Ups Unprepared For Air Volume

flupser

Member
it appears ups management was caught with their pants down ,as far as projected air volume goes. we were over run with air volume all week .I was forced to leave 300 plus pkg's at the airport due to a lack of time to process them.this happened 3 days straight. pkg's were not brought to our center until the following day because we had no drivers able to go get them or to make the late meet points. We were expecting 39 cans at our gateway today at 10:00 a.m. my airport mgr said we had 100 more cans on the ground in louisville waiting to come to florida.57 of those cans were coming to our district.our center is expecting 1500 - 2000 pkg's on saturday. most of our drivers are out of d.o.t. hours and can't work tomorrow. I hope the poor guys who have to work are prepared for one hell of a day. I will be thinking about them, as I am already out of hours. I hope our UPS leaders prepare better next year. maybe they should start making plans now.
 

upsermom

Active Member
They have been trying to not run out of hours where my son works in Florida. My son has 4 hours he can work Saturday.

They have been saying all week that they were expecting 10x the air. My son had at least 10x more air for the residential area he delivered today.

In this area they just could not hire enough people. In some areas they are going to have to find a way to attract employees. They are looking to hire 14 people for preload. They have three driver to get off preload.
 

wornoutupser

Well-Known Member
I agree that UPS was unprepared.

I personally had 5 late nxda's Friday even with the "relaxed" commit times.
I did get everything out that was brought down from the airport before the day was up.
 
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Anonymous Coward

Guest
I worked 5 hours today to deliver air that was rolled over from Friday. Thursday our plane landed at 9:30 am. In my opinion there was time to have meet points for air, instead the air was held here 'till Friday. Bad move on managements part here. People tracked their air packages and they showed they were here and out for delivery. Their reasoning was the drivers would be out late delivering...we were anyway.

In my humble opinion, the ball was dropped in the air department, will there be anything done...no.
 
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Anonymous Coward

Guest
One day last week we couldn't turn our A300 in 2+ hrs and get it back to SDF in time. So now 20 something 2nd day air containers are now next day. Sorry folks...
 

Ms Spoken

Well-Known Member
Anonymous Coward said:
One day last week we couldn't turn our A300 in 2+ hrs and get it back to SDF in time. So now 20 something 2nd day air containers are now next day. Sorry folks...

Hey AC,

I hope my pkg is in one of those containers that didnt make it to my parents in time. That is such BS. Wonder what Mike has to say about this peak season ???
 

wornoutupser

Well-Known Member
UPS Gal,

I agree with you that Mikey has not made mention of these problems in defense of the company.
If I was in his shoes, I would be in the forefront to defend UPS.
Where is he or anyone out of Atlanta? Oh- they must still be out on vacation will we bust our cans trying to clean up their mess.JMHO
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
I'll agree UPS was unprepared as the facts seem to lay this out almost beyond dispute. Where the disconnect was is in fairness hard to say. True, it's Glenlake's job to know these things and be prepared for the unexpected but what was their expectations.

Found the articles below of interest and I'd like to know what percentage growth Glenlake had in mind? The results would suggest far less than the reality we saw.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2005-12-27T022315Z_01_DIT708550_RTRUKOC_0_US-RETAIL-HOLIDAY-STUDY.xml&rpc=22

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=798960&highlight=
 

txminer

Go Sox
We were slammed in Tex., with excess volume. I run an extended run and we were getting air at 4:00 in the afternoon. Good problem to have.Christmas volume was great this year compared to last year.
 

airman11

Member
Air volume was up. It didn't help that we had several aircraft related mishaps like flying thru geese and smacking a parked 737.

In addition, I personally think we are behind in expanding the fleet. It was a buyers' market post 9/11 with new aircraft sitting in the desert awaiting delivery. We decided to sit on our hands instead of making an offer.

Kinda makes you wonder what our business model is, at least from an air perspective.
 

rushfan

Well-Known Member
We had late air all last week. The excuse was mechanical problems. What a joke.

Today I was still delivering 2nd day air from last Thursday. In an area north of here, they didn't deliver on Saturday. Their air sat at the gateway over the weekend. I could see alot of ipods, and cabellas in the pod at the gateway.

It's a damn shame the air system was so fowled up. What happened to, "The tightest ship in the shipping business". I agree, next year they'll choose fredex.
 
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dannyboy

From the promised LAND
We had late air all last week. The excuse was mechanical problems. What a joke

You are correct, it was a joke. That is the excuse used by pilots that are staging a work slowdown, and don't have the courage to call it what it is.

So while our planes are mechanically sound, that is why all week there were mechanical problems in so many of our planes. And why there seemed to be a rotating schedule of mechanical problems.

So while it was partly a very sorry planed for Christmas, some of our employees had other agendas and used the air system and Christmas volume to make their point.

Only problem is we (you) had to clean up their mess and try to appease the customer.

d
 
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Anonymous Coward

Guest
dannyboy said:
You are correct, it was a joke. That is the excuse used by pilots that are staging a work slowdown, and don't have the courage to call it what it is.
Old Susie's not going to like this one.
Another tactic the pilot's were using to disrupt service was not taking certain jumpseaters on their aircraft. When I mean certain, I mean pilots traveling on company business. They would take a pilot going to his home gateway but would leave the crew that was supose to go to Anchorage to fly a 747 overseas. Can't even begin to imagine what problems that caused in the Flight Department.
 
Anonymous Coward said:
They would take a pilot going to his home gateway but would leave the crew that was supose to go to Anchorage to fly a 747 overseas. Can't even begin to imagine what problems that caused in the Flight Department.
If that's true then UPS is again deserving all the problems they allow to happen.

Pilots don't "have" a plane, a customer, or even a job. UPS has those things.

Pilot doesn't get to determine which UPS employees UPS wants to move on UPS equipment on UPS' dime.

If they try, you instruct them to do (whatever). If they refuse, you fire them on the spot.

If they (or their union) bat an eye or try to make a stink, you announce that expedited service has been suspended and park the planes - forever, if need be.

See, you've done it again. Having made a TON of calls through September and October, I backed off in November and didn't make a single one in December.

Now I'm going to pull out my tattered old '04 Global Directory and start a new round of phone calls tomorrow AM.

I'm sure they've missed me. They'll try to disguise their excitement hearing from me again but I *know* they'll appreciate it.

:w00t:
 

airman11

Member
dannyboy said:
Another tactic the pilot's were using to disrupt service was not taking certain jumpseaters on their aircraft. When I mean certain, I mean pilots traveling on company business. They would take a pilot going to his home gateway but would leave the crew that was supose to go to Anchorage to fly a 747 overseas. Can't even begin to imagine what problems that caused in the Flight Department.

The solution to that was simple. If the pilot refused a jumpseater on company business, ie pilot deadhead, then ALL jumpseaters were banned from the airplane. That includes their buddies trying to get home for Christmas.

Needless to say, that silliness ended abruptly.
 

dannyboy

From the promised LAND
No problem. I dont know the air system that well to have posted that type of information. Just thought I would set the record straight.

d
 
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