Question Regarding Package Selection (New Driver)

[PPH_over_9000]

tl;dr: When do you guys stop looking for a bulk stop's missing pieces?

Hey guys, I'm curious about how you all determine when to call it quits looking for multi-piece stops in the back. More specifically, over and over again today I had residential stops with 5-10pkgs, and over and over again I could only find 4 out of 5 or 7 out of 9, etc etc. I started feeling like I was going crazy, sorting each section and then each shelf and then the whole truck after I got up to about 15 missing pieces. I started to feel like I was either stupid or crazy, but come the end of the day my truck was empty and I had 3 pages of stops left to deliver.

Add onto that the heat in the back of the car and it was just a terrible day.... So when do you guys stop looking for missing pieces? Every PCM our center manager makes a huge deal about putting hands on everything and just knowing what you have and what you don't, but with a load like I had today the best I could do was sort everything before start time and assume all the pkgs were there. It really ed me in terms of over/under today and I just want to keep scratching and qualify.

 

[PT Car Washer]

tl;dr: When do you guys stop looking for a bulk stop's missing pieces?

Hey guys, I'm curious about how you all determine when to call it quits looking for multi-piece stops in the back. More specifically, over and over again today I had residential stops with 5-10pkgs, and over and over again I could only find 4 out of 5 or 7 out of 9, etc etc. I started feeling like I was going crazy, sorting each section and then each shelf and then the whole truck after I got up to about 15 missing pieces. I started to feel like I was either stupid or crazy, but come the end of the day my truck was empty and I had 3 pages of stops left to deliver.

Add onto that the heat in the back of the car and it was just a terrible day.... So when do you guys stop looking for missing pieces? Every PCM our center manager makes a huge deal about putting hands on everything and just knowing what you have and what you don't, but with a load like I had today the best I could do was sort everything before start time and assume all the pkgs were there. It really ed me in terms of over/under today and I just want to keep scratching and qualify.

After just a few minutes. You are just spinning your wheels searching through a blown out load for just a package or two. If it is a tight resi route you will not be more then a few blocks away when you do find the missing pieces.The quicker you get rid of the bulk the easier it is to find the missing packages. Chances are the missing package could be on a package car in another county. Deliver what you can and then go back and clean up the missing pieces.

 

[PPH_over_9000]

After just a few minutes. You are just spinning your wheels searching through a blown out load for just a package or two. If it is a tight resi route you will not be more then a few blocks away when you do find the missing pieces.The quicker you get rid of the bulk the easier it is to find the missing packages. Chances are the missing package could be on a package car in another county. Deliver what you can and then go back and clean up the missing pieces.

Thanks, man. It's pretty tight, big neighborhoods but they're all pretty close to each other. When I left this morning the computer/system said I should only be traveling 62 miles, but the backtracking and on demand pickups had me go 96 miles.

I'll try to put a lid on my perfectionism and keep it moving if I can't find a package within a couple of minutes. The job itself isn't too tough, but I've noticed if spend too long in the back I feel dead come about 3pm. Just exhausted, mentally and physically. When I don't have to sort and re-sort over and over again the days are smooth as hell.

Thanks again.

 

[DriverNerd]

If you're worried about your times or getting done quickly, stop after a minute. Don't go back to deliver one once you find it, unless it's very close. Deliver the ones you find later between 2 and 3 or after 5 (if there are businesses around), at the end of the day, or at the end of a cut if on a cut car with multiple cities (or areas).

 

[...]

but come the end of the day my truck was empty and I had 3 pages of stops left to deliver.

In the future, if you're sure the pieces aren't on your car, you can highlight the stop, hit the details soft key, and highlight the package(s) that you couldn't find, and hit the Not Found soft key. That will remove that stop from your EDD view so it's not cluttering things up. Package data is still on the board, so if you find it later, you can still deliver it without having to enter information manually.

 

[Fido]

About 5 seconds when the package car is 115 degrees

 

[barnyard]

Once I am done with section 1 and 2, I slide up and lip load everything in sections 5 and 6, putting them in HIN order. Once I am done with sections 3 and 4, I do the same with 7 and 8. The only time I really spend looking for things is sections 1-4 and when my orion plan is jacked. If I cannot find something after everything is lip loaded and in order, it is not in my car.

 

[Brown Biscuit]

About as long as I can hold my breath.

