Shipping via UPS, maybe make this a sticky!

He’s right…..(long) Meant to be a reply to Tony’s UPS thread..sorry
May 7 2009 at 7:25 AM Guy Z (Login GuyZ)
YFOT
I used to work for UPS in the early 90’s. I started off as a loader and before I quit I was a Supervisor. I’m not sure how much has changed since then by I can assure you your driver telling you this is accurate.
I’ve seen it all there and remember telling my friends if they ever allowed cameras in that place it would go out of business in one week. More on that after I explain something.
Within the walls of UPS everything and I mean everything it timed and there are no exceptions. Not only do they know how long it takes your package to get from point a to point b via conveyor belt but the employees are held to strict loading and unloading guidelines. If I recall correctly, the sorters and the loaders had to sort/load 28 packages a minute. For unload I think it was a little higher.
What all these numbers meant was at the end of the shift your area would be held accountable for how effective you were percentage wise based on volume and time. The more packages you loaded/unloaded in the alloted time the more effective your area. At shifts end all the sup’s would sit down with the hub manager and discuss why their area did what it did. Now you can imagine the push to move volume and do well so you can get a performance based promotion.
Now a positive note. UPS back in the day did promote surface to surface handling which means your package “should” never get thrown. It should be handled from one surface and placed on another surface. But there are circumstances which I will explain that are worse than your package being thrown.
If there is heavy volume on that shift, the odds go up that your air rifle is going to get smashed and here’s what I mean. As packages arrived at the load wall which is an area made up of openings in the wall where the big feeder trailers reside. You know the enclosed trailers you see on the back of the big UPS diesel rigs…they must be what 25 feet long?? Anyway, up on the conveyor belt there are these huge hydraulic flat arms that are set on a timer that actuates every 10-12 seconds or so depending upon how its set up. The packages come down the belt and lets say there are 6 openings in the wall with trailers backed up to them. This means that there will be 6 hydrualic arms that all swing shut at the same time diverting packages down into chutes leading to the feeder trailer.
Inside the trailers there are collapsible rollers that the loaders use and retract as the trailers get full. If the loader inside the feeder trailer isn’t doing his 28 packages a minute and the volume on the conveyor belt is extremely high then when those large hydraulic flat arms close they are going to smash your box with enough force to do extensive damage.
Have you ever seen boot prints on your package and wonder how they got there? Explanation: When there’s a jam on the belt and it’s usually right above the feeder trailers when those hydraulic divider arms close, the supervisor has a long metal pole with a blunt tip that’s supposed to be used to push on the packages to break the jams. Sometimes the packages are so jammed up that the pole won’t work so the individual will walk across the packages to the jam and use his hands to break the jam and free the packages. Thus the boot prints.
When the jams are bad you will see packages fall from upwards of 10 feet to the ground and break open. At the end of the shift all loose items on the floor are picked up and placed in a cardboard tote. From here they go to a caged area to be claimed at a later date, but usually you can’t identify which box went with what broken item so they probably end up in this black hole lost forever I’m not sure.
A few important things to remember….avoid shipping anything around the holidays. High volume means more broken airguns.
If you want your package to be handled special then ship it next day air. Next day air packages usually don’t go through the large conveyor system and are hand moved from UPS trucks to cargo containers outside the main hub and from there straight to the airport where forklifts move the shipping pods.
As a former loader the words “fragile” on the box meant absolutely nothing. I was going to stack my packages and build my walls inside that trailer based on how the box was shaped and where it would fit in my wall.
Typically there are rows and rows of walls the loaders build inside the trailers that are usually 18-24 inches wide and so tall that you almost have to throw the last few boxes up on top to finish. They are built like laying a brick wall, nice and neat but my point is I guarantee you the words fragile are overlooked 99 percent of the time. If you want to get a loaders attention write “GLASS” on the box in big letters and you might, I repeat might ensure that package will not get placed on the bottom layer of the wall about to be built. Those packages on the bottoms of the wall are usaully long (airgun type boxes) and they will support the weight of all the packages in that 9 foot tall wall. If the airgun size box isn’t layed down flat then it will be stood up on end and used as a “bookend” so to speak where all the weight of the other packages will be suported by your airgun’s butt or barrel. Not good.
Personally I would try and remove the stock from the action everytime to avoid the issue. I hope this helps paint a picture of what really goes on. Package it to withstand that 10 foot drop and you’ll be fine.
Please don’t subpeona me Tony, cuz I don’t know nuttin.