Technology

[toonertoo]

Of course, man never need directions anyway...we are all human GPS....

Go UPS!
P71

Men seem to have that geographical advantage, I envy them. I only know North when I know which way Lake erie is. So it doesnt help me that I now know North is always at the top of the map.

We can be anywhere and my spouse knows which way is e,w n, or s. I give directions by....when you hit the third light take a right, and they ask would that be North, I say I dunno, just go right or you will be going the wrong way.
So when we are lost, I know we are really Lost, as in the area around Lake Meade, and the valley of fire in Nevada, that was very very lost.

 

[moreluck]

I'm the same Tooner......unless I see my ocean, I can't tell you which way is West. My directions go something like this.......

"Hang a right at Starbucks, go 2 blocks and hang a left at Starbucks, then go over the bridge 'til you see the Starbucks and hang a right at the next street with the ElPollo Loco on the corner." Got it?

 

[tieguy]

my list:

HFCS - good

TFCS- better , why isn't there one system that does both.

Diad - loved it, I had too many visits from the sheet writing committee due to my sloppy handwriting.

computer- love- I can type, copy and paste with the best of them.

Network security - hate it. I have to remember so many passwords. I think we now have an issue with end user security. Some systems do not allow you to repeat any of the last 24 passwords you used. With all the different systems we use you then tend to either write them all down or you use the same password system for all such as the month and year. One thing that would help would be a global login for all systems.

email- has its beni's its become a vehicle to eliminate good person to person communication. Send an email and forget about it.

cell phone - thank god my drivers have them, wish my bosses didn't. With the cell phone I'm never off work.

Voice mail.- used to be great then we cut costs to a cheaper system that is not user friendly requiring the memorization of many different commands.

missing technology -

gps for feeders - guide the drivers to point b and give me the ability to tell a customer that the driver is pulling down his street as we speak.
gps would have to be feeder specific since you can't pull a tractor trailer down every street.

gps for trailers - equipment tracking and balance is the biggest headache feeders has. Outlying centers don't have live inbound and outbound activity so you rely on someone inbounding live loads which works but its tough to get a center to give you good on property information for the empties. I wonder how many trailers we lose each year for one reason or another.

barcode scanning of tractors and trailers for feeders - eliminate inbound errors and key punch errors due to miscommunication by scanning the trailers when they arrive or depart.

improved engineering of our vehicles and buildings to improve heating and venilation

Group user ID's. Many office groups share the same forms. Its getting more and more difficult to share them between users as the network security gets tighter.

Info library - great tool to help you write reports that identify service issues. Problem as lifer said is we have too many access guru's generating too many reports that are overwhelming the managers. A manager can easily spend a couple of hours going through his emails, analyzing the information and responding to the requests for more information from up above. These reports or our systems need to take the next step where the analyzed information is used to give you specific ways you can improve. A good example is SEAS. Terrific first step. However in the case of many scan and link issues you have to have a doctors in geekology to identify why the packages did not link properly. Meanwhile your boss wants to know what you're doing to fix the scan and link problem.

 

[trickpony1]

tieguy-
Ever heard of "Shift Comm"? I'm told it's a voiceless communication between the yard controller and the shifters. Each shifter has a screen with moves to be made. It eliminates the chatter on the two-way radio that don't always work.
I was told a hub has to be a certain size before the company can substantiate the expense, is this true?

 

[SameRightsForAll]

About 20 years ago UPS began its big push into technology with things like ISPS, HFCS, TFCS, package tracking, etc. My question is ...

looking back over the last 20 years what have been the best technology products UPS I.S. has provided? And, what have been the worst? How have they helped your job and how have they hindered your job?

I just happen to be a long-time computer programmer / software designer with a step into web design about 8 years ago. My work is my own and I've never considered working for a company doing programming. In the past, I've always done it a side income while I maintained full-time blue collar jobs, but definately the desk job has my preference.

I formerly pulled a Coke route for almost 9 years and took it upon myself in the first year of that job to write the software for my TI-85 calculator (which runs a BASIC language with graphics) that allowed me to enter in my delivery stop information into form fields and have the results computed instantly such as product codes, subtotals, tax, final total, and more. What this did for me was save mega time since we were purely pen, paper, and calculator back then. My theory was that it was ok since it was a calculator. Actually, the TI-85 is a computer shaped like a calculator! I never told anybody that I used it but after a while I quit using it anyway. This is why I think a GPS mode in a newer DIAD might be a problem instead of a solution. There's no quicker form of navigation than area knowledge and not having to call up a screen for driving instructions.

