Venting About Not Doing My Own Time Study

[govols019]

The Southern region rebids routes every two years.

 

[1989]

The Southern region rebids routes every two years.

That's just silly!!!

 

[BLACKBOX]

Having seniority is like having a 7 shooter and this guy having a 6 shooter. He's trying to use the sympathy card by using the "divorce" card. Shoot him down with your 7 shooter (hypothetically) and do whats best for you....thats the bottom line!!

 

[browned_out]

1 Not sure what the point is in rebidding every two years, seems like it would bred hostility in the center?

 

[samiam]

The Southern region rebids routes every two years.

That would suck. I would hate if I had to fear every two years for my route. I spent almost 8 years as a utility driver, finally got the route I was looking for. And it was a crap route, but no resi thank god, and no retail, just docks and bay doors. Now after some time the route is kick back, I'm barely on the clock for 8 hours a day, it's awsome. Some would kill for my route. If it came up for bid against my will, I know I would lose it and that would suck. Here in Cali, if I wanted to sit on this route until I retire I can !!!!

 

[Upslady20]

In most cases it does not cause hostility. Since the very senior drivers never rebid since they have routes they have done forever and do not like change. Out of the routes bid 10 percent I believe remain training routes and the center manager assigns someone to those routes or the senior swing can take it. A couple of our so called training routes are actually great routes so I have bid swing a couple of times to run them. So when I have went unassigned that has allowed the lower seniority people to move around. I personally like to change every couple of years and basically no one above me ever moves unless one of the shuttle cars opens up. That is half a day to the airport getting the nda and then running half a route. There are two in the am and one in the pm. So the most senior dirvers have those in our building since we have no feeder runs. Hopefully one of the shuttle drivers will retire after the next contract and then I can maybe bid on one of those routes.
But for the most part the bidding process goes very smooth. Most in my building respect the seniority process.

 

[over9five]

"Since the time study will still be in place and it will be from the standards that he helped set."

No! The time study person is supposed to use the CORRECT TIMES to do the study.
In other words, if the driver dumps everything at the end of the driveway, the time study person WOULD ADD THE TIME to bring the packages to the door.

If the driver RAN TO THE FRONT DOOR, the time study person would ADD TIME FOR A WALK.

If the time study person did their job, there will be no problem. Let us know when you find out if your route gained or lost.

AND BOTTOM LINE: YOU are a seniority driver. YOU will continue to do your route exactly as you have been doing it. Over/under is NOT your problem.

 

[browniehound]

Seniority is a great thing! That and all the vacation time off.......

Senoirity is a great thing, but it comes with some MAJOR drawbacks.

These drawbacks would be: advancing age, grey hair (or worse no hair), wrinkles, weight gain, poor sex life, and college tuition bills to name a few!

I'd rather be young and do the crapiest route than have the most juice in the center. And I'm guessing the 49-year-old guy with all the seniority is thinking the same thing

 

[wily_old_vet]

Atlantic Area Supplement has routes bid on every year. I got bumped twice by senior drivers and was pissed but it was what it was. Ended up with a great route that I retired from.

 

[satellitedriver]

Senoirity is a great thing, but it comes with some MAJOR drawbacks.

These drawbacks would be: advancing age, grey hair (or worse no hair), wrinkles, weight gain, poor sex life, and college tuition bills to name a few!

I'd rather be young and do the crapiest route than have the most juice in the center. And I'm guessing the 49-year-old guy with all the seniority is thinking the same thing

This 54 year old guy is also thinking the same thing.

 

[govols019]

I've never understood the hurt feelings thing. They're not our routes anyway; they're UPS's.

 

[Jones]

I've never understood the hurt feelings thing. They're not our routes anyway; they're UPS's.

Agreed. As Wily Old Vet noted, we bid every year in the Atlantic Area. If your little heart gets broken every time you get bumped you won't last too long around here. And burning up a route on a time study to pay back another driver is the height of short sighted idiocy. In the long run you're screwing every driver in the center, including yourself.

 

[177member]

Routes are constantly changing. To be fair, every route should be rebid at some interval. In fact every job at UPS should be rebid at intervals. This is the only way seniority holds true to what it really means.

 

[UPS Lifer]

Time Studies aren't supposed to be about Methods. They are measuring the time it takes to cover certain distances. I wouldn't worry about it. You have more senority and will get your route back when you are able to drive again. I have bid on five routes the last twenty-four years, and everytime it got a little better. I can never understand why some people stay on horrible routes.

Scratch is right! Timestudies study the area. Believe it or not most managers are at odds with the Timestudy or (IE) folks the same as the drivers. Why? Because if a lot of routes go down then the preformance goals for the center also change to reflect what the actual numbers should be. So, behind closed doors the manager is making sure the area gets a fair analysis.

What used to happen is you would get an analysis of your methods and how much time it took you versus how much time it should have taken you by the book to get the job done. This info does not change the area. The TS person studies the area and looks to see what changes were made to the actual buildings, streets etc.

In most cases now, the studies can be done with minimum on-car observation. Computer technology and reference material (especially the info library) can be accessed to get the info that is needed to see if an area allowance is in need of a change. What i don't like about this is that it is harder for a Business Manager to follow up because it is done by computer. The only compensation to that is unless there is a glitch in the program - the analysis is probably pretty accurate.

If something dramatic in one area really affects the driver's overall day then the management team can do a series of rides to verify the observation and put a request in to study that particular area.

The minumum study is between $200-$400 so you can see that it has to be cost effective to have someone spend the time on it.