[Milsurplus] OT: UPS Ground Insanity

[Bry Carling]

While the experiences reported may seem to be anecdotal, they are pretty pervasive...
Something is going wrong somewhere, and the experiences I related are only a small 
sampling of several within the past 12 months. I almost said "many."  I wouldn't be lying 
if I did, but I am trying to be generous to UPS. They do get a lot right, but I would 
NOT choose to use them for any shipments of mine.

On 30 Nov 2012 at 9:50, Robert Nickels wrote:

> On 11/30/2012 8:01 AM, Thekan, Paul wrote:
> > UPS had driven a forklift fork right into the front panel of the
> radio and completely destroyed the radio
> I realize it's out of the spirit of the thread to say anything 
> supportive of UPS ;-)  but back in the 90s I was involved with some
> automation projects in a number of UPS buildings, "in the belly of
> the 
> beast" so to speak, working closely with their engineering people
> who 
> were very focused on moving packages efficiently, safely, and with a
> high degree of predictability.   This is why they invested in some
> of 
> the best material handling equipment available, and installed nets
> under 
> the elevated conveyors in the rare event something falls or gets
> pushed 
> overboard.  It would be impossible for UPS to stay in business if
> the 
> damage rates reported on some radio-related lists were true across
> the 
> board.  Incidentally, UPS is the 4th largest employer in the US.
> 
> I learned that the greatest probability for damage was with  "heavy"
> packages (over 70 pounds, which used to be the weight limit). Normal
> packages and "smalls" are handled on high speed steel belt conveyors
> and 
> are virtually never touched by human hands, but this less the case
> for 
> heavy items (like R-390As), so an unfortunate occurrance like the
> one 
> Paul describes is credible, but hopefully rare.   When talking with
> their engineering guys, they were naturally reluctant to say
> anything 
> bad about the company, but  did admit that many damage claims are
> traced 
> to something that happened once the package is loaded onto your
> friendly 
> brown local delivery truck (aka "package car"  in UPS terminology). 
> This is because unpredictability skyrockets in proportion to the
> human 
> element, including everything from drivers mishanding packages to 
> packages shifting, traffic accidents, sudden stops, etc.
> 
> 73, Bob W9RAN
> 
> PS: a lesser-known fact - 40% of UPS freight goes by rail.  If your
> package has to travel more than 500 miles, chances are good it's
> ridden 
> on a train.
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