceptable.

OK unless you are the customer whose package shows up a week late.

 

[konsole]

That's two handfuls.
Maybe one handful would be acceptable.

OK unless you are the customer whose package shows up a week late.

well management can get as upset as they want and I agree with them that its best to have no misloads at all but its not being realistic. Your taking the misload scenario to the extreme. Most likely a misload will either get delivered by the wrong driver that same day or it will get brought back to the building and delivered the next day.

 

[pretzel_man]

Here is something to ponder about misloads. Lets say the average preloader loads 750 packages a morning this equals...

750 per day
3,750 per week
15,000 per month

out of 15,000 packages a month that preloaders load, some preloaders may end up with say 10 misloads. This is apparently unacceptable to management. What exactly are they expecting people to do? Sure NO misloads would be ideal, and even a couple are usually accepted by management, but why the fuss over a handful of misloads? I understand the arguement about how all the misloads throughout a building add up and that number is a big deal, but what is it that should be expected from the preloaders?

If a preloader has 10 misloads for the month out of 15,000 packages then that preloader has misloaded 0.07% of all the packages they load. Yes thats right a little more then half of a half of 1% So the next time somebody comes down on a preloader for having a couple misloads for the week or month I think its only fair for the accuser to come to realization of how unrealistic zero or next to zero misloads really is. I know most drivers dont get upset about a misload here or there, so this is more geared to the people running the show.

New preloaders are probably forced the idea that a misload is a mortal sin so hopefully this will give some preloaders comfort when they misload a box or 2.

well management can get as upset as they want and I agree with them that its best to have no misloads at all but its not being realistic.

10 misloads a month? Across three cars? Less than 1 misload per car per week?

If your management is coming down on someone with those numbers, the preload must be nearly perfect. This is the least best?

P-Man

 

[brownIEman]

The problem is determining what is an acceptable number of misloads. You show the example of 10 per month. What about preloaders who do more like 10 per week, and some, on occasion, closer to 10 per day. I am in a preload operation, having rotated out of IE. I can tell you, management here way back when started a kinder gentler aproach to misloads and did not come down heavy on people with just a few. The problem was, when the acceptable number moved away from zero, it continued to slide. When zero was the only acceptable number, the operation had maybe 10 a day. Over time, the one or two, or even 10 a month approach has put people into a relaxed attitude regarding misloads, and the 10 or so as grown to 30, 40 or more in the operation every day.

There are so many posts on this board from every type of operation asking why management in this company is so hard ass-ed about nit piky details and minute changes in performance numbers. The reason is simple, it gets results. Believe me, I started in my new role determined to be the nice guy, determined to prove that I could get better results from employees by staying possitive, laying out the expectations for performance and spending the extra time to train and explain when people had trouble, not go directly, or really ever, to the hammer.
What I am learning so far, is it is the hammer, and in this organization, only the hammer, that tends to get results.

I still hold out hope that I am wrong on this, but it sure is not looking good so far...

 

[BleedBrown]

So what you are saying Konsole. Is if UPS were an Airline that you were traveling and there were a sign at the gate that says we are 99% effective in getting you to your right destination you would get on.

 

[UnconTROLLed]

So what you are saying Konsole. Is if UPS were an Airline that you were traveling and there were a sign at the gate that says we are 99% effective in getting you to your right destination you would get on.

Fun argument, but the airline has time allowances for checking IDs and tickets. UPS does not.

 

[BleedBrown]

Fun argument, but the airline has time allowances for checking IDs and tickets. UPS does not.

UPS most certainly does have time allowances to check the PAL and load accordingly.

 

[UnconTROLLed]

UPS most certainly does have time allowances to check the PAL and load accordingly.

I was being facetious.

 

[ORLY!?!]

As a preloader myself, I can tell you misloading is quite easy to do.

I was in a four car set up not too long ago, and I seemed to be missloading once a day. The problem is it is very easy to get turned around working the line. Plus they would add another car for about two weeks. Man that got old quick.

Nowadays a sup tells me I had a misload yesterday and I tell him I dont really give a rats ***. You see, there are some drivers that will be lazy and not write things up as being a bad slap. Yet will just scan it and put it down somewhere. This will tally it up as a misload. I've seen it many times before.

The pass system is quite genious, yet has quite a few bugs in it. The pass used to be a lot worse. But its being worked on everyday to make it more efficient. But sups cant blame their million dollar pass system they bought, so its obiviously the preloaders fault.

I believe sups are more concerned about preloaders getting done at 9am or earlier.

 

[westsideworma]

Since this has been discussed many times I'll weigh in as well.

When we as a management team (as a whole, meaning all of us everywhere) can with absolute certainty load without ever misloading then we can EXPECT perfection. There are so many variables that can affect misloads that its not even funny. Perfect service is something we absolutely need to strive for but not something to beat the stuffing out of someone over for if they have a misload here and there (once every few days or so). I know I'm not perfect when I load. I never claimed to be. However, as long as people are meeting the 1/whatever the number is for frequency (1/1800 pcs for our preload), leave them alone (or gee I dunno encourage them). If they're not and they don't seem to care, drop the hammer by all means, if they genuinely want to improve, do all that you can to help them such as: audit them to see if you can determine common mistakes for them to focus on fixing, make sure they have adequate time to do the job, if the alotted hours for a particular pickoff is 4.75 hrs don't give them 3.5 and whine about misloads (though the timing of loads backing onto the primary affects this as well so this is a tough one to work with sometimes), and lastly, give them helpful tips. One little tip that I offered helped a driver working on the preload immensely. It was just something small I did myself and he went 3.5 weeks without a misload after (writing the first letter of the PAL on the box...provided they're not all the same lol) trying it. It also showed him that I wasn't out to get his job (because I wasn't) and that I wanted to help him succeed (because I did).

