I'm in IE, so, I know how the allowances are developed and what they contain. Believe it or not, we develop methods by watching real UPS drivers who were pretty good at their job out on the road, making sure it's a safe way to do it (no repetitive end range motions, at risk behaviors, etc.), and writing it down. Then we tell everyone to do it that way, watch about 10,000 people do it, throw out the top and bottom quartile, average the remaining
middle 50 percent, and use that time for the allowance. Normal conditions, NORMAL EFFORT, by trained people following the METHODS. That's where all these numbers come from, the 2 walks, the ring bell wait, etc. All of them. Not measured with LaDainian Tomlinson doing it at full speed, or by an office worker with a protractor, but thousands of real life average UPSers. Moreover, when I do the time study, if there's a judgment call where I could or couldn't give the driver the allowance, I ALWAYS gave the allowance as long as I was within the methods. Hey, some day I might be an on-car sup in that center and have to HIT that number.
Usually, when allowances are that far off there's a pretty good reason, but you need someone with proper training to recognize it. One obvious one is new housing or industrial complexes. They change an area in such a way as to require a new time study, but we don't always have the staffing to do it, so it stays out of compliance for a long time.
When I could get a day in here or there as a package IE I would ride drivers to find out what's happening. The stories are endless, and there's always one or two that don't make sense, but here are the most common:
1) The driver spends 10 minutes sorting the air in a tote at the building. You don't get time for that. I understand, the driver doesn't trust the preload and the preload has stuck the driver with out of area airs many times, but THAT'S NOT HOW WE SHOULD RUN THE BUSINESS. The preload should put the right air stops in the 1000 section of the car. And the driver should be able to trust his/her EDD. When that's not the case, we need to FIX IT, not change the allowance to allow for screwing it up.
2) We drive 15 minutes out of trace after the air is done to get the rear door center stop off. "I don't want that in my way all day". It won't be. Deliver all of the packages on the 1000 shelf and the 2000 shelf, which you can reach, and get the bulk stop off when you get there in trace. "I don't like to do that". I understand. You feel better emptying the center of the truck, but you cost yourself a half hour a day with this ONE decision. I'm not talking about SSI accounts or other time commits. Just your standard bulk stop.
3) We spend 45 total minutes a day stopping 4-5 times in a parking lot to "re-sort" the truck. Why are you doing that? "The preload sucks." Are they following the chart/PAS label? "No, that hasn't been right for 4 years." or, "Yea, they tell me to do it one way, but I got my special super secret way to do it I like much better. I make all LEFT turns
"
The driver I'm portraying above, is at no time ever "lazy". On the contrary, they're usually drenched in sweat all day, and still come in over an hour overallowed. No wonder they feel the allowances are impossible. They're not trained, or when they are, we in management DON'T CREATE the environment that driver needs to succeed. What I find is that if we follow the METHODS, from 4 AM to the check-in, both with the inside ops and the center, these things get resolved. It's a failure of both the driver and management that we don't insist on getting these things fixed. I'll stop a driver out on the road with the on-car sup and say, what is that driver doing? The driver will stick his head out and look at me like I have 3 heads and say, sorting my truck, what do you think? And his on-car sup will look at me the same way. This is when I go nuts, toward the on-car. You're telling me, this driver sorts the truck all day, you know about it, and you think that's the way it should be???? No wonder you OJS the driver for 3 days and the driver comes in more overallowed than when he/she went out alone.
This is where most people tell me, well, be realistic. You're never gonna fix the preload. Fine. I wouldn't give up like that, but fine. Don't come tell me there's something wrong with the allowance after that though. The allowances HAVE to set the standard for PERFECT METHODS. If they don't, how will we know when we're doing something wrong??? The allowances don't always point to where we should work harder, but also, smarter.
. And its getting kinda weird. I double on another sort and I'm treated better by all management on that sort. H*ll, at break on my normal sort, I went to find this full-timer I usually help to see if he needed help on his sort. I found him, sitting in his office, looking at his computer and doing some numbers. He saw me, stood and put his hand out to shake mine. He said, "Ready for tonight?" The part-timer I help is just super. His face lights up everytime he sees me on his area. The fact that I make the aisle eat the **** it talks is probably part of the reason. But, that's a different thread. -Rocky
if you have a c.m.that you don't like call the 8oo number.(1)we had drivers who called union hall reported him for allowing him to let drivers work off the clock in the morning working in there trucks.(2)forced drivers to work during mealtime so he could get his numbers.he is gone after 4 years.thank goodness.tempers were starting to get short.had a retirement party ask him not to come afraid someone would of taken aswing at him.wouldn't want someone to get fired.course no one would of seen anything.i didn't have a retirement party,i didn't want anything.he would of been the last person i wanted to see.i like everyone.(but him)i would shake the person had who would tell him they hated his guts.ever had a c.m. like that.