What I'm doing now secretly during my UPS career that started 2 years ago is basically researching all I can while I work, which comes naturally, so I can get into designing things that can help UPS or customers in some way one day.

The best idea I've had today apparently isn't being used yet, and I'm very surprised that the UPS techies haven't attempted it. How I can go about proving the concept is a mystery to me right now but eventually I will get involved in the right way and we may very well one day see the idea put to work. I say this because as an accomplished and serious programmer who is like the others in being overly optimistic, most of my ideas usually happen when I keep working on the projects. I could submit the idea but it's so much more fun to actually write the code as a demo and let the techies see it run.

So, when fellow programmers pick on me asking me "why the hell are you working for UPS?", I can perhaps one day say, "know you know". Ofcourse, I actually want to deliver packages since it's in my blood to get out there and do the route hustle. Go figure! My past jobs have been mostly route-based while I continued to excel greatly in my programming ventures, so I have this online side-life as well. I wonder how many other UPS drivers /slash programmers are out there with great ideas, and is this the right place for discussing ideas?

 

[tieguy]

tieguy-
Ever heard of "Shift Comm"? I'm told it's a voiceless communication between the yard controller and the shifters. Each shifter has a screen with moves to be made. It eliminates the chatter on the two-way radio that don't always work.
I was told a hub has to be a certain size before the company can substantiate the expense, is this true?

Yes it is. Not sure what the minimum requirement is but from what I've seen small to medium sized hubs don't get it.

 

[UPS Lifer]

I just happen to be a long-time computer programmer / software designer with a step into web design about 8 years ago. My work is my own and I've never considered working for a company doing programming. ...
in the first year of that job to write the software for my TI-85 calculator (which runs a BASIC language with graphics) that allowed me to enter in my delivery stop information into form fields and have the results computed instantly such as product codes, subtotals, tax, final total, and more. What this did for me was save mega time since we were purely pen, paper, and calculator back then.

So, when fellow programmers pick on me asking me "why the hell are you working for UPS?", I can perhaps one day say, "know you know". Ofcourse, I actually want to deliver packages since it's in my blood to get out there and do the route hustle. Go figure! My past jobs have been mostly route-based while I continued to excel greatly in my programming ventures, so I have this online side-life as well. I wonder how many other UPS drivers /slash programmers are out there with great ideas, and is this the right place for discussing ideas?

I am not a UPS techie but I bought a TI 85 to get me through statistics class. I programmed all the formulas into it. I loved it so much I bought one for work and then excel came out and I started using that instead!

The techies can correct me if I am wrong but I know at one time UPS was 2nd only to the US Government in mainframe power. You would have a great carreer in IS if you get into it now. With your expertise you could probably bypass many of the lower grades maybe even move to the Region IS group. You should check it out.

 

[Deeohem]

There's a region IS group? There may be in some regions, but what I've seen come down from our region is Access databases that are less than outstanding. They've had good features, but the internal tables were created by people who never heard of normalization. One of them had entries for every center in the region. which was nice except one of the field was for a district server. When the server got renamed, had to update every center in a district.

I kind of agree with Tieguy on HFCS. it's pretty impressive. I kind of wish Louisville was able to finish phasing out the OS/2 workstations. TFCS seems impressive. The only drawback (if it IS a drawback) is that it's still a text-mode mainframe app. Could it be improved if it went GUI?

I think the DIAD is good technology. UPS deserves to be proud of it because it is hardware and software that were both developed by UPS. And it was a pretty far-seeing idea.

My take on the best technology UPS has produced has to be the back end of all our customer shipping solutions, CRIS/CAMS, etc. They handle all the internet shipping, all the campusship, they keep track of all the Worldship installs out there, etc. They receive all the billing info and hand that off to the billing systems. Lastly, they handle the OPLD info which makes the estimates of what each center will have to deliver on a given day even remotely accurate.

