Question Regarding Package Selection (New Driver)

[Dumbo]

When you get a chance and your major bulk stops are off, park in the shade and open the back door and rough sort. Use the floor if you need to to make piles of similar HINs. For example throw all your 3400s (or whatever shelf your working on) in a pile on the floor or on a open spot on a shelf.

How much time you spend depends on the load. If it's a total mess, just give it a minute unless it's an air. If your truck has an aisle then I'd spend more time rough sorting until I found it.

But don't just dig through everything looking for that HIN. Every package you touch looking for it should sorted rapidly.

 

[PPH_over_9000]

If the truck number starts with an 8, it's an 8.

...it's typically UPSP 006[...], so that means a 600, I guess? And I only know that because some of the "DIAD scan only" barcodes won't scan and I have to enter it in manually to input my starting miles.

I gotta get some sleep, though, I'll try to reply to any new posts some time tomorrow. Every bit of advice is helpful and I promise you guys aren't wasting your time giving me your $0.02.

 

[Whither]

Yeah, it's been steadily increasing with every good day I have. My first day was in the low 100's, an easy scratch but it didn't count towards qualifying because "it wasn't an 8-hour planned day." Second week it had climbed to about 170-200, and this third week's been a monster. New neighborhoods and I'm pretty sure a couple of days they combined my route with a portion of an RPCD that had called out sick. It's almost all residential-- a few gas stations, 2 liquor stores, 3 schools and a medical facility. There's an animal rescue along the way but I'm pretty sure they have someone else handling that, because I've only delivered there while I was jumping with a driver as the first two of my 3 day training.

But yeah, today was super light compared to yesterday. Yesterday I knocked out I think 184 stops out of a bricked out load, and still needed two PVD drivers to meet me around 7pm and they took literally all of my 8000's, 7000's and about two-thirds of my 6000 shelf. Still had a ton to deliver and got home at about 9:30pm.

I'm not surprised given the way UPS has handled the corona-madness, but good lord that's cruel.

My god.... that part that I emboldened might be an absolute game-changer for me. But aside from that, I'm pretty sure I'm in an 800 now but I can't say that with confidence. I know it's smaller than a 1000, but I've always had trouble identifying which trucks are which models. As a preloader it never really mattered, and now that I'm driving I just work with what they give me.

Here's how to tell: if you're in 700 with over 400 pieces then, if smalls aren't already piled in your aisle when you get to the car, as soon as you take your first smooth, safe turn, they will be. In an 800 you have a fighting chance of getting smile* organized if there aren't too many irregs, but it's only a fighting chance. I'm guessing it's a 700

 

[Fido]

It’s almost worth breaking off and delivering certain irregs of the truck early to give you room to move around in. Sometimes the loader might stick a business in the mfr section and it’s blocked by 4 giant Ballard design or mattresses or trampolines. Just makes life a little easier

 

[Air Recovery]

tl;dr: When do you guys stop looking for a bulk stop's missing pieces?

Hey guys, I'm curious about how you all determine when to call it quits looking for multi-piece stops in the back. More specifically, over and over again today I had residential stops with 5-10pkgs, and over and over again I could only find 4 out of 5 or 7 out of 9, etc etc. I started feeling like I was going crazy, sorting each section and then each shelf and then the whole truck after I got up to about 15 missing pieces. I started to feel like I was either stupid or crazy, but come the end of the day my truck was empty and I had 3 pages of stops left to deliver.

Add onto that the heat in the back of the car and it was just a terrible day.... So when do you guys stop looking for missing pieces? Every PCM our center manager makes a huge deal about putting hands on everything and just knowing what you have and what you don't, but with a load like I had today the best I could do was sort everything before start time and assume all the pkgs were there. It really ed me in terms of over/under today and I just want to keep scratching and qualify.

Well you're on your 30 so come in early and red pen everything. Literally touch every package and mark it.


After your 30 days never ever work before start time

 

[Two Tokes]

when you can i would open up back of truck to kind of help with airflow while sorting. lining up 10-15 stops of packages helped me know whats missing for those, try to find them, if i couldnt i knocked those out and set up a new batch.

