Placed on satellite run?

[soberups]

Last I heard, our sat route was a money loser regardless of where it originates. By making it a sat route, UPS saves by passing the costs of 90 minutes pay and roughly 90 miles worth of gas onto the driver.

But the bid driver loves it, because he lives out there and gets to roll out of bed at the crack of 9:15.

That time and gas isnt really "saved"...it only gets shifted around to the other drivers in the loop.

The feed driver who pulls the trailer can no longer make service on all his own air, so it must be given to another driver in his loop who breaks trace to deliver it.

The feed driver must also break trace at the end of the day in order to drive all the way back to the trailer and retrieve it. And if he cannot get his own deliveries off by the pull time, yet another driver in his loop must break trace to sevice those deliveries.

If the satellite drivers cant complete their deliveries by the pull time in the evening...they must then break trace, return to the trailer in order to unload their pickup volume, then go back out on trace to complete their deliveries.

What else? Lets see....we are paying a preloader to load the stops into the pup trailer, and we are then paying the drivers to unload and reload those packages again. And the process of handling each package twice is repeated in the evening.

We pay a mechanic to drive all the way out to the satellite ctr to work on the cars, or we pay to have them towed back to the home center.

We pay the feed driver an extra .25 per hour, and we pay about $600 per package car to install a hitch. And for every sat route you need two hitch cars, in case one breaks down or is pulled for a PMI.

A brand new TP-6 trailer costs about 8 grand. I pull mine about 30 miles per day, and it goes through 2 sets of tires per year, probably $1000 worth.

We also pay rent for the location of the satellite center, and we pay full retail price for fueling the cars at a gas station.

There are probably a few situations where a sat center makes sense, but most of the time they are money losers.

 

[CharleyHustle]

It seems to me if your route is going to get sattellited, and the domicile changed you should be able to displace ANY lower senority person which could result in a 3 stage bid. Why should a high senority driver be forced into coverage work?

I for one, could see sattellite routes working. But they certainly would involve more planning, more foresight, and more work for the management team. They might not try to hard to have them succeed, just so they don't have to deal with any more.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

When they were toying with the idea of changing a route in my center to a sat run they were going to wait until bids were up to do it, in part for the very reason that you stated. To me this would be the only fair way to do it.

 

[Brown287]

That time and gas isnt really "saved"...it only gets shifted around to the other drivers in the loop.

The feed driver who pulls the trailer can no longer make service on all his own air, so it must be given to another driver in his loop who breaks trace to deliver it.

The feed driver must also break trace at the end of the day in order to drive all the way back to the trailer and retrieve it. And if he cannot get his own deliveries off by the pull time, yet another driver in his loop must break trace to sevice those deliveries.

If the satellite drivers cant complete their deliveries by the pull time in the evening...they must then break trace, return to the trailer in order to unload their pickup volume, then go back out on trace to complete their deliveries.

What else? Lets see....we are paying a preloader to load the stops into the pup trailer, and we are then paying the drivers to unload and reload those packages again. And the process of handling each package twice is repeated in the evening.

We pay a mechanic to drive all the way out to the satellite ctr to work on the cars, or we pay to have them towed back to the home center.

We pay the feed driver an extra .25 per hour, and we pay about $600 per package car to install a hitch. And for every sat route you need two hitch cars, in case one breaks down or is pulled for a PMI.

A brand new TP-6 trailer costs about 8 grand. I pull mine about 30 miles per day, and it goes through 2 sets of tires per year, probably $1000 worth.

We also pay rent for the location of the satellite center, and we pay full retail price for fueling the cars at a gas station.

There are probably a few situations where a sat center makes sense, but most of the time they are money losers.

Thats funny because I have had the same experience. Roughly 85 to 90 miles a day and that trailor is falling apart. Not only does it average new tires every 6 months it also has had brake lines fall off, trailor cables break, safety chains wear out, and the kicker is they have had to replace the floor in the trailer twice now in two years. Also the most annoying part of all is that security sees fit to change the lock tumbler every other month on me.

All and all I really don't see this thing being a huge money maker. As far as breaking trace to go retrieve the pup at night, its a huge pain in the A**

 

[old levi's]

That time and gas isnt really "saved"...it only gets shifted around to the other drivers in the loop.

The feed driver who pulls the trailer can no longer make service on all his own air, so it must be given to another driver in his loop who breaks trace to deliver it.

The feed driver must also break trace at the end of the day in order to drive all the way back to the trailer and retrieve it. And if he cannot get his own deliveries off by the pull time, yet another driver in his loop must break trace to sevice those deliveries.

If the satellite drivers cant complete their deliveries by the pull time in the evening...they must then break trace, return to the trailer in order to unload their pickup volume, then go back out on trace to complete their deliveries.

What else? Lets see....we are paying a preloader to load the stops into the pup trailer, and we are then paying the drivers to unload and reload those packages again. And the process of handling each package twice is repeated in the evening.

We pay a mechanic to drive all the way out to the satellite ctr to work on the cars, or we pay to have them towed back to the home center.

We pay the feed driver an extra .25 per hour, and we pay about $600 per package car to install a hitch. And for every sat route you need two hitch cars, in case one breaks down or is pulled for a PMI.

A brand new TP-6 trailer costs about 8 grand. I pull mine about 30 miles per day, and it goes through 2 sets of tires per year, probably $1000 worth.

We also pay rent for the location of the satellite center, and we pay full retail price for fueling the cars at a gas station.

There are probably a few situations where a sat center makes sense, but most of the time they are money losers.

Not here. They give the feed driver early AMs (1000 am commit /extended area) that he delivers before dropping the trl. that feeds 2 sat. routes. And if our leave time gets pushed back to 1100 or 1115, Oh well , we're not really part of the organization anyway.

Not here. Never complete route by pull time. see leave time above

Not here. When there is a mechanical failure that renders the pkg. car inoperable then it is taken to the center by tow truck. There is NO regular maintenance or daily repairs. The mechanics do not come to the satellite center for any reason.

Yeah, but we're saving money.

 

[JustTired]

I will say that this is just a guess on my part.

Any 'perceived savings' on a satellite area is probably an 'on paper' savings. Unless all factors are taken into account, a true savings cannot be determined. Maintenance issues, rental fees for storage space (if applicable), tp60 issues (extra pay and maintenance), ultimately paying anywhere from $30-45/hr for driver to load their own vehicle (this after paying a preloader to load the tp60), etc.

My guess is that the only real savings is for the driver who lives close to the satellite location.

 

[tfinnegan]

Hey look at it this way, you are the lowest seniority driver, they could have told you some thing else, like you are laid off, until vacations start again in May or June, then how would that new house be! Be thankful you are still working and will still be in pay progression to top rate.