8 months into PDS

PTPDS49

Member
the start of this job was pretty rough, I'm now getting the hang of things and getting better at it, but I must ask. Why is the PDS job so under appreciated? I come in every day and do my absolute best to plan the drivers at the best day possible. While some are cool with what I've given them I've still got a few that just give me heck everyday and tell me that I'm stupid or just complain like there is no tomorrow. Why do they do this to me? why are my efforts going un-noticed?
 

Brownslave688

You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
They are likely mad not really at you but just the situation.

My old dispatcher was the dumbest person in the center. You could tell them the same thing everyday for months and everytime it was the first time they heard it.

All while one of the driver sups who knew almost every route begged to have that job. Lack of area knowledge for the dispatcher is probably most drivers pet peeve.
 

TooTechie

Geek in Brown
Until you go on road with a driver and see how badly you've messed up their day you won't get it. You say you're planning the drivers at the best day possible...by what measurement/whose standards?

Until you go full time driving for at least 6 months you won't get it. You make add/cuts which suck in and of themselves but there could be business(es) mixed in that completely screws the driver you're giving it to as well as the business who counts on getting time sensitive things daily in a certain time frame or closes early and you've PAL'd it into 8999 so a driver who doesn't usually get it finds it at 6:30 and has to decide if they're going to sheet it as missed and deal with the BS the next day or falsify it as a residence/NI and roll the dice on losing his job for dishonesty.

You can't just grab a chunk of stops and move it because on a computer screen it looks like it will make sense. You have to know exactly what you're moving and how it will affect the two drivers involved and their customers. If you're going to need to level off routes use the same sections and swing them between the same drivers so you don't have guys out in the dark trying to deliver other people's work.

The measure of a good PDS is not hitting SPC or running the least amount of cars possible. Your goal should be to leave the routes alone as much as possible and to learn as much about each route and driver as you can. If you have someone who is hammered one day then find a way to put in a level route. Don't add/cut 20 stops to the next guy then cut 20 of their stops to the next route and so on and so forth. Keep the ripples down.
 

TooTechie

Geek in Brown
Ignore them.
Wrong. Ignoring an issue doesn't make it go away. A PDS is either going to hear from a driver for one of two reasons. 1) The driver is a whiner and will always whine no matter what you give them (not common but every center has one or two). 2) You're screwing something up that you have the ability to fix and don't understand the issue(s).

Either listen to the driver and try to fix it or if you think there is no merit in the complaint after really trying to understand it, then refer the driver to their on-car.
 

cosmo1

Perhaps.
Staff member
Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Did you ever deliver?

Do you know the areas you are dispatching well?

Are you just dispatching SPC as told to?

If you answered 'no' to the first two questions, and 'yes' to the third, you are in the wrong job.
 

PTPDS49

Member
The most I have on add cuts are 2-3 pages at the end of the sort. I've gotten on the trucks with drivers to ride. and I talk to the drivers daily about how the previous day went and make the necessary changes. And of course I can only go by the ones I trust. My center avg paid day is an 8.7-8.8hrs. Our center makes NDPPH, PPH, reduce over allowed daily, and I'm in the 70's on percent range in dispatch. I stay around 1-2 under 8's a day and have around 3 over 9.5's a day and that's because 2 drivers request 10-11 hrs of work a day.
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
the start of this job was pretty rough, I'm now getting the hang of things and getting better at it, but I must ask. Why is the PDS job so under appreciated? I come in every day and do my absolute best to plan the drivers at the best day possible. While some are cool with what I've given them I've still got a few that just give me heck everyday and tell me that I'm stupid or just complain like there is no tomorrow. Why do they do this to me? why are my efforts going un-noticed?

At UPS there will always be the spoiled brat drivers and those that simply cannot be satisfied. But.......let me explain something about what I've experienced with PDSs.


We've only had a couple of PDS supervisor and both were/are lazy as sin. Both flat out refused/refuse to fix DOLs. Both would/still does dispatch routes where 30 or more stops have the same PAL. Both built/build routes that make absolutely no sense. It is true that both (like any other PDS, On Car, or Manager at UPS) have had their hands tied by ridiculous and arbitrary stops per car metrics and the resulting over dispatched routes but more often than not the faults I just mentioned never should have happened. So, fast forward to now when we have ORION NAZIs spread across the country trying to implement a program that (at best is the equivalent of using a broken toilet plunger) kind of needs the center's DOL and PDS to be on track. Well, it is a disaster. And the PDSs made it worse than It already is.

I'm not sure if every center's PDS is like that but from what little I've read about the subject on this forum I'd have to sadly assume that many are. Sorry....I'm just calling it like I see it. If that doesn't apply to you then don't sweat it.
 

TooTechie

Geek in Brown
The most I have on add cuts are 2-3 pages at the end of the sort. I've gotten on the trucks with drivers to ride. and I talk to the drivers daily about how the previous day went and make the necessary changes. And of course I can only go by the ones I trust. My center avg paid day is an 8.7-8.8hrs. Our center makes NDPPH, PPH, reduce over allowed daily, and I'm in the 70's on percent range in dispatch. I stay around 1-2 under 8's a day and have around 3 over 9.5's a day and that's because 2 drivers request 10-11 hrs of work a day.
I'm glad I took the time to type everything I did up above cuz it clearly fell on deaf ears. You just gave me a paragraph of numbers and figures. You just don't get it.
 

cosmo1

Perhaps.
Staff member
Wrong. Ignoring an issue doesn't make it go away. A PDS is either going to hear from a driver for one of two reasons. 1) The driver is a whiner and will always whine no matter what you give them (not common but every center has one or two). 2) You're screwing something up that you have the ability to fix and don't understand the issue(s).

Either listen to the driver and try to fix it or if you think there is no merit in the complaint after really trying to understand it, then refer the driver to their on-car.

Techie nailed it. Fix what ever you can fix. Trust the drivers you can, because they are the ones fixing your mistakes.
 
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