 

[NAHimGOOD]

Minute or so.
Once you let yourself get to this point, your day is shot.

 

[scratch]

I just spend a few minutes looking for a package and then I move on. It is very important to get some sort space on a shelf and set up as many stops as you can in advance. You don't want to waste time picking up the same box a dozen times before you deliver it. It is also smart to find the packages for your next stop before you actually drive to it. And it is also a good idea to look at the total number of boxes for a stop before you step out of your car, you don't want to make two trips to the door because you were only looking for the address. You will waste a lot of time in back of a package car if you don't work smart.

 

[11.19igrad]

tl;dr: When do you guys stop looking for a bulk stop's missing pieces?

Hey guys, I'm curious about how you all determine when to call it quits looking for multi-piece stops in the back. More specifically, over and over again today I had residential stops with 5-10pkgs, and over and over again I could only find 4 out of 5 or 7 out of 9, etc etc. I started feeling like I was going crazy, sorting each section and then each shelf and then the whole truck after I got up to about 15 missing pieces. I started to feel like I was either stupid or crazy, but come the end of the day my truck was empty and I had 3 pages of stops left to deliver.

Add onto that the heat in the back of the car and it was just a terrible day.... So when do you guys stop looking for missing pieces? Every PCM our center manager makes a huge deal about putting hands on everything and just knowing what you have and what you don't, but with a load like I had today the best I could do was sort everything before start time and assume all the pkgs were there. It really ed me in terms of over/under today and I just want to keep scratching and qualify.

when you can i would open up back of truck to kind of help with airflow while sorting. lining up 10-15 stops of packages helped me know whats missing for those, try to find them, if i couldnt i knocked those out and set up a new batch.

 

[Roller252]

Once I am done with section 1 and 2, I slide up and lip load everything in sections 5 and 6, putting them in HIN order. Once I am done with sections 3 and 4, I do the same with 7 and 8. The only time I really spend looking for things is sections 1-4 and when my orion plan is jacked. If I cannot find something after everything is lip loaded and in order, it is not in my car.

Just curious if wherever you are has UPS has switched to loading trucks in ORION order?

In our center the trucks are still loaded following our route plan based on RDO. So you can see where this is going. Diad and ORION says first stop of the day is on shelf 6 HIN#6347 3pkgs and your time starts now..... tick tock tick tock tick tock

 

[PPH_over_9000]

tl;dr: A big thank you to everybody that's responded. Y'all really gave me some damn good tips that, when you think about it, seem like common sense but I guess I've always been lacking in that department. Much appreciated.

when you can i would open up back of truck to kind of help with airflow while sorting. lining up 10-15 stops of packages helped me know whats missing for those, try to find them, if i couldnt i knocked those out and set up a new batch.

Man, I learned that by accident yesterday. Had an irreg in the back of my load and figured I have back doors, might as well take it and the handcart out the back.... and the second those doors opened it felt like I was standing in front of an AC vent on full blast.

Just curious if wherever you are has UPS has switched to loading trucks in ORION order?

In our center the trucks are still loaded following our route plan based on RDO. So you can see where this is going. Diad and ORION says first stop of the day is on shelf 6 HIN#6347 3pkgs and your time starts now..... tick tock tick tock tick tock

Oh no, we don't do that, lol. Some days my first stop has a HIN/PAL of ~8600, some days it's in the 1000's, some days it's a RDR/RDL stop. Typically, though, after about 10 stops ORION has me get to work clearing most of my 1000 and 2000 shelf, and once I get that space to work with I'll set up entire sections/streets stop-by-stop myself. Sometimes I feel like I've only got time to grab the next two or three stops, but I honestly prefer to clear my 2000's and then use that shelf to line up entire streets (which USUALLY share the same HIN/PAL, but not always.)

I put the advice that @PT Car Washer and @DriverNerd gave me into practice today, though, and my day went much smoother. I won't know for sure until tomorrow but I think I finished my 263 stops about an hour and a half early today. I also improvised a little and cleaned out my irregs as early as I could before running my route in trace. I gotta say, things are so much better when you make yourself room to move around without having to climb and crawl through the back.

In the future, if you're sure the pieces aren't on your car, you can highlight the stop, hit the details soft key, and highlight the package(s) that you couldn't find, and hit the Not Found soft key. That will remove that stop from your EDD view so it's not cluttering things up. Package data is still on the board, so if you find it later, you can still deliver it without having to enter information manually.