Not a bad idea to find a shady area to park your car

 

[Analbumcover]

tl;dr: When do you guys stop looking for a bulk stop's missing pieces?

Smartest thing you can do is come in early and sort your truck off the clock so you won't have any missed pieces.

Always ask yourself, "what would Dave do?"

 

[MrBates]

tl;dr: When do you guys stop looking for a bulk stop's missing pieces?

Hey guys, I'm curious about how you all determine when to call it quits looking for multi-piece stops in the back. More specifically, over and over again today I had residential stops with 5-10pkgs, and over and over again I could only find 4 out of 5 or 7 out of 9, etc etc. I started feeling like I was going crazy, sorting each section and then each shelf and then the whole truck after I got up to about 15 missing pieces. I started to feel like I was either stupid or crazy, but come the end of the day my truck was empty and I had 3 pages of stops left to deliver.

Add onto that the heat in the back of the car and it was just a terrible day.... So when do you guys stop looking for missing pieces? Every PCM our center manager makes a huge deal about putting hands on everything and just knowing what you have and what you don't, but with a load like I had today the best I could do was sort everything before start time and assume all the pkgs were there. It really ed me in terms of over/under today and I just want to keep scratching and qualify.

I had the pleasure of discussing this with a runner gunner....I mean scratch driver and he gives himself 2 minutes. According to him, If you religiuosly have your next stops set up within your 60 inch selection area you can make up the time, even if you find it later and have to go back.

 

[Netsua 3:16]

Totally Depends on the route man. I can tell you that by lunch or right after lunch my truck is sorted 100% perfect and I’ve touched every single pkg on the truck. So when I go for a pkg and it’s not there I know for a fact that i don’t have it. Don’t just half ass sort by pushing everything forward; every single pkg needs to be sorted perfectly. I feel like that’s the professional thing to do. And no stress from not being able to find anything

 

[PPH_over_9000]

Unrelated to the people I'm responding to below:

So I scratched yesterday. Following you guyses advice I ended up being under by -134, which seems like about an hour and 20 minutes. Today I knocked out my insanely light Saturday load by 3:18pm, and I think I scratched that too... but then my supervisor sent me to take about 45 stops off another driver in a completely unfamiliar area and I didn't get back to the building until 5:42pm. I'm not sure how helping someone else would effect my over/under, or even if it does.... but either way, it kind of feels good to be the one bailing someone else out instead of being the one that's drowning in cardboard all day.

The best part? I'm now on vacation for a week, lol. It carried over from when I was preloading. So I've put a pause on my 4th week to qualify and I get to rest up for the next 9 days before I go into my last week.

It’s almost worth breaking off and delivering certain irregs of the truck early to give you room to move around in. Sometimes the loader might stick a business in the mfr section and it’s blocked by 4 giant Ballard design or mattresses or trampolines. Just makes life a little easier

For sure, especially with a route that's so tightly packed with neighborhoods. I did that again today and it makes a world of difference being able to move around in the back.

Well you're on your 30 so come in early and red pen everything. Literally touch every package and mark it.


After your 30 days never ever work before start time

That's the plan, man, I just want to get a permanent spot on the roster. Once I manage that I'm going to be mimicking the older guys in our center, the ones with 15+ years in. They seem like they've got it all figured out, but they don't give good advice concerning how you have to work differently when you're still qualifying.

Not a bad idea to find a shady area to park your car

I'm learning to love these neighborhoods that are lined with huge trees for exactly this reason.

Smartest thing you can do is come in early and sort your truck off the clock so you won't have any missed pieces.

Always ask yourself, "what would Dave do?"

See, I do that every morning but we can't get EDD until the preload's finished, and once the preload finishes they almost immediately call a PCM. So the best I've been able to do is sort everything by HIN/PAL, sometimes lining each shelf up like a number line if I've got the space to do so.

I check my first 5 stops at one of our computers first thing in the morning, so I get a feel for those stops and how many pieces go with them.... but for the entire route? I have no idea what's supposed to be there early in the morning, and I usually just go off the assumption that everything that shows in my board should be on my truck by the time we're all rollin' out.