Sometimes its just little adjustments that provide big improvements...not drawing and quartering people hoping they'll make an example for the others.

 

[konsole]

So what you are saying Konsole. Is if UPS were an Airline that you were traveling and there were a sign at the gate that says we are 99% effective in getting you to your right destination you would get on.

well more like 99.93% and if I traveled on an airline 1,500 times and they messed up once yes I would get on the airline again and again, sorry but your exaggerated argument didnt work. Your also trying to compare something that most likely inconveniences just one person that paid $10 to ship their new cell phone and will receive the phone in 4 days instead of 3, to something that inconveniences 200 people that paid $500 for the ticket. Someone finding out there phone will arrive the next day is much much less inconvenient for them then an airline passenger having to make their way back to the starting location due to wrong destination. Yes theres probably exceptions to both but I think you get what I'm saying.

Misloading airs is one thing because most likely it is very important stuff that the customer needs quickly. If a preloader is constantly misloading airs then ya that is something that should be dealt with. Grounds on the other hand have no dedicated delivery date. Shipping a ground package from New York to Los Angeles gets there when it gets there. The tracking number will say that its scheduled to arrive at a certain time but there is nothing that guarantees that it doesnt get caught up somewhere and arrive the next day, and ground packages probably make up 95% of the misloads.

Listen I'm not saying that misloading is not a problem. We should be doing our best to eliminate all misloads. All I'm trying to say is that you shouldnt get all bent out of shape because of a misload here or there when its such a low percentage of the packages you handle, and anyone thats unwilling to accept that it will happen to the best of us, isn't living in the real world. Like someone else said there should be some amount of misloads allowed versus the number of packages handled and if the misload amount goes over that then ya something should be done, but until then don't get all bent out of shape because you had a misload in your 800 package 250 PPH morning.

 

[konsole]

Does anyone else understand the potential of a misprinted label were an 8 looks like a 3 or an old label was not taken off before a new label was put on and all the preloader saw was the old lable? There are many potential reasons for misloads beyond the "preloader screwed-up" reason. God forbid we should admit that the preloader had too much work.

westsideworma,

If a preloader is only having 1 misload per every 1500 packages or so there isnt anything that can be done to fix that though, unless its often a package going to the same address each time or always an air. If there is a misload ground package for Bob rd. one day, a misload for Main st. two days later, and then maybe a misload air package two days after that, there isnt anything you can do about these because there is no pattern to the misloads. There all just random events.

 

[UnconTROLLed]

Konsole, ground packages do have delivery dates that are guaranteed. Having worked ft at a counter for a few years, I can tell you customers will be very unhappy whether their ground or air package is late - the service does not matter - and will file claims to be refunded in either case.

 

[UnconTROLLed]

Also I would like to add, with the implementing of the new imprint hand-held scanners, misloads will certainly be increasing due to the nearly illegible nature of the print on certain boxes.

 

[Christmas]

I dont know, it seems evertime my center cuts a run and puts that run on everyone eles trucks it makes a more problem for misloads, and we only have one scaner. so whats a man supposed to do.

 

[IWorkAsDirected]

Here is something to ponder about misloads. Lets say the average preloader loads 750 packages a morning this equals...

750 per day
3,750 per week
15,000 per month

out of 15,000 packages a month that preloaders load, some preloaders may end up with say 10 misloads. This is apparently unacceptable to management. What exactly are they expecting people to do? Sure NO misloads would be ideal, and even a couple are usually accepted by management, but why the fuss over a handful of misloads? I understand the arguement about how all the misloads throughout a building add up and that number is a big deal, but what is it that should be expected from the preloaders?

If a preloader has 10 misloads for the month out of 15,000 packages then that preloader has misloaded 0.07% of all the packages they load. Yes thats right a little more then half of a half of 1% So the next time somebody comes down on a preloader for having a couple misloads for the week or month I think its only fair for the accuser to come to realization of how unrealistic zero or next to zero misloads really is. I know most drivers dont get upset about a misload here or there, so this is more geared to the people running the show.

New preloaders are probably forced the idea that a misload is a mortal sin so hopefully this will give some preloaders comfort when they misload a box or 2.

Yes I guess that's a small number, but when we had a driver preload it was very rare to have more than 3 or 4 a month, a preloader only loads 750, when I was a driver loader I loaded nearly 2,000 a day and if I had 2 or 3 in a month they threatened me.

 

[pickup]

So what you are saying Konsole. Is if UPS were an Airline that you were traveling and there were a sign at the gate that says we are 99% effective in getting you to your right destination you would get on.

Not one long standing airline could hang a sign that state that it is 100% effective in not having any deadly plane crashes, yet we still fly.

 

[brownIEman]

Not one long standing airline could hang a sign that state that it is 100% effective in not having any deadly plane crashes, yet we still fly.

Doesn't Quantas still hold that distinction?