You Want the Volume? You Can't Handle the Volume!

[outta hours]

Well peak is only one week old and we were told on Friday that we did not have enough trucks or drivers. We were also told that the volume is blowing the top off the projections. We are calling it a retro peak. In the 80's we use to stay out delevering until 11-12 at night. Then UPS got away from that getting us in usually by 9:00 or so. But not anymore. Seems like our management team always has excuses for every failure they have. ( too much volume, not enough trucks, short on drivers, etc.) Good thing they have us to bail them out most of the time. And if we don't .... of course it's the drivers fault. My advice is no more sales leads until we are shown that we can make service on the voulme we already have.

 

[SmithBarney]

hah. 11-12 thats a norm around here..

2nd day of the week(#2 day of peak) and
our ctr manager was away at a "meeting" discussing/planning
for next years peak. all while the freshman on cars were struggling
to make service. Not that the mgr could do anything about the insuffiecent
planning this year. The company should just eat peak, and double up the # of drivers, they'd still make a ton of money, just not GOBS of money.

 

[browniehound]

hah. 11-12 thats a norm around here..

2nd day of the week(#2 day of peak) and
our ctr manager was away at a "meeting" discussing/planning
for next years peak. all while the freshman on cars were struggling
to make service. Not that the mgr could do anything about the insuffiecent
planning this year. The company should just eat peak, and double up the # of drivers, they'd still make a ton of money, just not GOBS of money.

Fredly, why should the company just eat peak? Its the most proftible time of the year! And in case you didn't already know, the goal of a for-profit orginization is to maximize profits. I agree that things are friend-ed up more than usual in December, but its no reason to just throw in the towel. If this was the philosophy of the company, they never would have made it past the first world war.

 

[djbeckett]

Fredly, why should the company just eat peak? Its the most proftible time of the year! And in case you didn't already know, the goal of a for-profit orginization is to maximize profits. I agree that things are friend-ed up more than usual in December, but its no reason to just throw in the towel. If this was the philosophy of the company, they never would have made it past the first world war.

I completely agree with you browniehound. Maximize those profits so that we can keep making the premium wages, getting the excellent health insurance, paid vacations, and pension. If UPS goes down the tubes pretty much all teamsters should kiss the majority thier pensions goodbye.

 

[browniehound]

Just another quick thought in regards to djbecketts post. Our high wages depend solely on the fact that UPS makes a LOT of money and in some part that they are bargining unit negotiated. I, for one, truly believe if the company does well, we'll share in its success (Isn't this a question on the ERI survey?). I know the stock has been a dog since the IPO, but if your not paying for in out of pocket (management) or purchasing it at a discount (the rest of us), I believe its a sound investment that allows us to share in the profits of a billions of dollars a year company. So I say let us stop whining and just be happy we have so much work that we can't handle. It could be worse, you could be working at Walmart or Home Depot for $15 an hour

 

[DS]

I, for one, truly believe if the company does well, we'll share in its success

I think this is a load of crap.
Sure we make a decent wage,but we sweat for every penny.
Every change they make is implemented to increase profit.
If they could dump us all and replace us with machines,they`d
do it in a heartbeat.

 

[Aaron]

I think this is a load of crap.
Sure we make a decent wage,but we sweat for every penny.
Every change they make is implemented to increase profit.
If they could dump us all and replace us with machines,they`d
do it in a heartbeat.

I so believe that. Toyota claims to have vehicles that can drive themselves today without a mishap. How long until UPS gets the trucks to do that, link it with EDD/PAS. Then all the driver needs to do is deliver the packages.

BTW I was one of the few routes that they said they were going to eliminate for Christmas. I just grinned and told the sup that he wouldn't be able to until after Christmas. Hey guess what? They couldn't get all the work into the other trucks.

 

[Hangingon]

How is your center eliminating routes for peak? Most of our routes end up split into 2, and in some cases 3, routes for peak.

