peak

[Sammie]

God Love The Working Man/Woman!

Speaking of Peak, here are a few stats from
some vintage Big Idea mags I recently
ran across:

Most Stops - One Driver - One Day
840 Mark von Elling Lenexa Kansas Dec 22, 1987

Most pkgs delivered to one family on one day
129 Curt Swanson Green Bay Wisc. Dec 10, 1985

Biggest Delivery Notice Received
2" X 4' Freddie Nelson Tyler, Texas Jan 12, 1987


Most pkgs picked up in one pkg car on one day (Less Than
20% Envelope-Type Pkgs)
4,964 Ralph Brooks Livonia Mich. Nov. 10, 1981

Most NDA pkgs picked up from one customer, one driver, one day
3,456 John Hamlett Metuchen N.J. Dec 23, 1985

Most 2 Day Air Pkgs picked up from one customer, one driver, one day
10,482 Don Parks Rochester, N.Y. Nov. 28, 1982




Longest time in a UPS uniform
51 years Tony DiCarluccio Bronx, N.Y. Retired in 1983

 

[Dirty Savage]

Yes, peak has been quite the gong-show this year. Only 7 MORE DAYS!!!

Good times.

 

[DS]

so when they ods me to call and it takes me awhile, I tell them I was napping.
.....

I love it tooner... I wonder if your sarcasm is making things worse though.Cant you bid on another run with a better time allowance? Or go for a 5 ton route,or an early AM gig that would get you home by 7PM?
It sucks that you have such an incompetant mngmt team that wont leave you alone.Were chipping in to buy our oncar sup a gift card for the liquor store for Christmas.He actually listens when we have problems.

 

[under the radar]

Peak is a very difficult time for all of us (Duh!).

Some managers are more capable than others. In three decades I've seen the whole spectrum; from totally organized, prepared and supportive to sloppy, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants, confrontational and irrational. It's human nature.

The best thing I can do to survive as a driver is to seriously practice the methods all year, stay in contact with my management team about problems on-road (misloads, emergency conditions, too many air stops, a pickup that is going to be heavy, a bad helper, etc.). I've found that the less I complain, the more they hear my complaints.

The packages go in the truck one at a time and that's how they come out. That's what helped me survive today.

I've said this on almost every post: Do what they tell you. If it takes you longer, you make more money.

 

[Big Babooba]

My division manager was telling me that UPS is investing big bucks in new trucks for the 2008 Peak. They are going to be phased in one center at a time. They will be capable of holding more packages than a regular package car. One benefit is that a preloader's job will be simpler than it is now and will eliminate the need for PAS. He gave me a sneak preview of one of the training films on the new preloading techniques.

"
heil power trak commercial vs. Leach 2R2

 

[toonertoo]

I love it tooner... I wonder if your sarcasm is making things worse though.Cant you bid on another run with a better time allowance? Or go for a 5 ton route,or an early AM gig that would get you home by 7PM?
It sucks that you have such an incompetant mngmt team that wont leave you alone.Were chipping in to buy our oncar sup a gift card for the liquor store for Christmas.He actually listens when we have problems.

The allowance got killed when the standards were changed.
Before that it was fine.
I doubt my sarcasm hurts anything, its what they expect, and know they deserve.
There are no routes for bid, its been 15 yrs since anyone had a time study, and everyone knows they are wrong but the whole team has to have something to go by. Its not that they are bad, just got caught with that holiday suddenly showing up on the 25th.
There are no early am routes in our building.

 

[trplnkl]

I love it tooner... I wonder if your sarcasm is making things worse though.Cant you bid on another run with a better time allowance? Or go for a 5 ton route,or an early AM gig that would get you home by 7PM?
It sucks that you have such an incompetant mngmt team that wont leave you alone.Were chipping in to buy our oncar sup a gift card for the liquor store for Christmas.He actually listens when we have problems.

He better not have any ideas of going any higher in mngmnt. All the good sups I have known either get fired on some kind of trumped up crap, or die as an on car sup.

 

[Big Babooba]

He better not have any ideas of going any higher in mngmnt. All the good sups I have known either get fired on some kind of trumped up crap, or die as an on car sup.

We've delivered ground on Saturdays a few times because bad weather caused late loads. Once the whole building was required to work. Time and a half for the 6th punch whether you volunteer or not

 

[doctor brown 688]

Christmas seems to sneak up on our sups every year,I have never seen an actual "planned day" either.(ha ha)

 

[scratch]

My Peak has been going very well so far, although I'm sure things will hit the fan next week. I think we actually have a good Center management team. I have no complaints with any of them. The split cars have been going in as soon as IE will let them. Our weather has been mild with practically no rain, as our drought continues. You folks that are working in the snow and ice are the true heroes of a UPS peak season. I have only gone over 9.5 twice this last month, and last night was the first time I clocked out in the dark because I helped another driver whose helper pulled a no show. 30 stops in one hour by myself, I still have it with the current stop density. We have had a few minor glitches, like a belt breaking during the Preload and some late air messing up my EAM runs.

