REAL BAD start

[upschuck]

OK, so I'm just a driver spouse, but props to you for attempting Chicago. I was in the city last week, and knowing what i know now about brown drivers, had nothing but respect for the those I saw managing the crazy downtown traffic.

My husband has been driving full time since April, and in his first week out, he had a horrible 11 hour day. It happens. After that, following Orion, even when it didn't seem to make much sense, helped a lot.

Best of luck to you!!

It wasn't ORION, it was he was getting more familiar with the area. I would put an experienced driver up against ORION, and that driver would win any day.

 

[jumpman23]

OK, so I'm just a driver spouse, but props to you for attempting Chicago. I was in the city last week, and knowing what i know now about brown drivers, had nothing but respect for the those I saw managing the crazy downtown traffic.

My husband has been driving full time since April, and in his first week out, he had a horrible 11 hour day. It happens. After that, following Orion, even when it didn't seem to make much sense, helped a lot.

Best of luck to you!!

Tell him to get used to the horrible hours, that's the life of a driver for sure. All down hill from here lol.

 

[jumpman23]

It wasn't ORION, it was he was getting more familiar with the area. I would put an experienced driver up against ORION, and that driver would win any day.

Good driver will beat Orion every time lol.

 

[upschuck]

Good driver will beat Orion every time lol.

Why the lol? Not talking about time it says, I'm talking about the time his/her way vs time if followed ORION.

 

[PT Car Washer]

Or, someone goes through the trucks with a portable scanner/printer and rePALs them.

Preload manager would call that stealing time. We are told to pull all send agains.

 

[jumpman23]

Why the lol? Not talking about time it says, I'm talking about the time his/her way vs time if followed ORION.

lol because of how much money company wastes on stuff like dol and orion that just doesn't work. Should quit wasting money on schiznitt that don't work and put money into things that make sense like the over capacitated center and newer trucks.

 

[PT Car Washer]

I have seen some DOL's that are very good. Some others not so good. This is when area knowledge and experience come into play. No experience with ORION so can't say.

 

[McGee]

OK, so I'm just a driver spouse, but props to you for attempting Chicago. I was in the city last week, and knowing what i know now about brown drivers, had nothing but respect for the those I saw managing the crazy downtown traffic.

My husband has been driving full time since April, and in his first week out, he had a horrible 11 hour day. It happens. After that, following Orion, even when it didn't seem to make much sense, helped a lot.

Best of luck to you!!

Best of luck to your hubby as well, sounds like he is doing pretty good...

 

[UPSwife0174]

Tell him to get used to the horrible hours, that's the life of a driver for sure. All down hill from here lol.

Knocking on wood here, but it's been pretty good the past month. He's usually home half an hour after me, between 5:45-6:15. Of course peak will be a different story, but for years he worked 4:00 pm-2:00 a.m., which meant the kids and I didn't see him Mon-Fri.

 

[hondo]

Preload manager would call that stealing time. We are told to pull all send agains.

Different building, different procedures. 22.3 employees start before the part timers, rePAL them & leave them by bulkhead door to be reloaded according to the new HIN. Plus there are probably waaayyyy more send-agains than in your bldg.
Are you saying the drivers pull them off the truck each night? Here, they're (supposed) to be left on the truck. They only get pulled by the driver or PM clerk if cnee changes to hold for pickup @ customer counter.

 

[McGee]

So far they are left on the trucks in our bldg., we just have to make sure they are on the correct shelf..

 

[hondo]

@ChicagosPrimeMinister, take some note cards (the size of the info notes, so they fit in your pocket) and write down the North-South streets as you would cross them going West to East, the block #, & an arrow showing one way direction. Something like this (don't trust those #s I put in below for an example):

• 1600W Ashland
• W Justine VVV
• 1500W Laflin ∆∆∆
• W Bishop VVV
• 1400W Loomis ∆∆∆
• W Ada VVV
• 1300W Throop ∆∆∆
• W Elizabeth VVV
• 1100W Racine
• W May VVV
• W Aberdeen ∆∆∆
• 1000W Carpenter VVV
• W Morgan
• W Sangamon
• 900W Peoria
• 830W Green
• 800W Halsted

Just do the arrows for East-West.

The goal is to eventually memorize all the streets, and making these cards will help you learn them and in the meantime be a quick reference. Also, get a pocket size Chicago street guide (the streets are listed alphabetically, with the block #).

 

[PT Car Washer]

Different building, different procedures. 22.3 employees start before the part timers, rePAL them & leave them by bulkhead door to be reloaded according to the new HIN. Plus there are probably waaayyyy more send-agains than in your bldg.
Are you saying the drivers pull them off the truck each night? Here, they're (supposed) to be left on the truck. They only get pulled by the driver or PM clerk if cnee changes to hold for pickup @ customer counter.

Drivers are to pull off all send agains, irregs, over 70's, NDA, and International packages. Twi was having drivers pull off totes of smalls also, but that has kind of gone away.

 

[oldngray]

Drivers are to pull off all send agains, irregs, over 70's, NDA, and International packages. Twi was having drivers pull off totes of smalls also, but that has kind of gone away.

What a driver pulls off varies in different centers. Mine they unloaded NDA, international, high values, and were supposed to containerize and unload smalls. Over 70's, irregs, normal send agains and the rest of the pickup pieces were left on the car.

 

[hondo]

Drivers are to pull off all send agains, irregs, over 70's, NDA, and International packages. Twi was having drivers pull off totes of smalls also, but that has kind of gone away.

WOW. Just supposed to pull off air/international, hazmat, & high values here. And that doesn't even happen like it should. Just want drivers off the clock. Totes or bags of smalls is a flavor of the month.

 

[oldngray]

WOW. Just supposed to pull off air/international, hazmat, & high values here. And that doesn't even happen like it should. Just want drivers off the clock. Totes or bags of smalls is a flavor of the month.

Yeah we had to pull off hazmats too. I forgot about those because there are so few hazmat shippers left.

 

[PT Car Washer]

Yeah we had to pull off hazmats too. I forgot about those because there are so few hazmat shippers left.

Right, hazmat and high values also. Hub is trying to make their numbers look better.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

The drivers don't pull the send agains off the cars in my center----they are unloaded with the rest of the pickup pieces.

 

[HubBub]

SDN's absolve you of "bad DR's" more or less. If in doubt, leave an infonotice. If they want want their package badly enogh, they'll either be there to sign or leave a singned infonotice. Ring the doorbell/knock/announce "UPS!!!", and immediately start filling out the infonotice.

Also, whether you're following orion or not, the more sorted your truck the smoother your day will be. You gotta take your lunch, but pre-seniority, if you code your lunch and sort your truck instead they won't "know" (hint hint, open secret, ahem ahem). Same goes with showing up early and lining up your air and sorting your first couple shelves.

 

[ups1990]

Ok so I just started driving last week Tuesday and I've been on this route by myself just this week. Couple things going wrong, for one I got a couple dfu's that I know I delivered. 2. My route is usually 6-8 hours, and I did about 11 yesterday (went off and delivered without Orion and it just killed me). I know the route, deliver all my airs on time but they just keep adding streets that kills me.

Btw I'm delivering in the south side of Chicago, so I usually hide some of the packages or letters or just service cross them as not in. And chicago has ALOT of one ways which if you miss a street, it'll literally up your day.

Anyway these dfu's are killing me, idk what to do. I feel like I damn near lost this job.

We've all have had bad starts as drivers. Go to those senior drivers that are familiar with this route and ask them all the questions you have. I did this when I went full time way back when the first Bush was president, and it helped out tremendously as I was making probation.