Drivin' The Brown Truck...

[BigD Bri]

I get a lot of useful information here, I'm a loader getting ready to do Seasonal Driving, praying I get lucky at the end of Peak. I'll do what I have to to make that happen more quickly, be a donkey through Peak, whatever. I want to make 80K with benefits, pension, 401K, union protection driving a brown truck. I know it's hard work, I know it's going to be a frustrating Peak, I just finished Integrad and I can still barely clock in on the DIAD, I don't know anything about what I'm about to be doing. I'm going to suck at this for a minute, and that bothers me...

Some of you guys here have been doing this 20 plus years, and a lot of you are just here to bitch about work, that's fine. UPS mgmt. appears to be happy to break it off in you at any opportunity, I guess that's just how it is. But there has to be a level of pride you guys feel doing what you do. Has to be.. So, give it to me. What's going to make me suck less than I'm going to, what's going to be what I can do so other's don't have to take up my slack?

Any thoughts or opinions will be appreciated.

 

[Wally]

I get a lot of useful information here, I'm a loader getting ready to do Seasonal Driving, praying I get lucky at the end of Peak...

Do splits where you meet lots of woman. Ask them out and chances are you will get lucky.

Good luck!

 

[Northbaypkg]

Experience will make you suck less. Nothing we tell you will change your degree of suckage. Just know that in your first week, you WILL suck. You will be utter garbage. If you can accept that, you'll be fine. Your third day out alone will be A LOT better than your first. If you do stay on which is a truthfully a microscopic chance, you gotta be prepared to suck again everytime they put you on a route blind. You'll do that for a couple of years until you have a good amount of route knowledge. Then the job will become pretty routine.

 

[WorknLateHuh]

Sitting in the driver's seat at a stop, staring down at the diad to figure out your next stops, chews up a huge amount of time... especially when you're doing that at every stop.

When practical, plan your stops as you're walking to and from your truck, not when you're standing/sitting there idle doing nothing. Obviously, be mindful of the walkpath and use common sense.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Sitting in the driver's seat at a stop, staring down at the diad to figure out your next stops, chews up a huge amount of time... especially when you're doing that at every stop.

When practical, plan your stops as you're walking to and from your truck, not when you're standing/sitting there idle doing nothing. Obviously, be mindful of the walkpath and use common sense.

Uh, looking at your DIAD while at a traffic light is a big no-no.

This is where the veterans have the edge as we were always taught to know our next 5 stops.

 

[Rick Ross]

Wait until they give you a helper and diad IV...then the fun will begin. If you can't keep up with your stops your better off just running 40 consecutive stops (or whatever number they give you) off the old diad so you don't miss anything and have to go back.

Also, forget about the 4.9 hours or whatever crap number they give you for helper hours. Use them until the day is under control.

Most of the new drivers I witnessed come in during peak were pretty much useless for anything other than running irregs. Area knowledge is huge but you also need to know how to sort a package car and that is hard to learn when the car is blown up with a bunch of misloads. Since you're a loader you might be OK, but most new drivers seem to struggle with it because they don't have the experience to know how the stops will come off the car or waste their helper time trying to find packages.

I always loved going to get 20 stops off of a newer driver late in the afternoon and his package car was blown up. I'm not OCD about having things in order but by lunch or early afternoon everything is at least on the right shelf or somewhere I put it. If I'm taking your stops I shouldn't have to freaking sort your package car too!

Anyway, you have a good attitude going in so take it slow and don't have an accident.

 

[WorknLateHuh]

Uh, looking at your DIAD while at a traffic light is a big no-no.

This is where the veterans have the edge as we were always taught to know our next 5 stops.

"Sitting in the driver's seat at a stop" as in a delivery stop, not a traffic light. That is a given, is it not?

So we were always taught to know our next 5 stops. You're not going to know your next 5 stops through telepathic powers. You will have to check your diad at some point. That's what I was getting at... you check it while walking, receptionist gets off the phone, waiting for a cod etc.

 

[WayBill]

Uh, looking at your DIAD while at a traffic light is a big no-no.

This is where the veterans have the edge as we were always taught to know our next 5 stops.

5 stops is way too many to recall at once. Especially after seeing some great cleavage at the previous stop. In the words of the great Soberups, keep calm & deliver one gosh darn stop at a time!

 

[Box Ox]

So, give it to me.

Paging @Indecisi0n

 

[Indecisi0n]

Paging @Indecisi0n

I'm here.

 

[Box Ox]

I'm here.

Alright, BigD. Time to do more while sucking less.

 

[walk it off]

I get a lot of useful information here, I'm a loader getting ready to do Seasonal Driving, praying I get lucky at the end of Peak. I'll do what I have to to make that happen more quickly, be a donkey through Peak, whatever. I want to make 80K with benefits, pension, 401K, union protection driving a brown truck. I know it's hard work, I know it's going to be a frustrating Peak, I just finished Integrad and I can still barely clock in on the DIAD, I don't know anything about what I'm about to be doing. I'm going to suck at this for a minute, and that bothers me...

Some of you guys here have been doing this 20 plus years, and a lot of you are just here to bitch about work, that's fine. UPS mgmt. appears to be happy to break it off in you at any opportunity, I guess that's just how it is. But there has to be a level of pride you guys feel doing what you do. Has to be.. So, give it to me. What's going to make me suck less than I'm going to, what's going to be what I can do so other's don't have to take up my slack?

Any thoughts or opinions will be appreciated.

Get a printout of your stops. Put a circle around the stops that have bulk on the floor. Put a "c" at the one that are call tags.