Orion

[MrBrown]

a few guys followed orion verbatim 100%. paid way over and mileage was through the roof. our center manager stated its not only to lower mileage but also so a guy could go out blind and be alright. If you were to go out blind on the routes i do you would be screwed with orion blowing by stops constantly. in our job an algorithm is not going to be better than a good driver. i even told a orion management guy during a rant that I wouldnt expect him to go out once on a route ive done 100 times and do it better than me. wasting money on this is a joke. well at least they got me on the 4 year plan so they saved a few bucks there

 

[Packmule]

It's easier to just turn it off and run the route like you always do. Most times you still can run trace above 85%.

Can they tell if you had it off?

 

[MrBrown]

hmm forgot u can turn it off, gonna do that tomorrow. at my tiny center they dont seem to care what you do as long as you beat the mileage which is a snap

 

[UPSGUY72]

Can they tell if you had it off?

I haven't heard anything. All that they care about is 85% trace.

 

[MrBrown]

I haven't heard anything. All that they care about is 85% trace.

not at my center, all they care about is mileage. last thur i was 73% 8 miles under. they just wanted to know how i did it

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

Our building is about to get Orion. UPSers that are on Orion did your building cut routes once on Orion or did it create more routes?

Ours cut one. It used to be in at least four days a week. Now two at the most.

This is the main reason I don't frequent this forum very often. It used to be a good source of information, but now It's become just a bunch of sarcastic s. If you can't answer the question, then how about just STFU for God's sake!

I agree to an extent. Some topics should be searched and others are hot enough to keep coming back up. But we've always had smart asses on here. It's either "use the search button" or "check your supplement".

ORION is one of those hot topics. Just the other day UPS won an award for ORION. How? By lying about it. More and more centers are going on ORION and I enjoy reading about all the nonsense it has them doing.

 

[OrioN]

Cover drivers can use orion as an excuse for service failures, right??? So if they're doing a trip in the blind & follow orion trace, I know that they'll be out longer than the bid driver w/ area knowledge...

 

[OLDMAN3]

The only good thing about Orion is that the numbers that get generated are all based on distance traveled and stops. Management can't change those numbers they add more stops it adds more time to do your route... The days of adding stops to your route and expecting it to get done in the same amount of time are over....

Not quite...
1. They can mess with your expected left building time to have ORION project fewer miles by not having to break off for NDA.
2. They can choose to have ORION not recognize business closing times, and thus project fewer miles because you don't have to break off (del and pickups).
3 They can choose to have ORION project that you will be doing your pickups at the most convenient time rather than when they are scheduled.
4. They can choose to have ORION project 0 minutes of total break, if it will project fewer miles that way.
5. They can set ORION to whatever % importance following A.M. and P.M. trace they want, affecting miles.
6. They can choose to use or not use "clusters" for grouping nearby stops together.
etc. etc...

For each route each day there can be a thousand different ORION "solutions" for the same amount of stops on the same route, each projecting more or less miles and planned day.

I am not at all persuaded that they can not just adjust the ORION projected time allowances just like they could before. When EDD was implemented UPS did not do new time studies. They simply said that each driver can now do 9% more, and re-programmed the allowances to reflect that assumption. They can do the same now.

 

[Griff]

Prepare for them to not care about it at first and then as time goes on you will be "held" to the 85% metric supposedly.

I follow it 95-97%+ everyday doing 150 stops and 25 pickups. I simply follow their instruction, if they tell me to follow ORION, that's exactly what I will do. If a manager comes up to me and says don't follow ORION anymore, do it the way you have been doing it for all these years (way less mileage, less OT) I would comply with their instruction and return to delivering it according to common sense and logic.

Been here too long to play along with the psychological warfare of illogical metrics with these non-operations goofballs who have to prove their existence to the overlords in Atlanta. You think it's a solid business plan to squeeze profits by micro-managing veteran drivers, paying through the nose for unnecessary technology and managing from afar as if you are on the truck with me --- be my guest!!!

One thing holds true these days in 2015 at UPS. The second you start trying to make these metrics work by altering your break periods, falsifying your timecard or delivery record (prerecording to put it in orion order), stop completing pickups away from GPS location, you are doing exactly what they want. Make the numbers work on paper, forget reality because the decision makers at UPS are sheltered from reality by their underlings by the time things reach them.

 

[soberups]

My favorite part about these ORION threads is everybody tells the OP how horrible ORION is and not to give the ORION guy anything. Don't talk to him or show him anything. You know why I love it so much? Because the guys who did this in my center have the most problems with ORION.

When a data-entry subcontractor from another state whose entire knowledge of UPS consists of a copy of the 340 methods that he downloaded onto a tablet jumps on car with me one day and proceeds to tell me that I have been doing my route all wrong for the last 27 years....finding the willingness to talk with him or show him anything is a bit difficult.

When the company threatens people with discipline for failing to generate a compliance metric, it cant turn around and get all butt hurt when those same people are no longer willing to "cooperate."
By implementing ORION, the company is telling us that we are no longer competent or trustworthy enough to decide what our next stop should be. If that is the case, why should we even bother to offer any input in the first place?

 

[Wally]

 

[wayfair]

Not quite...
1. They can mess with your expected left building time to have ORION project fewer miles by not having to break off for NDA.
2. They can choose to have ORION not recognize business closing times, and thus project fewer miles because you don't have to break off (del and pickups).
3 They can choose to have ORION project that you will be doing your pickups at the most convenient time rather than when they are scheduled.
4. They can choose to have ORION project 0 minutes of total break, if it will project fewer miles that way.
5. They can set ORION to whatever % importance following A.M. and P.M. trace they want, affecting miles.
6. They can choose to use or not use "clusters" for grouping nearby stops together.
etc. etc...

For each route each day there can be a thousand different ORION "solutions" for the same amount of stops on the same route, each projecting more or less miles and planned day.

I am not at all persuaded that they can not just adjust the ORION projected time allowances just like they could before. When EDD was implemented UPS did not do new time studies. They simply said that each driver can now do 9% more, and re-programmed the allowances to reflect that assumption. They can do the same now.

they can also change your "stops per hour"

 

[The Blackadder]

not at my center, all they care about is mileage. last thur i was 73% 8 miles under. they just wanted to know how i did it

Same in my center all they care about is % if you are 95% and 10 miles over they love it, if you are 70% and 10 miles under you get a talking too. Makes no sense but that where this company is going too.

Other then we have 2 drivers on which orion is so bad they have been told not to use Orion at all, just get the 1st stop right and then do it without orion.

 

[CharleyHustle]

30 odd years ago, when I was learning routes, you had the same truck, loaded with the same stops in the same order and placement and delivered in the same way and order everyday. It was very hard to learn a route, but after a week or so, you caught on. Now, you might get the same truck everyday, but you get different stops loaded in different places and never delivered the same way. Its almost impossible to "learn" a route. My on car supe who trains all the seasonal and replacement drivers says its a nightmare. They have to have an air driver delver the air so the route looks somewhat the same everyday. Then when you move them to a different route you have to start all over again.