PAS

[Ruralbrownman]

This is the bottom line. My center is not yet on PAS , buy I have talked to drivers in other centers on PAS , and read about it all the time in these threads. UPS has invested alot of time and MONEY in PAS system and there is no way they will admit it might not work. Whether we like it or not it is here to stay , until the next greatest system comes around , and when that comes we will get another 15 stops and have have less time to do it in.

 

[mattwtrs]

PAS and EDD are the only reason our center is getting thru this peak. We went on PAS in April. It's not perfect but everyone is trying to "fix it". I only know 6 preloaders out 20, 5 became drivers this past year and the rest moved on. The new drivers are able to deliver tough trips after 2 days training. These are trips that took me 5 days to learn before EDD but that was 20 years ago. Every driver was paid to work with the PAS team to get the loops right. I heard our manager telling the rock head drivers that it was their best opportunity to fix their dispatch problems. Almost everyone took his advice!

 

[Will Work For PAS]

my observations on pas are the following:

1. pas is a good system that most operations aren't good at using yet. to run a good pas operation you have to plan the dispatch in advance (division manager/center manager/on road sups - with driver input), make sure everyone understands the plan (center manager), and then execute the plan (preload/center manager/on road sups/drivers). right now the division managers, center managers, and on road sups aren't involved in the planning so they have no intention of running the plan. life is tough when you're on pas and you don't run the plan. division managers, business managers, and on road sups don't understand how to run a pas operation so they blame the pds's for the results. that's why most pds's hate their jobs and want to quit.

2. people are behind the "pas" problems. the following are general statements. people did poor reviews with drivers while preparing for it. people tell the system what territory to put on each route. people walk into the wrong car with packages. people take packages for a ride. people don't listen to driver feedback and take appropriate action. it's not pas - it's people!

3. pas will eventually improve results. when the light bulb goes off, centers like it, and it makes it easier to run an operation. few management people will be needed when this happens, which it sounds like many on this board will like.

4. something has to change to fix the misload problem. every preload isn't staffed with bad people but every preload is having misload problems (even those that report that they aren't). staring at the same labels with the same print isn't working. what kind of label change can be made to stop the misloads? different colors for different routes? different fonts? something else?

5. regarding gps. a center can turn on gps for up to 5 routes per day. it's not real time, just plotted on maps after the diad boards come back in. might be real-time availability some day - don't know.

i have more thoughts but i'm sick of typing. see ya

 

[tilskin]

dont' worry about your hrs., after x-mas you will be working 10+ hrs, we have had PAS for 2.5 yrs and we just went thru another reloping. If you have the idiots that we have you are by no means done with this.

 

[fedupwith251]

safety is a personal value.do the best you can keep everything in order by pal and the system as far as loading goes with pas is not good when you have bulk.use SAFETY first and you will get your hours.

 

[fedupwith251]

the idea is good the brains in charge need to learn how to use it.to see them try to use it is like watching a monkey smile***** a football.all brains no common scence

 

[westsideworma]

the idea is good the brains in charge need to learn how to use it.to see them try to use it is like watching a monkey smile***** a football.all brains no common scence

hahaha thats about how we all describe it on the Worcester preload haha

 

[Delivered]

Get use to it. This is our 3rd peak with PAS and it still sucks, according to our Mgt if it ain't broke don't fix it. We have 3 drivers in the same subdivision that only has about 12 streets, that seems broke to me

 

[Will Work For PAS]

either your preloader is walking into the wrong cars with some packages (which is quite likely) or your dispatchers are telling the system to put the packages on multiple cars (also likely). either way, it's people screwing it up - the system just does what it's told.

 

[westsideworma]

either your preloader is walking into the wrong cars with some packages (which is quite likely) or your dispatchers are telling the system to put the packages on multiple cars (also likely). either way, it's people screwing it up - the system just does what it's told.

well this system doesn't work without the people telling it what to do so it doesn't work then does it? I understand the system as only as good as the people controlling it, but THEY can't be that dense. If they are then why are they the ones running it?

