Have you heard of the Orion System, what do you know?
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Omega man
Well-Known Member
Like most of what UPS does, Orion is poorly planned and implemented.
It is totally laughable. Orion adds 15 to 20 additional miles to the rural routes in my center.
Each driver gets a two day ride with a sup who is supposed to input relevant data which conflicts with a routes “shortest path” to complete such as impassable tunnels, deadends and wrongly drawn roads. In reality, only minor problems are recognized and input because of the limited time.
Orion is based on UPS' bogus allowances and expects drivers to be at places they have no chance of getting to by its projected time.
Orion has a driver selecting from every part of the truck with total disregard to bulk. UPS gives no additional selection allowance for this.
Orion also does not take into account business and pickup closing times so you have to break off and drive clear across your route to service them. Any minimal amount of miles the system might save by finding the shortest path is more than negated by this.
Management has started handing out discipline for not following it. They have no idea what they are in for when each driver follows it 100% and files 9.5s.
Either UPS will be forced to abandon this disaster or they will have to reduce the number of stops per car because of the reduced production it creates.
Those drivers who love overtime will welcome it.
It is totally laughable. Orion adds 15 to 20 additional miles to the rural routes in my center.
Each driver gets a two day ride with a sup who is supposed to input relevant data which conflicts with a routes “shortest path” to complete such as impassable tunnels, deadends and wrongly drawn roads. In reality, only minor problems are recognized and input because of the limited time.
Orion is based on UPS' bogus allowances and expects drivers to be at places they have no chance of getting to by its projected time.
Orion has a driver selecting from every part of the truck with total disregard to bulk. UPS gives no additional selection allowance for this.
Orion also does not take into account business and pickup closing times so you have to break off and drive clear across your route to service them. Any minimal amount of miles the system might save by finding the shortest path is more than negated by this.
Management has started handing out discipline for not following it. They have no idea what they are in for when each driver follows it 100% and files 9.5s.
Either UPS will be forced to abandon this disaster or they will have to reduce the number of stops per car because of the reduced production it creates.
Those drivers who love overtime will welcome it.
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
They can take their "discipline" and shove it up their ass.
They are issuing conflicting and mutually exclusive instructions. They cant discipline a driver for failing to follow ORION by some arbitrary percentage, only to turn around and discipline him for missing stops, missing pickups or having late air when he DOES follow it by that arbitrary percentage. They want to have it both ways and that is BS. Its the standard UPS no-win scenario; any action that the driver takes to keep from appearing on one report will automatically cause him to show up on a different one. The way I see it, if I'm screwed no matter what I do, I might as well make the choice that benefits the customer the most, and just be willing to take the heat for it the next day.
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
Article 37 NMUPSA prohibits "coercion, harassment or over-supervision."
Management forcing an employee to choose between two conflicting instructions (ORION compliance vs. avoiding service failures)...and then threatening to discipline him no matter which instruction he follows...is the most clear-cut example of coercion and harassment that I can imagine. Anybody who gets threatened for failing to generate whatever random ORION compliance metric that their supervisor might have pulled out of his ass that day needs to step up and file an Art 37 grievance. That is what I plan on doing when I go live on ORION in a few weeks. If they want a driver who makes smart decisions they can have that; if they want a mindless drone who blindly follows ORION 100% regardless of the service failures that might result, they can have that too. But they cant have both. I have neither the time nor the desire to make an already challenging job even harder on myself by trying to make service on deliveries and pickups while at the same time trying to calculate whether or not I am generating whatever compliance percentage they happen to be chasing. I am a driver; if I wanted to manipulate irrelevant metrics or pleasure myself all over some stupid report in a cubicle someplace, I would be in I.E. instead.
Management forcing an employee to choose between two conflicting instructions (ORION compliance vs. avoiding service failures)...and then threatening to discipline him no matter which instruction he follows...is the most clear-cut example of coercion and harassment that I can imagine. Anybody who gets threatened for failing to generate whatever random ORION compliance metric that their supervisor might have pulled out of his ass that day needs to step up and file an Art 37 grievance. That is what I plan on doing when I go live on ORION in a few weeks. If they want a driver who makes smart decisions they can have that; if they want a mindless drone who blindly follows ORION 100% regardless of the service failures that might result, they can have that too. But they cant have both. I have neither the time nor the desire to make an already challenging job even harder on myself by trying to make service on deliveries and pickups while at the same time trying to calculate whether or not I am generating whatever compliance percentage they happen to be chasing. I am a driver; if I wanted to manipulate irrelevant metrics or pleasure myself all over some stupid report in a cubicle someplace, I would be in I.E. instead.
