san francisco drivers...how do you do it???

[Coldworld]

Well, I went on a little vacation in san francisco, nice place to visit, wouldnt want to live there, man that place is packed with people...and businesses. How
do you guys and gals find any sanity delivering there? A couple things I noticed was there was little parking, especially delivery zone parking. Also, many of the residential dwellings have doors almost right on the sidewalk...are these dr stops. Saw many trucks but never came across a building...is there one in san francisco? One last thing, there is a very large financial district there, how is the nda delivered, do the downtown guys get help? Great town though!!

 

[upsman415]

Im a driver in SF for 15 years now. We have 5 centers in SF. Its pretty hard to deliver around downtown area. I just find a parking spot and walk and handtruck every package. You cant move the truck because traffic is so bad. San Francisco is so big thats only a small part of it. Our residential area we can DR some packages. But alot of residential buildings in SF are high rises and they have a doorman to take your stops. Theres alot of obstacle course here im very careful here specially around the holiday...

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

... One last thing, there is a very large financial district there, how is the nda delivered, do the downtown guys get help?

I think he was wondering if you use air drivers/walkers.

 

[Fnix]

and all those hills

 

[Leftinbuilding]

UPS pays a gazzillion dollars in parking fines every year in SF.

 

[Coldworld]

Something I noticed is just the large amounts of businesses there, some of the routes are probably very tight, Im sure the same thing happens in new york. Logistically, these two cities must be interesting to dispatch.

 

[helenofcalifornia]

UPSman415, you should tell them about the building and how it works. I heard that about 10 years ago they had no management working on one entire floor of the center. Kinda like the wild west where everyone took care of their own. And parking is a problem, a big problem, if you are just visiting, let alone trying to work.

 

[Coldworld]

UPSman415, you should tell them about the building and how it works. I heard that about 10 years ago they had no management working on one entire floor of the center. Kinda like the wild west where everyone took care of their own. And parking is a problem, a big problem, if you are just visiting, let alone trying to work.

I bet that things went alot smoother then!

 

[moreluck]

Has anyone mentioned yet.....soooooo many one-way streets? Hard to manuever if you're a stranger to the town.

 

[Coldworld]

Has anyone mentioned yet.....soooooo many one-way streets? Hard to manuever if you're a stranger to the town.

Yes, and another thing is having all of the lights on the corners instead of over the street like it is around my neck of the woods. You have one eye on the light and another one on the other care or people jay-walking. Also, something that was a little weird was driving around in the same lane as the trolleys.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I don't mean to sound like a tourist, but do any of you have to drive down the crookedest street in the world?

 

[pkgdriver]

There was a picture of it on the UPS calendar some years back. Back when it was a great calendar.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

You mean you don't like the "how to make a handbag" calendar?

 

[BCFan]

I don't mean to sound like a tourist, but do any of you have to drive down the crookedest street in the world?

Ahhhhhhh Lombard!!!! It has many front Doors and I am sure it get deliveries...My wife (Ms. BC) and I honeymooned there 3 years ago.... I see why Tony Bennett sang that beautiful song ..... San Fran truly rivals Paris and Italy as the most fantastic area of the world..... BC (not barack/clinton)

 

[Coldworld]

drove past that street, does it have any special history that anyone knows about. Im sure those houses that are on that little street are worth +million.

 

[helenofcalifornia]

They maybe worth millions, but I imagine all the tourists driving down your street every day of the year would get a little old. And crookedy streets must get old too. My mom (for whatever reason) taught me to drive a stick shift VW in SF. Talk about scared!! Try stopping on one of those steep streets going up and then trying to shift it into gear with cars behind you. (What the heck was she thinking??)

 

[Coldworld]

They maybe worth millions, but I imagine all the tourists driving down your street every day of the year would get a little old. And crookedy streets must get old too. My mom (for whatever reason) taught me to drive a stick shift VW in SF. Talk about scared!! Try stopping on one of those steep streets going up and then trying to shift it into gear with cars behind you. (What the heck was she thinking??)

your right, that would be scary, some of those hills are super steep. Im sure there have been many clutches burned out on them hills.

 

[moreluck]

Lombard Street....

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Virtually every visitor to San Francisco has heard of Lombard Street—but not necessarily by name. This thoroughfare is better known as the Crookedest Street in the World, a moniker stemming from the fact that, in 1922, city engineers crammed eight cobblestone switchbacks into a single steep block of Lombard. The goal was to provide relief from the hair-raising slope; the inadvertent result was a tourist site.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hairpin turns are only part of the attraction. Lombard's crazy-curve block is lined with handsome houses and adorned with copious hydrangeas. The high point, atop Russian Hill, offers stupendous views of the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz, and the city. Add to this the fact that the Hyde Street cable car deposits camera-toting visitors at the top of the picturesque incline and the Crookedest Street could hardly have escaped notice.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Lombard traverses North Beach and, on its way west, serves as a portion of Highway 101, but more important, Lombard provides the only vehicular access to Telegraph Hill and landmark Coit Tower. Which means that in summer, high season for travelers, cars back up along Lombard for blocks. So here's the straight dope on the Crookedest Street: See it on foot.[/FONT]

 

[Service Failure]

The air for all the bigger buildings are ran by part-time and full-time air drivers and we have a lot. I'm pretty sure we don't have any airwalkers. Traffic is terrible as mentioned and San Fran is such a compact area. Driving on the hills isn't that bad if you are used to it, just e-brake it. I would think that the cities with extreme weather conditions like heavy snow would be considered the worse haha. Oh and New York.

 

[filiperuvian]

hey this made me think of something: how many of guys/gals have gone somewhere and thought "man, i'd hate to have a route here!" i've done that in hawaii, SF, downtown L.A. to name a few. oh that reminds me, in the hawaiian island of molokai i think there's only 1 package car and it's one of those little ice cream truck-sized ones