First day as pre-loader and I want to quit

[jibbs]

If u loaded 5 routes they must have been light routes. I load 3 routes with over 450 packages in each car in 3 and a half hours. It sucks major ding dongs. Over "peak" if u even wanna call it that for our center, we load for maybe 6 hours and it's 3-4 trucks with 500+ in the trucks. Which is easier but still sucks. All our center has for preload is a conveyor belt lol. We have no nice equipment

5 routes in 7-9 hour shifts. That's almost like a snail's pace, man. You find yourself sitting down and daydreaming half the time with a pull and shift like that.

Inevitably, though, for some reason the belt'll get cranked up to maximum speed in the last hour and it'll seem like they saved 4 doubles to unload until the end of the shift, and then it's like half of the boxes are all coming to your set of trucks. And then you finally load everything up once you see upside down totes come down the belt, throw on your jacket to leave, and here comes another supervisor you haven't seen for the past 4 hours with 10 pages of front-and-back adcuts that need to get pulled off of the only bricked out truck you have that day, that you literally just finished bricking out because you saw the upside down totes hit the belt.

That's where those peak shifts kill you. Just the fact of having 5 trucks isn't a big deal, though.

Define nice equipment for preload?

I.... I don't think I can.

 

[bleedinbrown58]

5 routes in 7-9 hour shifts. That's almost like a snail's pace, man. You find yourself sitting down and daydreaming half the time with a pull and shift like that.

Inevitably, though, for some reason the belt'll get cranked up to maximum speed in the last hour and it'll seem like they saved 4 doubles to unload until the end of the shift, and then it's like half of the boxes are all coming to your set of trucks. And then you finally load everything up once you see upside down totes come down the belt, throw on your jacket to leave, and here comes another supervisor you haven't seen for the past 4 hours with 10 pages of front-and-back adcuts that need to get pulled off of the only bricked out truck you have that day, that you literally just finished bricking out because you saw the upside down totes hit the belt.

That's where those peak shifts kill you. Just the fact of having 5 trucks isn't a big deal, though.






I.... I don't think I can.

The guy who posted before you mentioned his center doesn't have "nice equipment" for preload....not sure what he meant. The only "equipment" I need is a crayon, slide wax and tape. But I can't agree more about the last minute add/cuts....giant PITA.

 

[laffter]

If u loaded 5 routes they must have been light routes. I load 3 routes with over 450 packages in each car in 3 and a half hours. It sucks major ding dongs. Over "peak" if u even wanna call it that for our center, we load for maybe 6 hours and it's 3-4 trucks with 500+ in the trucks. Which is easier but still sucks. All our center has for preload is a conveyor belt lol. We have no nice equipment

I have a hard time believing that every single truck, side by side, is carrying 450 pieces regularly. You're likely exaggerating. What type of area to these trucks deliver to? Does every single one of them deliver to many businesses with daily bulk? That's the only way I see that happening.

A typical breakdown of my five cars during peak might look something like this: a) 550, b) 400, c) 350, d) 300, e) 500(?)

"A" is a mall route and maxed out at 700 one day (the excess didn't even all fit on an extra car). "B" maxed out at 500 one day. "E" ... I just threw in 500 'cause it changed a lot. It was a light resi route with a huge post office stop on it. One day the PO pieces maxed at 700, which included tons of bags so it was easy to load. During the latter days of peak it became a normal resi split route with about 250 daily.

My max piece count for one day might have been 2500? But, if you think about it being over the time frame of two shifts... that's really not that bad. Like I said, it was 5 cars... but a really long ass shift.

 

[tiredofbrown123]

well, i dont know how it is everywhere else, i do know on preload the pt workers work a lot faster but i work reload and its not a production job. they screwed me out of my carwash job that i was atfor 12 yrs and now they have me unloading. i go so slow they dont want me there. hopefully they'll move me where i wanna go which is the small sort. it is faster pace and i know i can handle it. ive done it before. but in my building, if a sup/ center manager tells me to go faster in unloading. ill tell them thats as fast as i can go without hurting myself. if they say anything else ill file harrassment. i told a sup once, ''show me where it says this is a production job in the contract'' he left me alone. again, it may not be the same in your building. but it should be.

