I Hate Ups

[PassYouBy]

Speaking of dirt, anyone know what the black stuff all over boxes is? At the end of the day my hands and lower arms are covered in it. It seems like it is everywhere, on the boxes, on the belts, on the floor and in the air.

Correct me if I'm wrong.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxide
Could be ink too Mike (From the boxes)

 

[feeder53]

I remember them, and it can happen to us or anyone else too. They were big.

 

[westsideworma]

It's far from just the door seals. How many trucks can you actually see the road through the floor cracks etc......

I know of a few in my center, I've brought it to the attention of the appropriate people and it has been addressed with most...yet I still see through the floor on some.

 

[westsideworma]

Hey! did you say something....I was kind of busy adjusting my crown!

You're back in management?!?! haha nah I know you're retired. They let you keep your crown? Something to look forward to haha.

Anyway, I think dunce caps are more appropriate for some of the people that make mountains out of mole hills. Its not everyone cold world but I do know what you mean. I try to stay out of it, I don't like drama.

 

[sendagain]

I loathe UPS with every fibre of my being. I ordered a rug from RugsExpress.com several weeks ago. When it didn't show up I called them and learned that UPS sent the rug back to the manufacturer that shipped it! I called UPS and they insist that I had called their 800 number and arranged for the package to be held, and that I never showed up so they sent it back after five days.

I NEVER CALLED UPS!!! I was under the impression the rug was being shipped via DHL. But UPS refused to consider any other possible reason for THEIR mistake, they were adamant that I placed a hold on the delivery and that it was all MY fault! Bastards! If I'd known the rug was being shipped via UPS I'd have happily paid extra for a competent and reliable company like Fed Ex or DHL to deliver it.

I live in an apartment building in Manhattan. In the past 10 years I've lived here I've received hundreds of packages. UPS is the ONLY company that consistently leaves notices in the building lobby without bothering to even ring my doorbell to see if I'm home (and I'm always home days since I work nights). So at least half the time I have to make a trip to the distribution center and pick up the packages myself.

You've got a lazy driver working your building. Believe me, that's not the way most UPS guys work. Call in and complain and maybe they can get rid of that loser somehow.

 

[sendagain]

Speaking of dirt, anyone know what the black stuff all over boxes is? At the end of the day my hands and lower arms are covered in it. It seems like it is everywhere, on the boxes, on the belts, on the floor and in the air.

We've complained about the filth in the system for years. It's just another opportunity to improve our image with the community that goes unaddressed by management. I would often clean my own shelves in my truck with wet paper towels just to get the soot off them. You'd deliver for an hour and then your hands would be filthy. Who knows what's been lying on those shelves all those years? Some guys seemed to never clean their vehicles. I often wondered what the health risk would be to breathing the dust floating in the trucks for years. Stuff seeps out of packages, works it's way into the seem of the shelf, then the loader tosses a box on the top shelf and the dust bounces out to cover the boxes. Just blowing the trucks out with an air hose doesn't do it; steam cleaning would be more successful.

 

[tieguy]

Tie,

Nice reflection!
Do you all go to school to learn how to do that?

In actuality, nothing got done but "coldworld" left the conversation with a really warm fuzzy feeling.

good post Trick and one I may actually agree with. If I was his boss and nothing got done then you would be right.

A point you might agree with - I'm not the sharpest marble in the bag and I'm definitely not Jim Casey.

With that said i do rely on input from the group and I do try to get that feedback. I usually do so through one on one conversations. I've never been one that likes focus group meetings because you either get someone that says nothing or one that grandstands in the meeting.

In your case I would probably have to give you a time limit and cut you off.

But Coldworlds point that I reflected I think is a basic human need that we all have. Even the hard core head butters like yourself like to feel that they have some input into the job and how we conduct our business.

 

[tieguy]

I bet that if all the package and preload sups were absent,(insert your own reason why this could happen)and us drivers knew the night before,we could come in an hour early and pull together to finish the wrap.We could designate a couple of vets to stay back and answer phones,and do it without them,and get it done with no missed.

And if we could capture that energy and enthusiasm and support every day then we would never have any service failures.

Managements mission has to be to learn to lead by energizing the workforce. To do so we have to gather that input on how to better run the operation. We also have to be willing to explain why we can't do somethings. Blaming the IE plan is a copout. The manager has input into the IE plan.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you really hate your management team then do the job and put them out of business. The driver missing packages or running three hours over or missing scans or misdelivering packages is the one that provides management with job security.

