Question about bad PAL labels ???

S

serenity now

Guest
hopefully someone who has actual knowledge of the software of this system can answer this:

If the PAL is not replicated exactly as the original label why not kick that one out with an alert label to be diverted to a clerk for further research, instead of making up an address that will FAIL?
 

menotyou

bella amicizia
That would involve the person in DA be allowed to do their job, instead of dumping bags or helping push the volume out the feeder. I use to know the answer, but I am sure the system has changed.
 

stepitup

Well-Known Member
I have several highways that preface with East, West, North, South and some of the concoctions that spit out on the pal label are amazing and have caused service failures. Many, many efforts with the dispatch sup have failed to correct this. Despite their efforts (and they are trying) it's a "glitch" in the system I'm being told, followed by "nothing is perfect". <sigh>.....if this excuse only applied to our occasional human errors.
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
Some of it has to do with AMS - the Address Management System. It's basically a database that can alias certain addresses, locations, etc to the correct address - for example, if there is a business at 100 Pizza Street, and they move to 500 Cheese Lane, and for some reason things are still shipped to the Pizza Street address, they can be forwarded (based on the consignee) to the correct address. The same thing holds for PO Boxes, and things of that nature.

The issue arises when the consignee is not an exact match - so, if the business in question is Deep Fried Madness, and for some reason the shipping information UPS receives is Deep Fried Sadness, it won't match in AMS and the PAL label won't be right.

From there, sometimes the "system" (which is really a massive conglomeration of multiple systems that, from what I can tell, were never designed to work together in the first place) will try a "best match", other times it will just give up, and other times it will just be blank (a PAL with lines on it).

This ties in with the data corrections that are supposed to be done via UDC before the Preload shift begins; also, the clerks who do actual address corrections and what not are supposed to maintain the AMS database - now, I can't speak for other buildings, but in the building where I am employed I am the only one who even knows what AMS is, and I have enough to do. The result: bad PAL's, blank labels, and much frustration.

edit: To the original question, blank PAL's and NIS are the alert label - they are supposed to go to a clerical/DataAcq station to be corrected and fixed (i.e. E2DC, DKE Small, and/or AMS).
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
I work in a small center and for the most part we have relatively few bad PAL's. We do not have a morning clerk so there is no way to do address corrections; however, we are able to make service on most of the bad PAL's or NIS through driver knowledge. The part that frustrates me is when the PT sups bring all of the "bad address" packages to our look-up room rather than putting them behind the package car which serves that town. We had two of these on Valentine's Day that were clearly meant to be presents. The drivers for those two towns knew exactly where they needed to go and service was made; however, had it been left to the PT sups, the pkgs would have sat until the PM clerk came in and address corrected them.
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
It's 11AM, I've drank 10 beers so far, so I'll ramble a little bit more.

Another problem is with the dispatch supervisors - the program they use to cut the inbound volume to specific routes won't "see" arbitrary amounts of volume if a proper End-Of-Day wasn't done by the shipper, or by other UPS hubs (most notably, WorldPort - when they screw the pooch on EOD it's a massive problem for the entire network). This isn't really a problem in-and-of itself, but depending on the route levels on any given day, a specific stop (e.g. bulk stops or straight-line residential areas) may or may not be on a certain route. If the PDS doesn't "see" it, it may not wind up on the right route. There is, of course, the fall back of where the specific plan being run will assign it, but it isn't always right.

My understanding is that if a shipper has continual problems with incorrect information, sales is supposed to be contacted, so they can in turn contact the shipper to correct the problem. Now, I don't have to tell most of you that contacting sales probably isn't worth a buffalo poop on a nickel. So, the clerks just get the same incorrect information every day, all day. Maybe it could be corrected in AMS, but one limitation (of many) on that system is that you can no longer (you used to be able to, but not anymore) alias certain addresses to another address in another zip code. So, if the shipper constantly stamps the wrong zip on a package, your pretty much SOL.

Sounds crazy, but the reason why you can't alias outside a specific zip code anymore is because IE got wind that every PDS and his mom was using AMS to "quick fix" problems instead of going back and editing a hundred dispatch plans - which is pretty time consuming. So, the feature was removed and now you get more NIS's and blanks than ever before.