 

[you aint even know it]

And also, regardless of what anyone on this site says, driving is a breeze compared to preloading. Once u learn a route it's up to u if you wanna bust your ass and do a good job or be lazy n do an "ok" job. I rather do my best, take my lunch and be home by 6:30-7pm

Besides from unloading trailers, everything else is cake easy on the preload. Unloading trailers is by far the hardest and most dangerous job at UPS.

 

[anthonyb1203]

Besides from unloading trailers, everything else is cake easy on the preload. Unloading trailers is by far the hardest and most dangerous job at UPS.

Gotta agree to disagree on that one. Unloading the trailer is like a retarded cave man job. Hardest meaning physically, yeah. But you don't have to use your brain to unload a trailer. Loading trucks is harder than unloading trailers.

 

[anthonyb1203]

I have a hard time believing that every single truck, side by side, is carrying 450 pieces regularly. You're likely exaggerating. What type of area to these trucks deliver to? Does every single one of them deliver to many businesses with daily bulk? That's the only way I see that happening.

A typical breakdown of my five cars during peak might look something like this: a) 550, b) 400, c) 350, d) 300, e) 500(?)

"A" is a mall route and maxed out at 700 one day (the excess didn't even all fit on an extra car). "B" maxed out at 500 one day. "E" ... I just threw in 500 'cause it changed a lot. It was a light resi route with a huge post office stop on it. One day the PO pieces maxed at 700, which included tons of bags so it was easy to load. During the latter days of peak it became a normal resi split route with about 250 daily.

My max piece count for one day might have been 2500? But, if you think about it being over the time frame of two shifts... that's really not that bad. Like I said, it was 5 cars... but a really long ass shift.

I load 3 P1000 trucks. Has a lot of bulk and business so yeah it's around 450 pieces a day. I'm not trying to "sound cool" or impress anyone on this site. Just putting my 2 cents in.

 

[anthonyb1203]

And yeah there's no nice equipment on preload. It was a joke

 

[PT Car Washer]

Plus all the accountability of loading package cars makes the job much harder. Load quality, misloads, pieces per hour, Preload sups whining, drivers whining. Versus jumping in a trailer and throwing boxes out.

 

[you aint even know it]

Gotta agree to disagree on that one. Unloading the trailer is like a retarded cave man job. Hardest meaning physically, yeah. But you don't have to use your brain to unload a trailer. Loading trucks is harder than unloading trailers.

Actually, loading and unloading trailer are both cavemen job that requires no thinking. One just requires a little little tiny bit of thinking. All you're doing is using the keypad and scanner to scan the packages. Loading the brown trucks is where you need thinking (but it becomes "caveman retarded"after you know the shelves in about 3 days), not loading or unloading trailers. And yes, I was talking about physical, and unloading trailer is by FAR the hardest.

 

[Catatonic]

Actually, loading and unloading trailer are both cavemen job that requires no thinking. One just requires a little little tiny bit of thinking. All you're doing is using the keypad and scanner to scan the packages. Loading the brown trucks is where you need thinking, not loading or unloading trailers.

Reading your statements makes one wonder if you have actually done any of these jobs you expound so knowledgeably of?
That certainly is not a qualification to put your 2 cents in but the question does pop-up in my head.

 

[you aint even know it]

Reading your statements makes one wonder if you have actually done any of these jobs you expound so knowledgeably of?
That certainly is not a qualification to put your 2 cents in but the question does pop-up in my head.

Coming from someone who worked at corporate,

 

[laffter]

Loading the brown trucks is where you need thinking (but it becomes "caveman retarded"after you know the shelves in about 3 days)...

Remembering what order the shelves run is step 1 of 1000 in putting together a decent load.

A typical new hire, weeks into his employment, will still have to stop and think which shelf is which when he steps into the truck. I was right there with them when I started. It takes time for it to hit your "muscle memory", I guess you could call it. And even then, that's still an early step in improving speed and accuracy.