I am a preloader, I've caught myself walking in the wrong car many times if you have something like routes 56A and 55A next to each other you tell me if you wouldn't from time to time. They don't get how it happens. Not that any of them misload when they load cars (yes supes load brownies in our building...no one wants to work). They definitely do but they don't hear about it like we do it doesn't seem. It should work yes, but when you want us to check the PAL labels to the shipping labels and the tracking number...on every package and expect us to go faster than before...it just ain't gonna happen.

 

[LKLND3380]

well this system doesn't work without the people telling it what to do so it doesn't work then does it? I understand the system as only as good as the people controlling it, but THEY can't be that dense. If they are then why are they the ones running it?

I am a preloader, I've caught myself walking in the wrong car many times if you have something like routes 56A and 55A next to each other you tell me if you wouldn't from time to time. They don't get how it happens. Not that any of them misload when they load cars (yes supes load brownies in our building...no one wants to work). They definitely do but they don't hear about it like we do it doesn't seem. It should work yes, but when you want us to check the PAL labels to the shipping labels and the tracking number...on every package and expect us to go faster than before...it just ain't gonna happen.

Try having printers that suck and put out labels where 8 looks like 3... Or add/cuts/splits give to you at 6:30 while you are stacked out and then a hour later you are still stacked out. Finally the driver arrives and you get a chance to clean up and START pulling the add/cut but they tell you to go home... Then the next day the packages that were not pulled off are considered missloads... OR someone sends you a split and THEY gave you a few wrong packages...

Supes are loading package cars??? You need to file a grievence....

ARTICLE 1. PARTIES TO THE AGREEMENT
The Employer and Union adopt this Article and enter into this Agreement with a mutual intent of preserving and protecting work and job opportunities for the employees covered by this Agreement. No bargaining unit work will be subcontracted, transferred, leased, assigned or conveyed except as provided in this Agreement.

Section 7. Supervisors Working

(a) The Employer agrees that the function of supervisors is the supervision of Employees and not the performance of the work of the employees they supervise. Accordingly, the Employer agrees that supervisors or other employees of the Employer who are not members of the bargaining unit shall not perform any bargaining unit work, except to train employees or demonstrate safety, or as otherwise provided in the applicable Supplement, Rider or Addendum. The Employer shall make every reasonable effort to maintain a sufficient workforce to staff its operations with bargaining unit employees. The Employer also agrees that supervisors or other employees of the Employer who are not members of the bargaining unit shall not perform bargaining unit work in preparing the work areas before the start of the Employer’s hub, preload or reload operation, nor shall the Employer send any bargaining unit employee home and then have such employee’s work performed by a supervisor or other employees of the Employer who are not a member of the bargaining unit.

(b) When additional employees are necessary to complete the Employer’s operations on any shift or within any classification, the supervisor shall exhaust all established local practices to first use bargaining unit employees including where applicable, double shifting, early call-in, and overtime.

(c) If there is no established local practice, the following shall apply with regard to inside work. Within each building, each operation will maintain appropriate list(s), by seniority, of those part-time employees requesting coverage work. It will be the employees’ responsibility to sign up on the appropriate list. The Company shall post such lists and employees who are interested in adding their names to the list shall do so on the first working day of each month. It will be the employee’s responsibility to make sure his/her contact information is correct. Employees who are unavailable to work on three (3) separate occasions within a calendar month shall have their names removed from the coverage list. Those employees shall be eligible to re-sign the list the following month. When coverage work is available, the Company will use the appropriate list to fill the required positions, and such employees will work as assigned. The employee must be qualified for the available work and double shift employees shall have seniority among themselves. No employee is allowed to work more than two (2) shifts in any twenty-four (24) hour period. Local call verification practices and procedures shall remain in place.

Nothing contained in this Section shall change practices or procedures covering full-time work.

(d) If it is determined at any step of the grievance and/or arbitration procedure that this Section , or a “supervisor working” provision in a Supplement, Rider or Addendum, has been violated, the aggrieved employee will be paid as follows: (i) if the actual hours worked by the supervisors amounts to two (2) hours or less, the aggrieved employee will be paid for the actual hours worked by the supervisor at the rate of one and one-half (1 ½) times the employees rate of pay at the time of the incident; or (ii) if the supervisor works more than two (2) hours, the aggrieved employee shall be paid four (4) hours at straight time or actual hours worked at one and one-half (1 ½) times the employee’s rate of pay at the time of the incident, whichever is greater. If no aggrieved employee can be identified, the payment will be made to the grievant. Such remedy shall be in addition to any other remedies sought by the Union in the appropriate grievance procedure.

