# How does your store schedule double trucks?



## swordfishtrombon (Oct 11, 2021)

So we recently got a new GM ETL at my store. She used to be our specialty ETL. Our old ETL would schedule extra people on double days. We'd have our normal DBO's on the salesfloor plus two or three extra pushers to push whatever uboats were heavy/filled up. Then usually 7 or 8 on inbound with staggered start times - the first crew at 4 am and the second crew would come in around 6. The extra pushers would also come in around 4 or 5. Some of inbound would switch over to GM after unload was finished to be DBOs for smaller areas that we couldn't afford a full shift for. 7 GM DBOs usually scheduled every day plus 2 inbound DBOs would switch over to GM. She was borderline verbally abusive but people moved fast when she was there. She used to make every TM carry a timer with them and her expectation was that everyone push a uboat in 20 minutes (not including backstock). If a team member was not consistently meeting this goal we were to have a PC with them. Basically the schedule would look something like

DOUBLE                                                                                                                  
Throw 3:45-12:15                                                                                                   
p1       4-12:30                                                                                                       
p1       4-12:30                                                                                                        
p2       4-12:30                                                                                                        
p2       4-12:30                                                                                                        
p1       6-12:30 --> gm 12:30-2:30
p2       6-12:30 --> gm 12:30-2:30
p1       6-12:30 --> bike builder 12:30-2:30

GM                                                                                                                         
HBA/personal care   4-12:30                                                                                 
Chem/paper             4-12:30
extra pusher             4-12:30
extra pusher             5-1:30
extra pusher             6-2:30
dec home                 6-2:30
infant hardlines        6-2:30
small app/stat          7-3:30
seasonal/entertainment/pets 8-4:30
toys/sport                 10-6:30
bed/bath                  10-6:30

Single
Throw 6-11:30
 p1       6-12:30
p1       6-11:30 --> gm 11:30-2:30
p2       6-11:30 --> gm 11:30-2:30
p2       6-11:30 --> bike builder 11:30-1:30

GM - pretty much the same as doubles but they may be scheduled an 6 or 7 hour shift instead of 8                                                                                                     depending on hours for the month. Also no extra pushers. Start times would be at 6 for all p1 plus dec home.

My new ETL schedules doubles the exact same as singles. Only difference is on double days we have one extra inbound team member. All inbound gets 8 hour shifts but there are only 5 of them. Same number of salesfloor TMs are scheduled as on single days for the same number of hours. 9 GM DBOs. All inbound is strictly inbound - they are not supposed to push uboats, only flats as they fill up on the line. In reality they often have to push uboats and flats for a couple of hours to even get started on truck. Most of our GM team is also very green. They're slow as hell and not trained well since we're so behind on hiring that they don't get scheduled training hours, they're scheduled under workload and we have to basically pair them with someone and roll freight from the department they're actually scheduled under.

The inbound team is mostly our more experienced team and they're really quick pushers for the most part. There's a lot of animosity between inbound and GM right now, especially because they have to push so much rolled freight from the GM team in the morning every day. The culture in the building has changed a lot since my last ETL left. Also a slight annoyance we haven't scheduled ANYONE to build bikes since she took over. There are 20+ bikes in the steel, under the line and backstocked, not built. The bike wall is completely empty. There are pallets of repacks (mostly ssz 4, 6 and 3) that are unworked. We've started using pallets on the line in some areas instead of vehicles for some dumb reason I don't understand. The culture used to be that if all the vehicles filled up on the line everyone would stop and push. Now we're so behind on truck we just unload shit and find a place for it. There's so much freight back there from god knows how long ago. New ETL seems to be more concerned with brand, pulls and set workload than with rolling truck and the fact that the backroom is a straight up safety hazard. Fulfillment is also struggling because of all the backed up freight.

DOUBLE                                                                
Throw 3:45- 12:15                                                 
p1       4-12:30                                                       
p1       4-12:30                                                      
p2       4-12:30                                                       
p2       4-12:30

GM                                                                         
HBA/personal care  4-12:30                                   
Chem/paper            4-12:30                                   
Pets/auto/luggage  5-1:30                                     
Dec home                5-1:30                                     
infant hardlines       6-2:30                                      
Small app/stat         7-2:30                                     
Seasonal                  8-4:30                                     
OTC/HBA repacks    8-4:30                                     
Bullseye/FOS           8-4:30                                     
Toys/sport               9-5:30                                      
bed/bath                 9-5:30                                      

