TRACY IS TALKING

YOU ARE ENOUGH. THIS SIDE UP

BY NICOLE HEROUX WILLIAMS I PHOTOS BY NSP STUDIO BY TRACY SIMONE

Did you ever wonder why some of the packages that get delivered to your house are mangled beyond recognition? In these days of stores closing and people ordering most of their products online, the supply chain is busier than ever. The companies that deliver products to our homes and businesses have a higher volume than ever.

I was able to see the inside of a major UPS hub and now I understand why some of the packages that get delivered do not make it unscathed through the process. What I think surprised me the most was the number of women who worked there, especially at night. Several of the supervisors and managers were women and, in fact, the CEO is female. Of course, most of the workers are men, but women certainly have a lot of opportunities there too.

UPS moves over 25 million packages per day. In order to do that, there must be a very efficient process in place. There is a series of conveyor belts, chutes, rollers, trucks of various sizes, airplanes, and people…all working together to get your packages to you as quickly as possible. I am assuming that the same things happen at FedEx, DHL, the USPS…. anywhere that deals with a high volume of packages. It becomes about speed and accuracy. With people in the mix and all the heavy machinery, it’s amazing that as many packages make it to their proper destinations without issue as they do!

Challenge #1: Get all the packages onto the trucks by the time the shift is over, and the drivers show up. Challenge #2: Get the trucks out of the plant and on the road without needing to overflow to a second set

of trucks, which would increase the cost of the process.

Packages are scanned and sorted at each point in the system so that they can arrive to you as soon as possible. The job is to keep things moving…… keep that belt moving and get these packages out of there! It is kind of like Lucy with the chocolates, but instead of candy, it might be air conditioners or dog food or something. So, while Lucy and Ethel started hiding some of the chocolates on their belts by eating them, stashing them in their clothing and pretending that everything was alright when the supervisor came along…..the packages in the big operations like UPS cannot be hidden. They must be moved from point A to point B and in a hurry.

The reality is that regardless of how your package may be labeled, ‘Handle with Care’, ‘This Side Up’, ‘Fragile’, or otherwise, the fact remains that it is going to be traveling the network of belts and chutes that will tumble them throughout the system. As they travel, they will be tossed about and mishandled by the machines. Some are shaped oddly, some leak, some of the packing tape will let loose, etc. If you ordered a nice outfit, let’s say, that is in a wellsealed box, but it is followed on the belt by a gas grill or flat screen tv, your box will get crushed and there is nothing that anyone could have done to prevent it. Conveyor belts cannot read and the packages travel one at a time, dozens at a time, etc. It all depends.

“Did you ever wonder why some of the packages that get delivered to your house are mangled beyond recognition? “

how to handle the packages are lost on the machines that are also part of the operation. The only exception to this is when hazardous materials (hazmats) come through. The scanners will point them out and demand special handling. Other than that, sorry folks. The people are under pressure to ‘keep it moving’, so they too will place a package upside down or sideways at times.

You place an order and then patiently wait for the package to be delivered. You get all excited when it finally arrives, right? Now, please remember that your package has been through Hell and back. Don’t just rip open the box. Understand that you should open it carefully and then promptly not only wash, but SCRUB your hands after touching the outside….. and then dispose of it immediately. It has most likely touched the floor, been sweated on, maybe has touched something else that was leaking and, at a minimum, was in contact with the liquid waxy substance that is sprayed on the chutes to keep things moving. It may also have been next to something considered hazardous. Maybe it was accidentally stepped on, opened mistakenly during transit because the tape or a label got caught on equipment, or flipped end over end while moving rapidly through the process. It may or may not have needed to be re-packed by people along the way. I guarantee though, that it was delivered to you as quickly as possible and with as much care as the system would allow and that multiple human beings have touched it.

During my time at UPS, I saw false teeth, cadaver bags, clothing, pharmaceuticals, guitars, pillows, laptops and just about anything else that you can imagine travel through the system. This side up? Maybe.