 

[bit]

The techies can correct me if I am wrong but I know at one time UPS was 2nd only to the US Government in mainframe power.

The Winter Corporation annually ranks databases and UPS has slid back in the ratings to 4th for OLTP and first if you count normalized only

Pride points to those of us on the DB side

 

[cachsux]

tieguy-
Ever heard of "Shift Comm"? I'm told it's a voiceless communication between the yard controller and the shifters. Each shifter has a screen with moves to be made. It eliminates the chatter on the two-way radio that don't always work.
I was told a hub has to be a certain size before the company can substantiate the expense, is this true?

We have shiftcom at Cach and Addison that I know of. The latest generation works pretty good but the first couple were crap. they always went down when it rained or the computer would crash and send the bldg back to the stone age. That bad part is you can`t prank your buddies by calling in their shifter number over the radio anymore.

My tech choice is the gen2 version of the diad as it word work without crashing on you if you looked at it the wrong way like the gen1. I can`t remember how many times I threw....um I mean accidentaly dropped my gen1 after it took a dump 5 stops into the day. Barcoded labels were a big plus also,just point and shoot instead of typing numbers.

 

[hoser]

UPS isn't at the forefront of technology. while fedex was the first to dive head first into technology (oftentimes having their ass handed to them as a result; anyone remember ZapMail?), UPS has been very restrained.

while fedex maintains and develops their technology in house, UPS outsources all of it.

I like the DIAD a lot, but I must say FX's PowerPad is much better. But that's perhaps because I like the concept of the courier printing out all the routing labels rather than leaving it to the guesswork of the package handler. not to mention that it fits easily into a pouch and those things are capable of opening a drop box from 5 feet out.

ups is ok with technology, but they need to take more risks. like that will ever happen.

 

[Channahon]

Understanding our drivers know their areas better than anyone else, particularly residential areas, and UPS being community minded, does anyone ever wonder why the DIAD board couldn't be used for AMBER ALERTS?

Talk about giving back to the community and public relations with law enforcement. And most importantly possibly saving someone's life.

I know anytime I see an alert on the interstates, I keep my eyes open, as I couldn't imagine what would be going through anyone's mind, knowing someone was taken against their will.

Any techies out there ever heard of this suggestion?

 

[maybrown]

Good sugesstion but don't forget UPS refused to train drivers about securities after 9/11.

 

[under the radar]

I happen to like it also, save for when I'm stuck in traffic

I'm afraid the muscles in my left leg would atrophy without the clutch pedal.

 

[westsideworma]

I like the concept of the courier printing out all the routing labels rather than leaving it to the guesswork of the package handler.

their version of PAS sounds more accurate. IMHO the less people that touch the package the better. Less opportunities for errors. Under PAS more people touch or influence the package than before so its no surprise we have more errors.

 

[Channahon]

their version of PAS sounds more accurate. IMHO the less people that touch the package the better. Less opportunities for errors. Under PAS more people touch or influence the package than before so its no surprise we have more errors.

A test is being done in a district where the SPA people use a wireless scanner to scan the barcode and a machine applies the label to the package. Not sure of all the details, I do remember hearing of a prototype like this a couple of years ago.

Thought process was to eliminate labels placed over barcodes and out of sync's.

 

[Deeohem]

A test is being done in a district where the SPA people use a wireless scanner to scan the barcode and a machine applies the label to the package. Not sure of all the details, I do remember hearing of a prototype like this a couple of years ago.

Thought process was to eliminate labels placed over barcodes and out of sync's.

sound very similar to something that is available though not used much. iSPA uses a wireless scanner (GSS scanners) and wireless printer so that you could theoretically SPA packages in the trailer. it's probably never oging to be in wide distribution (the wireless printer probably costs as much as the workhorse Intermecs, holds a tenth the labels, and probably can only print a tenth as many labels before having to have the printhead replaced (if possible) Also can only scan the 1Z barcode (most SPA can scan the maxicode, which is more tolerant of streaks in a label printer)

Where it comes in handy is for doing things like Add/Cuts on packages that have already passed the regular spa workstation.

 

[JustTired]

Anybody else notice that the more technology we get, the harder we seem to work? Is it to pay for all this stuff or is it to make up for the shortcomings?

Probably a little of both.

Oh well....it looked good on paper.