Our ORION team is so arrogant and full of themselves it's hilarious

[Orion inc.]

Unlike the others I will adapt and move on. No sense in whining about it.

But you don't have it yet you act like you're the expert on its use, implementation and how it should be done. Our center was one of the first buildings to have it. It's a tool that if done wrong, makes your route look so jumbled that you won't recognize it. Then when management tells you that it is the new bible and should be strictly adhered to. That's when every method you've done for the last 20 years gets tossed aside.
It would be one thing if ups implemented it saying to use it at your discretion when it doesn't jeopardize service or safety but they don't. You get some 20 year old ORION know it all on your car with you and his iPad. Suddenly he becomes the expert on your route after two ride alongs and its set it stone.

This was done without ups' biggest asset being used in design. The ups driver. Algorithms are one thing and can work if all the variables are put into the equation. They are not with ORION.

Good luck cheating the system when it comes to your route. All those things you do outside of the methods that would get others fired and gone at ups, yeah ORION will make that even harder for you.

 

[iruhnman630]

I look forward to the first time I write 'drove 5 miles to take a ' on the sheet.

 

[soberups]

Unlike the others I will adapt and move on. No sense in whining about it.

I think you will struggle to adapt.

Despite what others might say about you I think you are a hard worker who sincerely wants to be efficient and do a good job.

Forced stupidity in order to generate a meaningless number for a meaningless report will be a real challenge for you to cope with. It will be in direct conflict with everything you have ever been expected to do.

 

[TooTechie]

We've been instructed to skip ORION ground because we are having too much late air.

They can adjust the air cushion if they feel like it.

 

[trickpony1]

When you are no longer able to stop home every day at 3:30, you will whine.

...... and miss Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers?.....not gonna happen!

 

[ArcherUTR]

They can adjust the air cushion if they feel like it.

I think they do try and some other things, and then eventually I.E. changes them back.

 

[dumbmuthertrucker]

They can adjust the air cushion if they feel like it.

True. After I had late air 4 times because of Orion, they changed something and now Orion shows all my air stops first. It's much better this way because if I'm light on air, I can sacrifice a few trace breaks and get rid of some bulk to make the rest of my day easier.
About the only positive thing I can say about Orion is that instead of being able to complete about 12 NDA stops a day, I can now only do 8 or 9 since it takes me so long to get on area. Orion says don't take the freeway!

 

[dumbmuthertrucker]

Also, now that I've been on Orion for a while, I have figured out ways to cut enough miles from Orion's solution to enable me to use culdesacs to turn around in instead of having to back into driveways.

 

[ArcherUTR]

You've mastered the cul de sac?

I don't even know what level that is bro.

 

[728ups]

There have been many threats of discipline if we refuse to back into driveways to make the magic numbers,and I am hoping i'l be the first in my center to get written discipline so we can take this crap to the panel.I REFUSE to work in a manner or perform acts that i have been instructed for over 30 years to be unsafe.

 

[iruhnman630]

A driver in our center was actually told during his orion ride 'you are paid good money to back into driveways.'

 

[ArcherUTR]

There have been many threats of discipline if we refuse to back into driveways to make the magic numbers,and I am hoping i'l be the first in my center to get written discipline so we can take this crap to the panel.I REFUSE to work in a manner or perform acts that i have been instructed for over 30 years to be unsafe.

Our management team definitely does not want us backing into driveways and no backing first exceptions. Turn around safely without backing or take the block.

I'll give them that at least. They give us a 10 mile overage on our planned miles for that reason. I assumed all centers would be similar.

Now the ORION implementation team; I wouldn't know mine quit on me, but I'm sure they were begging drivers to back into driveways.

 

[soberups]

I look forward to the first time I write 'drove 5 miles to take a ' on the sheet.

ORION doesn't know where the bathrooms are on my route and it doesn't know what time of day I might have to take a dump. It just has me pulling over by the side of the road at some random location out in the country to take my lunch break. Sorry, not happening. Sometimes I have to plan the entire trace around being within "striking distance" of a bathroom and/or a suitable lunch spot in the middle of the day.

 

[hellfire]

Has anyone gotten a warning letter over this?

 

[ArcherUTR]

Has anyone gotten a warning letter over this?

For backing into residential driveway? I'm sure yes, especially if you hit something or leave a grass rut.

 

[Billy Ray]

For backing into residential driveway? I'm sure yes, especially if you hit something or leave a grass rut.

I'm not backing into a driveway unless I have a delivery for that house.

 

[CharleyHustle]

" our goal is so anyone can get in the truck and follow Orion with no area knowledge as efficiently as a veteran driver"

This to me sounds like a talking point that attempts to intimidate drivers into compliance. First, most of the "veteran" drivers in my barn are more than a few ticks over allowed, and ORION has only made those numbers worse. Its hard for me to believe that UPS wants a whole stable full of drivers like me and my veteran co-workers. The time allowance for miles is huge and when you strip the miles out of any route the numbers are going to look bad. My route ran 140-160 miles before ORION, now some days ORION will cut that to 120. On those 120mi days I'm always an hour to hour and a half over.

ORION is a dispatch tool that allows dispatchers to see routes ahead of time and now add in the factor of miles in a attempt to get a closer approximation of work measurement before hand. Cutting miles allows for more stops and packages for each route and thus more production, regardless of who is driving a veteran or rookie. Metric compliance is needed to give the dispatcher a better approximation. If anything, the jobs to be eliminated are dispatchers and associated supervisors who will not be need once the computer takes over all aspects of the dispatch. Once this happens traditional routes will be changed as the computer will dispatch only on miles reduction and not be restricted by area or loop boundaries.

 

[dumbmuthertrucker]

I'll give them that at least. They give us a 10 mile overage on our planned miles for that reason. I assumed all centers would be similar.

Nope, where I am, if you're more than 3 or 4 miles over the "solution", you get beotched at. No discipline at the moment, but who knows when that might come.

What gets me is that with just a few changes each day, I can beat Orion's miles. I thought this algorithm was supposed to be smarter than me?

 

[728ups]

Has anyone gotten a warning letter over this?

In a neighboring center a driver was given written discipline for following ORION 100% but being well over the projected miles as he refused to back into driveways. This was settled at local level but if/when I am disciplined i want it to go to the panel

 

[soberups]

" our goal is so anyone can get in the truck and follow Orion with no area knowledge as efficiently as a veteran driver"

The fact that someone would think this goal is even remotely realistic is proof of their absolute ignorance of the day-to-day reality of running a UPS route.