Peak. Management drops the ball.

[brownmonster]

Wednesday we got hit with a nice snowstorm. We started at 10 and had to be back to the building at 6:30. Needless to say we had many stops brought back, some of which we could have delivered if we were allowed to stay out a while longer. Thursday, although many areas were still quite ugly, the going was better and we would have been able to put a nice dent in our leftover stops but we got a message to be back to the building by 6:30-6:45. Many of us begged to keep going so we could get cleaned up. The streets were mostly clear but they made us come in. Friday we start in a big hole when lo and behold we get this fine message at 3 o'clock. "No one is to come in until you get permission. We are going to clean up all the stops". You can imagine what the replies to that message were like. Luckily I only had to help one guy and snuck back to the building around 7. All but about 8 trucks out of 50 were still out. The supe and center manager were running around with their thumbs up their butts wondering why 5 guys were going over 12 hours and 2 over 13. It's good they provide a little comic relief during these stressful times. I think I heard this somewhere. You don't plan to fail, you fail to plan.

 

[Nite_Owl]

Violations may result in:

1. A driver being shut-down (placed out-of-service) until he/she has accumulated enough off- duty time to comply with the rules. 2. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) fines (driver or carrier) of between $550 to $11,000 per violation.
3. State and local law enforcement fines.
4. Downgrading of a carrier’s safety rating.
5. Federal criminal penalties for knowingly and willfully allowing or requiring hours of service

This is why they stress, be professional, know the rules.

 

[Dis-organized Labor]

Wednesday we got hit with a nice snowstorm. We started at 10 and had to be back to the building at 6:30. Needless to say we had many stops brought back, some of which we could have delivered if we were allowed to stay out a while longer. Thursday, although many areas were still quite ugly, the going was better and we would have been able to put a nice dent in our leftover stops but we got a message to be back to the building by 6:30-6:45. Many of us begged to keep going so we could get cleaned up. The streets were mostly clear but they made us come in. Friday we start in a big hole when lo and behold we get this fine message at 3 o'clock. "No one is to come in until you get permission. We are going to clean up all the stops". You can imagine what the replies to that message were like. Luckily I only had to help one guy and snuck back to the building around 7. All but about 8 trucks out of 50 were still out. The supe and center manager were running around with their thumbs up their butts wondering why 5 guys were going over 12 hours and 2 over 13. It's good they provide a little comic relief during these stressful times. I think I heard this somewhere. You don't plan to fail, you fail to plan.

I don't know Brown; I can read your frustration. Here in the airline, we're doing some very "different" things to move pieces. At times it seems like "we" don't know what we're doin' and that is probably true ( in a very few rare cases).
I think everyone wants to please those above them (in terms of "ranking order"), and they're "reacting" rather than executing good Tactical Decisions.

No excuses, no denials.......Just thanks for your effort and your attitude.

 

[barnyard]

I was kind of surprised this week.....

Big storm hits overnight Tuesday. Our building is short a trailer on Wednesday. I went out with a normal, non-peak dispatch. Told to keep my helper, "we don't want any to quit because they are not getting the hours."

Thursday and Friday, dispatches were waaaayyyyy off because the time in transit numbers were off. Some guys went out with 12 hour days, some with 9. I let my helper go an hour early (he wanted to finish combining corn) and finished my day just short of 9.5. The guy next to me was getting a cut when I left, at lunch (2 pm) he figured he would be done at 19:30-20:00......

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I'm sorry--your helper wanted to "finish combining corn"?

 

[barnyard]

I'm sorry--your helper wanted to "finish combining corn"?

Yep.

He used to be a dairy farmer. Sold his cows a year ago, now he has 35 beef cows and still farms his farm. He has 65 acres to combine and thought if I let him go at 12:30 he would finish on Friday. He figured if he finished Friday, he could haul it all Saturday and Sunday.

We works hard when he is helping me and he is a good guy. Besides, I used to milk cows, anything to help a farmer......

 

[Catatonic]

Wednesday we got hit with a nice snowstorm. We started at 10 and had to be back to the building at 6:30. Needless to say we had many stops brought back, some of which we could have delivered if we were allowed to stay out a while longer. Thursday, although many areas were still quite ugly, the going was better and we would have been able to put a nice dent in our leftover stops but we got a message to be back to the building by 6:30-6:45. Many of us begged to keep going so we could get cleaned up. The streets were mostly clear but they made us come in. Friday we start in a big hole when lo and behold we get this fine message at 3 o'clock. "No one is to come in until you get permission. We are going to clean up all the stops". You can imagine what the replies to that message were like. Luckily I only had to help one guy and snuck back to the building around 7. All but about 8 trucks out of 50 were still out. The supe and center manager were running around with their thumbs up their butts wondering why 5 guys were going over 12 hours and 2 over 13. It's good they provide a little comic relief during these stressful times. I think I heard this somewhere. You don't plan to fail, you fail to plan.

