How should company fix peak problems?

[dqs95124]

While this whole Peak was over plan, obviously the surge in Air yesterday was crazy. At my building we had 365 cars counting rentals. Not one car out of service until Monday. They all were used every day, and we couldn't process the volume. At some point you reach max capacity, and more cars and routes won't fix it. You just do what you can and work through the backlog. I don't like seeing the news stories either, and I had presents I shipped that didn't make it as well. But at 2130 last night we had 200 drivers still out, and when I see them coming back at 2300, I know everyone did all they could. This cluster was caused at the Corporate level IMO. Everyone from managers on down just got it handed to them, we did what we could and we did it well. So here is to everyone that has busted their ass this peak. Merry Christmas! Tomorrow is another day...

 

[104Feeder]

Look at the bright side. Maybe we won't have to hear about Benghazi for a few days.

But nothing will upset the anti-Obamacare apple cart I'm sure.

 

[The Blackadder]

Service has been taken a back seat to profit and running as few drivers as possible. It finally caught up with them this year. Unless they add workers this will become a yearly story.

 

[TUT]

It's free 2 day shipping.
Because of Amazon's extensive DC network, that means it is usually ground.

Now it depends where you live. In my world it is almost always air, I was amazed at the services I saw come in this season and most not even at crunch time. 2-Day, shipped Priority Sat Delivery, why? Others just 2 day air. But for $3.99, next to nothing you could get overnight with Amazon Prime and all that stuff was Std Overnight to me. So I do see the point of, "what kind of rates are we talking about here?", to the point Amazon doesn't care and can just ship way too much stuff air. I can tell you I put out a lot of air, but at more industry standard costs, meaning as said, buyers do think twice and it keeps enough from buying when that is the only option.

 

[kingOFchester]

When the CEO and CFO go on business news media and tell them we have a week less this year than last year in peak but will only hire the same amount of seasonals, and then we fail. That's a big issue

I think KOC can point us out to a thread made in November

October, but who's counting anyway.

 

[dqs95124]

My last stop. On x-mas eve was flowers at 945pm. Helper did not show. They did not get our late air to us till 5pm. So 3 of us had 50-100 left at 5pm. They had helpers not me. Sucked it up, keep going. My honey already knows after 10yrs what to expect. But this was pretty bad. They used to get us off on x-mas eve. I even remember Halloween being in by 6. The loads were so bad, one day to get to my hand truck I spent an hour getting the pkgs off in the front to get to my hand truck to do the bulk stop of paper in the back. Then the back door was jammed. I've crawled through enough trucks not this time. I can't say it was worse. I remember the back wall 7/8 yrs ago not cleaned up till mid jan. How do we make it better?

 

[Catatonic]

When the CEO and CFO go on business news media and tell them we have a week less this year than last year in peak but will only hire the same amount of seasonals, and then we fail. That's a big issue

This points to the same problem that almost every company has.
People at the top never get a true picture of how new implementations are working.
Scott and Kurt actually think that ORION and other technologies are getting the results that are reported.
The actual numbers are not reported but usually hinted at.
Management at the next layer below Management Committee spin and hide the actuals to make themselves look better because not meeting the pre-established goals associated with the technology investment is considered a failure on their part.

 

[oldngray]

This point's to the same problem that almost every company has.
People at the top never get a true picture of how new implementations are working.
Scott and Kurt actually think that ORION and other technologies are getting the results that are reported.
The actual numbers are not reported but usually hinted at.
Management at the next layer below Management Committee spin and hide the actuals to make themselves look better because not meeting the pre-established goals associated with the technology investment is considered a failure on their part.

Someone needs to point out the Emperor's new clothes.

 

[brownrod]

In the past we used to train a Christmas driver to run the business portion of your route in mid-November while you took on extra resi. My best was 416 stops all resi which apparently was a Center record although I did not know it at the time. Now that same route goes out with 150%+ of my old workload on a daily basis. I don't know how you ask the Package drivers to give a little more when they are getting overloaded the rest of the year.

.

I was burnt out this summer! This has been the worst year yet for excessive overtime.
I was doing a different route everyday up until 3 weeks before christmas.
Sure is awesome learning a new route in the dark with excessive deliveries!

Our building is almost 30 years old. From what I've been told we overgrew it's capacity within 5 years after it was built. Now we have rollers going everywhere to accommodate vehicles that cannot fit on or in the building... That thats year round. This peak we didn't have enough room on our property for all the vehicles. The employee parking lot was maxed beyond capacity.

You think all these billions they've wasted on telematics and bad EDD and the other worthless programs that don't help us they could have built a few new buildings.

But I truly don't care. I have no pride. It bothers me not if I have 100 missed at the end of my day. I just show up, drive a brown truck, give people boxes and then cash my paycheck! As long as my paycheck is good I don't really care how much UPS fails or who they piss off.

 

[slantnosechevy]

But I truly don't care. I have no pride. It bothers me not if I have 100 missed at the end of my day. I just show up, drive a brown truck, give people boxes and then cash my paycheck! As long as my paycheck is good I don't really care how much UPS fails or who they piss off.

Then why are you complaining?

 

[brownrod]

Then why are you complaining?

I don't think of it as complaining. Just relating my experience. I'm here to make 33$ and hour and 50$ an hour overtime.
Although I'm OK with UPS failing I can notice many things that could be improved. If there is never any improvement then I'm totally OK with that.

 

[island1fox]

I was burnt out this summer! This has been the worst year yet for excessive overtime.
I was doing a different route everyday up until 3 weeks before christmas.
Sure is awesome learning a new route in the dark with excessive deliveries!

Our building is almost 30 years old. From what I've been told we overgrew it's capacity within 5 years after it was built. Now we have rollers going everywhere to accommodate vehicles that cannot fit on or in the building... That thats year round. This peak we didn't have enough room on our property for all the vehicles. The employee parking lot was maxed beyond capacity.

You think all these billions they've wasted on telematics and bad EDD and the other worthless programs that don't help us they could have built a few new buildings.

But I truly don't care. I have no pride. It bothers me not if I have 100 missed at the end of my day. I just show up, drive a brown truck, give people boxes and then cash my paycheck! As long as my paycheck is good I don't really care how much UPS fails or who they piss off.

br,

Think about your words not mine.

I believe you as well as many others care enough that UPS does not go under.

 

[joeboodog]

Is Fox News going to start saying "UPS Drivers are the footsoldiers in the War on Christmas!"

And MSNBC will blame this whole mess on Bush.

 

[Feeders101]

br,

Think about your words not mine.

I believe you as well as many others care enough that UPS does not go under.

We all care about the direction the company is going. We don't want to see it go under. But tell us what we are suppose to tell our customers? I remember going through this in 1997. I don't see anybody standing up and taking responsibility for this mess. And that's what our customers want to see happen. Atlanta can not blame the workforce or low level management. Atlanta needs to step up to the plate and have a press release and take responsibility.

 

[kingOFchester]

And MSNBC will blame this whole mess on Bush.

Bush is ready to respond:

 

[Catatonic]

We all care about the direction the company is going. ... Atlanta needs to step up to the plate and have a press release and take responsibility.

WHY?
Some things are better left unsaid!

 

[Feeders101]

WHY?
Some things are better left unsaid!

Because it would be the right thing to do.....

 

[Catatonic]

Because it would be the right thing to do.....

Oh!
Forget that spit!

 

[UnconTROLLed]

Because it would be the right thing to do.....

 

[moreluck]