any advice for new cover driver?

[tieguy]

>>I called QVC to check if it was shipped &amp; the C.S. Rep. said yes it was &amp; they'd send out a replacement to me &amp; gave me a date I should receive it by.<<

Tia,
Question on this part. QVC is one of our bigger shippers and I'm sure that they use the latest UPS software. Did they happen to email you with the tracking number for the first shipment? It sounds like they did so with some of the other shipments. Its possible they shipped the first one and we lost it. Its also possible they never shipped the package and blamed us. Unfortunately happens quite a bit with shippers in general.

"I was @ my neighbor's house &amp; the UPS guy delivered it to me there. Since he knows who I am &amp; I buy alot from QVC he's here about twice a week, but Christmas was everyday! I'm not sure if this would of caused a problem it's only across the street I got the pkg. even earlier than was expected. So when the lady from UPS called to ask I said yes it even got here a few days earlier than expected she says ok she'll notify the shipper I received it! I checked the UPS website &amp; it said MCWOMAN after he gave the pkg. to me. Doesn't this mean I received it. Should I have signed the DIAD so they know I received it?"

Yes it means Met customer woman. You don't generally have to sign for the package in a residential area unless the shipper requests you do so.

 

[tieguy]

>>So when the lady from UPS called to ask I said yes it even got here a few days earlier than expected she says ok she'll notify the shipper I received it!<<

>> Was UPS checking up on the driver when they called me?<<

Sounds like a follow up. Chain of events for a follow up:

1) you call shipper and ask wheres the stuff I ordered.

2) Shipper calls us and says the consignee says she did not recieve her package.

3) We research all aspects of the shipment to determine whether the shipper shipped the package and whether it was delivered. Part of the process is the driver and a supervisor from the delivery center trying to contact you to confirm delivery.

The early reciept of your reorder makes me wonder if the orginal package got hung up somewhere either at the shipper or at UPS and then finally showed up.

 

[tieguy]

"he says ohhh the pkg. was missed it's wriiten on it. He doesn't know it was on another truck by mistake. Now wouldn't it make sense to say missed pkg. than say I wasn't home if no delivery attempt was made!"

I agree. What time does the delivery attempt that never happened show? If its at the end of the day then unfortunately it sounds like a driver may be stretching the truth on the delivery. I would think the driver would deliver it if he knew it was on his car. So its possible he missed it because it slid around on his car and got buried in some other packages. However it should have been recorded as missed.

 

[upsr]

tieguy, Hi...No they never emailed me the tracking # that's why I didn't know when &amp; if it was shipped but now I know it gets listed in my QVC account I can view online, tells me when I should expect the pkg. delivered &amp; gives me a link for tracking but I just copy/paste the Z# to the MYUPS.COM website which gives me better info.
The C.S. Rep. didn't even email me the new tracking # so I couldn't check to see when it should be getting delivered or the status where it was it's always fun to see how fast it does get here, cause it's before the date QVC says. So UPS is GREAT! I just don't know why there's a new guy delivering now! I hope the other guy didn't get into trouble I didn't cause a problem because of my lost pkg. it's not his fault he didn't lose it. Maybe like you said they never shipped it. I'm not blaming anyone for my missing pkg. I don't want him to get into trouble either. I don't know what happened unless it fell off the truck somewhere unknown.

I've never sent anything back or had any pick-ups @ my house so I'm not sure how shipping things out would work, but I'm thinking about selling stuff on EBAY soon &amp; shipping by UPS do I need to open a UPS account? I was trying to ask him this Question when he said they're watching him...he's gotta go. I don't know if he did something bad that's why he's being watched or it's just routine. Do they change drivers around from time to time or just the routes?

TIA

 

[dannyboy]

Tia

WE have what is known as SPARKS reports. They tell the company how long a driver spent at any stop during the day. It can be fudged by the driver, but then there are other devices that UPS can use document that factor. So while he might be right that they are "watching" him, it does not allways mean that there is a person outside following him around.

d

 

[tieguy]

Good point

 

[dannyboy]

Tia, a few more answers to your questions.

