Production

[1989]

A lunch violation is a cardinal sin in 9810/9811/9812

 

[New Englander]

Try this....enter your lunch, Run it. Ask for your delivery record the next day. Show your manager where you did not "actually" take a lunch.

See if you get a warning letter.

 

[1989]

Can't do that in those 3 centers, and yes you will get a warning letter up to termination. It is monitored from above.

 

[New Englander]

In most other centers you won't get anything. That's the joke where I am.

 

[Jack4343]

You know, worthless driver's comment about them wanting your lunch hour got me thinking. Since the lawsuit in CA, making sure you record your full lunch has been top priority. Of course, they never tell you to take your lunch, only to record it. The past two workdays, we have gotten a broadcast message to record our lunch by 3pm. In fact, one message stated for us to stop what we were doing and record our lunch immediately. This is exactly how they will increase production. Forcing drivers to enter their lunch by a specific time whether we take it by then or not will have some drivers recording their lunch without taking it. Of course it's in the union contract that we have to start our lunch by a certain time (I think it's by the end of the 5th hour) but locally they have never enforced that. I guess they are enforcing it to entice some drivers to blow off their lunch to ensure they service their customers. Add all of the usually tightening of the rules following peak and this could get pretty ugly nationwide. Just remember. Work as directed, follow all methods and make sure you correctly complete your close out at the end of the day. (removing clerk packages, signing off on call tags, etc.) This is the time of year where they look to thin the herd a bit by eliminating otherwise decent drivers that make a mistake, however small that mistake may be.

 

[anonymous6]

I had the honor of being a helper this peak. First exposure to UPS. It was a learning experience to say the least. On the topic of production one thing I noticed with my regular driver was the amount of time "supervision" took away from him actually doing his job. 2- 3 times a week there was at least one call from a sup, usually in the 5-10 minute range for duration. One day the sup spent 20 minutes on the cell phone in a conversation the gist of which was why he wasn't working harder. Guess how many stops he made in that time. I'm a numbers guy and from the time I got on the truck until the time I got off were averaging 28-33 stops per hour, even when we had to do UPS Store pickups with 100+ pckgs. I can't say what the fella did when I wasn't on the truck, but we were busting our SPH goal every day when I was on board, and he was still getting regular supervision calls demanding he work harder.

GOD! Another rabbit. when will these bunnies ever learn.
?

 

[anonymous6]

Use the methods and follow ALL of the safety edicts. If you can demonstrate that you are doing these things, then by definition your SPOHR MUST be OK. If your numbers are still bad then the problem is with the time study-- not the driver.

This , in a nutshell , is the answer. I have also used the tactic suggested by a previous poster. Ask the supe to demonstrate the proper methods.

We had one constantly telling us that it should only take us 15-20 minutes to chain up a set of doubles on a feeder rig.

Low and behold, I had a ride along with this guy and prayed for snow and it did. I told him to go ahead and chain the rig and watched him as he constantly had problems and it took him 45 minutes. he was so upset he said I should of helped him as we were going to be late and possibly miss service. He was driving 65 in a 55 and I kept leaning over to check his speed and told him to slow down or pull over so I could take over.

This guy used to be a feeder driver and couldn't make it so he went into management.

 

[gandydancer]

... Never lose sight of the fact that when push comes to shove you can ALWAYS make your management more miserable than they can make you...

Not sure I believe the rest of the post. Getting your supe to sit still for three hours of the abuse he hands out sounds like one of those "reader mail" fantasies in the skin magazines. And I'm not sure you can make him MORE miserable than you. But the underlying idea is absolutely right. It's foolish to pass up any opportunity to remind the supes that there are easier targets than you.

 

[old brown shoe]

More production will only result in accidents, injuries and loosing more customers. When will they learn that there is a fine line about doing the job right or wrong. I can put in long days but if you load me up I will pace myself to be able to finish. Do your methods, speed limits and take your lunch and breaks. If that isn't good enough then something is wrong with the allowance not the driver. Need to put service back into UPS not faster harder.

 

[satellitedriver]

I say bring it on.

I could not agree more.
They have two things to prove to me in demanding for me to do more production.
First, show me where I am "goofing off",with hard data to backup their claim.
Secondly, have the Sup, making the claim, run my route for one week and beat my production numbers.
Neither will happen.

 

[BLACKBOX]

They will cut routes and increase delivery stop counts and pickup stop counts on the remaining drivers.

This says it all, I just don't know how they are going to look at a route that has already been revised and think they could squeeze more stops or picks ups.

We are sacrificial lambs in a system that rewards center manager's that can push the most seasoned drivers to their limit. All I'm saying is there are going to be people who will make the new revised numbers and the ones who don't, get ready to get harassed and pestered.

 

[browniehound]

I say bring it on too! I work very hard and as efficent as possible every day. I know how to do my job (my route) better than anyone in the entire world. I know the methods and use the methods.

I don't need somebody with me for 3 days to teach me MY job. Its absurd when you think about it. The only time you would get out of me would be the chit-chat with the customers.

Which begs this question. Why pay your sup. 70k+/year to baby sit drivers 3 days/week just to prove he can run his route in a certain amount of time? Once the sup. is gone from his truck, the driver will perform at his past standards. You can't fire him for it so why waste the resoures?