4
40andOut
Guest
Discipline for failing to follow ORION has been mentioned here, but not carried out yet. I am thinking that letting them have it both ways is the best course of action. Follow ORION to a tee until you have to break off. Rack up the miles by having to break off to avoid missed stops. File for over 9.5, and watch the stops loaded in your truck eventually plummet. If you start missing stops they will just blame you, not ORION. The excess miles reports will eventually force them to look at why ORION is failing...unless you don't follow it (then they can blame you).
But if you follow ORION and avoid service failures by breaking off, the system will have to be re-evaluated.
Despite what P-man has been saying on this forum, I have heard from drivers how disastrous the pre-launch trials of ORION were. It concerns me that UPS is rolling ORION out so feverishly despite it not being fully functional (not re-looping during the day). What would be the motive for implementing ORION prematurely??? I am speculating here, but could it be that a yet to be announced technology which relies on ORION is waiting in the wings? Or is it just (as others have speculated) a technique for "dumbing down" the job so that by the next contract anyone can do the job (even a scab) and the current drivers are being used to work out the bugs?
But if you follow ORION and avoid service failures by breaking off, the system will have to be re-evaluated.
Despite what P-man has been saying on this forum, I have heard from drivers how disastrous the pre-launch trials of ORION were. It concerns me that UPS is rolling ORION out so feverishly despite it not being fully functional (not re-looping during the day). What would be the motive for implementing ORION prematurely??? I am speculating here, but could it be that a yet to be announced technology which relies on ORION is waiting in the wings? Or is it just (as others have speculated) a technique for "dumbing down" the job so that by the next contract anyone can do the job (even a scab) and the current drivers are being used to work out the bugs?
OptimusPrime
Well-Known Member
Interesting point about the nine fives. Info we got in the mail, if we vote it, said no one under 4 years can file 9 fives. Writing is on the wall. Buyouts are coming. They want an army of newbs, unable to file 9 fives, and make bank.
brownmonster
Man of Great Wisdom
We were going to be replaced due to technology the last contract. I hunt and peck thru my truck now to save miles. If I ran my route by trace I would add 25 miles. Can't wait for Orion.
4
40andOut
Guest
Get ready to roll your eyes when ORION hits your area.
It will select a ground stop to work into your NDA run that will save you 1/10 of a mile, while not working in a stop that could have saved you 6 miles. It will sequence stops on the same block (could both be delivered without moving the truck) sometimes hours apart. 
Indecisi0n
Well-Known Member
There is no follow Orion but if it doesn't make sense break off. You are either directing me to follow it or not. If there is a business in the 8000 section and Orion says to attempt it at 8:00PM then so be it (missed). This is why my boss doesn't direct me to follow it.
HEFFERNAN
Huge Member
I can understand the Orion system being used on drivers who are an hour paid over or more.
Obviously, there is a gap between what the computer report generates and the driver.
It may be a lack of effort by the driver or just a bad route and/or dispatch.
What kills me is what about the drivers that scratch or are an hour paid under !!
I can see whats in my truck, not a computer !!!
I can tell if it's in my best interest to get those 3 Pottery Barn boxes out early or if I have the time to rummage through the shelf to do an air and ground at the same time.
Many a day, I'll knock off a few housecalls when I have an air on that street. BUT ONLY, if I know i'm not wasting my time.
If my diad forces me to do it, I already know I'm gonna ignore it.
THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL, I CAN GO PICKING THROUGH MY TRUCK DURING PEAK WHEN I CAN"T EVEN FIND A PAL 2000 PACKAGE !!!!
Obviously, there is a gap between what the computer report generates and the driver.
It may be a lack of effort by the driver or just a bad route and/or dispatch.
What kills me is what about the drivers that scratch or are an hour paid under !!
I can see whats in my truck, not a computer !!!
I can tell if it's in my best interest to get those 3 Pottery Barn boxes out early or if I have the time to rummage through the shelf to do an air and ground at the same time.
Many a day, I'll knock off a few housecalls when I have an air on that street. BUT ONLY, if I know i'm not wasting my time.
If my diad forces me to do it, I already know I'm gonna ignore it.
THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL, I CAN GO PICKING THROUGH MY TRUCK DURING PEAK WHEN I CAN"T EVEN FIND A PAL 2000 PACKAGE !!!!
brownmonster
Man of Great Wisdom
Every day I drive past stops I could deliver while running air if only I started at 8:20 instead of 9. The idiocy of starting later and later is beyond my comprehension.
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
I get what you are saying, but since when has UPS ever "re-evaluted" anything?
