Tips for loading

lololmao7

Member
Hey, Im new to this site, and kinda new to UPS (been part time, pre load, college student since June). It's a really tough job, but at the same time its nice to say I work at UPS as-apposed to Mcdonalds.

Anyway I started out loading package cars for a few months, then moved to the sort aisle (hell). Now since peak started, till now, they put me on loading duties again, and some how during peak, I had very few misloads, but now, they are starting to become a problem :( Does anyone have any tips as to how I can avoid such a simple problem? Anything will be helpful. Thanks!!!
 

UnconTROLLed

perfection
Hey, Im new to this site, and kinda new to UPS (been part time, pre load, college student since June). It's a really tough job, but at the same time its nice to say I work at UPS as-apposed to Mcdonalds.

Anyway I started out loading package cars for a few months, then moved to the sort aisle (hell). Now since peak started, till now, they put me on loading duties again, and some how during peak, I had very few misloads, but now, they are starting to become a problem :( Does anyone have any tips as to how I can avoid such a simple problem? Anything will be helpful. Thanks!!!

Read every label and study the sort charts. There is not much else to it aside paying attention and knowing the dest codes
 

trickpony1

Well-Known Member
lolo-
Cuts and adds occur after you leave. How can you be held accountable for something that happens after you leave?
How can you be responsible for supe that walks by your car(s) and has a package that he must make disappear by slinging it into one of your cars?
 

UnconTROLLed

perfection
argh ignore my previous post, sorry

Don't worry about misloads, because nowhere in the contract does it specify discipline for misloads.

Do your best, pay close attention and ALWAYS I mean ALWAYS make sure you walk into the right car. ALso, if you're carrying packages for 3 different cars, it's best to carry them in your hands the order you are going.
 

steward71

Well-Known Member
i know this may not work been having problems getting sleeve his info but send me your email address and i will give a copy of the methods for preload. it can help in covering your a** when this happens. in my building we have the same issue of the sups coming and placing packages. we filed and got the center manager to agree that loader must stay until all doors are closed on the trucks. good luck
 
U

uber

Guest
argh ignore my previous post, sorry

Don't worry about misloads, because nowhere in the contract does it specify discipline for misloads.

Do your best, pay close attention and ALWAYS I mean ALWAYS make sure you walk into the right car. ALso, if you're carrying packages for 3 different cars, it's best to carry them in your hands the order you are going.

I'd definitely worry about them if he doesn't have seniority yet.
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
Can only speak as to what helps me; maybe it will help you, as well.

Show up ten to fifteen minutes early, study the load sheets (although, these are not gospel), and to get into the "mood" of what you're about to do.
If you have the time and are working up the belt a few feet, stack the boxes into 'per truck' piles which you can grab.
Remember any distinctive layouts in the trucks; for example, if one truck is usually heavy in the RDL section, and your loading some arbitrary boxes into it but don't see the ballooned RDL, check what truck your in.
Write the truck numbers in large print on a sheet of paper, and tape that right above the bulk head door; also, check the PAL's around you.
If your swamped and can hardly spare a second to breathe, take a deep breath. Simple, but keeps me from going crazy at times.

Do your best, pay close attention and ALWAYS I mean ALWAYS make sure you walk into the right car. [Also], if you're carrying packages for 3 different cars, it's best to carry them in your hands the order you are going.

This, too. I read the second one when I first started in a different thread, and do it all the time now; it works quite well. A belated thanks to Sleeve for that, btw.
 
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themidge

Member
I would say what works for me is a multitude of things. I load off a boxline to car setup for what that is worth. If you can get to know your trucks and learn where the bulk is. For me I load downtown trucks in one of the largest cities in NY.

- 80% of my routes are businesses so I have adjusted to learn what stops are typically heavy, and which are inconsistent and I can plan accordingly. I have one truck with a dump stop that typically takes up one whole floor side of a 1000 so I know not to place anything on that side ahead of that stop coming in. Other things which can be helpful are to learn to recognize boxes and which stops they will, or possibly could be going to. For example, my middle car has a dump that gets a lot of schneider electric boxes so when I see them coming down I know to be in position behind that car. Of course always check the address/PAL to be sure.