No you do not have to "open a UPS account" in the old sense of the terms. You can do it all on line now, with just a credit card. That way you only have to pay for a pickup when you have things going out. THat is what killed many of the regular shippers of the past was the pickup feed even though they did not have anything going out. Now you only pay for the services that you get and need.

Usually they do not "move" drivers around. What happens is that as the volume goes up and down, UPS adds and deletes routes as needed to keep enough work on its drivers.

Take my route. On Mondays and most Tuesdays, I will have my core business route and it has from 35-55 stops. In addtion to that I will carry the business and res. off moreland drive, 25-35 stops, and about a third of RR 10, 15-30 stops. On wednesday, if the volume is there, I loose RR10, and gain East Colonial Hieghts, about 20-30 stops, but 20 less miles. Then later on in the week if the volume is still up, I loose the res. off morland drive, and gain Kendricks Creek, 25-30 stops, but again less miles. I also meet up for lunch with other drivers and split work with them so if one of us needs to get in, the others will take work off him to get him in early(usually the one to get work, maybe once a month give work away).

And while UPS is very quiet about it, we do have a few theives among us. We do our best to rid ourselves of them when we can. I hope that is not what happened in your case. Maybe he is just on vacation, or taking some time off.

d

 

[upsr]

tieguy, dannyboy Thanks for all the help! It really explained alot to me! The MCWOMAN I see listed for most of my pkg.'s when checking the UPS website &amp; some of the pkg.'s were just left in between my front door &amp; screen door. I thought this was just a code not knowing what it meant, until you told me!

Is there a time limit allowed per stop? I try to get out to the truck if I hear it pull up &amp; save the driver some time &amp; walking unless it's a heavy pkg. then I'd need help carrying it in. I'm just trying to be nice cause I know you guys are always on the run....

don't want to keep you waiting! Because "Time is money"

TIA

 

[steelheader69]

I can also clarify a few more things. I'm sorry if I'm a bit out of sequence on things. As I said, I'm trying to get used to the scrolling work of following messages, so try to skim now more then truly read whole msg. I can answer quite a few questions, since I've been stuck light duty in office for awhile, and have been learned alot.

Not all driver follow ups are generated because customer has not rec'd pkg. Some are generated by the shipper due to address not being EXACTLY as shown on address. (Some say ave instead of ave ct. or some have old name of city-ie. some Tacoma addresses are now Lakewood since incorporation). Usually it's a quick jaunt to the door, and customer signs they rec'd. The rest of what Danny (I think it was him) said was right on.

Onto the SPORH (Stops per on road hour), yes there is a time frame we have per delivery. It's really dependant on the area you're in. UPS now has a report that shows how long you took per delivery. Your deliveries are timestamped, and they can tell if you were at a stop too long. I actually was asked a few times why I took so many minutes between deliveries. Then once you explain you have to deal with road crews, or help a customer fill out a waybill on a pkg, it takes extra time. I guess there is a report that prints out each day that flags any delivery that takes too long (they can even tell if you take too long from last delivery B4 lunch and first delivery after lunch). I had a new supervisor ask me about that one day. Then I had to explain to him (he came from a big hub with very condensed routes) that I average 6-8 stops per hour on this route. And usually I will find a decent waterfront spot to stop on road. So I drive to next stop until I find suitable place. Then clock out for lunch (since I have to drive that way to next stop anyways. Then, once he figured out how much time I had "wasted" it added up to total travel time I would've used if I would've been making a straight delivery.

They also do have mapquesting, and will put a GPS on every now and then. I think they have them on full time, but can't prove it. I've seen them map out routes quite a few times showing driver delivery sequence. It's actually pretty interesting. Shows how some routes overlap each other. I'm not sure how far the logistics go. But I'm sure if they don't have it now, they'll have a satellite system that can show exactly where we are at any time.

 

[dannyboy]

You are correct in your assesment. The program that they have to tell how long you spend on each stop, and when you park for lunch is Sparks. It tells them how long your stop was active and when you hit stop complete.