Why not spend those 3 days generating sales leads? I have about 25 seconds/day to get sales leads. It appears that my sup. has 30 hours/week to produce 10 minutes of time from me, why not let him produce the leads?

 

[rod]

I will admit that I only read about 4 or 5 posts on this subject but from what I can tell -----no matter what you do --- it will never be good enough. Duh----is always has been and will continue to be that way Welcome to UPS

 

[New Englander]

I must ask.....why does your productivity go up when a Sup rides you? Then down when they don't?

That just brings more crap from them.

That is why they are paid to do what they do. If everyone stayed flatlines in production when a sup rode them there would be little need for them.

 

[satellitedriver]

I must ask.....why does your productivity go up when a Sup rides you? Then down when they don't?

That just brings more crap from them.

That is why they are paid to do what they do. If everyone stayed flatlines in production when a sup rode them there would be little need for them.

My production has never gone up or down when a Sup rides with me.
I work by the methods daily.

 

[tieguy]

I say bring it on.

The last time I had a sup ride my ass about SPORH, I told him I would commit to whatever number he was able to demonstrate to me.

He got on car with me the next day and took the drivers seat. I had a notebook of my own, and I started timing him with my wristwatch and documenting the flaws in his methods. I would talk to him and recite numbers in order to confuse and distract him while he was trying to concentrate on looking for addresses and finding his next stop. I pointed out to him whenever he failed to select a package in under 24 seconds, or whenever he took longer than 7.5 seconds to stop, secure the vehicle and open the bulkhead door. I kept a running total of hs SPORH and reminded him of it every few minutes to keep the pressure on. I documented and verbally confronted him every time he failed to use a proper safety method, or whenever he followed another vehicle too closely, or failed to curb his wheels when parking on a hill. After 3 hours of this he didnt know whether to shiite or go blind, and his SPORH was nowhere near what he expected from me. We wound up needing help from other drivers just to get our pickups done on time. He learned his lesson and never bothered me again.

If you are being harrassed by a sup over SPORH, all you need to do is turn his own tactics against him. Insist that he demonstrate to you what he expects from you, and when he tries to do so you can break him down and drive home the fact that he is totally incapable of doing the job as well as you can and that his expectations are not based in reality. He will then leave you alone and seek an easier target. Never lose sight of the fact that when push comes to shove you can ALWAYS make your management more miserable than they can make you. Its all a state of mind.

your sup must be a real pushover and his boss an idiot if he wasted his supervisor resources by letting the guy go out and waste his day in this fashion.

 

[BigBrownSanta]

I must ask.....why does your productivity go up when a Sup rides you? Then down when they don't?

That just brings more crap from them.

That is why they are paid to do what they do. If everyone stayed flatlines in production when a sup rode them there would be little need for them.

One reason would be your customers. They see the sup following you and think you are in trouble. They don't want to see you get in trouble, so when you walk in, they drop everything to sign whereas when you're alone, they may finish with their customer before signing.

Another would be because the sup has massaged your load before you showed up. You know, deliveries set up stop for stop, lip loaded, and not a package out of place.

Also, don't forget that (due to PAS) they now know what deliveries (estimated) you're going to have days before the ride. Your load can be "evened out" so that you have very light days that just so happen to coincide with the days you will be ridden with. Packages can be removed from your day (not all packages that come in are commited to be delivered that day) and put in trailers for the next day if they are really wanting to get rid of you. I wouldn't be surprised if they wouldn't hide commited packages just to get rid of someone who is a real PITA to them.

There is no reason the union should allow an OJS ride to be used against a driver at all. The company holds all the cards and can manipulate the outcome on any given day.

 

[New Englander]

One reason would be your customers. They see the sup following you and think you are in trouble. They don't want to see you get in trouble, so when you walk in, they drop everything to sign whereas when you're alone, they may finish with their customer before signing.

Another would be because the sup has massaged your load before you showed up. You know, deliveries set up stop for stop, lip loaded, and not a package out of place.

Also, don't forget that (due to PAS) they now know what deliveries (estimated) you're going to have days before the ride. Your load can be "evened out" so that you have very light days that just so happen to coincide with the days you will be ridden with. Packages can be removed from your day (not all packages that come in are commited to be delivered that day) and put in trailers for the next day if they are really wanting to get rid of you. I wouldn't be surprised if they wouldn't hide commited packages just to get rid of someone who is a real PITA to them.

There is no reason the union should allow an OJS ride to be used against a driver at all. The company holds all the cards and can manipulate the outcome on any given day.

That all happens less then you think. They can't get rid of you for these performance type issues unless you are grossly incapable of doing the job. Most of us arrive to work while the preload is still running (end) and the preloaders would tell us if anything was going on like that.

 

[BigBrownSanta]

That all happens less then you think. They can't get rid of you for these performance type issues unless you are grossly incapable of doing the job. Most of us arrive to work while the preload is still running (end) and the preloaders would tell us if anything was going on like that.

Actually the load massaging happened on all 3 of the 3 day rides I have had.

I'll admit, the third paragraph is mostly conjecture on my part.

 

[New Englander]

Actually the load massaging happened on all 3 of the 3 day rides I have had.

I'll admit, the third paragraph is mostly conjecture on my part.

Not in my center. As thats my experience I can only go from that. 24/25 route center right now. It's small enough where everyone pretty much knows whats going on.