Doesn't always go well, though. Today I was missing two airs and six ground pieces, so I made quite a few calls to the center to have them check the system. It was surprisingly a lot less painful than I expected it to be, and I was able to hold onto my sanity by having some kind of confirmation that the package I was looking for was definitely not on-truck.

I had the pleasure of discussing this with a runner gunner....I mean scratch driver and he gives himself 2 minutes. According to him, If you religiuosly have your next stops set up within your 60 inch selection area you can make up the time, even if you find it later and have to go back.

Thanks for getting another perspective on it, man, and yeah, I always have at least my next two stops lined up. It's often the next 10-15, though. It's good to know that I seem to be doing things right, or at least.... more right with every day.

Totally Depends on the route man. I can tell you that by lunch or right after lunch my truck is sorted 100% perfect and I’ve touched every single pkg on the truck. So when I go for a pkg and it’s not there I know for a fact that i don’t have it. Don’t just half ass sort by pushing everything forward; every single pkg needs to be sorted perfectly. I feel like that’s the professional thing to do. And no stress from not being able to find anything

I agree. I've been doing the same for about a week now, things were too chaotic when I just kept faith that I'd find the pieces once I got to the stop.

 

[Two Tokes]

It’s almost worth breaking off and delivering certain irregs of the truck early to give you room to move around in. Sometimes the loader might stick a business in the mfr section and it’s blocked by 4 giant Ballard design or mattresses or trampolines. Just makes life a little easier

Yep
Air ,Bulk Stops, hardware
Saves your butt in the summer by keeping your time down fighting the load

 

[deeztier]

who cares, you get paid by the hour

 

[Fido]

Yep
Air ,Bulk Stops, hardware
Saves your butt in the summer by keeping your time down fighting the load

If possible always try to get off the ground that’s associated with your 1030 commits or 12 commits if you go far. Like for residential stops if someone gets a next day and they have ground then get it off with it. It might also be an irreg in the back.

 

[PPH_over_9000]

If possible always try to get off the ground that’s associated with your 1030 commits or 12 commits if you go far. Like for residential stops if someone gets a next day and they have ground then get it off with it. It might also be an irreg in the back.

Solid advice. Another driver showed me a little trick-- hitting details on a multi-piece stop that includes NDA when you can't find a/multiple pieces. Chances are, the NDA has a different PAL then the ground packages and are completely separated in the load.

It blew my mind that they (or ORION) would do that but hey, at least I'm getting more familiar with the DIAD. My training basically consisted of how to driver release a package and get a signature... lemme tell you, it confused the out of me yesterday when I scanned a box from mainland China and a brokerage fee screen popped up.

That was a fun phone call to make. Every time I call my supe' I feel like the dumbest dude alive, but I'd rather be dumb than up this opportunity.

 

[JJinVA]

For me it depends where the stop is. I usually run a split route so the first part of my route is like 10 miles away from the second part and its a super pain in the a** to find it at 4pm and have to run it back when all I want to do is go home and take a smile* and get something to eat.

I'll look for a maximum of 5 minutes and then Im out.

I know my route so I know what most of my bulk stop boxes look like for each business since theyre nearly identical every day. So no matter where the tard loading my truck puts them, I can usually spot them.

Before I leave the center I get my 1000-4000 shelves in order. Then around 1:30pm, I park the truck in some shade, open the front and back door, go through the 5000-8000 shelves putting everything in order and looking for misloads to send in. If I cant find it after having done all that its not in there.

 

[Fido]

Solid advice. Another driver showed me a little trick-- hitting details on a multi-piece stop that includes NDA when you can't find a/multiple pieces. Chances are, the NDA has a different PAL then the ground packages and are completely separated in the load.

It blew my mind that they (or ORION) would do that but hey, at least I'm getting more familiar with the DIAD. My training basically consisted of how to driver release a package and get a signature... lemme tell you, it confused the out of me yesterday when I scanned a box from mainland China and a brokerage fee screen popped up.

That was a fun phone call to make. Every time I call my supe' I feel like the dumbest dude alive, but I'd rather be dumb than up this opportunity.

