Signature required or not?

[Shifting Contents]

Maybe these shippers should get a visit from a UPS rep to explain the situation and what do do if you require a signature. Do we have people that visit accounts? While they are at it, go to the place that ships videos to Walmart and tell them to PUT SOME TAPE ON THE BOXES!

We can't get our sales people to visist the accounts to sell them much less explain anything to them. And yes! PUT SOME TAPE ON THOSE BOXES WAL MART!

If it makes you feel better, change the service in the DIAD. From my experience, customers often get such things changed back with a quick call to their sales person.

So they get action from sales with a quick call because the drivers at my center sure don't.

I have a few customers who have small children, and they get a box with the pic of a toy or something, I'll ask if they want me to sneak it in the garage. More than once they have appreciated the effort because its a gift. It just takes a few extra minutes, but if they arent home, I'll try and put the pic against the wall if possible. These little things are what keep customers with us.

I did that all christmas long. I pulled up to a house where the mother, father and all the kids (aged from about 3 to 8) were in the garage. I saw the look of pure terror on the fathers face as my helper and I pulled up. I could tell that his mind was racing about what we might have so I walked up the driveway emptied handed and met him half way. I told him what I had and that there were pictures on the outside. All of a sudden it was time for ice cream INSIDE! All the kids were shuffled in and I left everything in the garage. I ahve young kids so I don't mind.

 

[Treegrower]

No you won't shippers put all sorts of crap on there labels instructing us to do things that they don't pay for or service we don't provide. I've seen crap like call a hour before delivery, deliver in morning only, If not deliverable call, etc.

If you DR a package with a bogus sig required request on it and for some reason the people say they didn't get it how is UPS going to know that it was a signature required package??? They are not. Unless the box was clearly a HV item your not liable. It is going to be like any other package that people say they didn't get the address is now going to be a no DR address.

Based on personal experience, UPS will try to hold you accountable. I was called on the carpet for a DR under these circumstances. I was told that I 'should have known a trobled teen was living at that address." Other notable managment belifes were that I should have known that a 'blended" family--with step kids and adult children were living or staying there from time to time. Or the best one was that I Dr'd to a MCM-- one of those adult children. He went back to whereever he was from the next day or so and stole the pkg. I was told be the L.P. guy that I should have known him and that he was moving. The list goes on and on and on........ If it is anything of value and the customer is standing right there. I mean right there and it only takes a second or two, I get a signature. As for anything else they want to discuss I always , always request a steward and try to get mgt to put their DR instructions in writing. As we all know with every new supe, center manager, Dm and LP regime change comes a whole new set of rules. Non of which are relayed to you until something comes up.

 

[over9five]

How hard was your shop steward laughing at them when they said you should have known all that stuff?

I can't imagine that meeting went very far.

 

[Treegrower]

How hard was your shop steward laughing at them when they said you should have known all that stuff?

I can't imagine that meeting went very far.

The meeting didn't go very far, but it sure did last a while. The B.A. and the shop steward didn't laugh very much at all. They couldn't find any humor in what was going on. I didn't find it very humorous either to be honest with you. All kidding aside, we sat there speechless as the L.P. guy presented his case stating that as the regular bid driver, I should have known who was staying at the house and that he was moving. As I said, we didn't find anything to laugh about. They actually wanted me to pay for the package. Of course that didn't happen.

 

[over9five]

Good the BA was there. I hope he chewed the LP guy a new one. How can they even suggest you should have known all that!

 

[trplnkl]

Good the BA was there. I hope he chewed the LP guy a new one. How can they even suggest you should have known all that!

Any twist to make it go their way.

 

[over9five]

If the BA was any good at all, he made the LP guy look like a fool.

Hell, I could have.

 

[Treegrower]

If the BA was any good at all, he made the LP guy look like a fool.

Hell, I could have.

