Ammo and gun parts came in a little hot.... And wet..

[Just Jim]

Perhaps you misheard or misunderstood.

What happens with guns and high-value items is that, upon returning to the building, the driver unloads them individually and gives them to a clerk who signs for them, inventories them, and locks them up in a cage.

At the end of the evening, a supervisory person then puts them on a cart and takes them individually to the outbound trailer so that they do not go over any conveyor belts. They are again signed for, using a sort of chain-of-custody procedure, and then at the destination facility they are individually unloaded, signed for again, and taken to the truck and driver that will make the final delivery. The goal is to minimize handling and opportunities for theft, and to keep them off of the conveyor belts.

So then they are followed by supervisors because they have too many thieves in their operation

 

[soberups]

So then they are followed by supervisors because they have too many thieves in their operation

One thief is "too many."

We have something like 300,000 employees nationwide and on a daily basis we handle over 5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product of this country.

I challenge you to show me any group of 300,000 people that does not have any thieves in it.

The building I work out of has, at any one time, literally millions of dollars worth of merchandise flowing down the conveyor belts. Guns, computers, stereos, iphones, ipads, prescription drugs....you name it and we deliver it.

Unfortunately, from time to time there will be an employee who chooses to steal. UPS is certainly not unique in that regard.

 

[Just Jim]

Trust is a big issue when you send treasures by carriers. UPS would do better if they went after the thieves in a big public way so they could gain back that trust. Plus it could lower insurance rates and bring down cost. It just seems we see too many lame employees doing things that management doesn't control. I guess you could use better management.

 

[ARKLITE881South]

How about the California UPS driver caught stealing 72 guns, various shotguns, and 45 cal pistols? He and a buddy were stealing them and selling them on the black market. This guy was a driver and was getting them out of the onterio calif hub. I'm sure they have camera's all over, but, come on ,72 guns, and other weapons as well. I know this is a little ''different'' than throwing a box over a fence or gate. But, something's wrong when people are doing very serious things like mass theft, and, if he wouldn't have bragged about his ''toy's '' he might have gotten away with more thefts.

Sounds like someone isn't doing their ''supervising'' as well as they should, especially when it comes to firearms. I'm not trying to hammer UPS, but, holy cow, this is a really serious crime. People pay good money to have items delivered safely and securely.

 

[soberups]

Trust is a big issue when you send treasures by carriers. UPS would do better if they went after the thieves in a big public way so they could gain back that trust. Plus it could lower insurance rates and bring down cost. It just seems we see too many lame employees doing things that management doesn't control. I guess you could use better management.

UPS's policy is to notify and fully cooperate with the police whenever there is theft by an employee. Believe me, the company wants to make an example of these people in order to serve as a warning to the rest of us. If a thief gets busted by our Loss Prevention department, they call the cops immediately and the thief gets "perp walked" out of the building in handcuffs while everybody watches. I have seen it more than once.

 

[soberups]

How about the California UPS driver caught stealing 72 guns, various shotguns, and 45 cal pistols? He and a buddy were stealing them and selling them on the black market. This guy was a driver and was getting them out of the onterio calif hub. I'm sure they have camera's all over, but, come on ,72 guns, and other weapons as well. I know this is a little ''different'' than throwing a box over a fence or gate. But, something's wrong when people are doing very serious things like mass theft, and, if he wouldn't have bragged about his ''toy's '' he might have gotten away with more thefts.

Sounds like someone isn't doing their ''supervising'' as well as they should, especially when it comes to firearms. I'm not trying to hammer UPS, but, holy cow, this is a really serious crime. People pay good money to have items delivered safely and securely.

I haven't heard about this one, and normally something like that would be all over the UPS employees internet forum that I frequent. Do you have a link?

 

[mjbskwim]

Here is a tip; next time you ship something fragile like an amp, instead of a cardboard box use a cooler. Fill the cooler up with Styrofoam to make a nest for the item, and then tape the lid shut with multiple straps of tape going all the way around the cooler. Coolers are made of layers of durable plastic with an airtight void between layers and they can take a beating way better than a cardboard box.

The simple fact of the matter is that we handle something like 70 million package per day on average in an industrial process involving thousands of miles of conveyor belts. Unfortunately, it is a statistical fact that a few of them will get broken. In my experience, the overwhelming majority of damages are directly related to poor packaging methods.

BOY o BOY is MR UPS on the defensive! Thing is if y'all would do your job right a guy wouldn't have to use a 'cooler',which would just make all the tubes brake against the inside when some Dumb driver/helper thru the packages over the fences
Hey if a guy can't do the job then get out.You sign up for delivering packages for one of the largest companies of that kind,so you do it right ,no? If you say the company is to blame for running y'all too hard then change that.
Or move on to another job.
Sober,just because YOU do your job correctly,doesn't mean that is the norm

 

[DieselScout]

FWIW I worked for a business that did the majority of its sales online which meant we shipped everything. We had ALL shipper lose or damage material, UPS, FedEx, Post Office, Airborne Express, and DHL. No one was any worse or better then any other one. When we got a report of a lost package or damaged material we just shipped again and took it up with the shipper ourselves. Since we were a business I would say 95% of the time if he shipment was actually lost were reimbursed. The other 5% the shipper gave is verification of delivery.

 

[Swedish K]

BOY o BOY is MR UPS on the defensive! Thing is if y'all would do your job right a guy wouldn't have to use a 'cooler',which would just make all the tubes brake against the inside when some Dumb driver/helper thru the packages over the fences
Hey if a guy can't do the job then get out.You sign up for delivering packages for one of the largest companies of that kind,so you do it right ,no? If you say the company is to blame for running y'all too hard then change that.
Or move on to another job.
Sober,just because YOU do your job correctly,doesn't mean that is the norm

Ever been in a ups /fedex etc. shipping hub? FWIW the majority of damage to packages isn't from drivers pitching packages over fences or mishandling them - its from packages getting jammed on the transfer belts. It doesn't happen all that often but when it does its not just one or two that get smashed. The belts are pretty strong since they are fairly long (think 2 blocks in some cases) and can have several tons of weight on them at any time so one jammed package turns into a couple dozen pretty quickly.

 

[no time]

Wow. You guys are labeling the entire UPS group by the actions of an extremely small percentage.

Just like the anti-gunners do to us.

Listen to yourselves.

 

[soberups]

BOY o BOY is MR UPS on the defensive! Thing is if y'all would do your job right a guy wouldn't have to use a 'cooler',which would just make all the tubes brake against the inside when some Dumb driver/helper thru the packages over the fences
Hey if a guy can't do the job then get out.You sign up for delivering packages for one of the largest companies of that kind,so you do it right ,no? If you say the company is to blame for running y'all too hard then change that.
Or move on to another job.
Sober,just because YOU do your job correctly,doesn't mean that is the norm

In my 28 years with UPS, I have personally handled a little over 3 million packages.

Guess what? Over the years, I have accidentally dropped a few of them. Its called "being human."

From time to time, some bozo pulls out in front of me and I have to brake suddenly. When that happens, packages sometimes fall off of the top shelf, which is about 5 feet off the floor of the truck.

Its an industrial process. Things get broken sometimes, even when every human being in that process does his job correctly. Proper packaging is the best way to mitigate that unfortunate reality.

I'm not "defensive" just frustrated that I get painted with the same brush as the idiot seasonal employee who throws a box over the fence and pees on the house.