Sometimes Orion is set up to mix in the ground because it wants you to get it off with it. Whether you have 10 things of air or <5. Sometimes Orion doesn’t mix in the ground and it’s deep in your board.

Also nda usually always have a separate hin than ground. 9/10

 

[JJinVA]

Also some advice. The loaders LOVE to turn around and put air stops on your 8000 and 6000 shelves because its easy to turn around and quick to set them down there. Im sure they do it with the intention of coming back and sorting it but sometimes they forget or are so eager to get out of the center that they rush to leave.

Ive had about 7 late air in the last 2 months because I found them near the end of my day on the 6000/8000 shelves. If there is ever a time you cant find an air after having looked under the belts and all around the truck, check there.

 

[PPH_over_9000]

For me it depends where the stop is. I usually run a split route so the first part of my route is like 10 miles away from the second part and its a super pain in the a** to find it at 4pm and have to run it back when all I want to do is go home and take a smile* and get something to eat.

I'll look for a maximum of 5 minutes and then Im out.

I know my route so I know what most of my bulk stop boxes look like for each business since theyre nearly identical every day. So no matter where the tard loading my truck puts them, I can usually spot them.

Before I leave the center I get my 1000-4000 shelves in order. Then around 1:30pm, I park the truck in some shade, open the front and back door, go through the 5000-8000 shelves putting everything in order and looking for misloads to send in. If I cant find it after having done all that its not in there.

You know, my biggest concern about making the switch to driving was dealing with ty loaders (and it seems like the ty ones are a vast majority.) I've actually had great loaders all but one day since I started my 30 days. It might help that I throw them a $20 the next day whenever I scratch. They seem to want to be as helpful as they can, and they look so confused when I start lining my stops up. I had to convince this one girl that she did a great job keeping identical PALs together, and that was when she learned that just because you have forty-two 2468 packages doesn't mean they all go to the same place.

But I know my center's full of Stevie Wonders equipped with shovels, and I'm absolutely dreading the day I end up with one of them.

That last paragraph of your post will definitely be useful, though. Others have mentioned it as well, and I think I need to start doing that between 12pm-2pm despite feeling like I'm losing too much time. I gotta drill it in my head that it's not a waste to spend 30min around noon to save an hour or two at the end of the day.

 

[JJinVA]

You know, my biggest concern about making the switch to driving was dealing with ty loaders (and it seems like the ty ones are a vast majority.) I've actually had great loaders all but one day since I started my 30 days. It might help that I throw them a $20 the next day whenever I scratch. They seem to want to be as helpful as they can, and they look so confused when I start lining my stops up. I had to convince this one girl that she did a great job keeping identical PALs together, and that was when she learned that just because you have forty-two 2468 packages doesn't mean they all go to the same place.

But I know my center's full of Stevie Wonders equipped with shovels, and I'm absolutely dreading the day I end up with one of them.

Bro Im not even playing when I say, I walked into my truck one day and there was a dude in there from unload, hadnt even been there two weeks, in unload now not preload, and I said, "Hey, where is such-and-such who normally loads this truck", he says "she went to the bathroom so Im covering for her I guess. Hey, what do these numbers on the label mean............................."

Bro, I coulda grabbed my backpack and went home after he said that. Needless to say I found 1000 shelf items under the 8000 shelf for several stops lol

 

[PPH_over_9000]

Bro Im not even playing when I say, I walked into my truck one day and there was a dude in there from unload, hadnt even been there two weeks, in unload now not preload, and I said, "Hey, where is such-and-such who normally loads this truck", he says "she went to the bathroom so Im covering for her I guess. Hey, what do these numbers on the label mean............................."

Bro, I coulda grabbed my backpack and went home after he said that. Needless to say I found 1000 shelf items under the 8000 shelf for several stops lol

lmao, there's a dude in my center like that. He's slow at everything he does, and I think he has a learning disability but he's a good dude, great personality. He gets shuffled out of unload to preload all the time, though, and this sounds exactly like something he would say.

funniest thing I've read since I got home.