THey do have a "black box" that they can attatch to your antenna on your truck and it gives them much more information that in conjunction with the sparks report and the mapping program gives them a really good picture of your day, what you did and when. There is one that even tells them how fast your are going, how hard you hit the brakes, how many RPMs you are running and when and in what gear. Really cood tool to use on drivers that you feel are shotgun drivers. It WILL tell on you. But they do not use it too often. The sparks and mapping programs usually tell them all they need to know.

Yes we have a certain amount of time on average that we can spend on one stop. On my area it averages 4.25 minutes. That means that starting from the stop before yours, I start my engine after making the stop, drive to your location, select your package(s), walk to your door, knock, sheet, leave, walk back to the truck and start my vehicle to leave. That whole process can take on the average only 265 seconds. Then consider I have one stop that takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. I then have other stops later on in the day that I must run much faster than the 265 seconds that are allowed. Add to that having a day that I am underallowed by 85 to 1.5, that means that I usually only take from 90-150 seconds to make the average delivery. And yes, UPS keeps track of seconds, not just on the Nascar track but on the road with each driver.

d

 

[upsr]

steelheader69, It's alright if you're out of sequence I don't mind!

You've been extremely helpful especially w/ UPS lingo words. Now I know what SPORH means.

A decent waterfront spot sounds like a good place to have lunch.....I never see any of the UPS guys in my town stop anywhere for lunch, I thought you may not be allowed to park

@ a restaurant, deli to eat. Maybe just grab a bite on the way, or maybe bring your own brown bag lunch.

I do lots of driving around in my town I pass

all the time! I think this one guy thinks I'm following him....except I'm coming from the opposite direction passing by him sometimes he'd wave to me &amp; I'd wave back. By the time I get to where I'm going usually to CVS, the grocery store, bank, etc. Then going back past him again on my way home. I'm beginning to think the way routes run are in circles.
Yes it would be interesting to see the GPS layout of the routes as they overlap one another. I always thought GPS was on all the time the

left the Hub. That's how they know your location.

Knowing the

went down my street this way it looked like he attempted a delivery @ the said time by looking @ the GPS!

I know he's a very nervous person &amp; I think maybe I make him nervous too cause one-day I'm standing outside saw the

pull-up so I walked over to it well he hands me my pkg. &amp; I say no way can this be mine it's not from QVC! It was from Amazon &amp; wasn't the huge box I was expecting so he's like oh yeah this one's your's the one he had for the next stop was what he gave me by mistake...maybe he was going to place it on the passenger seat for the next stop &amp; me showing up might of made him nervous. Do any of your customers make you nervous?

I hope it's not against UPS rules to offer a driver an ice cold bottle of water, soda, Snapple especially in the summertime! It gets very hot out so I think you guys would be thirsty &amp; can't stop for too long &amp; wait in a line to waste more delivery time. I'd hate to see a dehydrated UPS guy!

I'll have to keep an eye out how my pkg.'s are delivered this week!

TIA

 

[tieguy]

>>Is there a time limit allowed per stop? I try to get out to the truck if I hear it pull up &amp; save the driver some time &amp; walking unless it's a heavy pkg. then I'd need help carrying it in. I'm just trying to be nice cause I know you guys are always on the run....don't want to keep you waiting! Because "Time is money"<<

You are the customer and I would not expect you to do anything drastic to make my day go easier. When I delivered I would walk up to the house and look for signs that someone was home. Car in the driveway, lights on inside, music or tv playing, cooking smells etc. If I heard the distinct sound of someone inside, coming to the door I would leave the package right next to the door and start walking. I would often be recording the MCWoman as I sat back down in the package car. In some of your older neighborhoods that had classic porches, a small front yard and lots of landscaping you could easily deliver a package every couple of minutes if the stops were fairly close together. The stops that took the longest were the COD stops, large heavy stops requiring a hand cart, Houses with long frontyards,Apartment buildings where no one is home and you have to get a signature to release the package. Schools were usually the worst. A lot of heavy packages, long walks and offices that were not always easy to access.

The real timesavers would be on a COD or a signature required. I had customers that always knew when that COD was due to arrive and even if they weren't home they would have a prearranged place for me to get the check and leave the packages.