 

[tieguy]

Anybody here remember REA (Railroad Express Agency). They were the big dogs for quite a while. The same thing that brought them down can happen to UPS, and will, if it keeps it's current policy of only catering to the stockholders....not to mention corporate greed.

god help us if we are actually catering to the shareholder because the shareholder is not too impressed. I do agree though that our culture has changed since we went public.

I don't know how to translate corporate greed. The yearly elements that dictate how well UPS compensates its management is heavily weighted towards growing the business. Growing the business also creates more well paying union jobs. A viable healthy company pays all our bills. Greed is what generates the revenue that your union taps into when they negotiate each contract. So looking at it logically we all benifit from this greed driven pursuit. Deciding that making a small profit is good enough does not work and leads to complacency which kills businesses.

So say along with me "greed is good"

 

[IWorkAsDirected]

Speaking of dirt, anyone know what the black stuff all over boxes is? At the end of the day my hands and lower arms are covered in it. It seems like it is everywhere, on the boxes, on the belts, on the floor and in the air.

Yes, it;s aluminum, all of the slides, insides of trailers, and shelves and floors of package cars are aluminum and it rubs off on the packages then on your hands etc. Probably not too healthy, but it gets me out of putting packages inside sometimes, when I show people my black hands and tell them they don't want that on their carpet.

 

[Griff]

god help us if we are actually catering to the shareholder because the shareholder is not too impressed. I do agree though that our culture has changed since we went public.

I don't know how to translate corporate greed. The yearly elements that dictate how well UPS compensates its management is heavily weighted towards growing the business. Growing the business also creates more well paying union jobs. A viable healthy company pays all our bills. Greed is what generates the revenue that your union taps into when they negotiate each contract. So looking at it logically we all benifit from this greed driven pursuit. Deciding that making a small profit is good enough does not work and leads to complacency which kills businesses.

So say along with me "greed is good"

Greed isn't good, it's dangerous. UPS is playing a very dangerous game with its customers. They are gambling with customer service and the company's long standing public appearance in a desperation act to appease shareholders. I don't have any clue what it takes to run a corporate behemoth like this company, but I really doubt this is a sound strategy for any company. There's only so much drivers can do to maintain the image this company used to care about.

 

[Mike Hawk]

I have taken a few quarters of aluminum welding and I never saw any black aluminum. Aluminum oxide is commonly found on every piece of AL exposed to oxygen, in a very thin surface layer but it’s not black. Either way whatever it is I doubt it is healthy for my lungs.

 

[filthpig]

I don't hate UPS but I have a strong dislike for many of the people who I have worked for and maybe a couple I have worked with. When I began working here 20 years ago, there was a strong almost military sense of pride associated with being a UPSer. If you were in management you wore a tie and had that shirt tucked in and shoes shined. No ball caps. No exceptions.
Part time supes knew all of their "underlings" jobs and could out-perform them on most. Full time management was almost unseen and there wasn't as much "micromanagement" as there is today. As a preloader, speed and accuracy coupled with tight, precise loads were things that were the norm not the exception. I had confidence in my management. I felt as though the company was in good hands with them. When I began driving 12 years ago, I was trained by other drivers who knew exactly how to most efficiently run a route and trained you on proper methods as well. Anyone here remember "methods rides"? I liked my full time managers and felt as though they knew what they were doing and cared about me as well. Input you gave on your route was listened to and if practical your ideas were tried: adjustments to things like pickups and splits and whatnot.
Now? Ha! Different story.
Let's start with the preload. The preloaders we have now SUCK BALLS. They don't care how well they do their job and will tell you that. When my loader gets to the end of the day, he just starts putting crap wherever he wants to. No pride whatsoever. This is a direct result of the lax attitude management has taken with the training (due to PAS) and the people they hire to be PT supes. Anyone looked at these idiots lately? Pants hanging off their asses, ball caps turned around backwards, ratty-ass shoes and shaggy hair. What the friend&ck happened?!
I don't really have a problem with my center management, but the maroon that runs our building is the biggest idiot I've ever come in contact with. This guy is the most negative goof I've ever known. Just the other day, he gets up at the PCM and starts screaming about how he's going to "take people out" if he sees them on the phone, leaving the bulkhead door open going over-allowed, etc. Just out of the blue. Never has anything positive to say. Of course he's got his "pets" that he shucks and jives with, but treats most drivers like . And by the way, my center is consistently near or at the top of the district in everything.
Do any of ya'll have those guys who show up 1 hr before start to "massage" their load and henpeck the dispatch into taking work off, or cherry pick their splits? These people really burn my ass.
Sorry, had to vent.

