opey

Well-Known Member
Didnt go to Integrad, but the local training/orientation class in NYC. Very strict on uniform and being on time... someone walked in 2 mins minute late for a second time and was sent packing. First time he let him slide since he called before to let the instructor know he got stuck in traffic. Biggest test was memorizing word for word the 5 seeing habits (and all the sub-content), 10 pt commentary, keys to avoiding slips and falls, keys to lifting and lowering, and yard control. Had to write them out and also recite them word for word to the instructor. What really helped is that we did a written test every morning of class... writing it out really helps more than anything else, so by the last day it was coming so much easier. Had to drive a stick shift package car in NYC traffic, they had like a training paddy wagon that was like a bus with seats for like 10 people. There was no pre/post inspection test and the road test was basically up to the judgement of the instructor that he was confident you could drive safely. didnt seem to be any official scoring to it. Seems like Integrad is a bit more in depth, then again there was i believe 24 people in my class, instructor said that was way too much for him and someone was supposed to help out but he never got help. We barely even got to go over the diad and actual delivery methods since about a day and a half the instructor was out doing the road tests. I never even heard of the driver drill until last week when I had a safety ride
 

UrFellowUpser

Well-Known Member
The driver drill was way different than that video in my experience. That was mostly commentary driving which you have to do also but isn't to bad. The driver drill I was taught was you had 2 minutes and had to make 45 front eye movements and 15 rear eye movements. Front eye movements were eye lead time, follow time, left curb and right curb. Rear eye movements were left mirror, right mirror and speed. Easiest way to do it was eye lead time, follow time, speed. Then left curb, left mirror, left curb. Then eye lead time, follow time, speed. Then right curb mirror curb. Basically middle, left, middle, right, middle, left etc. Until they say stop. Hardest part about it is you have to verbalize everything so they know you're moving your eyes. and trying to get the words out fast enough is what got most people. You also have to say what eye lead time is I.e. Eye lead time is to the speed limit sign. Had to say what the follow time was I.e. Follow time about 5 seconds (unless there's no cars in front of you, then just say follow time over 8 seconds). And you had to call clear or hazard for everything else. I.e. Left curb hazard left mirror clear left curb hazard. So together you would say, eye lead time is to the speed limit sign follow time is over 8 seconds speed is clear (not speeding) left curb is clear left mirror is clear left curb is now hazard eye lead time is to the stale green light follow time is about 6 seconds speed is clear right curb hazard right mirror hazard right curb clear. For 2 minutes straight. I was told you fail if you have more than 5 miss calls (right curb clear when there's a car there etc). TLDR: you have to talk a lot. And it sucks
Wtf man
 

HFolb23

Well-Known Member
Alright guys sorry for the delay but here's my recap post from Integrad.

First night you get to the hotel you have a quick little meeting with one of the instructors basically just to take attendance and give a quick brief on what to expect.

The bus left the hotel at like 6:25 each morning but the first morning was a little earlier. When I say it left at 6:25 I mean 6:25, not a second later so be downstairs by the door a few minutes early.

The first day of training is the longest, and has its own schedule, you get a brief in the beginning basically to assign your partner, get everyone set up in the computer and for the instructors to give their parts. After the morning classes you go through stations, the stations are A through I and you'll have about 30mins at each station. The integration station was always the last activity for us before Inside PM and then ultimately going home for the day. Lunch was a half hour and you get a 10 minute break before and after lunch.

You need to know the 5 Seeing Habits word for word, don't add or subtract anything. The 10 Point Commentary we only needed to know the bold titles word for word, as long as we could describe the description we passed. You don't need to do them in any order. The Pre-Trip wasn't as bad for me as I was thinking it'd be. You can miss up to 4 things out of I think 28. Test out as soon as possible!!!! I tested out on the 5 Seeing Habits on Monday, Tuesday I got the Pre-Trip and 10 Point Commentary and having those taken care of was a huge relief for me.

Thursday is the day that most people go home. That's the day that you test out on the road test and the Integration Station. The road test was a lot harder than I was thinking it would be. You go with a different instructor each time that you go out so ultimately you wind up taking a road test with someone that you've never driven with before. That probably sounds stupid but once you go out with one instructor you learn what it is that they're looking for, the next instructor might do things differently. For example the first instructor I went with told us that if we called a driveway an intersection that was okay, the second instructor didn't accept that and said we needed to call them what they were.

I don't think anyone failed the integration station, but you do that after the road test and the road test wipes out a lot of the failures. The integration station is the parking lot set up as a little town where you make deliveries to these little sheds. The thing about the integration station is that you have 19 minutes to complete like 5 stops, one pickup, and then a backing station. You only lose 2 points for every stop you don't complete so if you only do one stop but you do it 100% correctly and don't lose any points, you still pass with like a 90. I'm not saying that you should try to do that, but if you wind up like me and get stuck behind someone who can't figure out their DIAD don't sweat it, just focus on doing everything the right way and don't worry about someone in front of you slowing you down.

