Career

"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion) 05/05/2020 at 22:36 • Filed to: None

8

9

I had my longest work day yet.

And it was only 5.5 hours.

It felt so, soooooo good.

42 stops per hour with an a bsolutely packed truck meant literal sprinting for the entirely of my day. Still, it felt amazing to have one day without any management responsibilities. No email chains to corporate, no fielding calls from the team, no spreadsheets, no training, no attempting to solve a myriad number of problems that I’ve never experienced, let alone been trained to handle. Just go in, organize the truck, and deliver like there’s a hell hound one step behind you.  

Focus on efficiency. Between spotting a house, and getting back in your truck after a successful delivery, there are a hundred little things you do. These hundred things all take up a certain amount of time, and when you multiply this by two-hundred stops, those small pieces of time add up. That’s why a skilled driver can deliver 200 stops in 6.5 hours, an amazing driver can do it in 3.5, and a fresh one in 12+.

There is NOTHING too small or insignificant that you can’t reduce the time it takes to accomplish. Today I tested out a new method for removing my seat belt each stop. I decided it was quicker to grab the belt with my left hand as apposed to my right, leaving my right hand free to simultaneously shift into park milliseconds before my right foot fully depresses the brake pedal. Left foot? Already propelling me out of my seat and towards the packages, before the seat belt even has a chance to fully retract.

Take that mindset, and apply it to every. Single. Aspect of your delivery routine. That is how you join the inner circle. And let me tell you... There is definitely an inner circle. The best guys don’t get paid hourly, or with a set daily salary based on their route.

Oh no.

They get paid per stop. I’m not at liberty to go in detail here, but I will say that the absolute top tier of drivers are very far into six-figure territory, simply because they make their company so much money and get compensated fairly for doing so.

Anyways,

We’ve been substantially heavier than peak (Thanksgiving to Christmas) and there is no sign of that slowing down. I’m hiring new guys weekly, trying to buy new trucks, new gear... It’s tough though since every other service provider is also experiencing insane, unplanned for growth. Lots of demand for gear, and the supply can’t keep up. Trying to make do.

Adding to the chaos, we work with corporate employees who are technically not within our chain of command, yet the successful and timely completion of their job has a profound effect on how well we can do our own. Case in point, sometimes they can’t keep up with the belt when loading in the morning, and we’re left to sort out this shit. Nothing worse than a guy having to spend an extra two hours in the morning sorting packages, knowing all the while that he’ll be working two hours later, and have two hours less time before he has to come back again the next morning, praying to dear God that the next morning goes smooth...

But again, tough times for everyone all around. None of us were ready for such a massive increase in volume. At the end of the day, we’re all in the same boat.

Goodnight oppo. I’m taking a nap, then celebrating Cinco De Mayo with my roommate and others who don’t have the luxury of quarantining themselves away. Gotta stay sane somehow. 

Craving a cucumber drink, but that would require a store trip... 

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > AestheticsInMotion 05/05/2020 at 22:40

2

I delivered UPS in college, that was a workout. 

AestheticsInMotion > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 05/05/2020 at 22:49

2

*eight couchs to floor 6, no elevator*

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > AestheticsInMotion 05/05/2020 at 22:52

0

I never had anything like that. I think if we had huge stuff it was sent in a different truck like the rush stuff or airport run. 

TheRealBicycleBuck > AestheticsInMotion 05/05/2020 at 23:03

3

What you’re talking about is called a time and motion study ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_and_motion_study ). Every movement is analyzed to understand both the cost in time and cost in movement. New movements are studied and compared to see if they save either time, motion, or both.

I had a colleague who specialized in these studies. If anyone ever bothered to study my time and motion, they would realize that I’m horribly inefficient.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > AestheticsInMotion 05/06/2020 at 00:08

2

All that money on useless mods and this:

AestheticsInMotion > TheRealBicycleBuck 05/06/2020 at 01:30

1

Neat! 

AestheticsInMotion > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 05/06/2020 at 01:31

0

The windshield was also cracked

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > AestheticsInMotion 05/06/2020 at 11:39

0

Just do what all of the couriers here do. Before you pull out of the depot parking lot s can everything as “Delivery attempted, notice left” and then just go home.

If you worked for the post office you could t hen have the letter carrier deliver the notice the following day, saving a whole lot of time and resources.

Seems to work for all of my local couriers anyway. At this point I’ll go without if UPS or FedEx are my only delivery options.

AestheticsInMotion > This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: 05/06/2020 at 14:07

1

Assume good intent. Nobody— from the driver to the managers to the Pickup & Delivery coordinators— want to see packages come back to the station undelivered. 

I would highly reccomend calling in complaints each time that happens, or talking directly to the driver if you ever do see him/her. Slightly more legwork, but if you can get the number of the manager who hasccontrol of your zip code f rom the driver in your area, that would be your best bet. Try to figure out why it keeps happening . That manager has a vested interest in making sure each delivery is completed perfectly, and chances are high that if they’re competent, they know each route by heart and may even know your specific home well enough to instantly clear up any confusion.

There is a department whose sole purpose is to verify these returned packages and resolve the issue. If it’s a legitimate problem, they’ll fix it, if it’s a lazy/new/swamped driver, the packed gets re-coded as a DNA (driver did not attempt) and becomes a ding against that company’s service percentage for the day. If a company doesn’t meet a particular target delivery percentage for the day , they don’t get paid. If it happens consistently, they lose their routes entirely, receiving zero compensation for them despite spending hundred s of thousands to purchase them in the first place.

There are many different reasons a package could be taken back to the station as a “driver attempted, recipient unable to receive”, from the legitimate to the... Not so legitimate.

If it requires a signiture they’re not going to leave it without one as that risks termination , and many drivers will wait only 10 seconds after knocking before moving on to the next stop.

If your house address is not very clearly marked, that can also play a huge factor. Likewise, if your *neighbor’s* house number isn’t clearly marked, that can unfortunately screw with your own deliveries as well.

Apartment with secure entry requiring a code? Those systems are glitchy as hell and oftentimes codes given to drivers are changed without any notice. Long driveways with security gates at the front are a similar case, if no one answers the intercom driver’s are strongly discouraged from leaving packages at the gate.

On t he f lip side, i t’s entirely possible you have a rotating supply of new drivers delivering to your area, which unfortunately means lots of problems. It takes time to learn a route. Or your area could be in the hands of an incompetent service provider, which... Sucks. No getting around that. 

When drivers