Misloads are a huge problem in the Commerce City building. Packages with bad spa labels and boxes just loaded into the wrong trucks have been a growing headache since the arrival of PAS. At first the problem was addressed with a shuttle car that ran around all day taking misloads from one car to another. Sometimes the shuttle car was manned by a supervisor and that resulted in a string of supervisor working grievances that padded more than a few drivers’ paychecks for the first year we were on the new system. 
          Then the company started having an hourly run the shuttle car and that resulted in some nutty steward (me) filing a grievance claiming that once that job was in existance for 30 days it became a full time job and needed to be bid. The company’s response to that was to take out the shuttle car and make everyone run their own misloads. That solution has added 30 to 45 minutes to almost everyones paid day. Only if you are sitting on a 9.5 grievance can you hope to be exempted from the misery of being told to run a misload that will turn a 9.2 day into a 10 hour day. 
          The company says that the customer shouldn’t be denied service because the loader made a mistake. “Don’t put the customer in the middle,” they love to say as they send you 50 blocks or more off area to deliver a Home Shopping Club box. “We can’t make the customer pay for our mistakes.” 
          But somebody has to pay. It’s not the loader. He’s home sleeping and the next day he does it again. His start time has probably been moved back and his hours reduced to cut costs on his shift and he’s most likely not long for that job anyway. The manager doesn’t pay, he is keeping his preload costs under control. The investor doesn’t suffer as UPS keeps it’s reputation for service and the profits keep coming. The shipper doesn’t suffer because his shipment was delivered in the guaranteed number of days.
        So who does get put in the middle? Who pays when the loads are so crappy that a driver has to spend an additional half an hour to an hour running misloads? Your family pays. UPS puts your family in the middle. The difference between a 9.2 day and a 10 hour day is huge. It’s the difference between seeing your kids at night or not seeing them. It’s the difference between being there for your family or not. Every misload is a half an hour you won’t spend with one of your kids. It means missed birthday parties, little league games, BBQ’s and more because UPS cannot fix the misload problem.
        So don’t tell me that we can’t put the customer in the middle, because that means your family will have pay the price. And when it comes down to missing a piece or missing the chance to kiss your kids goodnight, my loyalties lie with my family. I strongly resent how UPS screws my family on a daily basis by understaffing and cutting hours and then forcing us to work extra hours to correct the problems that their policies create.