skatebmx05
Active Member
i have not been working for ups very long and i was always wondering how do the drivers know how to get from one stop to another i see there is no gps or anything in the trucks?
wondering
- Thread starter skatebmx05
- Start date
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
Our DIADs contain the delivery information (EDD) which we download before leaving the bldg each day. This EDD is set up stop for stop and we simply follow that.
To get back to the bldg after we are done we simply turn the DIAD upside down and we reverse our route.
skatebmx05
Active Member
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
I forgot to mention that we wear bluetooth that are linked wirelessly to the on-car supervisors office. It is their job to give us step-by-step directions throughout our day.
rod
Retired 22 years
Back in the "good old days" we had to rely on our brains and knowledge of the delivery area. Now days if they could teach a monkey to drive- well you know the rest of the story. In the future I picture one pathetic little man standing behind a curtain in Atlanta pulling levers and pushing bottons. 
[video=youtube;D6BCf_b8GfE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6BCf_b8GfE[/video]
[video=youtube;D6BCf_b8GfE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6BCf_b8GfE[/video]
rocket man
Well-Known Member
We get to the next stop by starting car and putting on seat belt and go thats how i do it.
skatebmx05
Active Member
i was just wondering like how you get like turn left here right there kinda deal
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
I fear for our future.
UPSviking
Well-Known Member
Come on, give him an break....
In our part of the world without EDD (Thank God) we use our brains and pray that the preload is kinda ok.... We don´t have the turn left route´s either..... "We do turn left sometimes anyway"
Covemastah
Hoopah drives the boat Chief !!
To any one born after the Reagan years, Believe it or not the UPS man used to have a MAP {look it up on wlkepedia} WE used a map to gain area knowledge!! We memorized certain houses or business that constantly got a pkg to help learn street numbers. This may be hard to believe,but we used our skull.Information didn't pop up on a screen. We then got out of the Brownie walked at a brisk pace to the customers door,rang bell said hello UPS pkg from ,,, may I please have a signature,said thanks have a good day{christmas time we said thanks,Merry Christmas when it used to be O.K to do that.)We would write down on a time card amount of pkgs,stops,P/ups & pieces.ALL without a calculator..I know this seems drastic & primative but we all had to do this.To top it off ,we all played sports when we were kids out in the streets & parks till supper time with real kids.No XBOX baseball for us & No Madden football.... We also bent the brim of our baseball hats that actually fit our heads along with pants that fit our waist!!!
skatebmx05
Active Member
i didnt mean it like hey you have to turn here now but does that device tell you how to get to the address
Raw
Raw Member
Each night they give you exactly what your route will be, then you have to totally memorize your route the night before then come in 1 hour early to be tested. If you pass with a 95% or above you get to run the route that day. Once you pass a route test 3 consecutive times you don`t need to be tested on that route again.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
Kid, we are having fun at your expense.
Drivers receive training on their areas from an on-car supervisor. Many will also purchase a map for their area. Some will ask the dispatch supervisor for a printout of the previous day's delivery for that area and follow that to familiarize themselves with the area. Some will even take personal time to go out and drive the area to become more familiar with it. Knowing the streets is only half the battle--you have to also learn delivery points, number breaks, etc. After a while it becomes second nature.
Cover drivers must do this for a number of different areas.
Bid or FT drivers are thoroughly familiar with their areas.
skatebmx05
Active Member
Each night they give you exactly what your route will be, then you have to totally memorize your route the night before then come in 1 hour early to be tested. If you pass with a 95% or above you get to run the route that day. Once you pass a route test 3 consecutive times you don`t need to be tested on that route again.
yea thats probably it
skatebmx05
Active Member
thats all i wanted to know
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
whiskey
Well-Known Member
It's kind of like going into your relative's kitchen on Thanksgiving and trying to locate a coffee mug. There are lots of places the mugs may be hiding. But your relative knows exactly where everything is in his or her kitchen. The UPS driver knows exactly where every business or residential stop is loaded on his truck. And he has memorized all the street sections. We call it "route knowledge".
ol'browneye
Well-Known Member
I just put on my seatbelt and start the engine and UPS technology takes over. The autopilot kicks in and sometimes I can even take a nap between stops. No more thinking involved in this job. Gps and telematics along with EDD all work together to do our thinking for us. The only reason they don't have robots instead of human drivers is that they need somebody to blame all the problems on. They realize that any mistakes robots make would be their own fault for bad programming, you know, garbage in-garbage out.
P
pickup
Guest
It's real simple, every driver is given a map for the area along with an etch a sketch.
When planning to go from the current stop to the next, the driver looks at the map and then plots his course on an etch-a-sketch.(so as to not mark up the company issued map). Using horizontal and vertical lines on the unit with short lines protruding from the main lines to indicate cross streets, the driver is able to successfully navigate from point a to point b.
When finished at point b and planning to go to point c, the driver just shakes his etch-a-sketch and starts with a fresh screen.
Old International
Now driving a Sterling
Gee, back in the day, I knew what everybody drove, so if I saw them in town I could give them their package right there. I also knew every nook, cranny, alley, dirt road, two lane track and cow path in a 2 county area. If I didn't know where you lived in my delivery area, you didn't live there!!