We are not a company that can ever admit a mistake. When we make stupid mistakes we dont correct them, we double down on them. If something doesnt work, we just pretend that it works. We dont fix problems; we assign blame for them instead. Look at all the time and energy and effort that is spent on OJS's and discipline and harassment for drivers who run an hour or two overallowed on routes with a flawed timestudies. Rather than fix the flawed studies, we pretend that they are good and simply keep on trying to hammer the square peg of impossible expectations into the round hole of reality. ORION will be no different. Once they implement it, it will be no different from a flawed timestudy or a bad PAS/EDD setup; there for good, chiseled in stone, with no hope that any of its underlying flaws will ever be fixed.
I'm not going to play their game. I'm going to force them to make a very clear choice. They can either pay me to do my job and make smart decisions on their behalf, or they can pay me to be a mindless drone who generates a 100% ORION compliance metric no matter what the consequences in terms of service failures might be. If its going to fail, I will let it fail hard and fast and I will keep letting it fail until they give me the go-ahead to shut it off and run the route the best way I know how.
grgrcr88
No It's not green grocer!
So after 3 weeks on Orion and 3 different experts on car with me, there still have been no changes, except for the center manager now demanding i follow it 85% or better. All 3 riders agree changes need to be made. All 3 said they would make them and none of it has been done. I am done. I will blindly follow the ridiculously laid out plan of Orion to the tune of an extra hour and 20-30 extra miles a day. System crashed one day and I was on my own, ran more stops in less time and less miles than I have once with Orion. Congratulations, you have taken away the experience and knowledge of a 23 year driver and replaced it with a computer program that has no ability to change with conditions and I have no choice but to fail with it!!
The main problem is the system has no idea what stops are businesses and what are not. Therefore cannot know closing times, lunch hours, etc.. It will loop it with the least amount of miles assuming you keep up with the way its looped and never have to break off. If you do break off, say to get to a business before they close, you must go back to the point you broke off from to be back on trace. If not you now have multiple trace breaks and are not within the 85%. Takes away the brains of a driver and his ability to complete the day in the most efficient manner while still providing the service the customers expect. That is another problem. We no longer care about service to the customer, as long as the delivery is made before their close time its considered good enough.
Someone needs to inform the idiots up in the ivory tower that we don't sell a product here at UPS. We are not cheaper, we are better, that's why the customers use us. If we bring our SERVICE LEVEL down to equal that of Fed-ex we have taken away the reason for any customer to continue using UPS. This system will, and has, cost us customers. How much do we lose before we realize the actual cost of this is much higher than anything gained!!
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
1. Shut brain off.
2. Stop caring.
3. Follow ORION 100%. Not 80%, not 90%...one hundred percent, no exceptions.
4. If NDA is late, enter "other" as reason. If attempting delivery to business after posted hours, scan as "missed".
5. If resulting delays cause you to be out beyond a safe or reasonable time, return to building and scan all remaining stops as "missed." Remember that they dont want you to think anymore, so dont. Their plan, their fail.
6. Repeat as necessary.
They have no intention of fixing the problems with your ORION because you are enabling them not to. The only way to force them to make the necessary changes is to make the consequences of their decision so agonizing...in terms of late air and missed stops...that they will do anything they have to do in order to make the pain stop. Remember that you are dealing with fundmentally stupid and incompetent IE people who dont care about anything except looking good on meaningless reports. You have to find a way to make them look bad on those reports. Pretend that you are trying to herd a 2000 lb bull through a china shop. The bull is big and heavy and stubborn and stupid. It doesnt listen and it doesnt care about what you say. Trying to reason with it is a useless waste of your time. You have to use a 240 volt cattle prod to get the damn thing to move. It wont move the way you want it to and it will knock a bunch of crap over and step on it in the process, but if you are persistent and just keep applying the voltage of service failures to that bull's ass every day you will eventully force it to move it in the direction you need it to go.
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1BROWNWRENCH
Amatuer Malthusian
Rules #1 and #2 are good ones to follow no matter what your position in the big brown anthill.
BSWALKS
Fugitive From Reality
It's taken me a while, & sadly, that's the point I've reached. It sucks because that's just not who I am.
No matter what I do, how hard I work, or how much I care is enough for THEIR flawed systems.
That's the way a lot of us feel! Maybe one day somebody upstairs will figure it out. Hopefully before the company goes too far downhill!!
BSWALKS
Fugitive From Reality
Ya know I was just thinking, "Atlanta, are you listening?".
THEIR bs & unrealistic expectations have pushed me to the point of not caring.
I now punch in, click the giving a **** switch off, then turn it back on after punching out. It's just a check with benefits for me now.
Actually feel like I've been set free. Maybe it's good that I've reached this point.
1BROWNWRENCH
Amatuer Malthusian
I used to care, but my morale and mental health were being eroded by constant disappointment. Self preservation. Work safe.
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