Taken from the: NATIONAL MASTER UNITED PARCEL SERVICE AGREEMENT and SOUTHERN REGION Supplemental Agreement (For the Period: August 1, 2002 through July 31, 2008)

 

[Will Work For PAS]

i understand what you're saying westside. i think you hit on two problems with pas:

1) dispatchers aren't able to make good plans because they're given too many other responsibilities. dispatchers were put in place to be working on developing solid dispatch plans. division managers and center managers don't understand their jobs and don't understand that creating good dispatch plans takes a significant amount of time every day. as a result they get assigned a bunch of work to do that takes away their ability to do a good job with the dispatch. it's ironic because they (division and ctr mgrs) don't structure their jobs to create good dispatch plans and then they yell at them for dispatch problems. most of the pds's i know are very frustrated because they want to do a good job but don't have time.

2) centers are having service failures from preloaders (and supervisors - i'll give you that) walking into the wrong cars with packages. thousands and thousands of preloaders aren't all bad people so you have to figure that it's a job setup problem. i think looking at label after label with the same exact block lettering and same exact font and same exact color is causing that problem. preloaders used to have to read addresses of all types: handwritten, printed, cursive, different print fonts, diferent colors, etc. it forced the mind to process every label individually. something will have to change to fix this one because i don't see it getting fixed by yelling at people.

 

[Keepingthemhonest]

Get use to it. This is our 3rd peak with PAS and it still sucks, according to our Mgt if it ain't broke don't fix it. We have 3 drivers in the same subdivision that only has about 12 streets, that seems broke to me

PAS isn't broke, it's your managers that are broke ... they can't loop or dispatch, pas is an awesome tool in the right hands with the right expectations!!

 

[Howard Seras]

EDD is here for one reason only "Eliminate Drivers Daily". Why do you think they are over drivers everyday. More work for the drivers who work that day, and no pay or pension contribution for that driver.

 

[LKLND3380]

PAS isn't broke, it's your managers that are broke ... they can't loop or dispatch, pas is an awesome tool in the right hands with the right expectations!!

The freaks here sent an add/cut to one loader so he pulled the work and sent it down to the unlucky victim... An hour later it came back???

So this guy had to load - unload - load the same packages...

we have some clueless people making decisions

 

[Anonymous Voice Of Reason]

if at first you don't succeed...try, try again! they'd have been ok in my building because they probably would have lost the first add/cut ticket and not made the move in the first place. lol

take it easy on 'em, it's a tough job.

 

[browniehound]

What I want to know is does UPS still expect us to do the extra (on average) 10 stops per day? Management in my area has seemed to haved layed off pushing production in regards to PAS when they discovered, it wastes just as much time looking for packages that are not on car as it does sorting your entire load. I remember about 1 year into PAS they were giving 3-day rides to everyone, but that seemed to have stopped before every route got a ride.

The anynomous poster(I think he's a realist who is in management) makes excellent points. Out of 1000's of preloaders they can't all be friend-ups. Its goes to looking at the same labels everyday, all day. Even the best human at this job is going to screw-up on a regular basis. I'm not talking about the that is walking into the wrong truck 10 times per day (yeah, he pulls my load), but the otherwise great preloader who makes 1 misload per day. Anynomous makes a great sugguestion with the color-coded PAL-labels. But that statement begs the question; will UPS spend the extra bucks for colored printers?

My opinion is it would be a wise investment.

 

[sendagain]

It would be great to see color-coded PAS labels in addition to the information already printed on the labels. Remember how quick you could spot an air package that had a highlight sticker on it? If all the labels on your truck should be red, it would be quite easy to spot one that was green or blue. The way the system is set up now, the preloader has to wait until they actually read the printed numbers on the label; and if they walk the box into the wrong vehicle, it gets loaded anyway. Colored labels would speed up the loaders and help cut down on the misloads.

