AlanBarber.Org
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Working at UPS - Day 2
Well day two has come and gone.
We watched a bunch of videos again. There were more videos on hazardous material handling and personal safety. Today the loaders also had to sit and watch an hour long video on loading procedures for the different types of trucks. This is really thrilling stuff folks. They are repetitive and boring as watching paint dry!
So after that we went out to do more hands on training. Today I spent the day just stacking boxes. It’s really an art form in a way. You have many different sizes and shapes of boxes that all must some how fill up the truck. You want to use every possible inch of space.
The basic technique is what they call wall building. You start at the bottom right hand side and place a cornerstone package. The videos say the package should be between 18 and 24 inches in size roughly square. The reality is that that doesn’t always work with what you have so you just grab a box and go.
The main goal is to build the walls as layers called shelves. As you go left to right you try to build across so everything is the same level. Once you reach the end you start a new layer. You’re supposed to interlock the boxes and stack them so they fit together sort of like Lego bricks. This prevents damage to boxes as well as makes it safer for unloaders at the next location. However, once again the reality is that not all boxes magically fit together perfectly so you just start stacking them as best as possible. It gets to be a pain in the you know what trying to keep up a steady pace. You know, people that are good at puzzle games like Tetris would probably do very well at this job.
I just stacked today to get practice but tomorrow I’ll be starting to get training in how to use the scanners. I probably won’t get to use one out in the trucks until the next and final day, Thursday. Friday is actually my first “real” day. I’ll come in and work all day with no classroom time. Scary!
Oh and by the way, they switched me from the Akron, Ohio truck to Wadsworth, Ohio truck. It’s a lower volume truck and fewer zip codes to remember which will be better for a newbie like me. There are only 21 zip codes vs. the 51 of Akron. I’m happier that’s for sure!
on 10/19/2004 at 11:05 PM