They actually mentioned this specific issue at our rookie PCM today. Apparently we're supposed to call the center when we can't find a package on our truck, then they look it up in the computer to see whether it's had a scan that signals it was loaded onto your truck or not. Then, we're supposed to look again if the scan says it was loaded or if there's no confirmed scan for that package, and then call the center back to let them know whether or not we found it. It was the first any of us in the PCM had ever heard of this practice, but apparently there were two late feeder trucks yesterday and pretty much everybody clocked out with their missing pieces still in their DIAD and it gave our management team a real headache. Would've been nice if they had told us that they sent us out with a ton of missing pieces, but that's just the way she goes.

I didn't know the Not Found key removed it from EDD, though, that might come in handy if I manage to qualify. There's so much that Integrad doesn't teach you, and my group had next-to-no experience with a DIAD before passing by memorizing the 5's and 10's.

 

[DriverNerd]

They actually mentioned this specific issue at our rookie PCM today. Apparently we're supposed to call the center when we can't find a package on our truck, then they look it up in the computer to see whether it's had a scan that signals it was loaded onto your truck or not. Then, we're supposed to look again if the scan says it was loaded or if there's no confirmed scan for that package, and then call the center back to let them know whether or not we found it. It was the first any of us in the PCM had ever heard of this practice, but apparently there were two late feeder trucks yesterday and pretty much everybody clocked out with their missing pieces still in their DIAD and it gave our management team a real headache. Would've been nice if they had told us that they sent us out with a ton of missing pieces, but that's just the way she goes.

I didn't know the Not Found key removed it from EDD, though, that might come in handy if I manage to qualify.

Dumbest idea ever. Yeah, by the book this is the way it should go, but in practice it would be so time consuming to not be worth it for anyone. For example, assume you call in, they look it up and find it was loaded in your truck. Now you still can't find it because perhaps it was loaded on a wrong shelf. So you wasted time looking, calling, and looking again for nothing. Not worth it.

The only thing bad about clearing it out of EDD with Not Found is you no longer have access to Map Nav for it, but generally you were already at the address so you really don't need to know where it is. Also, if you do use Not Found and have another driver help you, you can still scan it and transfer the info even though it's not in your visible EDD.

 

[Ou812fu]

tl;dr: A big thank you to everybody that's responded. Y'all really gave me some damn good tips that, when you think about it, seem like common sense but I guess I've always been lacking in that department. Much appreciated.




Man, I learned that by accident yesterday. Had an irreg in the back of my load and figured I have back doors, might as well take it and the handcart out the back.... and the second those doors opened it felt like I was standing in front of an AC vent on full blast.




Oh no, we don't do that, lol. Some days my first stop has a HIN/PAL of ~8600, some days it's in the 1000's, some days it's a RDR/RDL stop. Typically, though, after about 10 stops ORION has me get to work clearing most of my 1000 and 2000 shelf, and once I get that space to work with I'll set up entire sections/streets stop-by-stop myself. Sometimes I feel like I've only got time to grab the next two or three stops, but I honestly prefer to clear my 2000's and then use that shelf to line up entire streets (which USUALLY share the same HIN/PAL, but not always.)

I put the advice that @PT Car Washer and @DriverNerd gave me into practice today, though, and my day went much smoother. I won't know for sure until tomorrow but I think I finished my 263 stops about an hour and a half early today. I also improvised a little and cleaned out my irregs as early as I could before running my route in trace. I gotta say, things are so much better when you make yourself room to move around without having to climb and crawl through the back.




They actually mentioned this specific issue at our rookie PCM today. Apparently we're supposed to call the center when we can't find a package on our truck, then they look it up in the computer to see whether it's had a scan that signals it was loaded onto your truck or not. Then, we're supposed to look again if the scan says it was loaded or if there's no confirmed scan for that package, and then call the center back to let them know whether or not we found it. It was the first any of us in the PCM had ever heard of this practice, but apparently there were two late feeder trucks yesterday and pretty much everybody clocked out with their missing pieces still in their DIAD and it gave our management team a real headache. Would've been nice if they had told us that they sent us out with a ton of missing pieces, but that's just the way she goes.