Oh, they did make him look foolish. The DM too for letting it get that far. I remember the BA getting really hot under the collar for having his time wasted with some crap that if truth be told, was probably meant to just bust my chops with for running late, taking my full lunch and breaks, doing things by the book, running my route in trace. Pick one or all of them or make up your own reason.
It was all dropped and that was the end of it. What a waste of time and energy though.
Truth is stranger than fiction. You just can't make stuff like this up. It's funny now, it wasn't funny then.
As an aside.... after a while the DM moved on like they all do and in a fitting fit of fate the LP guy was demoted a couple of times and then eventually forced to quit/fired ? Any way he sued UPS for wrongful discharge and won. Later he also won the appeal. This company will eat their own

 

[dilligaf]

All the hullabaloo, for what? We decide every day to get a signature or not, signatures that are not always required. I have gotten signatures for packages where signatures were not required. I simply got them because I felt it was the prudent thing to do. I have also DR'd packages that have "DO NOT DRIVER RELEASE - NO INDIRECT" written on the boxes but the service level did not require a signature. As far as I can remember I have never had a CDW that was not going to a business so getting a signature is a moot point.

If any given situation warrants getting a signature (for my peace of mind) then so be it. If it means a send again that's fine by me. I will stand behind my decision. We are told to get signatures for HI VALs and the service level doesn't always indicate it is required. We do it to cut down on the number and cost of claims. I had an Apple product yesterday, scanning the package prompted a note "SDN OK - NO DR". It is because of an agreement between UPS and Apple. We have many of these types of agreements and it may be that there is an agreement with UPS and CDW. Maybe someone should check into this.

 

[TUT]

Maybe these shippers should get a visit from a UPS rep to explain the situation and what do do if you require a signature. Do we have people that visit accounts? While they are at it, go to the place that ships videos to Walmart and tell them to PUT SOME TAPE ON THE BOXES!

That is what should happen. If the customer wants to negotiate/waiver sig prices, that is something that can be looked at.

 

[TUT]

Almost every day I have packages that are almost certainly wine, but that lack an adult sig required barcode.

I leave 'em on the porch. Maybe its wine, maybe its grape juice. Its not my job to guess. Compliance with state and federal laws regarding alcohol shipments are the responsibility of the shipper. Whatever might be in the package is none of my business and not my problem.

Actually alcohol compliance can easily be the carriers problem as well, there are laws by state of what the carrier is responsible for and monthly reports carriers are responsible for etc, it's not just "don't ask, don't tell". You are correct though, it's not your problem. This is a higher up to do.

 

[TUT]

There was a big wine shipper (Viinese Wharehouse) that was sending all thier wine out wiith a note on the label "Alcoholic Beverages - Do Not Deliver To Intoxicated Persons" but they were not using Adult Sig Reguired barcode numbers. I have no reason to believe they were doing this simply to avoid the small additional charge for that service; they are a huge shipper and it would not surprise me to learn they were using propietary shipping software that was not properly programmed to use the right class of service when it (the shippers software) accesed UPS and created the shipment.

But it was obviosly wine and we all know wine has to be adult signature required. Unless you can't read English it is hard to not know it is alcohol. I reported this to management as I am sure many others did across the network. I did NOT DR these packages.

Can you imagine the fun? UPS DRs the wine. Troubled teenager comes home finds the box of wine and decides its party time. Then decides to drive Dad's spare car somewhere and is involved in a fatal DUI. I can think of about eleven ways that the company and the driver can be in line to be liable. Yes there are good arguments for and against but it is the same thing as having an accident; I'd mucch rather just not be in an acccident rather than be involved in one that is not my fault. If the driver just dosen't DR the wine we don't have to litagate later.

We are not robots we are capable of making judgments. We make hundereds of them everyday we go on road. This is just another one.

Adult Sig is over $3.00 now so it's not cheap, can be negotiated down. One law I don't see UPS use is the Font Requirement in the State of NC. It's huge and I've never seen a UPS Alcohol shipment with anything to match their specifications. Also not having Adult Sig flagged, UPS maybe under-reporting by volume what they have sent to each state, how would they know if they are alcohol packages? Some states make the carrier and the shipper file a detailed report and these agencies go package by package and expect 100% compliance between the two.