Pas & Preload

[westsideworma]

Learn how to read... that is your best prevention. Loaders these days just aren't that good. Loaders who were only average when I was still loading are now the better loaders and lot of it was because they were trained before PAS came in. Loaders need to understand that PAS is unreliable, they NEED to read the label we scan. I get bad pal labels everyday... a lot of postal deliveries are paling to the destination instead of the Post Office which more often than not turns into a misload because its not in my area.
Sorry but my expectations are high, I rarely misloaded (1 every 6 months if that) so I don't want to hear excuses... stop talking with your buddies or turn your ipod off if those things are a distraction. The PAS system screwups, the misloads, and the splits that aren't getting pulled are result of someone failing at their job. Not all those are the fault of the loader but they play a part. Match-up the label and PAL on every package, let your driver know if you didn't have time to pull a split and know which truck you are in when loading. Loading isn't difficult when u give it your careful concentration.

its a little harder when you're started at 445 instead of 400 like you used to...more in less time makes people rush. When I loaded around 200-210 an hour I checked labels etc I had 0 misloads in 3-4 months or so, but when they added that 4th truck and gave me 15 min extra? yea my frequency went up to about 1-2200 packages. Which isn't bad, but it really isn't all that good considering what I used to do. Before PAS I had 1 like every 4 months or so. So those people saying PAS is more accurate are full of it, you yourself just confirmed that. I agree though, those who used the alpha charts were better loaders on PAS, but most of them still hated it in comparison. If the preloaders got the same amount of time they used to, misloads would go down.

 

[trplnkl]

The loader I had this week was great! not one misload all week long, not even one out of place inside the car. The car was loaded stop for stop per EDD. The only "not found" packages were ones that actually belonged on the neighboring route and the loader even took care of that and told me that he moved it to that car so I wouldn't be looking for that pkg. Overflow was placed in the floor in order! It was amazing. I let him know how much I appreciated his good work. This guy loads five trucks, I have no idea how many PPH he loads but it has to be up there. This guy even helps his fellow loaders while he is caught up. If this guy was my regular loader he would not only get a nice Christmas present, but a birthday gift and possible bribs to not ever take a vacation. Hell, I might even put him in my will.

 

[westsideworma]

The loader I had this week was great! not one misload all week long, not even one out of place inside the car. The car was loaded stop for stop per EDD. The only "not found" packages were ones that actually belonged on the neighboring route and the loader even took care of that and told me that he moved it to that car so I wouldn't be looking for that pkg. Overflow was placed in the floor in order! It was amazing. I let him know how much I appreciated his good work. This guy loads five trucks, I have no idea how many PPH he loads but it has to be up there. This guy even helps his fellow loaders while he is caught up. If this guy was my regular loader he would not only get a nice Christmas present, but a birthday gift and possible bribs to not ever take a vacation. Hell, I might even put him in my will.

heres hoping you keep him trplnkl, cause in our building we move people all around week to week it seems. I've lost two of my best loaders to other lines. Now the drivers are complaining because they've got new guys. No one really wants to give these people a chance to learn anymore on either side. Not all drivers/managers mind you actually its a couple drivers and mostly managers lol. Some of our management team acts disgusted when a new hire has a misload in his first week/day/hour/etc. Apparently most of them were perfect on their first day at everything. Hell I know I wasn't. I'm still not for that matter.

 

[soberups]

We were told when PAS/EDD was implemented that one of the objectives was to "de-skill" the job of a preloader.

I would have to say that UPS has succeeded in this goal.

 

[sortaisle]

pas/edd is a godsend to the part time supervisor simply because if someone calls in sick, or is on vacation, that particular line isn't going to go to hell in a hand-basket because the alpha charts sucked. I however as a grunt, miss the alpha charts because it's REALLY hard to misload those trucks. The PAS makes it to easy to misload simply because they cram it down your throat now.