- Another thing that may help you if your routes have a lot of smalls, use one rev to clear as many for one truck as you can. I have multiple similarly named banks on my cars (dispatch nightmare) so it isn't too uncommon for there to be upwards of 50 envelopes dumped into a cage with boxes. As I see an envelope stuffed cage I get ahead of my pull, grab an appropriate box for the truck I want to dump out, and then sort the envelopes and grab both and load them. Remember that cage number and the next revolution you can grab another truck already stacked up without hesitation.

- One other thing I do that I don't see done often is to build a custom load. There is no reason you can't move stops around and out of sequence. As an example I have hit or miss businesses on my trucks. Meaning one day they will get an envelope and one day they have ten huge boxes. It would be stupid to place them in sequence on the shelf and cram all the other stops on top of them. Find some dead space in the truck, label the address or business name with a crayon, and move them there. Load the rest of the shelf in sequence. I always go over moved stops with my drivers, or if we wrap early I label and leave a DR notice with moved stops.

- Learn the first three to five stops for your cars. Typically the RDR and RDLs, and other dump locations but not always. If a truck gets bombed out with volume or irregs, grab the first few off (unless RDR/RDL) and stack them out. (sometimes you have to, don't worry about it) Load that sucker up with the later bulk and irrregs, then load the removed stops in order from last to first going towards the rear of the package car. If an RD stop is first, do your best not to block it by placing what you can against the other RD stop.

- Lots of envelopes? Get totes, no one wants to sort 200 envelopes off the 1000 section.

- Lots of NDA? Stack it out or place it in the cab. The HIN location will not fit it anyways and you save your driver hassle hunting, load the savers with the ground.

- I personally have one shelf section full of residentials in each car. Play tetris with this section and cram them all in a somewhat sensible order. If you have to place them out of order do so because by the time your driver gets to the residentials he will have the space to sort them out.

- Multi carry. Don't worry that cage is coming back around even after last rev. Grab as many for one truck as you can each rev and load it. Remember the cage number, grab the remainders as you can.

- Four truck pull? Chances are your dispatch team is full of people who have never loaded and that fourth truck is going to be the heaviest split car you've ever seen. Dump what you can into it early into the shift, stack that truck later if you need to. When I have a fourth car I will have overlapping cages in my work area. Pull for that last truck with a decent multi carry, load it up. Then grab the earlier trucks out of the same cage (should be right in front of you at this point), load them, and repeat with the second cage as it passes the middle of your work area.
 

lololmao7

Member
Thanks for all the replies. From what Ive heard it seems my hub is QUITE different from all your guys'. One thing that really really really ticks me off is packages having incorrect information. Today I was loading, and got a package that said "1 of 1" assuming that there was only going to be one package labeled 4363. Low and behold it turns out I was scheduled to get 25. But I think my problem is this:

As of late I work at the top of one of our three belts. And at the top you load, and sort the packages (left or right side of the belt). Now when I get slammed I try to get all my packages off the belt. Let's say Im loading trucks 15 and 19. I WILL take a 15 and 19 (size permitting) and walk into one truck, and load a package, but if its busy out of the truck, I might leave the other package in the wrong car (hope that made sense). Then the problem comes: I forget to take out the package and load it into the correct car. But since my begging as a loader the trucks are starting to look better (small labels out, big labels facing the driver)
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
As a driver I would like to add, please load the address label out where we can see it! And please lip load the shelves, if you don't, packages just fall to the floor as soon as we make the first turn when we leave the building. You Preloaders make or break our day, its a very important job.
 

menotyou

bella amicizia
As a driver I would like to add, please load the address label out where we can see it! And please lip load the shelves, if you don't, packages just fall to the floor as soon as we make the first turn when we leave the building. You Preloaders make or break our day, its a very important job.