I guess you are right, UPS needs more management people so more time can be spent on planning and contingency plans.

 

[hurricanegunner]

I guess you are right, UPS needs more mangement people so more time can be spent on planning and contingency plans.

 

[brownmonster]

I guess you are right, UPS needs more mangement people so more time can be spent on planning and contingency plans.

No ,the ones there need to plan correctly. Every year it snows, every year people get hurt, every year volume is more than expected. Every year we plan too few routes and the exact amount of people needed. We will not go out of business if we run enough drivers and enough hours during 4 weeks of peak. Wall Street didn't care when we were making money hand over fist, why would they care if we made a couple percentage points less the last quarter of the year. How many times have I heard the latest plan and we all said, oh yeah, that will work real well.

 

[filthpig]

Our peak plan this season is an absolute joke. The problem isn't that the managers don't know what they're doing, it's that they don't care.

 

[Big Babooba]

I'm gonna let all of you in on a secret. Christmas comes on December 25th. It has for as long as I can remember. I checked the 2010 UPS calender and what do you know - it's on December 25th again! I see a pattern forming. Why can't they?

 

[brown bomber]

1930....that's the norm for punch-out, around here....even during "slow" periods

 

[beentheredonethat]

Wednesday we got hit with a nice snowstorm. We started at 10 and had to be back to the building at 6:30. Needless to say we had many stops brought back, some of which we could have delivered if we were allowed to stay out a while longer. Thursday, although many areas were still quite ugly, the going was better and we would have been able to put a nice dent in our leftover stops but we got a message to be back to the building by 6:30-6:45. Many of us begged to keep going so we could get cleaned up. The streets were mostly clear but they made us come in. Friday we start in a big hole when lo and behold we get this fine message at 3 o'clock. "No one is to come in until you get permission. We are going to clean up all the stops". You can imagine what the replies to that message were like. Luckily I only had to help one guy and snuck back to the building around 7. All but about 8 trucks out of 50 were still out. The supe and center manager were running around with their thumbs up their butts wondering why 5 guys were going over 12 hours and 2 over 13. It's good they provide a little comic relief during these stressful times. I think I heard this somewhere. You don't plan to fail, you fail to plan.

OK, so let's look at it from another angle. We have a snowstorm and the mgmt team tells you to come back to building at 6:30 - 6:45 which is relatively early for peak. Usually people complain they are stuck working late espescially after snowstorms due to street conditions. So UPS keeps people out, people bitch, UPS tells people to come back people bitch. By bringing you back, we got the pickups back to the ctr, so that work can be put into the network and start moving to the destination. Thursday again, center asks you to come back and not finish all delivery. Again, all pickups can be put in system, we don't have to worry about any DOT violations. Now on Friday, after mgmt totally screwed up by keeping you from working late. You are back to building at 7 PM after helping another driver and "sneaking" into building (Your words, not mine). The pickup situation isn't as severe on Friday due to the w/e and hubs closing later. Sounded like a good plan, if that ctr had drivers following orders and not sneaking back in, they probably could have had more drivers in under 12 hours and none over 13 hours.

You didn't mention any other issues like accidents or injuries, so I'm assuming no accidents or injuries occurred those days. So after a snowstorm and not all roads being clear (your words, not mine) they had no drivers get in accidents or injured. Again, sounded like getting a bad situation due to mother nature and getting decent results.

 

[Dustyroads]

As a package car driver who has worked for 31 Christmas seasons at UPS, and one who drives an average of 225 miles a day, I appreciated being able to come in after ten hours. That was plenty of time on the slick roads, single digit temps and high winds. My production drops way off after 7 pm when the wind chills are minus 40. But, go figure, I'm getting soft.

 

[Covemastah]

just tired & burnt out!! you sir deserve to be with those peaks in the trenches,,bitch alllllllll you want you have earned it!!

 

[brownmonster]

OK, so let's look at it from another angle. We have a snowstorm and the mgmt team tells you to come back to building at 6:30 - 6:45 which is relatively early for peak. Usually people complain they are stuck working late espescially after snowstorms due to street conditions. So UPS keeps people out, people bitch, UPS tells people to come back people bitch. By bringing you back, we got the pickups back to the ctr, so that work can be put into the network and start moving to the destination. Thursday again, center asks you to come back and not finish all delivery. Again, all pickups can be put in system, we don't have to worry about any DOT violations. Now on Friday, after mgmt totally screwed up by keeping you from working late. You are back to building at 7 PM after helping another driver and "sneaking" into building (Your words, not mine). The pickup situation isn't as severe on Friday due to the w/e and hubs closing later. Sounded like a good plan, if that ctr had drivers following orders and not sneaking back in, they probably could have had more drivers in under 12 hours and none over 13 hours.