 

[westsideworma]

pas/edd is a godsend to the part time supervisor simply because if someone calls in sick, or is on vacation, that particular line isn't going to go to hell in a hand-basket because the alpha charts sucked. I however as a grunt, miss the alpha charts because it's REALLY hard to misload those trucks. The PAS makes it to easy to misload simply because they cram it down your throat now.

Right, the alpha charts forced people to pay attention to what they were doing for the most part (the good ones). If I didn't KNOW what truck it went in, I stayed until I found the street. After a month or so I didn't need to use them anymore but if for some reason I forgot a street, I checked the chart again. The sad thing is I still remember all the trucks I loaded under the alpha charts, if you gave them back to me I could probably remember where 95% of the packages went in the truck without a chart. I'm one of the few supes left with area knowledge in my building; the rest have come post PAS.

PAS is also the bane of PT supes because once you have well trained people on your line they pluck them to shore up other areas that have shakey staffing/performance...yeah thats happened multiple times to me.

 

[pretzel_man]

We were told when PAS/EDD was implemented that one of the objectives was to "de-skill" the job of a preloader.

I would have to say that UPS has succeeded in this goal.

I taught it a little differently in my area.

We taught that PAS eliminates the load chart knowledge that used to be required. There's more "skill" required than that.

A preloader still needs to know:
- Safe Work Methods
- Proper package handling
- Multiple parcel carries
- How to lip load
- When to drop packages to the floor
- How to snake a load to balance the car

Centers that are having trouble forgot that there is much more to the job besides the chart knowledge.

They also forgot that a supervisor is supposed to train, monitor the operation and hold people accountable.

The above two areas are fixable by just going back to the basics of the job.

P-Man

 

[westsideworma]

I taught it a little differently in my area.

We taught that PAS eliminates the load chart knowledge that used to be required. There's more "skill" required than that.

A preloader still needs to know:
- Safe Work Methods
- Proper package handling
- Multiple parcel carries
- How to lip load
- When to drop packages to the floor
- How to snake a load to balance the car

Centers that are having trouble forgot that there is much more to the job besides the chart knowledge.

They also forgot that a supervisor is supposed to train, monitor the operation and hold people accountable.

The above two areas are fixable by just going back to the basics of the job.

P-Man

Very much agree p-man. Many people high above the lines have forgot what the job is. It doesn't miraculously become easy because theres no memorization of streets anymore.

Though a funny story about snaking the load. When we got PAS the supes in charge of observing the loaders/implementing kept saying that to us like it was going to save all the containment issues of the trucks and eliminate stacking. I had a truck getting like 550 pieces that day (second day of PAS, dispatch issues were still abound) and I was like could you demonstrate how snaking the load would alleviate this? The truck was bricked out floor to ceiling, front to back..@6am haha. I still had 100 pieces or so stacked on a cart with nowhere to put it. The look on his face was priceless. You could tell he'd never seen a package car like that before. There are a lot of people here who have theoretical knowledge of the job but little to no actual operational experience in what they are teaching/preaching. They should not be teaching anyone anything until they've done it. One of the metro division managers in our district is definitely one of those. I'm dumfounded by some of the things he says/expects.

 

[IWorkAsDirected]

You could take this post and change a few words here and there and explain 90% of the problems we have at UP$.

Aye Aye!!

 

[dudebro]

some of this could be rectified by the company going BACK to the colored label. In addition to the rt # on the sticker, it would be colored. NDA should go back to this also. Anyone besides me still use the hilite tape on a NDA p/u??

We talked about that. This may come across as your standard mgmt answer, but it's too expensive to outfit every SPA machine in the country with color, it's cheaper to drum the idea of checking the service icon into the preloaders. Our building still has hilite tape on the boxline sort tables.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I'm sure I will catch hell for this, but, really, how tough is it to discern icons. 1+, 1, 1P, 1S, 2A, 2, 3, and Black Box (sorry, couldn't find a key on my keyboard for this one). PAS/EDD routes the 1+, 1 and 1P to the 1000 section while the remainder are PALed the same as the ground so, really, the icons should not be a big deal. The PAL has all the information that you will need.