I didn't know the Not Found key removed it from EDD, though, that might come in handy if I manage to qualify. There's so much that Integrad doesn't teach you, and my group had next-to-no experience with a DIAD before passing by memorizing the 5's and 10's.

Don't use your phone for company business. The diad communicates just fine.

 

[Whither]

but I think I finished my 263 stops about an hour and a half early today.

263 stops while you're qualifying?!

 

[eats packages]

I was specifically told/reprimanded on the not found key or any form of radio (misloads), on delivering by the shelves instead of orion, on using a paper map instead of mapnav, before they canned me, the list goes on and on.

If your car load is good then find a starting place on the shelf with your diad then ignore the technology from there on out. You absolutely will not learn the route's basic trace pattern by flipping all over the place with ODO and mapnav. The hin's are a good sequential guide but recalling an address is far better.

Calling in for a package is dumb as when you understand that a good portion of scanned packages still never get loaded correctly.

All of this is probably bad advice. Having a nearly-retired driver's attitude and methods in a young kids body will be my archille's heel. I already know too much. They want dumb idiots that they can mold however they want. In this light, they most certainly want you using your phone every day.

 

[Whither]

As for selection, I'll chime in to say it all depends on the route and the address. If it's not gonna be a pain in the buttocks to return later, and if it's not a commit, I wouldn't waste more than a minute or two -- and even then, don't waste it, go ahead and sort the part of the shelf where the piece should be or the entire shelf. Even if you're drowning in irregs, take stock of what's on the floor as best you can. If you keep coming up short-handed, it might be a good time to sort as much as you can -- even the entire load if you have enough space. Also: preload often leaves pieces on the tail end of the 6 or 8 shelves.

That said, if they're dispatching you -- while qualifying -- 263 stops and over 400 pieces in anything smaller than a 1000, you can really only go 'peak mode': clear the 1 and 2 shelves and then use these for overflow as you keep sorting throughout the day. Once you've qualified, you can ask to return the building and reload the entire truck. My stew has done this on a few occasions. My route's farther from the building, so when it's an smile*-show I'll unload irregs in a parking lot and sort the damn thing.

 

[PPH_over_9000]

263 stops while you're qualifying?!

Yeah, it's been steadily increasing with every good day I have. My first day was in the low 100's, an easy scratch but it didn't count towards qualifying because "it wasn't an 8-hour planned day." Second week it had climbed to about 170-200, and this third week's been a monster. New neighborhoods and I'm pretty sure a couple of days they combined my route with a portion of an RPCD that had called out sick. It's almost all residential-- a few gas stations, 2 liquor stores, 3 schools and a medical facility. There's an animal rescue along the way but I'm pretty sure they have someone else handling that, because I've only delivered there while I was jumping with a driver as the first two of my 3 day training.

But yeah, today was super light compared to yesterday. Yesterday I knocked out I think 184 stops out of a bricked out load, and still needed two PVD drivers to meet me around 7pm and they took literally all of my 8000's, 7000's and about two-thirds of my 6000 shelf. Still had a ton to deliver and got home at about 9:30pm.

Don't use your phone for company business. The diad communicates just fine.

That's a good point, but it also feels like a battle worth fighting once I earn a permanent driving spot.

I was specifically told/reprimanded on the not found key or any form of radio (misloads), on delivering by the shelves instead of orion, on using a paper map instead of mapnav, before they canned me, the list goes on and on.

If your car load is good then find a starting place on the shelf with your diad then ignore the technology from there on out. You absolutely will not learn the route's basic trace pattern by flipping all over the place with ODO and mapnav. The hin's are a good sequential guide but recalling an address is far better.

Calling in for a package is dumb as when you understand that a good portion of scanned packages still never get loaded correctly.

All of this is probably bad advice. Having a nearly-retired driver's attitude and methods in a young kids body will be my archille's heel. I already know too much. They want dumb idiots that they can mold however they want. In this light, they most certainly want you using your phone every day.

It was pretty much unanimous that it was a terrible idea to have to call not once but twice every time we can't find a missing piece. Nevertheless, thems the rules.

My load's been spectacular every day but yesterday, but that's what happens when you preload for nearly a decade before going for a driver spot. I mean, I show up about an hour and a half before start time to fill out my "New Service Provider" sheet with a bunch of my metrics and stats, then I go to my truck and line everything up and fix the "painted walls."