 

[trplnkl]

Dang good post Pig. I too have seen the down turn you noted. I hate it, but not much I can do about it but grip.
What amazes me is that the company management as a whole can't see this as well.

 

[dilligaf]

Pig---- I haven't been here long enough to have seen how it was in the past, but as far as the way things are now- you hit the nail square on the head. My steward had 4 misloads yesterday. She had to deliver her misloads, where one of the favored drivers would have gotten away with dumping them off. Nothing will be done about it as far as preload goes. There is no accountability with preload, but they ride our a$$es as though the world was going to end. Her preloader constantly misloads, every day. We have drivers that 'massage' their loads every day, drivers that suck up to sup's to get what they want, drivers that make extra-contractual agreements.
And they wonder why I file 9.5's.

 

[tieguy]

Greed isn't good, it's dangerous. UPS is playing a very dangerous game with its customers. They are gambling with customer service and the company's long standing public appearance in a desperation act to appease shareholders. I don't have any clue what it takes to run a corporate behemoth like this company, but I really doubt this is a sound strategy for any company. There's only so much drivers can do to maintain the image this company used to care about.

you don't get it. greed drives all of us. We obviously work at ups for the economic benifits not the great workout. You can't be greedy and then turn your nose up at greed.

 

[filthpig]

you don't get it. greed drives all of us. We obviously work at ups for the economic benifits not the great workout. You can't be greedy and then turn your nose up at greed.

You've seen "Wall Street" too many times.
Greed doesn't drive me. Responsibility and a good life for my family drives me. I'm sorry, but you just made one of the most moronic statements I've ever heard a "grown-up" make.

 

[filthpig]

Pig---- I haven't been here long enough to have seen how it was in the past, but as far as the way things are now- you hit the nail square on the head. My steward had 4 misloads yesterday. She had to deliver her misloads, where one of the favored drivers would have gotten away with dumping them off. Nothing will be done about it as far as preload goes. There is no accountability with preload, but they ride our a$ as though the world was going to end. Her preloader constantly misloads, every day. We have drivers that 'massage' their loads every day, drivers that suck up to sup's to get what they want, drivers that make extra-contractual agreements.
And they wonder why I file 9.5's.

I see your center has a "country club" too. I'm probably going to bid back to my old center. At least they treat everyone like $h*t there.

 

[IDoLessWorkThanMost]

I see your center has a "country club" too. I'm probably going to bid back to my old center. At least they treat everyone like *t there.

You shuold see the hub I work at. Feeder drivers just sitting around waiting for the loads, watching supervisors carry bulk into the trailers. Feeders are in bed with management as they have a deal ; feeders don't grieve, managers and sups do the work. Infact I believe there's more supervisors working than teamsters!

I asked my sup a question I already knew the answer to - "why aren't the feeders helping with the loads?" His response - "I have the authority to do that but we are never supposed to ask them to work"

LOL

Wow, what an environment! At least it takes the performance pressure off the new guy; I can just stroll around and watch supervisors work and not worry about being screamed at to go faster lol

 

[Hedley_Lamarr]

I get those complaints constantly about dirty pkgs. I just show them my hands and how they are equally as dirty. No in my case it isnt the boxes or the rural roads, its coz there is STILL soot in our trucks from a fire 28 months ago. Thats right 28 months, its still on the doors the bulkheads, and the shelves. Some of them have never been cleaned. Mine being one of them...and I think it is a health hazard, but you gotta keep those car wash hours down. But we care sooooooooo much about safety. Wont matter 30 yrs from now when we all are dead from those carcinogens I could put seeds in the corners of my truck back corners and stuff will grow, guaranteed. Good Idea, I think Ill do that tomorrow. Ill let you know in 3 wks.

Talk about carcinogens, I love when we're in the middle of our PCM and Linden center's cars all start up spewing diesel exhaust in our faces giving us all about a pack of regular Marlboro's worth of smoke. Breathe on your own time fellers.....