Well, Ive had a few issues with UPS... and have been hoppin mad before...
But I actually got hired by them to help over the holiday season, a few weeks before xmas.
I give those guys big props for the job they have to do. Its insane.
The truck was loaded with like 300 packages. The labels are fairly small. The packages are
supposed to be put on the truck in a special order - but many times packages are not in
the correct place. Also, there are no real 'separators'... so one can only speculate as to the
general area... and really have to manually scan over packages several times to check them.
They have this Ancient clipboard that has a hard to read calculator like display on it. It tells
them the basic order of what stops to hit first. Sometimes its wrong and they have to edit it. Sometimes it says packages are on the truck... and yet, they were not loaded. (thus making
you waste 8 min searching the entire truck for it)
Everyone has their house numbers in different places... and many are not easy to see and read.
Some houses have driveways that are like 300 ft. If you found that was the house.. you then
have one helluva trek to get to the door. Up and down HUGE Icy hills, slippery steps, and unplowed
drives and yards with 2ft deep snow. I had one stop where the guy said he would come back
for me in 8 min... cause the hill was too steep and slippery for the truck to go down. The walk to
the single house was insane. About 4 min each way. Climbing that hill nearly sapped all the energy
I had... and I still had a Long day ahead.
There were Dogs that were no so friendly. One tried to nip my rear several times.
You would carry these packages 80+ ft to the door, and then nobody would show
up. You then had to fill out a paper, as well as log the computer, and mark the package...
then lug it back to the truck. Many times doing that several days in a row. All this taking up
precious time that you dont have to spare.
The pace was furious. The driver would be hauling butt with the truck.. and the seat wasnt
very comfortable. You litterally are bouncing around and being thrown left to right from the
constant turning forces. The truck would drive for like 30 seconds.. then you were to walk
as fast as possible with the package to the door. They didnt want you to run, but they
wanted the closest thing to it. heh When it got icy, that made things a lot harder. Slowed
you down considerable... and almost kill yourself from slipping with a package.
I was only working from 4 to 6 hrs.. and there was not stopping for a pee break. You
had to hold it. I barely was able to cram a bit of food that I brought into my gut. I was
nearly consistently in motion the entire time.
After one day, my feet were on fire. My entire body ached all over. The next day, my
condition got worse. I was so overworked, that my entire body was on fire and in
intense pain. It was probably the hardest job Id ever done in my entire life. I tell you,
after my 3 weeks, I was in pretty good shape! heh
The packages were handled with decent care. However, there were packages that
were really banged up. Its my belief that the machines and conveyor belts that these
things go thru before they hit the trucks may be the culprit. Also, many people just
dont package things well at all at all. The heavier and more bulky something is, the
more likely the box will suffer damages, and also will shift around inside the box. If
your box is single layer... or too thin... its gona shred and rip. If the package doesnt
have like 2" foam on all sides.. the things gona smash into the sides and rip the box..
or other things will do the same. You have to be realistic.
The most annoying thing to do was to bag packages when it was snowing heavy or
raining. They are of course hard to open, statically charged.. flapping in the winds... and not so
easy to stuff things into. Esp when you are in a hurry.
My friend actually works for Fed Ex. And while he makes decent money.. he does not
have any health care of benefits. As most of the FedEx routes are privately owned.. and he
works for the owner of that route.
So, anyways, I have a new respect for these guys. Its a real tough job, and they do
it very well considering. I think the main fault is the actual way in which the company expects
them to perform. These companies need a GPS units in the trucks to help them find things
with much greater ease. They also need better labeling tags. Maybe color coded with Huge
print... or RFID tagged to beep when hand scanner is near. They need a system of securing if
a person is actually home or not in advanced... such as a system where the uses can
log in and cancel a delivery for that particular day or time. They need to give their drivers a
MegaHorn of some sort - to blast on the way to the door
They should never have a policy to
leave a package in a 'spot'. Instead, it should be kept at the station pending a user to pick
it up. I believe most would prefer this method. Or at least have the option of keeping the
package at the station when they state the delivery preferences.
Also, the Govt should mandate a standard, so that all houses have a very clear house number on
the lawn by the roadside. Similar to the License plate - where they are all the same.
An in-ground locking package box might also be another nice thing to add.
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Topic: FedEx no better than UPS (Read 2145 times)