How the front of your house is set up could help. Leave us a good place to hide your packages when your not home. The driver is required to put the package where its out of weather and out of sight from anyone walking down the road. I used to love porchs with Front walls or front bushes that would block the sight of the package. I even had a few people that had some old antigue metal boxes they picked up at a flea market that I could leave the package in. I'm not in any way telling you to spend any money building us a hiding spot just asking you to keep that in the back of your mind when you do any landscaping or remodeling of the porch area.

 

[upsr]

dannyboy, Thanks for saving me money if I don't need to spend it for nothing!

I can use my credit card @ UPS website to pay for the pick-up. Do you pick-up & deliver @ the same time if it's the same address? I think there are 2 guys for my route cause they're always within a few feet of one another mostly in the industrial zone area. Sometimes I see the other guy delivering to me instead of the usual guy.

WOW! I didn't know routes could be changed daily but according to your schedule it is possible. Is there a day that's the most busiest day of the week? Thanks for sharing your route! Ok maybe this makes sense if all drivers have a meeting spot maybe about lunchtime &amp; my usual driver gives the other driver my pkg. to deliver that's how I get a different driver. It's not that my usual driver is out on vacation or is sick cause I still see him on the road. One-day I stopped to ask him for my pkg. thinking I missed him because I was out for the day &amp; it was past my usual delivery time &amp; the day before on the website it said RECEIVER NOT IN ON FIRST DELIVERY ATTEMPT! so he didn't leave my pkg. So now I'm thinking oh no....I missed my delivery again &amp; tomorrow I'm not going to be home so I asked the driver for my pkg. he says he doesn't have anything for me maybe the other driver has it. He doesn't deliver to me anymore just the businesses on my street! Maybe they took him off residential &amp; he's only doing commercial now, cause I see him on my street everyday! Do you get to drive the same

every day? or are there different

for different routes but have the same driver?

TIA

 

[upsr]

tieguy, I know delivering all those pkg.'s daily is a very stressful job especially dealing w/ people who don't have pkg.'s ready to ship but think they do could tie you up a bit. I'm not going to do anything drastic to make your day any easier just want to be a bit helpful! I'm sure after a hard days of work your very tired. Also you get a good work out between lifting heavy boxes &amp; walking/running. Have you ever used a pedometer to see how many steps you take a day?

I have a huge tree in my front yard so it kinda blocks my house. I have a front deck that goes from my front door to the driveway. I have an old metal milkbox sometimes I get too many magazines/catalogs @ the same time (I need to get a bigger mailbox) so the mailman puts them in there. I also have a fenced in driveway w/ a tall fence. But now with all the snow I leave it open. A few of my pkg.'s were put in my front door &amp; screen door &amp; listed as FS, got no clue!

The day it was raining I found a QVC padded bag just sitting on the front deck, he didn't place in between the doors must of been in a hurry that day or a different delivery guy. I don't get any COD deliveries but if I do I'll keep that in mind making sure the shipper tells me the exact amount to have the check ready for.

So MCWOMAN doesn't have to always mean it was given to the customer face to face but can be left if someone's home &amp; since it's addressed to a woman it's recorded as MCWOMAN. If it was addressed to a man is it MCMAN?

Do you have to type all this into the DIAD or is there a listing to pick from?

TIA

 

[dannyboy]

Yes I do pick up and deliver at the same time if it is a residential stop. I do any thing I can to be efficient while out on the road.

IF you are getting a lot of deliveries and will be having pickups fairly regular, you might consider what works well for me and some of my customers. I have the keys or combinations to 2 churches and 6 homes on my route, mostly pharm reps. I have never had a problem with any of them and they seem to like the extra TLC that I give by putting their deliveries right where they want them, and not stack them at the front door. That might be an option. I also have another customer that built a large (4'X4'x3.5') box with a hinged lid, out of exterior plywood siding, that I can leave deliveries in, and if he has something going out, I know that is where to go look. ANy idea you can come up with to make things easier for you and us is a win win and your driver will help you with that.