Only six more days to go...............

 

[RockyRogue]

I invite anyone to OJS me, it would be my pleasure. Until then, the only numbers I care about are those on my pay check.

Good idea. Only realize that they actually love doing those OJS' forms. In my last three weeks at UPS, I was OJS'd three times. I never did understand why they did it so often, particularly since I was leaving. It got old in a HURRY. They sent some underinformed moronic hourly around to do it the last time. He signed off on every box, had me sign it and said, "You're leaving, anyway. I don't care anymore." I laughed. -Rocky

 

[Dirty Savage]

5:55 a.m. pulling into the parking lot I notice there are no trailers. Great.
6 a.m. clock in.
7:45 a.m. the first trailer finally pulls in. It had been snowing here for a couple of days. Highways sketchy. In the almost two hours we sat around doing nothing I read the trailer forcast for Friday. We were to receive 4 trailers in total. Load capacities were 100%, 50%, 25% and 40%. So we unloaded the 100% and the 50% and when we cracked the third trailer we found it to be completely full! ? Our centre clerk made some calls and told us, no, we were only getting three trailers today so we assumed they had just combined the 25% and the 40% into one load. So we finished the third trailer and it was 9:30 at that time. We were getting ready to leave when we heard the BEEP BEEP BEEP of a semi backing up. Rolled up the door and there was a fourth trailer! OH COME ON NOW!
10:50 a.m. finally leave the building. I did not even attempt an air trace, just sorted my truck stop for stop and went at it.
6:30 p.m. I left my area and headed back to the centre. Unloaded my pickup volume and scanned a bunch of packages as missed.
7:02 p.m. punch out.

In summary, 13 hours, code 5, 20-some late air, 20 missed (all residential). Think I only got 87 stops done because I told management that I absolutely refuse to work more than 13 hours but I am considering going in today (Saturday) to attempt those 20 missed packages.

Yet another week wherein I worked over 60 hours. Too bad I only make $14/hr

 

[cino321]

Good idea. Only realize that they actually love doing those OJS' forms. In my last three weeks at UPS, I was OJS'd three times. I never did understand why they did it so often, particularly since I was leaving. It got old in a HURRY. They sent some underinformed moronic hourly around to do it the last time. He signed off on every box, had me sign it and said, "You're leaving, anyway. I don't care anymore." I laughed. -Rocky

I don't sign OJS's. You don't have to. You can't be instructed to. Whatever comments and numbers are on that paper are just semantics, you do your job safely and properly with UPS methods, you'll never have a problem.

 

[diesel96]

UPS has their together after 100 years. [NOT] Pickup volume dropping or new guys learning how to get around. I was sent to T/O Bnoil get mty.[FSTZ] Hole in roof . Called UPS, bring it back anyway . Mechanics will fix. trailer will sit around 10 day , shifters will dead bay to dead bay move it. To be terminated on Dec 22. To make more work.

Crackhead Bob?.....Bong-hit Eric? Can we have a translation? Ba Ba boowee!
If you don't have sirius 100-101 you probably don't know who I'm referring to...lol
Anyway something about T/O (tracter only) to "Bnoil get mty" (w+friend) and his FSTZ (railbox-trailer) has a hole in roof. Mechanic fixes, trailer sits, shifter moves it, and somebody or something is terminated. Did I get it right or can you chime in at a more sobering time.

Bluto's Advice

 

[Overpaid Union Thug]

Peak would go a little smoother if we didn't have to use a driver helper board. I didn't have to use one last year or the year before but this year it is required that we all use our old DIAD3s. Now when I look back at the past few years it seems like we (me and the helper) would cruise through neighborhoods and now with the helper boards it seems like we are going slower.

It would also help if preloaders would pay closer attention to sequence numbers on the PAL labels. Instead many of them are just looking at the first number or maybe the first two numbers. I imagine there will be a few days next week where it won't really matter but so far my loads haven't been cubed out so there is no reason why stops shouldn't have been loaded better. Yesterday I spent 35 minutes running stops that were loaded in the wrong sections. I had a package with a sequence number of 2017 in the 2800 range. LOL! Running those erased much of the time saved working with a helper. Oh well. That'll be more $$$ towards my new Apple laptop fund.

 

[browniehound]

Peak would go a little smoother if we didn't have to use a driver helper board. I didn't have to use one last year or the year before but this year it is required that we all use our old DIAD3s. Now when I look back at the past few years it seems like we (me and the helper) would cruise through neighborhoods and now with the helper boards it seems like we are going slower.