I've been recalling some addresses, but street names are far easier. I mainly only recognize the address when there's something painful about the stop, like a farm down a 1.8mi gravel and dirt road, or those resi stops that get 3-8 Amazon pkgs every single day, or the roads that are just a dead end without an adequate turnaround, or the roads that have a "No Turnaround" sign that are literally littered with places to buck a U-ey. Oh man, and let's not forget the Jehova's Witness that likes to talk about Armageddon and the state of the world these days. The first time I encountered him I just couldn't get away for like 20min, and now I make it a point to just say "Heyyyy how ya doin'" if I don't make my getaway before he comes around a corner or out his door.

As for selection, I'll chime in to say it all depends on the route and the address. If it's not gonna be a pain in the buttocks to return later, and if it's not a commit, I wouldn't waste more than a minute or two -- and even then, don't waste it, go ahead and sort the part of the shelf where the piece should be or the entire shelf. Even if you're drowning in irregs, take stock of what's on the floor as best you can. If you keep coming up short-handed, it might be a good time to sort as much as you can -- even the entire load if you have enough space. Also: preload often leaves pieces on the tail end of the 6 or 8 shelves.

That said, if they're dispatching you -- while qualifying -- 263 stops and over 400 pieces in anything smaller than a 1000, you can really only go 'peak mode': clear the 1 and 2 shelves and then use these for overflow as you keep sorting throughout the day. Once you've qualified, you can ask to return the building and reload the entire truck. My stew has done this on a few occasions. My route's farther from the building, so when it's an smile*-show I'll unload irregs in a parking lot and sort the damn thing.

My god.... that part that I emboldened might be an absolute game-changer for me. But aside from that, I'm pretty sure I'm in an 800 now but I can't say that with confidence. I know it's smaller than a 1000, but I've always had trouble identifying which trucks are which models. As a preloader it never really mattered, and now that I'm driving I just work with what they give me.

 

[DriverNerd]

Yeah, it's been steadily increasing with every good day I have. My first day was in the low 100's, an easy scratch but it didn't count towards qualifying because "it wasn't an 8-hour planned day." Second week it had climbed to about 170-200, and this third week's been a monster. New neighborhoods and I'm pretty sure a couple of days they combined my route with a portion of an RPCD that had called out sick. It's almost all residential-- a few gas stations, 2 liquor stores, 3 schools and a medical facility. There's an animal rescue along the way but I'm pretty sure they have someone else handling that, because I've only delivered there while I was jumping with a driver as the first two of my 3 day training.

But yeah, today was super light compared to yesterday. Yesterday I knocked out I think 184 stops out of a bricked out load, and still needed two PVD drivers to meet me around 7pm and they took literally all of my 8000's, 7000's and about two-thirds of my 6000 shelf. Still had a ton to deliver and got home at about 9:30pm.




That's a good point, but it also feels like a battle worth fighting once I earn a permanent driving spot.




It was pretty much unanimous that it was a terrible idea to have to call not once but twice every time we can't find a missing piece. Nevertheless, thems the rules.

My load's been spectacular every day but yesterday, but that's what happens when you preload for nearly a decade before going for a driver spot. I mean, I show up about an hour and a half before start time to fill out my "New Service Provider" sheet with a bunch of my metrics and stats, then I go to my truck and line everything up and fix the "painted walls."

I've been recalling some addresses, but street names are far easier. I mainly only recognize the address when there's something painful about the stop, like a farm down a 1.8mi gravel and dirt road, or those resi stops that get 3-8 Amazon pkgs every single day, or the roads that are just a dead end without an adequate turnaround, or the roads that have a "No Turnaround" sign that are literally littered with places to buck a U-ey. Oh man, and let's not forget the Jehova's Witness that likes to talk about Armageddon and the state of the world these days. The first time I encountered him I just couldn't get away for like 20min, and now I make it a point to just say "Heyyyy how ya doin'" if I don't make my getaway before he comes around a corner or out his door.




My god.... that part that I emboldened might be an absolute game-changer for me. But aside from that, I'm pretty sure I'm in an 800 now but I can't say that with confidence. I know it's smaller than a 1000, but I've always had trouble identifying which trucks are which models. As a preloader it never really mattered, and now that I'm driving I just work with what they give me.

If the truck number starts with an 8, it's an 8.