Archived Making Rate on pack?

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PackHack

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Hi folks, I 'm a recent hire, (close to 3weeks) as a packer at a UDC. I'm wondering how rate is determined.. Does it run during breaks? Does logging out stop rate? For instance, if I'm getting and stocking boxes should I "leave" the footpath, will it raise my rate? Any insight on how rate is measured, shortcuts, pitfalls, is much appreciated.
 
I’m only cross trained in packing at a rdc, but it must be similar.

So the different zones have a different rate to achieve. Rate does run through break, so if you have a 10 shift including breaks then your rate would be x ssp’s times 10 hours. Logging out does not stop your rate from decreasing when getting boxes, you will notice the decrease when you log back in.

Some things I’ve noticed as a flex in (again in an rdc). The “regular packers” take quite a few bathroom breaks and stop at others stations along the way, definitely doesn’t help prod. If multiple stations are running the same zone get that freight through quick before the other station does, as then it will make one side or the other heavy. Get those boxes as full as possible, less box change time means less down time.

I’ve been over there quite a bit the last few months, prod isn’t too hard to get, usually. At some point you get decent freight, you just have to capitalize on it.
 
Speed comes with time, I told all the packers I worked with that were new. The number one thing you need to focus on is safety. I'm not sure how your mods are set up, but I always took my freight to the middle (2nd scanner) and ran from there. If I ended in a section where there was freight in the middle of the mod I would work that freight until I landed in a different section. I would avg 95% a week. I've seen packers fill boxes while packing and then again before the break. I would ask my feeder to put boxes on the line.
 
Man you DCs have it "easy" sending us trucks of crap and not having to worry about stocking it or the hell it causes in backroom. 😂
 
Our normal is 3 twelves plus one 8 hour overtime day. Pretty much I do nothing but come home from work eat as soon as possible try to be asleep by 8:30 to get enough sleep to start again come 4:30. But honestly I love working 3 twelves. I typically make rate though I do believe it's been lowered. I'm looking forward to what the next year brings with Target.
 
Dcnewb4now said:
Wow a 40 hour work week 😂. Try working 5 12’s with early starts starting at 4am, then we will talk.
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I'd love to go back to super early or overnight shifts. No dc near me worth working at though.
 
PackHack said:
Globaltl123, sorry for the mess.
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Everybody's got it rough. I guess be happy they didn't modernize the DC. I do have a question for you DC folk though. How come items that we sweep back like charcoal or back to school gets sent back to us a few months later? Its kinda funny.
 
GlobalTL123 said:
Everybody's got it rough. I guess be happy they didn't modernize the DC. I do have a question for you DC folk though. How come items that we sweep back like charcoal or back to school gets sent back to us a few months later? Its kinda funny.
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It's systematically pulled from the racks. Target makes no sense. Now if it's something that isn't legal to sweep we send those back to the stores. I loved how stores thought that the DC's were their dumping grounds for all the various shit they didn't want or didn't want to throw in the dumpster.
 
Kezz said:
. I loved how stores thought that the DC's were their dumping grounds for all the various shit they didn't want or didn't want to throw in the dumpster.
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The disconnect here is we have $50k trash compactors that cost tons of money when they go down and larger items can’t be put in them so we don’t know what to do with them because technically there’s no explaination as to who breaks them down. Usually it gets thrown on me as the PMT even though it’s not my responsibility at all.

That leads to the other side where 10, 20, and 40 yard dumpsters are either a store expense or a PM expense and we’re lucky if we can justify one a year.. then upper managment gets pissy because it “throwing cash in the trash” to pile everything in a dumpster with out sorting it.

Further more, the large items are either wood, plastic, or metal. All of which are recycled one way or another and the directive with recyclables is to sweep them to the DC.

At some point there’s the “what do we do with it, we have no time” thought process and sweep it back basically kicking the can down the road. If it gets sent back to us with just a note that says “NO WOOD” or no detailed note as to what to do with it then a frustrated ETL will put it on the trailer last in a manner that is a pain in the ass to unload because they were bent out of shape from the condition of the trailer we received that morning.

It’s an “Us vs Them” mentality because nobody wants to relay effective communication.
 
I know for a fact our SOM and logistics partner sent numerous emails and made phone calls to the stores in our area. Even to which ends they had a list of naughty stores who passed the three strike rule and got auto-sent back bad freight. My thoughts were always "why the hell would you pay me $35 an hour on overtime plus wasted truck space and shipping costs to do something that should have been done for $10 an hour at the store."

The issue with the recyclables are that we're not a recycling plant. We're just the middle man to get the crap onto another trailer for someone to sell for money. Anything that is getting recycled should be in a ready to go state.

Same goes with breakpack boxes. A truck that should take 30 minutes to unload ends up taking an hour because some kid at the store can't sort breakpack boxes by color. So not only does that make us turn less sweeps trailers but it also causes a backlog during busy season which means we can't turn the empties to outbound because they're all sitting in the yard ready to be unloaded. Which in turn then causes corporate to have to borrow or buy extra trailers.
 
To your first poi
Kezz said:
I know for a fact our SOM and logistics partner sent numerous emails and made phone calls to the stores in our area. Even to which ends they had a list of naughty stores who passed the three strike rule and got auto-sent back bad freight. My thoughts were always "why the hell would you pay me $35 an hour on overtime plus wasted truck space and shipping costs to do something that should have been done for $10 an hour at the store."

The issue with the recyclables are that we're not a recycling plant. We're just the middle man to get the crap onto another trailer for someone to sell for money. Anything that is getting recycled should be in a ready to go state.

Same goes with breakpack boxes. A truck that should take 30 minutes to unload ends up taking an hour because some kid at the store can't sort breakpack boxes by color. So not only does that make us turn less sweeps trailers but it also causes a backlog during busy season which means we can't turn the empties to outbound because they're all sitting in the yard ready to be unloaded. Which in turn then causes corporate to have to borrow or buy extra trailers.
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To your first point about getting paid ot to do it. I always get a kick out of getting paid ot to sort the repack boxes because it’s too challenging for the stores to match colors.
 
Well said Kezz, couple days ago there were 90+ sweep trailers in our yard, mostly because every one of them takes 2-3x as long as it should. The expense that causes has to be insane.
 
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