IF we are not easy to use, then why use us at all, cause we aint the cheapest anymore!

d

 

[upsr]

dannyboy, I know what you mean by stacking pkg.'s @ the front door a few years ago I had a UPS guy deliver sooo many pkg.'s all @ once &amp; dropped them off right in front of my front door the box on the bottom was the heaviest also very big sized, the rest of them were heavy but medium sized boxes. Now I'm stuck in the house cause there's no way I can push open the front screen door with all the weight stuck in front of it. It's almost as bad as having snow drifts on the front deck being snowed in with this past blizzard.

It's good to know you can make deliveries much more personalized than just drop n run! I will have to figure out where to have stuff delivered/picked-up from if I give out a key! I also have an alarm system for the house &amp; garage. I know there's different codes I can give different people &amp; have it programmed in. Would this encounter a problem if someone new delivered?
Have you had any deliveries w/ alarm systems you have codes to? I probably would just use my garage, this way the

could just be backed into my driveway (it's wide enough for 2 cars side by side) up to the garage making it easier to pick-up/deliver @ the same time.

I'd never ship by Fed-ex they are sooo stupid I'm waiting for a Tupperware delivery they just drop it off in front of my driveway early in the morning don't even bother knocking @ the door. Just left it there, well being it was trash day the garbage men were late that day so they thought it was garbage all boxed up! Since we put out stuff like that in old boxes taped up with duct tape, how were they to know it was a new delivery! So even though you say UPS

is not the cheapest anymore but it's still the BEST!

TIA

 

[tieguy]

"So MCWOMAN doesn't have to always mean it was given to the customer face to face but can be left if someone's home &amp; since it's addressed to a woman it's recorded as MCWOMAN. If it was addressed to a man is it MCMAN?"

correct, codes selected from a list. the code is entered upon seeing the customer come to the door your right its not always a face to face handoff unless your pretty quick answering the door.

 

[tieguy]

One other point I thought you might find amusing. During the strike when i was delivering businesses in one drivers area I had customers that had actually been trained to close out the delivery information. This required typing in the last name of the signature and entering other information that tells the system what part of the business the package was delivered to office/ dock etc and then completing the stop. The first time someone at a business did this I was all befuddled.

 

[upsr]

tieguy, I can imagine you gotta be quick to answer the door, sometimes a hear a slight tap on the door it wasn't a knock, but I saw one-day the UPS guy was walking up the path to my

got a few feet in front of the steps, then tossed the box onto the front deck, it actually landed right side up too, now I know what I hear is not really a knock on my door but the pkg. hitting the door. usually by the time I get to it the UPS guy is getting back into his

so I'd just yell THANK YOU! &amp; wave.

How could customers input the info to close out the delivery information? Do they have something similar to the DIAD w/the codes already programmed in it? or Do they meet the driver get the pkg.'s then complete the info on the DIAD in his

? Maybe just go to the UPS website w/special passwords for accounts then log in type last name of the signature and entering other information that tells the system what part of the business the package was delivered to. I find this very interesting, also to the driver it may cause a bit of confusion

@ first.

Do you have to load all the pkg.'s on the

each morning? This way you can arrange your delivery schedule &amp; know where the pkg.'s get placed in the

making delivering easier, or is there a delivery schedule all set up ahead of time &amp; the pkg.'s just jumbled around in back! I never got to see what the back of the

looks like yet! Most likely I will see it soon especially with all the boxes I'll have for a pick-up!

TIA

 

[upsr]

I think my QVC pkg. is

somewhere lost!

I checked UPS site to find out it's status cause it was to be delivered by today! I've been checking it since on my QVC acct. says it was shipped on 2/26/2003. All it says @ UPS.COM is
Status: Billing Information Received
Shipped or Billed on: Feb 26, 2003
Weight: 18.80 Lbs

Does this mean it didn't really get shipped out on the

?

Not sure if the weight matters or not but this is a mirror so it's very fragile. This is my first fragile item I ordered from QVC so I don't need it to get broken!

If the Z# on the website doesn't show it's going to be delivered today, then it won't be!

TIA