using rental trucks 2 weeks after x-mas!!!

[coldcoldworld]

our building got rid of all the rental trucks the tuesday after christmas. This monday we have 6 or 7 back again with shelves in them ready to rock and roll. Our center runs about 54 cars this time of year. Today we ran 59 cars, most everybody working 10 plus hours. Anyone else seeing higher than normal volume already. Our building hired over 30 new drivers last year. My center has 2 new people starting next week. I am seeing new accounts on car that I have never seen before also. Maybe the brown machine is kicking it into overdrive....anyone else seen a higher than normal flow??

 

[CTOTH]

Yeah, man. I'm on local sort and on Wednesday, all five trailers blew out! The week right after christmas was the only real relief. Then it picked right back up. Unbelievable

 

[inmt]

Yeah, it seems we also are above average in volume. I would guess it is about 15% higher. Not so much bulk, just an increase in stops. Resi's are especially high i think.

 

[scratch]

I have been overdispatched usually by 25-40 stops everyday on a 90% DR route everyday since Christmas. The guys with commercial routes seemed to have slacked off a little. Come to think of it, this same thing happened last year.

 

[rushfan]

We have to use a few. We have a shortage of package cars. As far as volume goes, I too have been over dispatched. Our volume is higher this year than it was the last few years.

 

[wornoutupser]

We are in the same boat here. Our center kept 4 rentals from Christmas and we added 2 more this week.
The funny part to this is that we have a large car that blew an engine after the mechanic red tagged it and the center manager put it back online the next morning. It only made it about five miles from the center before dying.
The District auto manager is so angry that he told the center manager that the car will not be repaired for a month...
And now we pay to have a rental in its place........

 

[over9five]

I didn't know a center manager could remove a red tag.

Seems like a huge safety issue that should be reported to OSHA and the Corporate Ethics Hotline. He could have gotten someone killed.

 

[wornoutupser]

Over,

Central Florida does pretty much anything that it wants to do.

We have a feeder unload device from the 70's era (although it is only app 3-4 years old) that sits on a screw rack to go up and down. It has fallen twice through peak and the belt itself dropped last week. A foot was caught under it during the second drop.

We have to face getting more of these units, as UPS is no longer buying the drop frame feeders with rollers inside. Our building can only unload 1 flatbed at a time with the 1 unload device that we have unless we set up rollers on stands or pay an extra person to be in the middle throwing packages to the roller when you get into the nose of the trailer.

We have a part time preload sup that makes it their personal mission to get the belt started if it is turned off- what about the rule that only the person that turned it off can restart it?

One of our preloaders had the guts to call in a division complaint that the flow was excessive. This resulted in packages being stacked so badly that the preloaders did not have footroom to move between the cars and the belt.
Our building was told that these stacks can not happen so that it is unsafe to walk behind the cars. Guess what IE told our bosses to do less than a year later?

You are right, the belt speed is increased and the stacks are back.

I posted in the last few days about the P-5's that flip and the tires being back to unmatched- like they were when they were flipping before.

The purpose of my post about the red tag was to show the animosity between our wonderful management. Now we have another rental with no door in the front that a driver has to get out and open the back door for during every stop. This is an enormous waste of time and money because two bosses seem to have a tiff with each other. As a stockholder, the issuse wasting money make me fume.

I personally wish that OSHA would pay a surprise visit to us-perhaps some of these issuse would be resolved. Just dont forget "Dont touch-leave area-notify supervisor!"

Another issue that the drivers fought was the unloaders driving the cars with no seatbelts on. We took on that issue ourselves and stopped it cold.

But the bright side is that my building is better now than it has been for a very long time!

 

[dannyboy]

Those unloading devices cost 300-350,000 each so they are not a small expediture. WE got several new ones after one of the collapsable roller systems droped on a toe and cut it off.

as for the rest of your post, that is what I have been trying to tell others. hell yes you can make a difference, all you have to do is set your mind to the task, and then dont quit.

d