The final DIAD test and the multiple choice tests weren't bad at all. Those are what you do on Friday. On Friday we were back to the hotel by like 11:45.

Bring hem tape with you. Most of the uniform infractions that people had were pants that were too long.

All of the trucks at the Integrad that I went to were automatics.

Overall preparation is the best thing you can do to succeed at Integrad. Know your 5s and 10s before you drive out there and test out on them the first day and you'll be looking good for the rest of the week.

I was only the second person from my building to go through Integrad and my supervisors told me to expect UPS boot camp and that it was an intense school. In my opinion that's a bit excessive. It's like basic training in the fact that it's very structured and on strict time lines but none of the instructors are going to scream at you or get in your face or anything like that. Having been through basic combat training for the Army I can tell you it's nothing like that at all. The instructors are nice people that are willing to help if you need it, they want you to pass but aren't afraid to send you home if you don't make the standard. We had a 25% failure rate and the instructors said that was actually pretty good, they told us they've had some courses that only had 40-50% pass. Youre assigned a partner; use them to study and get through the course but don't let them drag their feet and get you behind either.

Best of luck to anyone that's going to Integrad.
 

optikz

Well-Known Member
Alright guys sorry for the delay but here's my recap post from Integrad.

First night you get to the hotel you have a quick little meeting with one of the instructors basically just to take attendance and give a quick brief on what to expect.

The bus left the hotel at like 6:25 each morning but the first morning was a little earlier. When I say it left at 6:25 I mean 6:25, not a second later so be downstairs by the door a few minutes early.

The first day of training is the longest, and has its own schedule, you get a brief in the beginning basically to assign your partner, get everyone set up in the computer and for the instructors to give their parts. After the morning classes you go through stations, the stations are A through I and you'll have about 30mins at each station. The integration station was always the last activity for us before Inside PM and then ultimately going home for the day. Lunch was a half hour and you get a 10 minute break before and after lunch.

You need to know the 5 Seeing Habits word for word, don't add or subtract anything. The 10 Point Commentary we only needed to know the bold titles word for word, as long as we could describe the description we passed. You don't need to do them in any order. The Pre-Trip wasn't as bad for me as I was thinking it'd be. You can miss up to 4 things out of I think 28. Test out as soon as possible!!!! I tested out on the 5 Seeing Habits on Monday, Tuesday I got the Pre-Trip and 10 Point Commentary and having those taken care of was a huge relief for me.

Thursday is the day that most people go home. That's the day that you test out on the road test and the Integration Station. The road test was a lot harder than I was thinking it would be. You go with a different instructor each time that you go out so ultimately you wind up taking a road test with someone that you've never driven with before. That probably sounds stupid but once you go out with one instructor you learn what it is that they're looking for, the next instructor might do things differently. For example the first instructor I went with told us that if we called a driveway an intersection that was okay, the second instructor didn't accept that and said we needed to call them what they were.

I don't think anyone failed the integration station, but you do that after the road test and the road test wipes out a lot of the failures. The integration station is the parking lot set up as a little town where you make deliveries to these little sheds. The thing about the integration station is that you have 19 minutes to complete like 5 stops, one pickup, and then a backing station. You only lose 2 points for every stop you don't complete so if you only do one stop but you do it 100% correctly and don't lose any points, you still pass with like a 90. I'm not saying that you should try to do that, but if you wind up like me and get stuck behind someone who can't figure out their DIAD don't sweat it, just focus on doing everything the right way and don't worry about someone in front of you slowing you down.

The final DIAD test and the multiple choice tests weren't bad at all. Those are what you do on Friday. On Friday we were back to the hotel by like 11:45.

Bring hem tape with you. Most of the uniform infractions that people had were pants that were too long.

All of the trucks at the Integrad that I went to were automatics.

Overall preparation is the best thing you can do to succeed at Integrad. Know your 5s and 10s before you drive out there and test out on them the first day and you'll be looking good for the rest of the week.

I was only the second person from my building to go through Integrad and my supervisors told me to expect UPS boot camp and that it was an intense school. In my opinion that's a bit excessive. It's like basic training in the fact that it's very structured and on strict time lines but none of the instructors are going to scream at you or get in your face or anything like that. Having been through basic combat training for the Army I can tell you it's nothing like that at all. The instructors are nice people that are willing to help if you need it, they want you to pass but aren't afraid to send you home if you don't make the standard. We had a 25% failure rate and the instructors said that was actually pretty good, they told us they've had some courses that only had 40-50% pass. Youre assigned a partner; use them to study and get through the course but don't let them drag their feet and get you behind either.

