Your hell day at UPS

[wornoutupser]

I did pretrip. 90% of our gas gauges in the building don't work and drivers become so frustrated about writing them up that they stop writing them up. We also have a policy of filling up your tank when coming back to the building so these things don't happen (although rarely anyone does).

Rumor has it you can take that metal cap thing called a gas cap off and actually look down the tube and see if you have fuel.

We are forbidden to pull the gas caps to check fuel in our area as it is considered unsafe.

 

[cino321]

Then you will be disciplined for not following trace

Are you serious?

 

[UPSmom]

About 5 years ago I was doing my pretrip on one of browns finest packages cars( mine was in getting a new track for the back rollup door that was long overdue by 15 years or so) it had one headlight that worked, the left signal didn't work, the horn sounded like a goose that was in pain, no gas card, and the door handle was sticking and it took about 2 minutes to get out(it was winter). So I bitched that it was even in my spot, and said No it's not safe. So I went into the yard and found a P5 that had lights and signals and a full tank, so i unloaded everything into the other truck with my sup watching me the WHOLE time. Finally got out of the building, got my air done and then the truck was chugging, I ran out of gas!! Apparently the previous driver failed to write in the DVIR the gas gage was broke!! So after 2 hours of waiting for the tow truck he shows up tells me I'm a typical woman, and Do I not know to check the gas? He brought me maybe .35 cents of gas which got me maybe one km up the road. Finally I call the centre to listen to my sup yell at me for sitting on the road for almost 3 hours now, he brings me a gas can. After all was said and done I was 4 hours behind, finished at 9. The next morning I was made an example of during the PCM, apparently your supposed to hit the gas tank with a stick to ensure theres sufficient fuel in there. Not the dumba** that didn't do his DVIR the previous day. Could've been worse!!

 

[Tony31yrs]

Years ago, just before peak, I was running a split truck all over a rural area. I got a 400 package car (a lot of you never even saw one of these) that the mechanics had been "canibalizing" for parts for others until the parts orders came in. They were so proud that they got this 20+ yr old vehicle back on the road. I drove the 25 minutes out to the first area and discovered the heater didn't work. Air came in through the cracks and holes in the body, but I was dressed warm enough. The wipers, that worked off the engine vacuum, only occasionally worked. I backed into a driveway that was plowed off to the side too far and my one wheel went into a ditch. Luckily a local farmer, with a tractor larger than the 400, pulled me out. After cooling down at lunch, I started driving up a hill to my next stop and the engine quit. The gas gauge didn't work and there wasn't enough in the tank at that angle onthe hill. I rolled the car backwards into a driveway that was level and it started back up. I coasted back into a small town and got gas. When it got dark, I put on the lights, which went on for a few seconds and then cut out. I wound up following another driver closely all the way to the building without lights. When I got back to the building, I threw the keys on my super's desk and said, "If you give me that car tomorrow, I'm going home!" I think it was eventually scrapped.

 

[UnconTROLLed]

Then you will be disciplined for not following trace



Nertz to you, I thought I was just being funny. Epic fail I guess. Now you've made this my worst day ever.

I foudn it funny! Do not worry because unless you have an obvious sense of humor and post 600 smilies most people here do not get it anyway

 

[Re-Raise]

ring ring ring

UPSsalesguy "hello"

mrcustomer "hey upssalesguy, how are you doing?"


UPSsalesguy "great, whats up mr. customer?"

mrcustomer "i've been dreading making this phone call...i need you to pick up the feeder trailer out back"
upssalesguy "why is that, mr customer, is it full?"

mrcustomer "No, ((company president)) just got back from the super bowl...fedex took her...she just signed a new contract with them"

UPSsalesguy "you are kidding"

mrcustomer "nope"

UPSsalesguy

And then I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find a red eight to put on the black nine .... it was just horrible

 

[Mike23]

Next time do air first then ground; who cares cares about the bulk. That way you cannot be disciplined for having late air. Then, forget trace and deliver all your commercial stops. Who cares if you have 90 stops left after your pick ups, at least you won't miss.