You didn't mention any other issues like accidents or injuries, so I'm assuming no accidents or injuries occurred those days. So after a snowstorm and not all roads being clear (your words, not mine) they had no drivers get in accidents or injured. Again, sounded like getting a bad situation due to mother nature and getting decent results.

I had to go pickup another driver's pickup pieces so I guess coming back to the center was what they wanted. I said it in another thread. Elimanate the EC designation and let's get em serviced.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Elimanate the EC designation and let's get em serviced.

I applaud the use of EC as a safety measure.

I despise the use of EC as a dispatch tool, whether by mgt or by a driver. Yes, I said by a driver. We all have at least one in our centers. The one who says "I don't feel like going down that road today, I won't bother calling the phone number on the pkg to try to make an alternate delivery, I will use the weather as an excuse" and sheets a package that more than likely could have been delivered as an EC.

 

[brownmonster]

I applaud the use of EC as a safety measure.

I despise the use of EC as a dispatch tool, whether by mgt or by a driver. Yes, I said by a driver. We all have at least one in our centers. The one who says "I don't feel like going down that road today, I won't bother calling the phone number on the pkg to try to make an alternate delivery, I will use the weather as an excuse" and sheets a package that more than likely could have been delivered as an EC.[/QUOTE

Agreed.

 

[pretzel_man]

Wednesday we got hit with a nice snowstorm. We started at 10 and had to be back to the building at 6:30. Needless to say we had many stops brought back, some of which we could have delivered if we were allowed to stay out a while longer. Thursday, although many areas were still quite ugly, the going was better and we would have been able to put a nice dent in our leftover stops but we got a message to be back to the building by 6:30-6:45. Many of us begged to keep going so we could get cleaned up. The streets were mostly clear but they made us come in. Friday we start in a big hole when lo and behold we get this fine message at 3 o'clock. "No one is to come in until you get permission. We are going to clean up all the stops". You can imagine what the replies to that message were like. Luckily I only had to help one guy and snuck back to the building around 7. All but about 8 trucks out of 50 were still out. The supe and center manager were running around with their thumbs up their butts wondering why 5 guys were going over 12 hours and 2 over 13. It's good they provide a little comic relief during these stressful times. I think I heard this somewhere. You don't plan to fail, you fail to plan.

I don't know the reasoning they used in your specific case, but I have make similar decisions myself. Here were my reasons:

If the drivers stay out late on Wednesday, they return back to the local sort or twilight hub late. Volume is not available for the sort and it goes down late and has a large cost impact.

Because the local sort or hub ran late, feeders have to pull late. Again this impacts cost in the feeder operation.

Because the feeders pulled late, the night sort is now impacted. Again, it will run late with considerable extra cost.

The late night sort impacts the feeder pulls back to the preload which will have trouble getting down, causing the drivers to be impacted on Thursday.

Its a viscous cycle. On Friday, there is a chance to catch up with much less impact.

Again, I don't know why they did what they did. These were my reasons, and I'm certain I was right. Sometimes, packages have to sit in order to keep the whole network running.

P-Man

 

[soberups]

I applaud the use of EC as a safety measure.

I despise the use of EC as a dispatch tool, whether by mgt or by a driver. Yes, I said by a driver. We all have at least one in our centers. The one who says "I don't feel like going down that road today, I won't bother calling the phone number on the pkg to try to make an alternate delivery, I will use the weather as an excuse" and sheets a package that more than likely could have been delivered as an EC.

There is a flip side to that coin.

Lets say I dont sheet that pkg up as EC, instead lets say I "go for it" and try to get down that snow-covered driveway to make service on it since its "more than likely" that I can deliver it.

What happens if I get stuck? What happens if I tear up the customers driveway...or slide a few inches and break my mirror on a tree branch?

My dedication to making service will be rewarded...with a warning or suspension letter for an "avoidable accident", as well as a condescending lecture about "safety" methods and a regurgitation of the ten point commentary.

Damned if I do, damned if I dont.

And as far as calling the number on the package...UPS does not supply me with a phone, it does not even offer to compensate me for use of my airtime, and does not allow any time for making phone calls as part of the delivery process. Despite all of that I still wind up using my phone for work purposes, but it is on my terms and under no circumstances will I ever allow use of my phone to become an expectation on the company's part.