 

[westsideworma]

i understand what you're saying westside. i think you hit on two problems with pas:

1) dispatchers aren't able to make good plans because they're given too many other responsibilities. dispatchers were put in place to be working on developing solid dispatch plans. division managers and center managers don't understand their jobs and don't understand that creating good dispatch plans takes a significant amount of time every day. as a result they get assigned a bunch of work to do that takes away their ability to do a good job with the dispatch. it's ironic because they (division and ctr mgrs) don't structure their jobs to create good dispatch plans and then they yell at them for dispatch problems. most of the pds's i know are very frustrated because they want to do a good job but don't have time.

2) centers are having service failures from preloaders (and supervisors - i'll give you that) walking into the wrong cars with packages. thousands and thousands of preloaders aren't all bad people so you have to figure that it's a job setup problem. i think looking at label after label with the same exact block lettering and same exact font and same exact color is causing that problem. preloaders used to have to read addresses of all types: handwritten, printed, cursive, different print fonts, diferent colors, etc. it forced the mind to process every label individually. something will have to change to fix this one because i don't see it getting fixed by yelling at people.

1. I agree with you here, ours are always doing something (even loading trucks! lol) because there is just not enough help because people quit. If everyone was allotted the right amount of time to do their job things would go a lot smoother (with proper staffing of course). However that will never happen, UPS seems to want to give a ton of things to a few people and let the chips fall where they may.

2. I remember the old way. Many people I work with like it better (myself included) For the very reason you said, we HAD to learn the trucks, if we did not...well it was tough to finish. Yes it took longer to learn that way, however once you knew it, it was faster and seemingly more accurate. I averaged about a misload a month (sometimes one every 2) under the old system. Now I can have up to 12 a month and thats GOOD compared to most in our centers. Management doesn't see what "you" do. They think we're terrible but the fact is we didn't have these problems before and now we do....how is that we're all bad loaders if we weren't before? lol I mean this system created 2 problems that actually have official names (system flips and out of sequence PALs). Both of these cause the bulk of our misloads. When my driver found out that they get blamed on us he couldn't believe it. I catch about 5 bad pals (whether they be system flips or out of sequence) everyday. As far as I'm concerned if I'm finding that many and I still have misloads then I've done my job, I can't catch them all and I shouldn't have to.

Management continues to feed us BS about how its helping us deliver more packages...and maybe it is, but we're also missing more than ever and they talk to us as if we're purposely doing it. I RARELY finish on my own and they cant figure out why. 1100 pieces on average and I start at 4 (not now obviously, this is PEAK haha), they want us wrapped by 8:30/8:45 and I load on average about 200 pph (usually a little more)...any idiot with a tenuous grasp of basic mathematics can see that this isn't going to work..especially when most of my work comes after break. Apparently they buy the BS that corporate feeds them about this system (not all of them, some of them know and admit its a lame duck). However UPS has thrown too much money at it now, theres no turning back.

 

[How now brown cow?]

Here in Cincinnati we are going into our 3 year with pas and even though it is better it is still not correct. The very worst part is that we have all lost a hugh amount of time. First they told us we lost so much time because we do not need to enter in any data any more saving us time. We, per there own methods are to enter in data as we walked to the house, so even though we do not need to enter in data we are still walking to the house. Made our job simplier? Yes. Saved us time? No. So then they came up with this one and you'll love this one. Back when we went from paper to the first diad they are telling us that they forgot to take away time for not writing in the 1z #'s 13-14 years ago. So all that time, countless time studies, ride alongs, traning new drivers and so on. You mean to tell me no one picked up on this? With all the bean counters we employee not a one of them saw this? Want to know why I know the system doesn't work? And the fact they know it doesn't work? Rarely does anyone run under most are .75-2 hours over and they don't care. Run 2 hours over? No problem. The company never says a word to you. Does this even sound like the UPS you remember? Oh and they refuse to do time studies because they are more interested for some reason in putting 15-20 more stops on each car than production. Just sounds like a bunch of crap.