Best of luck to anyone that's going to Integrad.

wow. that was pretty detailed. answered most of the questions I had about integrad. was this in Atlanta? I wonder if they are all similar. I'll be going in a couple of weeks.

how was the road test? where did you drive? what did it consist of? I heard if you can make it through that, you're in good shape. I got the 5 and 10s down as well as all the keys to lifting and the backing stuff.
 

scooby0048

This page left intentionally blank
wow. that was pretty detailed. answered most of the questions I had about integrad. was this in Atlanta? I wonder if they are all similar. I'll be going in a couple of weeks.

how was the road test? where did you drive? what did it consist of? I heard if you can make it through that, you're in good shape. I got the 5 and 10s down as well as all the keys to lifting and the backing stuff.

@cheryl maybe this thread should be a sticky
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
I had a guy ride with me today that is starting Intergrad on Monday morning. I gave him driving tips and demonstrated how to do things wrong and how to do things right. I used him for a Helper a lot, we got back to the building early. He doesn't even turn 21 until a few weeks from now.
 

Billy Ray

God, help us all.....
Don't show tendencies of road rage, when you're driving through Tiny Town.

Do they have badass dogs that they turn loose on you while you are delivering your 5 stops?
 

HFolb23

Well-Known Member
Quick disclaimer: I can only speak for my experiences at Integrad with the hopes that it helps someone else about to go through the same training. I want to point out that all training is different in its own ways, different sites may do things differently and while I'm sure the curriculum is the same across the board, I don't want someone to take my word on something that turns out not to be true. Ex: When I said that all the trucks there were automatics I'm speaking about that location, I know other sites have trucks with manual transmissions so if you go to school and fail your road test because you can't drive stick dont come back here and blame me for it. The last thing you do at Integrad is take a survey that the instructors use to make changes to improve the next class so every week could be different at each location really.

Now, with that being said I went to Massachusetts for Integrad.

The road test was the hardest part for me personally. You drive around the town that the facility is in. My biggest struggles for the road test was messing up the driver drill with the 10 point commentary. I'm not even going to try and explain the two, it's something you have to see demonstrated to really understand it. Anyways, one thing that I messed up on was trying to say too much. If you're reading this and haven't been through the road test it won't mean anything to you but after you drive it the first time you'll understand it. Set an eye lead time and then clear it to that point. Rather than setting an eye lead time and trying to call out each driveway/billboard/hazard/ect. just simply state your eye lead time and say driveways/instersections right and left are clear to that point. This clears your mind/mouth to clear your curbs and mirrors, check your speed, following distance, ect. Some instructors may want you to call out each individual driveway/intersection/ect, or call them in groups maybe but you'll need to figure out what works best but the above is just what worked best for me. That's really all I can say about the road test, it's something that you need to see and do to understand and learn.

I know that other training centers use trucks with manual transmissions, I would say be comfortable with that I'm sure grinding a gear would cost you points on a road test.

The first day that we went out for a drive we just rode in the truck with an instructor who demonstrates the driver drill and 10 point commentary. Tuesday and Wednesday were practice days and Thursday was the test so you have a few chances to get it right before the test. After each time you go out for a practice drive the instructor recapped the trip and told us our score and what we needed to improve on. I kept a small notebook in my shirt pocket and wrote down everything he said to improve on.

Really I think the key to success at Integrad is just be able to follow directions to learn, and be able to take and use criticism. If you can learn from what they tell you to improve on you'll have no problems with the road test and the integration station when it comes to test out day.
 

KOG72

I’m full of it
Hello,

Heading to Intergrad for drivers school. I've been with UPS as a package handler for 2 years but I'm only the second person in my building to be sent to Intergrad. I've read some posts on here about it but most seem to be several years old so I figured I'd start a new one.

I know it's a pretty intense course, my boss called it UPS Boot Camp. I've already been through real basic training so I'm not so concerned about the course intensity but more worried about getting booted for something stupid and preventable.

I'm heading to West Boylston, MA for school. Does anyone know if you use a manual transmission in the trucks there? I know the basics for driving stick but it's been 5 years since I've learned it and none of the trucks in my center have sticks so my bosses told me not to worry about it when I told them. I understand the process to operate a manual trans but I'm definitely rusty on it; I know I'm gonna grind the gears.

Footwear, most of the drivers in my center wear those cheap New Balance all black leather walking shoes that most fast food workers wear. I bought a pair but now I'm wondering if this an acceptable option for Intergrad? I'm sure I could polish them but they're definitely sneakers and not boots.

As for the uniform it needs to be clean and presentable with creases along the front of the pant legs and along the sleeve correct? I didn't get any shorts so I don't need to worry about wearing the UPS socks right? I know I need solid white or brown undershirts.