The problem is my area IS commercial. My only stops that are resi I do after my commercial. Those total a grand number of 10 at the most usually. I wasn't so much in trouble for the air, just the misses for some reason. I still wonder why $3k worth of late air didn't get me in trouble but 25 misses did

 

[Mike23]

Rumor has it you can take that metal cap thing called a gas cap off and actually look down the tube and see if you have fuel.

Maybe that's the new package car gas guage, take the cap off and look inside. It's not rocket science, I think we could get the gas gauges fixed if the automotive department desired to do so. Just another example of how we let our cars go.

Maybe it IS rocket science if we use rocket fuel, hmm?

I'm still new so still coming to the realization that the stuff that's supposed to work in a truck never does work.

 

[upssalesguy]

And then I spent the rest of the afternoon drinking

fixed that for you

 

[tworavens]

Are you serious?

Absolutely. Area trace is one of the Flavors of the Month, it is supposed to be 85% or better. The reasoning goes something like this: EDD is the optimal drive path (no left turns, even!) so if you deviate from EDD you are (a) adding miles, and (b) adding time to your day. If they wanted to they could try to make this a case of stealing time. When Area Trace was our flavor of the month I followed EDD 100%. It added 10% to my miles and a half hour or more to my day, so my boss lets me do it the way I want now.. With telematics now they can look at my trace on the map, and I defy them to show me a more efficient path.

I still ODS the center to get permission to go off area for any reason (misloads and such) so they cannot try to ding me for that.

 

[tworavens]

I foudn it funny! Do not worry because unless you have an obvious sense of humor and post 600 smilies most people here do not get it anyway

It's all good, today turned out to be my worst day ever, and I suspect tomorrow may turn out to be my worst day ever.

 

[UnconTROLLed]

It's all good, today turned out to be my worst day ever, and I suspect tomorrow may turn out to be my worst day ever.

hey at least there is consistancy going. you won't find that in supervision

 

[Backlasher]

If it's dark out, light a match!

Matches are no good. The wind blows them out, so you should use a zipo lighter.

 

[City Driver]

Rumor has it you can take that metal cap thing called a gas cap off and actually look down the tube and see if you have fuel.

we actually got a few tractors where the fuel tanks simply arent mounted in the right place, they are up way too high, so you cant even look in them, and u cant even get the whole nozzle of the pump nozzle into the tank when filling up so you basically have to guess how much is in teh tank by giving it a good kick

its pretty high tech

 

[upsdavz]

Hey Mike, I have worked in your centre for longer than I want to admitt. I know exactly what you are going through. A few years ago they brought in a bunch of sups and top drivers from the usa to help out at peak, I spoke with many of them, they were amazed with how poorly the centre was run and could not believe the conditions we work in or the condition of the vehicles.

I would really enjoy posting some of my HELL DAY stories on here, but I am finally at the point in my life that I won't let the BS in Calgary get me down anymore. Just do your job with the tools they give you and follow the contract to the letter (take your lunch)

Mr Tie Guy, If you ever want to come have a visit I will pay for your flight and weeks stay in your choice of fancy digs. The deal will be tho, when you leave if you can say that the centre is being run even fifty percent effective I pay, otherwise your on your own!

Cheers All and have a great weekend!!!

 

[Mike23]

Hey Mike, I have worked in your centre for longer than I want to admitt. I know exactly what you are going through. A few years ago they brought in a bunch of sups and top drivers from the usa to help out at peak, I spoke with many of them, they were amazed with how poorly the centre was run and could not believe the conditions we work in or the condition of the vehicles.

I would really enjoy posting some of my HELL DAY stories on here, but I am finally at the point in my life that I won't let the BS in Calgary get me down anymore. Just do your job with the tools they give you and follow the contract to the letter (take your lunch)

Mr Tie Guy, If you ever want to come have a visit I will pay for your flight and weeks stay in your choice of fancy digs. The deal will be tho, when you leave if you can say that the centre is being run even fifty percent effective I pay, otherwise your on your own!

Cheers All and have a great weekend!!!

Geez, the only Dave I know in our depot is my preload Dave. If you're him your the best. If you're not then I got no idea who you are

I really don't mind too much about the BS in Calgary. I do as you do now. Just do my job, if they tell me to do something, do it. If they ask me to do something, well, I won't do it.

