considering
Member
Are there differences in the shifts or are they all about the same as far as the amount of packages that will be handled? Is there any ideal shift?
part time package handling
- Thread starter considering
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hondo
promoted to mediocrity
The ideal shift is whatever fits with the rest of your day, whether you're a student, work another job, commuting, are a morning person or night owl, etc. Whatever shift you work as a package handler, expect a lot of hard work. A clerk job, however, only some hard work. But there are many different types of clerks. Some deal with address corrections/verification, some provide special handling to packages that have been declared to have a high $ value, some deal with parcels being shipped internationally, some process damaged packages, there are some jobs (we refer to them as auditors here) that involve verifying customer has not mis-stated the package size/weight, or check that hazardous materials meet guidelines for shipping and paperwork is in order.
blue efficacy
Well-Known Member
Really varies as far as your building goes. Twilight is typically shipping packages that originated in your local area to various facilities far across the country. If you have a major shipper in town that sends out lots of boxes of computer paper, for instance, than that will make it less desireable. You have no real way of knowing until you've got the job.
Night sort (if the building you're applying at has one) is often processing incoming volume from other ups facilities, and sending them off to other ups facilities. Some trailers will really suck and others will be easy.
Preload is loading package cars starting at 4 in the morning. All I can say is either of the above shifts would be preferable.
Night sort (if the building you're applying at has one) is often processing incoming volume from other ups facilities, and sending them off to other ups facilities. Some trailers will really suck and others will be easy.
Preload is loading package cars starting at 4 in the morning. All I can say is either of the above shifts would be preferable.
brownrodster
Well-Known Member
The Two part time shifts in my building are completely different from each other.
AM shift you either unload trailers or load packages onto brown trucks. If you work this shift you will do either one of these two jobs for your entire time there.
Evening shift you primarily either unload trailers or unload brown trucks or load trailers. There are a ton of different easy high seniority jobs you can move into if you stay long enough, but it usually takes a couple years to get one of these good jobs.
Some larger hubs have 3 or 4 shifts with more variety of jobs but it probably takes a lot more seniority to move out of load/unload and into an easy job.
brownrodster
Well-Known Member
What does your building do during the day? Ours is dead. No one there except a few management people and the customer counter.
Phil800101
Well-Known Member
It depends too upon whether you work at a hub or a local center. A local center deals with shipping to/from a localized (sometimes very large) area, centered around the famous brown package cars. Preload (early am) unloads trailers and loads these cars, while reload (late afternoon/evening) generally does it in reverse, unloading cars and loading trailers. Hubs deal primarily with trailers (be they over-the-road or sent by rail); sorting and transferring packages from one trailer to another, for shipment to another hub or to a local sort. There are more jobs in a hub, and a greater variety of jobs as well, not to mention more shifts. But, as I understand it you will pretty much start out either loading or unloading trailers. It is also of note that hubs usually have a local center contained somewhere within the hub or on the hub grounds, but the work there is essentially the same as at any other local center. Anyway, just some other info to consider. What's been said on here so far is pretty solid.
considering
Member
Can I choose whether I load or unload or do they decide? I think I would rather unload so I don't have to worry about loading packages in the wrong trucks or trailers.
supercool
Well-Known Member
They choose. You're becoming a very small, replaceable cog in a very large machine. You aren't going to get the freedom to choose what you do, where you work, etc. You can't switch shifts with people or casually take a day off. This isn't a job you want to take if you want flexibility.
And loading isn't that hard. You work at a much slower pace. Just follow your training (provided it's adequate) and you will be fine.
brownrodster
Well-Known Member
In my building we were never given that choice. And if we told them which we preferred that pretty much garaunteed that they made us do the other one.
considering
Member
One more question, I've been looking around the forum and searching, however cannot seem to find a definite answer as to how many packages I will be required to load/unload. What is the answer? Sounds like they will never be satisfied with how much I do, which is fine, as long as I know what I'm required to do they can yell all they want.
supercool
Well-Known Member
It all depends. You're supposed to unload and load at a certain PPH, but there's no way that they can say, "YOU DIDN'T UNLOAD X PACKAGES!!! YOU'RE FIRED!" Being able to work at a certain speed is totally different than having to actually sustain that speed for an entire shift. There will be times where there will be lulls in volume, you're waiting for a trailer switch, etc. etc. Just know that it will probably be a lot but after a week or two you'll be used to it.
brownrodster
Well-Known Member
When I was a loader (evening sort, loading semi trailers) I would load anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 packages a shift. Average weight in the neighborhood of 30 pounds (this number came from our management). It's different every day. You do the job until there is no job left to do and then they let you go home.
Pollocknbrown
Well-Known Member
From my expierenses of doing both unload and load, as long as your not the slowest person in the building with unloading as long as u keep a steady pace it keeps them out of your hair, with loading, they generally look for the same thing however they like u too have 400+/PPH, espeically if your in a heavily hit truck that gets slammed nightly.