If all you do is walk into the truck and drop the box somewhere on, near, or around the appropriate shelf... then your load quality is going to be complete crap.

On a light day, like today, I will indeed say that everything I did today was, as you described, "caveman retarded". But during the busier times of the year, it is still, after 1.5 years of loading these same routes, mentally challenging to put together decent loads for the drivers.

 

[Catatonic]

Coming from someone who worked at corporate,

Actually not Corporate but people like to say that so that's cool with me.
It was actually in Information Systems for the last 18 of my 40 years.
I started out in the Unload and then to the sort aisle and when I worked over I would work in loading of trailers on the outbound and sometimes working on Irregs. I transferred to the Preload and worked there for 2 years.
I was in Hub and Preload operations for 8 years total and then another 3 years in Hub Industrial Engineering.

Of these jobs (hardest to easiest) in my opinion
Physical (Load, Unload, Sort, Preload)
Mentally (Preload, Sort, Load, Unload)
Stress (Preload, Load, Sort, Unload)
Overall (Preload, Load, Unload, Sort)

Load was harder in many ways because it is so hard to level the flow out. It was OK job until you got blown out with heavy flow and then everything is a mess, off rollers and it's hard to catch up. Building good walls was the trickiest part of the Load job.

 

[jibbs]

Remembering what order the shelves run is step 1 of 1000 in putting together a decent load.

A typical new hire, weeks into his employment, will still have to stop and think which shelf is which when he steps into the truck. I was right there with them when I started. It takes time for it to hit your "muscle memory", I guess you could call it. And even then, that's still an early step in improving speed and accuracy.

Not even gonna lie, there's times I catch myself putting a 2000 on the 4000 and vice versa early in the morning.

Especially if it's like 2442 or a 4242 or something.


Maybe I'm numerically dyslexic, I dunno. I know sometimes the 0032 truck stickers look like 0047 to me, and there's one truck labeled OSCR on packages that I always mistake for 0042 until I'm right in front of them.



...I should probably start wearing my glasses to work...

 

[bleedinbrown58]

Besides from unloading trailers, everything else is cake easy on the preload. Unloading trailers is by far the hardest and most dangerous job at UPS.

You are local sort.....have you worked the preload shift?

 

[bleedinbrown58]

Not even gonna lie, there's times I catch myself putting a 2000 on the 4000 and vice versa early in the morning.

Especially if it's like 2442 or a 4242 or something.friend


Maybe I'm numerically dyslexic, I dunno. I know sometimes the 0032 truck stickers look like 0047 to me, and there's one truck labeled OSCR on packages that I always mistake for 0042 until I'm right in front of them.



...I should probably start wearing my glasses to work...

Funny you should mention that.....I never used to wear my glasses to work....they're a hinderance when the sweat's pouring off your face and glasses keep sliding off when you bend over. But I'm getting old lol....can't strain my eyes anymore....especially on long peak shifts. So I gave in and started wearing them a few months ago...

 

[jibbs]

That's actually why I don't wear mine. They get in the way more than they help, and there's always a chance to bust them up inside UPS.

I just squint a li'l bit and look mad as hell all morning, it's been working for me for a while now.

 

[bleedinbrown58]

That's actually why I don't wear mine. They get in the way more than they help, and there's always a chance to bust them up inside UPS.

I just squint a li'l bit and look mad as hell all morning, it's been working for me for a while now.

yeah I did the same for 7 years....but started getting headaches from it recently. You're young...you'll manage for awhile that way...lol. Been lucky so far...no damage....but I think I was up for new pair as of last month. Been lucky as far as glasses haven't been damaged yet...but I think I'm eligible for a free new pair as of last month...

 

[jibbs]

Yeah, man! After I qualified for benefits I realized just how awesome the insurance is. I had just under a $500 eye appointment that I walked out of after ordering a $95 frame and didn't pay a cent.

Made a doctor's appointment right after that, lol.