 

[aspenleaf]

Just another quick thought in regards to djbecketts post. Our high wages depend solely on the fact that UPS makes a LOT of money and in some part that they are bargining unit negotiated. I, for one, truly believe if the company does well, we'll share in its success (Isn't this a question on the ERI survey?). I know the stock has been a dog since the IPO, but if your not paying for in out of pocket (management) or purchasing it at a discount (the rest of us), I believe its a sound investment that allows us to share in the profits of a billions of dollars a year company. So I say let us stop whining and just be happy we have so much work that we can't handle. It could be worse, you could be working at Walmart or Home Depot for $15 an hour

Wow 15 bucks an hour would be a huge improvement for us part-timers. . . a bit off topic but at your Wal-mart if you shop at 2 or 3 am does the guy buffing the floor seem to follow you? I hate that no matter what row I am in there he is chasing me out of it!

 

[rod]

Fredly, why should the company just eat peak? Its the most proftible time of the year! And in case you didn't already know, the goal of a for-profit orginization is to maximize profits. I agree that things are friend-ed up more than usual in December, but its no reason to just throw in the towel. If this was the philosophy of the company, they never would have made it past the first world war.

I was always told that UPS don't make any money at Christmas. What with renting every piece of crap U-haul, the tons of extra overtime and the added temporary help all the extra income was eaten up. Of coarse we all know the old saying about how you tell if management is lying- their lips are moving. Enjoy the next few weeks. I did my 30 Christmas's and survived.

 

[Miss Victoria]

$15 bucks would be better than the $12.75 I make as a full time driver, loving that progression baby! I'm not sure but I believe there's quite a large difference in the amount a full time top rate driver receives in the US compared to Canada. And here, nobody wants to work for $10 an hour, so we're going through new hires like Frosty the snowman on a hot sunny day.

 

[DS]

They get almost $3 more an hour than us Miss Vickie,but it varies from state to state.I agree that its rough to have to work almost 3 years to get to top rate.When I started 16 years ago it was a year.UPS is getting away with cheap labour up here because the teamsters just do what they`re told.Bus drivers here make more than us.But at least our packages dont talk back to us.

 

[Joopster]

I wouldn't trade my part time pay for 15.00 are you guys nuts?

 

[SmithBarney]

..Bus drivers here make more than us.But at least our packages dont talk back to us...

Yeah same here but bus drivers(school) only drive a few hours a day. I would hope that they get paid more, as their cargo is more valuable.

But I do agree, with the exchange rate, and other factors(COLA) I would hope
that where ever you work (for UPS) the pay should be comparable.

 

[benschreivogel]

Driver standard rate in Northern California is 28.00 an hour.
CHA CHANG!!

 

[Keepingthemhonest]

We had something like 16% of our drivers laid off today...like wow just wow...8 drivers some with nearly 6 years fulltime senority laid off during peak....WTF...our volume wasn't booming but it was still large, and the driver I helped today had something like 190-210 stops. He had me help for 4 hours and **then a seasonal driver who was laid off help him for the rest of the day (wtf again?)

 

[aspenleaf]

We had something like 16% of our drivers laid off today...like wow just wow...8 drivers some with nearly 6 years fulltime senority laid off during peak....WTF...our volume wasn't booming but it was still large, and the driver I helped today had something like 190-210 stops. He had me help for 4 hours and **then a seasonal driver who was laid off help him for the rest of the day (wtf again?)

That sounds strange. We are cutting routes out on my line. One of my trucks was cut and I the joy of taking off all the packages off and putting the new pal info on each package and then loading it all onto my other 3 trucks. I starting going off on some guy in a sweater - turns out he was the "Helper" sup. I said "well good thing these drivers are getting helpers; because they will need them!" It was a mess. I guess it will save a bit of money to cut the route but the 3 trucks that were left were not in good shape anymore and one guy left on EAM so one of the 2 trucks left had to shuttle a huge load out. I am glad I just load; because my mind can't keep up with the decisions. I am sure on paper everything looked great!

 

[Foamer Pyle]

You have to start bringing work back to get their attention. Maybe if the 84% of the drivers that worked in your building brought back 20 stop, everyone would be working the next day. I dont play the lay people off and jam the rest of the guys game.