Dose of reality from a UPS employee

SkyChurch

The Seeker
Hey, I've been working at UPS for the past couple months and thought I'd give some insight as to what your packages go through. Brace yourselves this is not for the faint of heart, :no: . But to be honest this probably goes on at all shipping facilities.

What I do there is sort packages so first the unloaders unload these packages onto belts. The packages are stacked up so when they are too tall for unloaders to reach they will knock the boxes down. Sometimes they'll knock a whole stack of boxes onto the conveyor belt. This is about a 7-8 foot drop.

The sorters have to sort these packages as quickly as possible and that's frightening. These things get tossed, flung, whipped, and kicked etc. When the packages slide down chutes they bang up against the walls of the conveyer belt assembly. When packages get jammed they get wedged between metal walls and other packages and start to crush. When too many packages are flowing out for sorters to handle they start to drop off the belt onto the floor.

This is what I see at my position at UPS I'm sure they go through other forms of torture too. This most likely takes place at any shipping facility like I said, it's just a warning to make sure any package sent or received is packaged very well.

Ship on :thmbsp:
 
Yeah, that sounds about right.

I just want to know about the packages that I have gotten that have been run over.
 
I've received packages with clear footprints, and on one the boot had punched through the carton. Sounds about right...
 
spartanmanor said:
Yeah, that sounds about right.

I just want to know about the packages that I have gotten that have been run over.

My wife received a porcelain doll that was crushed to bits. The box had tire tracks on it.
 
Fisherdude said:
My wife received a porcelain doll that was crushed to bits. The box had tire tracks on it.

I wasn't kidding. I have gotten several with tire tracks myself. Contents damaged beyond repair. :no:
 
I, too have experienced the 'tire tracks of doom'. Not much you can do there.

It would appear that we should be shocked when something arrives undamaged, rather than the other way around. :sigh:
 
Fisherdude said:
My wife received a porcelain doll that was crushed to bits. The box had tire tracks on it.

:yikes:

My experience is almost as good as the tire tracks. How about having big round punch holes that went through the top of the box? Scary.
 
SkyChurch said:
Hey, I've been working at UPS for the past couple months and thought I'd give some insight as to what your packages go through. Brace yourselves this is not for the faint of heart, :no: . But to be honest this probably goes on at all shipping facilities.

What I do there is sort packages so first the unloaders unload these packages onto belts. The packages are stacked up so when they are too tall for unloaders to reach they will knock the boxes down. Sometimes they'll knock a whole stack of boxes onto the conveyor belt. This is about a 7-8 foot drop.

The sorters have to sort these packages as quickly as possible and that's frightening. These things get tossed, flung, whipped, and kicked etc. When the packages slide down chutes they bang up against the walls of the conveyer belt assembly. When packages get jammed they get wedged between metal walls and other packages and start to crush. When too many packages are flowing out for sorters to handle they start to drop off the belt onto the floor.

This is what I see at my position at UPS I'm sure they go through other forms of torture too. This most likely takes place at any shipping facility like I said, it's just a warning to make sure any package sent or received is packaged very well.

Ship on :thmbsp:

Haven't I seen this same skit in a I Love Lucy episode............:scratch2:
 
SkyChurch said:
This is what I see at my position at UPS I'm sure they go through other forms of torture too. This most likely takes place at any shipping facility like I said, it's just a warning to make sure any package sent or received is packaged very well.

Ship on :thmbsp:

Sounds about right to me, but you left out the part where your supervisor is standing over you with a stopwatch and then ragging on you that you aren't flinging enough package a minute and that he's not going to make his bonus if you keep working like that.

Otherwise, just be glad you're not a phone agent taking calls in the insurance claims department... :D
 
sleddogman said:
Sounds about right to me, but you left out the part where your supervisor is standing over you with a stopwatch and then ragging on you that you aren't flinging enough package a minute and that he's not going to make his bonus if you keep working like that.

Otherwise, just be glad you're not a phone agent taking calls in the insurance claims department... :D
the minnesota akers will remember a couple of years ago when a channel 4 camera was doing a story at the airport when the cameraman filmed a bagage crew shot putting and thowing packages over their heads into a baggage carrier ,of course being union they were only suspended for three days:
 
A picture is worth a thousand words...This is what I pack for.

Enjoy,
Rich P
 

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You know, this whole packaging thing reminds me of a story I heard after a well-known race car driver got killed a few years back. A helmet can only protect your head so much. It cannot keep your brain from hitting the inside of your skull at the moment of highest impact.

Well, I would assume that applies to packaging as well. The best of packaging can protect the outside of, let's say, a receiver. But what about the inside of the receiver, especially if it falls eight feet?

My days of puchasing vintage stereo equipment that needs to be shipped are, for the most part, over. I have not had a lot of good luck with receivers or speakers no matter how well-intentioned the seller was. There's only so much you can do to protect things from the shipping company.
 
I retired from the Postal Sevice Maint. Dept. a few years back.I believe the mail handlers had a saying "If marked fragile throw underhanded".
 
You're absolutely correct about the "brain and helmet" analogy. One of the most important parts of packing is to make certain that the contents can't shift back and forth at all. If it moves inside the box, it won't matter how solid and protective the outside is, the contents will be able to accelerate and suddenly stop while inside the box. The "suddenly stop" part is where the damage occurs.

While it's true that you can't pack well enough to withstand a package being crushed against a wall by an 80,000 pound truck, packages with tire tracks on them are, thankfully, not all that common. If you've read many of the threads on AK about packing and shipping, it becomes pretty clear that 90%+ of damage is due to poor packing on the part of sellers. They just don't pay attention to the part about packing to survive a drop (throw) onto a concrete floor.
 
I do AV work for the military and my favorite delivery was the "old fork lift through the plasma" delivery method. It came via a private delivery company, but, that did not stop them from giving it to us with such obvious damage...
 
I will have to disagree with the generalization concerning UPS, describing 1 UPS facility, from a UPS rookie perspective (who likely has never even driven a UPS package car or delivered a single package).
 
It's not peak season now and I assure you my eyes are not fooling me. I see this everyday doesn't matter if I worked there 2 months or 100 years. All I'm doing is notifying people of the information they deserve, let's face it UPS isn't going anywhere b/c of this thread. And going to management about this problem???? I don't think so. Management is surrounded by this problem and one voice out of hundreds is not going to change the situation. I'm not knocking UPS and I really probably shouldn't have mentioned the company I was working for but I'm sure the system is exactly the same in other companies as well. The intent of this post was strictly to warn those who are just getting into buying stereo equipment over the internet and shipping is a neccesity.
 
What PISSES me off about UPS is their BLATANT DISRESPECT for the items that OTHER people are paying good money for and more good money to ship!!
I was watching the news right around Christmas time and RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA they are throwing stuff as hard as they can.

Pretty blatant DISRESPECT if you ask me...:no: :no: :no: :no: :no: :no:
 
After reading the first post in this thread, I aked my mechanic @ work (who used to work for UPS) if any of that were true.

His reply - Yes.

He also said that any package marked "Handle w/Care! or Fragile! Do Not Drop! was treated especially rough.

:gigglemad
 
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