I should add that I'm not a PDS, don't do dispatch, and haven't been trained in any of this. It's just what I've pieced together myself; I could be right, I could be wrong, I don't know.
 

menotyou

bella amicizia
I work in a small center and for the most part we have relatively few bad PAL's. We do not have a morning clerk so there is no way to do address corrections; however, we are able to make service on most of the bad PAL's or NIS through driver knowledge. The part that frustrates me is when the PT sups bring all of the "bad address" packages to our look-up room rather than putting them behind the package car which serves that town. We had two of these on Valentine's Day that were clearly meant to be presents. The drivers for those two towns knew exactly where they needed to go and service was made; however, had it been left to the PT sups, the pkgs would have sat until the PM clerk came in and address corrected them.
I was an AM Clerk. The job is there for a reason. In my opinion, of the two, preload needs a clerk more. Unfortunately, the hands would never touch the computer. "We need more volume on the belt!"


BB- Does anyone work on OPLD anymore?
 

menotyou

bella amicizia
It's 11AM, I've drank 10 beers so far, so I'll ramble a little bit more.

Sounds crazy, but the reason why you can't alias outside a specific zip code anymore is because IE got wind that every PDS and his mom was using AMS to "quick fix" problems instead of going back and editing a hundred dispatch plans - which is pretty time consuming. So, the feature was removed and now you get more NIS's and blanks than ever before.
My building was one of the first to get this system and one of the worst for doing this exact thing.
 

cosmo1

Perhaps.
Staff member
.....From there, sometimes the "system" (which is really a massive conglomeration of multiple systems that, from what I can tell, were never designed to work together in the first place) will try a "best match", other times it will just give up, and other times it will just be blank (a PAL with lines on it).....

This ties in with the data corrections that are supposed to be done via UDC before the Preload shift begins; also, the clerks who do actual address corrections and what not are supposed to maintain the AMS database - now, I can't speak for other buildings, but in the building where I am employed I am the only one who even knows what AMS is, and I have enough to do. The result: bad PAL's, blank labels, and much frustration.

edit: To the original question, blank PAL's and NIS are the alert label - they are supposed to go to a clerical/DataAcq station to be corrected and fixed (i.e. E2DC, DKE Small, and/or AMS).

A driver on the other end of the county has a US Hwy xx. I have a State Hwy xxx. If a pkg comes through, with the prefix US Hwy that is supposed to be mine, the system will send it to his route. On top of that, our center covers more US Hwy's and State Hwy's than I can count.
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
I was an AM Clerk. The job is there for a reason. In my opinion, of the two, preload needs a clerk more. Unfortunately, the hands would never touch the computer. "We need more volume on the belt!"


BB- Does anyone work on OPLD anymore?

Not in the building where I'm employed; it's all Exception to Data Capture, Cardfile, Web Lookup, and AMS. In a pinch, or if the dispatch is really horrible, you can do Temporary Service Changes in DMS to flag packages that always need manual corrections, but that is ... incredibly ugly.
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
A driver on the other end of the county has a US Hwy xx. I have a State Hwy xxx. If a pkg comes through, with the prefix US Hwy that is supposed to be mine, the system will send it to his route. On top of that, our center covers more US Hwy's and State Hwy's than I can count.

The center that I am employed in is small by most standards, but is devoted to servicing a dense urban area - so, there are the same street names in different zip codes, and the shippers/consignees constantly put the wrong zip (or no zip) on packages. It is all I can do some days to keep from shooting myself.
 
S

serenity now

Guest
......................................................

From there, sometimes the "system" (which is really a massive conglomeration of multiple systems that, from what I can tell, were never designed to work together in the first place) will try a "best match", other times it will just give up, and other times it will just be blank (a PAL with lines on it).

.............................................................................


that "best match" is anything but.......

takes 2730 steet name and turns it into 1862 US Hwy xxx

in what twisted dimension can you make that irrational leap?


 
S

serenity now

Guest
i had better loads when a pre-loader was reading a complete address and thinking ..................

instead of matching the green frog to the green frog
 
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