It would also help if preloaders would pay closer attention to sequence numbers on the PAL labels. Instead many of them are just looking at the first number or maybe the first two numbers. I imagine there will be a few days next week where it won't really matter but so far my loads haven't been cubed out so there is no reason why stops shouldn't have been loaded better. Yesterday I spent 35 minutes running stops that were loaded in the wrong sections. I had a package with a sequence number of 2017 in the 2800 range. LOL! Running those erased much of the time saved working with a helper. Oh well. That'll be more $$$ towards my new Apple laptop fund.

Does anyone know the impetus behind the driver helper board? To me its a nuisance. My helper doesn't use it because he doesn't know how. One day my sup comes up to me and gives me diad 3. I say "he doesn't know how to use this. He says, "yeah but you do, use it for 40 stops"
??????

Here is where I question the center's integrity or maybe it comes from the district?

Let's follow the logic. We are in business to make money and to maximize profits is the ultimate goal. To do so, we need to use our labor force as efficently as possible.

As a driver I am not my most efficent when I have to fumble around with two DIADs. One rerason is because I'm constantly scrolling through the screens in DIAD 4 that I already delivered with DIAD 3. Either that or I have to "not find" all those stops in one of the DIADS. This lends itself to driving by stops.

At the end of the day it comes down to one fact. Its not the most efficient way to run the operation. I heard from my center manager "we need to use helper boards to justify their existence"

My question is to whom???????? The Supreme Court?

So it comes down to manipulating numbers at the center level.

If an executive from a respectable company witnessed this scenario, I'm sure he would be dumbfounded. Why does UPS do this? And why does corporate let the centers get away with this?

It come down to this simple statment. I use my helper 6 hours a day. He gets paid 9.50 per hour. He is going to make 9.50 per hour for 6 hours regardless if I use the helper board or not. So why use the extra DIAD? Using 2 DIADs slows me down. Now the company is paying me an extra 15 minutes of OT because I must use 2 boards to "justify the helpers existence".

UPS has been in been in business for 100 years in spite of itself.


Can someone from IE please enlighten me on the subject of helper boards? I just want a logical anwser. Thank you in advance

 

[scratch]

Does anyone know the impetus behind the driver helper board? To me its a nuisance. My helper doesn't use it because he doesn't know how.

Let's follow the logic. We are in business to make money and to maximize profits is the ultimate goal. To do so, we need to use our labor force as efficently as possible.
Can someone from IE please enlighten on the subject of helper boards? Thank you in advance

Browniehound,
In a nutshell, thats it. Because IE says so. The same IE that won't let my Dispatch Sup put a new street in the correct order in EDD "till after peak". The same IE that lets a Rental truck sit unused because IE didn't approve the car number. I have problems with my DIAD 3 too. I put those 40 stops in it and go back to D4. The D3 is slower and doesn't scan well because the scanner is scratched up. Its only good for a helper timecard. I could go on, but you get my drift.

 

[Harley Rider]

Anyway something about T/O (tracter only) to "Bnoil get mty" (w+friend) and his FSTZ (railbox-trailer) has a hole in roof. Mechanic fixes, trailer sits, shifter moves it, and somebody or something is terminated. Did I get it right or can you chime in at a more sobering time.

Damn!

Thanks for that Diesel. I only got 23 years in with UPS and don't fully understand all the acronyms yet. I just kind of let that one slide on by when I read it not wanting to be considered stupid. Glad to know I wasn't the only one that was baffled.

 

[westsideworma]

Can someone from IE please enlighten me on the subject of helper boards? I just want a logical anwser. Thank you in advance

THe only logical IE person I've encountered was dudebro on here....so as far as IRL I've never met one lol.

These are the same people that feel our pph should increase every year, using the same outdated and subpar equipment in our old hub. The brilliance never ceases. PAS is a double edged sword, makes it easier to load and easier to screw up. It does by no means make you load faster (just learn how to faster)....if you carry in 5 packages it still takes just as long as it used to to place them in the truck....oh well.

 

[Brown Dog]

Hang in there tooner, this too shall pass. My allowance went south a couple of years ago and now I just know I'll get paid for my hours worked. I have a good runner this year, I trained him last year. We put the 40 stops in his diad and then stow it. I get him for 6 hours a day. I usually run about 12-14 st/hr, now it's about 10st/hr. My ten cube is jammed, there's no place to sort, usualy 10-15 misloads. I'm punching out between 630 and 730 with an 830 start.I hope you can relax and recharge your batteries over the weekend. Because we all know, after peak, it all just starts over again. take the money and run, enjoy your time away from work. I don't think anyone should be constantly harrassed for performance if your following methods and getting the job done. Maybe you could talk to you steward about it. Good Luck!