Worst peak ever?

[DS]

I dont know about you but this peak really took a toll on me.From what I read a lot of places in the US are making people work tomorrow even though they have reached thier 60 hr limit by using them for sort and load etc...up here in Canada we seem to be clean although a lot of people will be working tomorrow (sat) to deliver whatever you have to throw at us tomorrow.But its been pretty crazy with the old fashioned gift exchanging plus the people buying online ,amazon,tigerdirect,shoppingchannel,plus the free cell phones from rogers cable with the sig reqd tag.Its been brutal here.Anyways even for you it will all be done tomorrow somehow.I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a good preloader in the coming year.

 

[wily_old_vet]

Nope this was my best peak ever

 

[scratch]

I'm with Wily, mine was pretty good. I'm fortunate to work for a Center Manager who has been around as long as me. We ran well, got it done using everybody that knew how to deliver a box. I've got a great Preloder, UPS should clone her so all of you would benefit!

 

[over9five]

I agree. This was a great Peak. (Well, I'll let ya kno if that changes after working today!)

 

[wornoutupser]

Peak was really rough this year in Florida.

The planning was not what it needed to be for a successful peak. Our building was made for 38 cars and we ran 63 yesterday.
We are able to unload 1 flatbed feeder at a time and we had 7-10 a day come in here. The unload device broke twice- it fell on a unloader's foot the second time it broke. It is one of the old roller sets that goes up and down on a screw type rack and the rack breaks off of the frame.

We all had to drive 14 hours every day because UPS "decided" that the DOT 11 hour rule does not apply to package drivers in our area.
Baloney, they knew that we did not have enough help-or enough room to park the vehicles that we needed.
I am not blaming our center manager- I am blaming the corporate folks above that will not spend enough money on our facilities to make them operate at the most efficient levels.The back half of our parking lot is shell rock that was dumped on the ground and the feeders can not circle the building anymore because they will get stuck.
I was done last night around 9:00. I went back and then had to work on another 100 stops (Yeah,at 9:00) that another driver brought back because he was over 60 hours.
It was yet another 11:30 night.
I am not in management, I do not get an additional 1/2 month check and I do not get a stock bonus. I truly believe that UPS needs to fix their own problems around our area. It sounds almost as bad a the North Carolina posts- and that is one of our old division managers running the show up there!

 

[wornoutupser]

I forgot the good part!!

I have a superb loader that has only been with us a few months. I am PROUD of the job the was done in the load of my car!

 

[Fredly000]

Others viewing me = great, looked like I wasn't doing any work

For me = not so great I didn't have enough work EVER, spent too much
time behind the wheel.
right not many people can make that complaint

for our center = pathetic, planning seemed to be lacking
while they did put more routes in than normal, the additional routes
didn't assist where needed,

 

[upsermom]

Florida has it's own problems. There has been so much growth. There are Help Wanted signs everywhere and not enough people to work. The centers are just overwhelmed with the growth.

My son had to take air to another center two weeks ago and they are still in a tent from the hurricane. He thought the fruitstands they set up at his center for the winter were bad until he saw the tents. He did not complain anymore.

Florida is just growing too fast. The stress is just horrible. They had a veteren driver just walk away from his truck in the middle of his route.

 

[sendagain]

I had a fantastic peak casually strolling about in retirement. I went down to the hub on Dec. 23 to have breakfast with the boys at the world famous Pantry restaurant in downtown LA. My old supervisor joined us on his last day of work, retiring after 37 successfull years. I then went into the Olympic hub to look at the new vehicles (power steering and automatic transmissions) that will hold even more packages; stood around to listen to the PCM, then walked out to go hand out toys to poor kids in a neighborhood by my church. I knocked on one door and habitually said UPS by accident. Old habits die hard. Work hard, treat your customers with respect, and you too will one day retire with a pension and the satisfaction of a job well done.
Merry Christmas

 

[wkmac]

I knocked on one door and habitually said UPS by accident.

That's too funny! I would say enjoy the holidays but it sounds like everyday is a holiday now. Enjoy them anyway sendagain.

Nope this was my best peak ever

Rub it in Wily! You Dog!

