WARNING LETTER, for doing the job properly!

[thelus]

hehe i had a good laugh because of the letter. im wondering if you framed it or used it as toilet paper. the one thing you shouldn't do is take it seriously.

 

[jd.brown]

I think Braveheart is right on about how to read this letter, and you as a driver Spiderman. Absolutely take the letter seriously, and follow paidslave's advice about filing a grievance, or at least writing a reply to the letter. It sounds like they might want to go after you. Find out if they are doing this to other drivers in your center. Perhaps a group grievance could be filed. Basically, if you accept this letter without reply, you're accepting their terms that you should be off the clock by that time everyday, and you might see yourself written up and/or fired for getting delayed for reasons that you have no control over. Billy's right. Document everything, and send a message if there are long delays such as an accindent, etc. Of course, with Telematics, we all need to be doing that now.

-jd

http://www.big-brown-blog.blogspot.com/

 

[Dragon]

So it appears that he averaged about 18 stops per hour on a high volume route and you accuse him of looking for "excuses" to go slower???

Looks to me like this driver is a hard worker who busts it out day in day out. Also looks like the guy has some common sense in that every day has new issues to fight through and to expect one to return to the building by the same time everyday is a joke.

What if he has 350 boxes the next day. What if he gets 2 or 3 OCA's that are out of the way. What if there is a problem with a COD customer. What if he has a driver follow up to investigate. What if there is an accident holding up traffic for 20 minutes. What if he is sick but came to work any way.

True there will be days where the volume drops to 250, rare but it could happen.
He will have days where he hits every green light.
He will have days where it seems like every customer is helping out or meeting him half way up the driveway.

The reality is there are only a few days here and there that will be smooth as silk, but most will have at least a couple issues that put you behind and a few that will crush your day. Basically it takes countless good things to have a kick butt day but as simple as 1 or 2 things, like air meet point off area, oca in woods and so forth that will knock you below sporh.

We do not work in a controlled environment. There are too many things beyond our control. I had a 3 day ride once and the sporh were different everyday. And not like 14.9, 15.1 and 15.3 either. We moved with like a full stop to a stop and a half apart and missed 9.5 two out of the three days. Then they take my easy stuff off as they know I can not make 9.5.

Without the easy stuff my sporh dropped. So now even though I ran good every day and made 9.5 I would never maintain their numbers.

They put the easy stuff back on me and voila, the sporh goes up. But I am back to missing 9.5 and back to filing grievances.

What if, What if, What if, You do control your enviornment everyday. You choose not to control it except on the days you need to get off to do something. No matter how many OCA, traffic crashes, air meet point off area, you hit every red light, customer holds you up, you will get off in time.

Please say you don't.......cause we know you do!!

 

[stevetheupsguy]

What if, What if, What if, You do control your enviornment everyday. You choose not to control it except on the days you need to get off to do something. No matter how many OCA, traffic crashes, air meet point off area, you hit every red light, customer holds you up, you will get off in time.

Please say you don't.......cause we know you do!!

And on the other side of things, you guys make the perfect load, with the perfect amount of stops, and no misloads so that the driver will fit into your little time window. Oh and I forgot to mention the gestapo tactic of walking behind the driver, kicking his heels to get him/her to move at your ridiculous pace.

Your tactics are a sure thing, while ours are ifs and maybe's. Get it straight, not everyone is out to screw UPS!

 

[longlunchguy]

Spiderman, I believe this argument has been around forever. Management "needs" this sporh every day. We argue that some days are different. Especially on a route with what appears to be a lot of bulk. No worries though. Next week they'll be more concerned with whether or not you know the depth of knowledge

 

[moontheloon1982]

I think the most important points that have been made are these;
1) MOST IMPORTANTLY....work SAFELY, follow the methods!
2) Communicate with your dispatcher! let your sup know as soon as you get there and see the day's workload that you will not be able to complete it in the time-frame they expect. Report any delays or anything unexpected that should come up that might take extra time as soon as it happens. They will always fall back on safety and communication. They will claim that if you had just told them that you were delayed they could have arranged to get you help(even if they were asking you if you could go help somebody else just a little while earlier, so help obviously wasnt gonna be available to you). Even though you aren't stealing time and are probably busting your ass every single day you are not gonna get the benefit of any doubt from these people. They are gonna know where the extra time went as it's happening. So assuming you are trying your best and not screwing around out there, you dont have much to worry about if you just take the time to cover yourself.
3)DONT EVER SIGN THESE WARNING LETTERS when you dont think you've done anything wrong. Even if you have done something terribly wrong, always have your steward, or better yet, your B.A. advising you. Signing this was the same as admitting to some kind of wrong-doing. What exactly are you supposed to prevent from "recurring"? Stealing time, thats what! SO signing is effectively the same as saying
"I'm sorry, I promise I will never steal time in the future". Notice how they went out of their way to ackknowlege, if not commend, your pick up and delivery methods?. In other words, any discrepency bewteen the projected time on-road and actual time on road can not be explained by simply a lack of training or experiece that resulted in innocent inefficiency on the part of someone who is really trying to do a good job. They included that line to take excuses away and support their assertion that the driver is deliberately taking too much time in an effort to accrue overtime hours. But if they they worded it that way they know you wouldnt sign it.

 

[Billy]

I don't believe it matters really if you sign to silence them. Article 6 will hold it void if ever it was used in a disciplinary action.

 

[stevetheupsguy]

Spiderman, I believe this argument has been around forever. Management "needs" this sporh every day. We argue that some days are different. Especially on a route with what appears to be a lot of bulk. No worries though. Next week they'll be more concerned with whether or not you know the depth of knowledge

Or even the, def of knowledge.

I don't believe it matters really if you sign to silence them. Article 6 will hold it void if ever it was used in a disciplinary action.

I don't sign anything!