I was so confused about the Cross Iron Mills text today. There was no question involved, only, 'All hands on deck: Need help at Cross Iron Mills mall, come see the new mall!' Well, it wasn't a question so I put yes...as in, yes, they do need help at that mall. I'm not sure how my communication ability is questioned when they expect a yes or no answer out of a STATEMENT.

I'll help pay for that trip too upsdavz!

 

[Base Comm]

I remember a pretty rough day during peak about 12 years ago.. i was driving a split car with business stops for 4 office/medical bdlgs from 3 routes and resi stops from 5 other routes. But that morning (monday after the TG holiday) preload totally destroyed the car...stops just thrown into a giant tidal wave of a jumbled heap down the middle, and all shelves brickloaded. Trash truck load. what a day that was for the helper and I. Supposedly we had something like 280 stops in that car, eh who knows. no edd back in the day. oh well we brought back probably 1/3 of that work. spent an hour back in the bdlg. sheeting up missed an entire brickloaded shelf of packages. a couple center manager's and the DM with sour looks watching me and maybe 3 other drivers also sheeting missed pkgs while parked back on the belt. I think i sheeted 90 pieces missed that night. Punched out at 11:45pm. but magically the next morning the on road report showed only 15 missed. hhehe how that happen haha those were the days of being utility.

 

[ajblakejr]

My hell day at UPS?

Try this for a twist.

My hell day because of UPS.

Think about what it was like to be an Emery Worldwide Driver during the UPS strike.

Hell days.

( Do you have any idea how bad the delivery for Red Lobster smelt after sitting in a trailer for days?)

 

[SmithBarney]

My hell day.. lets see if I can remember all the details..

it was PEAK, (aka winter)

2pm So I get stuck in a driveway(1 mile long so yes driving it is ok even with the chains I had on)
no problem only about 2 miles from our "towing" company
Neighbor attempts to pull me out.. no go.
2:20 I message in I'm stuck, and need a tow.
2:30 I also call in to verify info(since I got no response)
2:45 Receive message that tow company was called..
wait wait wait...
I walk off a couple close delivery's(about 2 miles of walking out and back)
3:30 send off a message asking ETA of tow truck
3:30 sun starting to set(casting a shadow on me and truck getting cold quickly)
Cell phone now dead(from various calls to customers and center)
4:00 receive message "you're still stuck?"
4-5:30 I have to run the truck to keep warm, falling asleep waiting for tow truck
explaining to neighbors why I'm still here... etc...
5:45 tow truck shows, pulls me out in 5 minutes...

Drove back to center with 50 pieces or so, DEL a few more in town on way in...

Strangely enough.... nobody not even management said anything about this ever... apparently someone forgot to call the tow company? or said the tow company forgot me.. who knows...

Almost as good as my last day... when I was running a route spec'd at 80 stops max, but I was out with 135 or so... got about 110 off, when I slid off the road
at 9pm, luckily the truck was still mostly on the road, just one tire sank, so I could run the engine to keep warm.(again) got back to the center at 11pm... great last day.


BTW these were my only two incidents but they make it look like I'm always stuck.
for reference our center averaged 1 pull out per day in the winter.. it was amazing we once went a whole week without a pull out(in winter)

 

[Mike23]

BTW these were my only two incidents but they make it look like I'm always stuck.
for reference our center averaged 1 pull out per day in the winter.. it was amazing we once went a whole week without a pull out(in winter)

1 pull out per day? Geez, we had two for our UW stupid Santa junk last year. haha, it was freezing rain the night before then hit -35 and froze ALL the roads. A few trucks had to come back with stuff still on their truck then crossload and go back out because their heaters broke.

I remember it was supposed to be '4 hours' according to management. When we finally got to the resteraunt it was around 5pm and we left at 8pm. Some drivers STILL weren't back yet from the charity event.

That's when I realized that UPS is incompetent for not setting up a 'just in case' weekend incase the one they were planning to do it on turned out to be really crappy. You know, like ALL other logical events do.