soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
So we found out last week that UPS has implemented a new program to verify whether or not an address is actually "residential" versus "commercial."
Local management was never informed of the new program. It went live on Wednesday and we drivers discovered it after we were already out on road, and were prevented from releasing residential stops that we had been DR'ing for years. We found out after the fact that there was DIAD training for the new program.
Unlike Signature Required or Adult Signature required packages, there is no visual prompt in EDD to inform you of the new status. Nor does the DIAD emit the usual tone when such a package is scanned. There is no warning, and you have no way of knowing which stops are being flagged for verification. You only see the "No DR Allowed" prompt after you hit the Driver Release key. So you have no way to plan ahead or notify customers ahead of time that they will no longer be able to receive their packages in the manner that they have been accustomed to for years.
If you do get a signature, the DIAD then prompts you to complete a multiple-choice questionnaire describing the stop so that it can determine whether or not the stop is actually residential. Over some indeterminate amount of time, it will then assign a status to that stop.
I was unable to find any way to override, bypass, hack or defeat the prohibition against DR's for several addresses that are clearly residential. On the first such stop I encountered, it was noisy so I did not hear the DIAD beep when it denied the Stop Complete after I hit Driver Release and walked back to the truck. I already knew my next stop, so I didn't look at the DIAD again until I was 4 miles down the road at the next address and discovered that I had to drive all the way back to get a signature for the package that I had left on the porch. At another stop, I discovered that no DR was allowed only after I had already scanned, unloaded and hauled 9 bulky packages up onto the porch. Unable to complete the stop, I was forced to reload all 9 packages into the car as send agains.....until the homeowner arrived and I repeated the process all over again in order to get rid of the damn things. I lost 15 minutes screwing around with those boxes. Again---you have no idea that you cant DR the stop until after you attempt to do so.
5 things that need to change NOW.
1. Postpone implementation of this until after peak. We don't have time for this, our helpers aren't trained for this, and the need to get the effing boxes out of the trucks overrides the need to correct billing discrepancies.
2. Put an "emergency override" or bypass into the system to allow drivers to continue releasing these stops pending verification of the billing status for stops that are quite clearly residential.
3. This is a job for a billing clerk, not a $50-per-hour-on-OT delivery driver who is already fighting to avoid running out of DOT hours during peak. We drivers are being forced to correct billing errors by having the customer's packages essentially held hostage, thus creating a huge increase in send agains that we have neither the time nor the room for.
4. Put a prompt in EDD warning the driver if a signature will be required, like we already do for normal Signature Required and Adult Signature Required packages.
5. If we are going to arbitrarily begin refusing to release packages to addresses that have been DR'd for years....at least give the customers some warning ahead of time.
I understand the need to correct billing discrepancies, but doing so in this manner--with no warning or training---in mid-November---is idiotic, and clearly a decision made by a cubicle-dweller who never set foot in a package car or an operational center. The company needs to fix this now!
Local management was never informed of the new program. It went live on Wednesday and we drivers discovered it after we were already out on road, and were prevented from releasing residential stops that we had been DR'ing for years. We found out after the fact that there was DIAD training for the new program.
Unlike Signature Required or Adult Signature required packages, there is no visual prompt in EDD to inform you of the new status. Nor does the DIAD emit the usual tone when such a package is scanned. There is no warning, and you have no way of knowing which stops are being flagged for verification. You only see the "No DR Allowed" prompt after you hit the Driver Release key. So you have no way to plan ahead or notify customers ahead of time that they will no longer be able to receive their packages in the manner that they have been accustomed to for years.
If you do get a signature, the DIAD then prompts you to complete a multiple-choice questionnaire describing the stop so that it can determine whether or not the stop is actually residential. Over some indeterminate amount of time, it will then assign a status to that stop.
I was unable to find any way to override, bypass, hack or defeat the prohibition against DR's for several addresses that are clearly residential. On the first such stop I encountered, it was noisy so I did not hear the DIAD beep when it denied the Stop Complete after I hit Driver Release and walked back to the truck. I already knew my next stop, so I didn't look at the DIAD again until I was 4 miles down the road at the next address and discovered that I had to drive all the way back to get a signature for the package that I had left on the porch. At another stop, I discovered that no DR was allowed only after I had already scanned, unloaded and hauled 9 bulky packages up onto the porch. Unable to complete the stop, I was forced to reload all 9 packages into the car as send agains.....until the homeowner arrived and I repeated the process all over again in order to get rid of the damn things. I lost 15 minutes screwing around with those boxes. Again---you have no idea that you cant DR the stop until after you attempt to do so.
5 things that need to change NOW.
1. Postpone implementation of this until after peak. We don't have time for this, our helpers aren't trained for this, and the need to get the effing boxes out of the trucks overrides the need to correct billing discrepancies.
2. Put an "emergency override" or bypass into the system to allow drivers to continue releasing these stops pending verification of the billing status for stops that are quite clearly residential.
3. This is a job for a billing clerk, not a $50-per-hour-on-OT delivery driver who is already fighting to avoid running out of DOT hours during peak. We drivers are being forced to correct billing errors by having the customer's packages essentially held hostage, thus creating a huge increase in send agains that we have neither the time nor the room for.
4. Put a prompt in EDD warning the driver if a signature will be required, like we already do for normal Signature Required and Adult Signature Required packages.
5. If we are going to arbitrarily begin refusing to release packages to addresses that have been DR'd for years....at least give the customers some warning ahead of time.
I understand the need to correct billing discrepancies, but doing so in this manner--with no warning or training---in mid-November---is idiotic, and clearly a decision made by a cubicle-dweller who never set foot in a package car or an operational center. The company needs to fix this now!
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