 

[rushfan]

It was busy here. The planning was terrible, not enough package cars and rental trucks. I'm glad it's over for another year.

Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas!

 

[toonertoo]

It was OK, just too much cold. The last few days warmed up a bit, and made it more tolerable. I prefer the long days with lots of resis, to whats coming Tuesday. Too much stress, too many combined rts, too many commercial, and finding more at 330pm no one told you about. Ill take Christmas loads any day.
As I rest my hoofies, and my hands start to unswell, and the cracked fingers start to heal, I enjoy the season, hope you all do the same.

 

[Lon Smith]

I work in Arizona. In my center of 36 drivers we had 800 missed on Wednesday, another 400 on Thursday, over 1000 on Friday. We had at least 300 Next Day missed on Friday. I don't know how many were brought back on Sat., I ran out of hours at 8:00 PM Friday. In this morning's Arizona Republic there is a nice article about how we didn't service our customers. It can be found at azcentral.com. I've been with the company 27 years and this is the worst peak ever. No planning. No Christmas help.

 

[Ms Spoken]

That is such a shame.... We are expected bust our and look what happens to our customer. I did most of my shopping on-line and UPS also dropped the ball on delv my gift that was ordered in time. It is hard to explain to a child that their gift will be there I hope after x-mas because the company I work for didnt plan for all the on-line shopping... So I called this company Saturday and asked for the tracking number and she said that UPS would be out delv till 7pm on Sat. night... I just laughed.... She said "that is what the call center told them".

Then UPS calls me late Saturday morning to ask where I wanted to delv since my route would be cut all next week. Back to the same ol song and dance..

CANT WAIT TILL THE ERI COMES OUT AGAIN !!!!!!!

 

[over9five]

Wow, that story was ugly for us. Luckily, it was not like that everywhere. Hopefully, heads will roll for that one. If you can't plan for peak, when we are at our most visible, perhaps you are in the wrong line of work.

Hell, I could have told you online shopping explodes more every year....

 

[upsermom]

I think there was just too many packages over all. I order a gift for some one in Columbus, OH from a local Columbus, OH merchant on Tuesday. I called my friend today and found out she had not recieved the gift. I called the merchant and they told me it was sent on Wednesday and gave me the tracking number. The only thing on the tracking page is that it was scanned when it was picked up.

In the same area a friend took a package to the Lancaster, OH center on Wednesday for it to go to Columbus 30 miles away and was told it would have to go 2nd day air for it to be delivered for Christmas. She was told nothing was moving except air packages. That was Wednesday.

This tells me retail stocks are what to own until earnings reports come out.

On Saturday when my son worked 7 people yelled at him for late packages. One man was was so mad he did not want to sign for his package until he got shipping charges reversed. My son gave the man the customer service # and said they could take care of it. He said he had talked to them and they told him that my son would take care of the shipping charges. My so said he could not do that. He told the man he would need to sign for the package or he would take the package back to the center. The man started cussing at him.

 

[tieguy]

we got hammered especially the last week. Maybe its poor planning maybe we over committ. Most of our competitors start turning away extra packages about two weeks prior to christmas. At that point we get a surge of packages that his us pretty hard. Our volume numbers were 20 to 40 percent heavier than projected in our district before the last week. That we were able to handle. The last week gave us an even greater surge of volume that resulted in our rolling work for the first time in about 10 years. One of the heaviest peaks I have seen in a long long time.

 

[spidey]

Hell, I could have told you online shopping explodes more every year....

Amen to that.

 

[DS]

Tie, even an idiot like me would`ve had some contingency plans in place just in case volume got out of hand.I feel sorry for all the people that were let down by UPS this Christmas.As a driver I feel let down as well.because some bonehead management person was either too stupid or too proud to ask for help a lot earlier.It is not acceptable and I`m sorry to have to tell you that your employment at United parcel service is terminated.You will be escorted to the gate where you will turn in you Id card.

 

[montecarlo12]

Tieguy,
just curious, what competitors turn away extra packages 2 weeks before Christmas? That would seem to hurt profits when trying to finish the year on a strong note.