If management would only care. They could save so many man hours if they just gave preload a few more minutes to lip-load and have labels out. Also, leave the same guy loading the same area. Switching them in mid-shift isn't beneficial.
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
Thanks for all the replies. From what Ive heard it seems my hub is QUITE different from all your guys'. One thing that really really really ticks me off is packages having incorrect information. Today I was loading, and got a package that said "1 of 1" assuming that there was only going to be one package labeled 4363. Low and behold it turns out I was scheduled to get 25. But I think my problem is this:

As of late I work at the top of one of our three belts. And at the top you load, and sort the packages (left or right side of the belt). Now when I get slammed I try to get all my packages off the belt. Let's say Im loading trucks 15 and 19. I WILL take a 15 and 19 (size permitting) and walk into one truck, and load a package, but if its busy out of the truck, I might leave the other package in the wrong car (hope that made sense). Then the problem comes: I forget to take out the package and load it into the correct car. But since my begging as a loader the trucks are starting to look better (small labels out, big labels facing the driver)

Is there an actual splitter before you, or are you doing the split by yourself and loading some trucks?

To your original question, though, are you doing all the labels/orientation the first time? If so, consider doing less of that and getting them in the approximate right spot, then going back later when things are calmer and tear off the labels then. If this speeds you up, you might not have to leave that second package in the wrong truck as you might have the time to get it in the right one. I typically try and do the labels and all that the first time, but sometimes you just can't so I get the packages on the shelf and fix it later; not ideal, but that's what happens when the belt is constantly stuffed.

Another thing that might help is to know the speed of the belt (assuming they don't mess with it all day), so you can let the packages for the second truck float down the belt a little bit; then you can grab them and run .. sorry, walk briskly ... into the truck. This way, you're not bringing the wrong package into the wrong truck at all. If things are really crazy, though, this isn't always possible.
 

Paid-over-in-Maine

15 more years of this!
If you have to load a stop on the floor, pull all the packages from the shelf and keep them all together...nothing worse than searching for a box from a floor stop that is on the shelf. If you have PAS than the missloads should be easier to prevent than if you had to rely on load charts..
 

menotyou

bella amicizia
If you have to load a stop on the floor, pull all the packages from the shelf and keep them all together...nothing worse than searching for a box from a floor stop that is on the shelf. If you have PAS than the missloads should be easier to prevent than if you had to rely on load charts..

You would think. Unfortunately, every system has its flaws. What til you get a bulk stop with the wrong PAL on it. Not a misapplied PAL, but one that has been somehow manipulated in the system to have an incorrect address. Not intentional, I'm sure. Just a keystroke can do it. Those are always fun to carry up to DA because the splitter didn't catch. Or, have to carry them around in your truck all day.

Give me load charts any day.:wink2:
 

djkre8r

Well-Known Member
Sorting the belt AND loading sux! It seems like your center is like mine - straight line belt. As far as the problems I have personally had with missloads... TALKING! I get to talking to the person across from me (or the supervisor standing around chatting) and I just walk into the wrong truck. I had on an evaluation one time that "Tim is easily distracted". Go figure. You cannot be fired for missloads (if you have gained your seniority). Trust me! I was canned 3 times in 2 weeks last January for missloads. One instance was for ONE missload. I filed and it took until August to get it thrown out but I never lost a day of work.

Take your time and concentrate. I try to take my spare moments to go through my trucks and place a mark on the spa label with a sharpie marker. This way I know I have checked that package. In your case (sorting and loading) it will be hard to find extra time. Good luck!
 

lololmao7

Member
THANKS for these replies. Im taking all of this advice. One thing I've found that helps is bringing my iPod into work. I cant stand listening to all the noise that comes from the belts moaning and groaning. And to a previous poster, the belts we have (the ones the trucks are lined with) are just straight, theres nothing in the center, so I basically just push a box to its respective side of the belt (killing my back in the process). But luckily the guy whose pull I was watching came back. UN fortunately, they put me to the end of the belt (added on to the building), where I load several normal package cars, and one giant one (used for bulk stops). UGH I just can't wait to get out of here. Don't know how you veterans can manage to stick with this.
 

MobileBA

Well-Known Member
College student..........um I remember those days. Well get more sleep and less extracurricular activities. Oh yeah finish college.
 
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