BTW, my loader does not load any of my NDA (except those going to WalMart and Sams as they are my first 2 stops) so that I can compare them to my commit screen and get rid of those that I won't be able to deliver by 1030.

I have several pickup customers who still insist upon putting the Next Day Air stickers on their packages but, for the most part, my shippers have stopped doing this as it is unnecessary.

I think that going back to colored labels and highlight tape would be a big step backward and is unnecessary.

 

[IWorkAsDirected]

I'm sure I will catch hell for this, but, really, how tough is it to discern icons. 1+, 1, 1P, 1S, 2A, 2, 3, and Black Box (sorry, couldn't find a key on my keyboard for this one). PAS/EDD routes the 1+, 1 and 1P to the 1000 section while the remainder are PALed the same as the ground so, really, the icons should not be a big deal. The PAL has all the information that you will need.

BTW, my loader does not load any of my NDA (except those going to WalMart and Sams as they are my first 2 stops) so that I can compare them to my commit screen and get rid of those that I won't be able to deliver by 1030.

I have several pickup customers who still insist upon putting the Next Day Air stickers on their packages but, for the most part, my shippers have stopped doing this as it is unnecessary.

I think that going back to colored labels and highlight tape would be a big step backward and is unnecessary.

Could you find out how they pal the air to 1000 section, mine is all over the truck and they say they can't fix it.

 

[Dragon]

PAS quick fix... Match the street (not the last 4 of the 1z label)on the PAL to shippers label.. mary st to mary st, edd st to edd st..then put it in the RIGHT TRUCK. Proven system...try it.

 

[Mike Hawk]

All these ideas about scanners in trucks or colored labels are good ideas to reduce misloads, but are not necessary if the preloaders are PROPERLY TRAINED, PAYING ATTENTION, and ACTUALLY TRYING. In my experience the loaders that have those 3 attributes are the ones that do load well, few misloads and stop for stop loading. Colored labels/any other things designed to replace one of those 3 attributes will never replace them and will just be a money sink.

PS I've always wondered, how are we supposed to carry multiple packages at the same time when all packages need to be held by opposite corners?

 

[brownmonster]

1p do not need to be laoded in section 1000 since you have until 3 to deliver. Loaders could be perfect if IE didn't think they need even less time to do more work.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

1p do not need to be laoded in section 1000 since you have until 3 to deliver. Loaders could be perfect if IE didn
't think they need even less time to do more work.

You are right but they PAL them there anyway. I transfer them from the 1000 to the appropriate shelf. Here is a trick I learned on this forum re: 1P for residential stops. Go the stop that has the 1P pkg. Hit the toggle switch--this brings you to the top line of the functions. Choose commercial/residential. This will change the stop from commercial to residential in EDD and will keep that stop in trace, not at the top of the list at 2:45, which can be annoying as hell. This should only be used for residential stops to ensure that you don't have late air.

 

[BigBrownSanta]

On my truck, the only nda savers that get loaded in section 1 are PM Resi's. All the business nda savers get loaded in the load. I don't know, but it had to have taken some planning for it to work out that way.

As far as misloads, they're not going to go away anytime soon. Even if the preloader gets to the point where they don't misload anymore, they'll get moved to something else or they'll get so sick and tired of being harrased about misloads that they quit. Then the cycle starts over again with the next new hire. I've seen it happen over and over again for the last 5 years now. Nothing changes. The company will just have to learn to budget that expense into their cost of doing business.

 

[BROWN430]

It's nothing for our preload to have 5 to 8 a day and nothing gets said. Hell we can't find anyone to replace them if they did fire them. We only run 16 to 17 routes a day. We just run the misloads and take the extra overtime it takes to run them. The next day when I get there I have my loader hold his hand out and I slap him on the hand. That is as bad as it gets.