Any other tips or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks
HF
Have fun
 

Billy Ray

God, help us all.....
I had a guy ride with me today that is starting Intergrad on Monday morning. I gave him driving tips and demonstrated how to do things wrong and how to do things right. I used him for a Helper a lot, we got back to the building early. He doesn't even turn 21 until a few weeks from now.


Mentor Jeff,


He doesn't even realize he was in the presence of greatness......
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
Mentor Jeff,


He doesn't even realize he was in the presence of greatness......

He was told how great I am by my Center Manager and Supervisor when we were introduced right before the PCM. Things like this get thrown at me a lot at the last minute. I've been mentoring new drivers for years, supervisors too.
 

UrFellowUpser

Well-Known Member
From my experience with integrad, they're more relaxed then people on here say. You should have 3 tests you need to study for before going to make it easier. 5 seeing habits, 10 point commentary, and the pre trip. I had the 5 100% word for word and the 10 I'd say was 85-90% word for word and they let me pass. The pre trip you can get 5 wrong and still pass as long as your under 3 minutes 30 seconds, DO NOT miss the seat belt. That's an automatic fail. You can take those 3 tests once a day until you pass. On Friday you can take them as many times as it takes to pass until the final quiz. For uniforms, Monday and Tuesday are coaching days. They tell you what needs to be improved on your uniform. Wed-fri they must meet appearance standards. Iron them every morning and shave every morning. The integration station (fake city thing) is pretty easy, it was like 2 resi stops, 2 business stops, a Dropbox, a dock stop, and a backing station. Have to run the whole thing in like 19 minutes on the test day. Thursday I think. In my opinion the driver drill is the hardest part. Pull an instructor aside and ask for tips on that one. In a class of 24, 20 of us passed. The four that didn't failed on the driver drill.
You are so right
 

UrFellowUpser

Well-Known Member
The driver drill was way different than that video in my experience. That was mostly commentary driving which you have to do also but isn't to bad. The driver drill I was taught was you had 2 minutes and had to make 45 front eye movements and 15 rear eye movements. Front eye movements were eye lead time, follow time, left curb and right curb. Rear eye movements were left mirror, right mirror and speed. Easiest way to do it was eye lead time, follow time, speed. Then left curb, left mirror, left curb. Then eye lead time, follow time, speed. Then right curb mirror curb. Basically middle, left, middle, right, middle, left etc. Until they say stop. Hardest part about it is you have to verbalize everything so they know you're moving your eyes. and trying to get the words out fast enough is what got most people. You also have to say what eye lead time is I.e. Eye lead time is to the speed limit sign. Had to say what the follow time was I.e. Follow time about 5 seconds (unless there's no cars in front of you, then just say follow time over 8 seconds). And you had to call clear or hazard for everything else. I.e. Left curb hazard left mirror clear left curb hazard. So together you would say, eye lead time is to the speed limit sign follow time is over 8 seconds speed is clear (not speeding) left curb is clear left mirror is clear left curb is now hazard eye lead time is to the stale green light follow time is about 6 seconds speed is clear right curb hazard right mirror hazard right curb clear. For 2 minutes straight. I was told you fail if you have more than 5 miss calls (right curb clear when there's a car there etc). TLDR: you have to talk a lot. And it sucks
You are so right with that pattern. The instructor was doing it how you typed it
 

scooby0048

This page left intentionally blank
I feel bad for u guys and this whole integrad deal. Wasn't like this years ago

Trying to make UPS training para-military but then once you get out on the road reverting back to who gives a friend* is just another form of redundancy UPS likes to deploy. Integrad will fail potentially great drivers because they don't have ass-shiny shoes or cannot barf up the ten point verbatim but yet there are some drivers who come work or while on route, are stoned. We can't spend 2 minutes appeasing customers because we will show up on some over allowed report.

The morale is not getting any better and is at an all-time low but goddammit if their shoes aren't shiny. Integrad would be a fantastic tool if the attitude towards the attendees carried over into the real world once they graduate. Until then, it is still a joke.
 

optikz

Well-Known Member
Trying to make UPS training para-military but then once you get out on the road reverting back to who gives a friend* is just another form of redundancy UPS likes to deploy. Integrad will fail potentially great drivers because they don't have ass-shiny shoes or cannot barf up the ten point verbatim but yet there are some drivers who come work or while on route, are stoned. We can't spend 2 minutes appeasing customers because we will show up on some over allowed report.

The morale is not getting any better and is at an all-time low but goddammit if their shoes aren't shiny. Integrad would be a fantastic tool if the attitude towards the attendees carried over into the real world once they graduate. Until then, it is still a joke.

seems like they could use integrad to actually train and improve weaknesses vs making it a stress test to fail people.
 
Top