SINGLE
Throw 5:45-2:15
p1       6-2:30
p1       6-2:30
p2       6-2:30

GM
HBA/personal care 6-2:30
Chem/paper           6-2:30
pets/auto/lugg       6-2:30
dec home               6-2:30
infant hardlines      6-2:30
small app/stat         7-2:30
seasonal                  8-4:30
OTC/HBA repacks   8-4:30
bullseye/FOS           8-4:30
toys/sport               9-5:30
bed/bath                9-5:30
Anyway, clearly something isn't working here. We get doubles twice a week and they're killing us. We had one week where both of our doubles got cancelled and we just got singles and we were able to come clean on truck and pulls for the first time in a long time. Some days we roll a whole trailer or half of one (we've had two RDC trailers on our dock for a long time since we couldn't finish a double before the driver came to switch the trucks). The vibe in the building is awful and it's only going to get worse for Q4. Obviously there's not much I can do about the schedule as a TL but I'm just interested to see how other stores schedule their doubles vs singles.


----------



## Lights (Oct 11, 2021)

Sorry, I don't have much helpful information to share. Still, it's just crazy how you guys and other stores are backed up getting doubles only a couple of times a week while my store gets doubles every single day throughout the year, and now we are getting the triples, and we get P-Fresh trucks every night. My store does have an overnight team that starts unloading at 10:30 PM, though, so I am guessing that's what helps the most.


----------



## jenna (Oct 11, 2021)

*"everyone push a uboat in 20 minutes"*

you lost me there.

-
no help either.... we barely finish singles.


----------



## jenna (Oct 11, 2021)

@allnew2  - any thoughts?


----------



## MrT (Oct 11, 2021)

4am- 10 inbound tms so extras push.
Push first truck
6am- DBOs come in help push first truck
7am- unload second truck dbos do morning routines
9am- push second truck

Vague but wanted to keep it short.  We may do 2 am if we are behind.  
Lately its been tough with 2 inbound quitting and havent had enough dbos to cover every area.


----------



## MrT (Oct 11, 2021)

Lights said:


> Sorry, I don't have much helpful information to share. Still, it's just crazy how you guys and other stores are backed up getting doubles only a couple of times a week while my store gets doubles every single day throughout the year, and now we are getting the triples, and we get P-Fresh trucks every night. My store does have an overnight team that starts unloading at 10:30 PM, though, so I am guessing that's what helps the most.


There is a drastic difference in payroll in stores that consistantly get doubles/ triples.  You guys also get the staff to handle it, where we have to try and ramp up hiring when it gets busier and we are getting more and more doubles.  Im not saying its not difficult to run a ultra high volume store, but it is completely different.


----------



## allnew2 (Oct 11, 2021)

To be honest the animosity should be towards inbound . Looking at your schedule your inbound is unloading until 12:15 meaning that tour gm team especially p1 is gonna roll over since they only have 15 more minutes before they are off.  So your inbound team is not being productive during unload double trucks should take 4-4:30h tops. That would give p1 chance to actually push all their freight. You need to keep in mind they have zone, returns and 141 before trucks. Schedule is off as well if you unload until 12:15 on doubles p1 should come at 6 and not 4am.


----------



## allnew2 (Oct 11, 2021)

My inbound team comes at midnight unload 12:30 to 5, then they do the secondary sort which is 3 and 4 stock zone as well as cosmetics . 5 team member one unloader . One does 3s and 4 as well as pushing it one does cosmetics . One team member does 141 for toys, sprt , sea, mini and small appliances . One team pushes toys one sea. P1 comes in at 2 am line is clear by the time they leave at 10:30. P2 comes at 9-5:30 and they clean and set the line before they leave.
We have doubles and triples no singles for us.


----------



## swordfishtrombon (Oct 11, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> To be honest the animosity should be towards inbound . Looking at your schedule your inbound is unloading until 12:15 meaning that tour gm team especially p1 is gonna roll over since they only have 15 more minutes before they are off.  So your inbound team is not being productive during unload double trucks should take 4-4:30h tops. That would give p1 chance to actually push all their freight. You need to keep in mind they have zone, returns and 141 before trucks. Schedule is off as well if you unload until 12:15 on doubles p1 should come at 6 and not 4am.


Yeah honestly this is the problem we've been running into mostly. We've been rolling so much freight that inbound comes in, pushes whatever p1 rolled as well as the full flats while GM do visuals and pulls so we can even get an unload started. Then unload starts, and we typically don't finish the unload until it's time for inbound to leave since they have to push for the first half of their shift. So flats never come clean. Then since p1 leaves at the same time that inbound does, p1 side always ends up rolling. P2 comes clean-ish other than the repacks that I mentioned. Sometimes I'll utilize my OTC repack person to push some HBA/chem after she gets finished since she's a fast pusher and she's there after unload is done. The only way I can see to actually fix the problem is to come 100% clean on uboats one day so inbound process can actually work how it's supposed to and I don't have to utilize them to push uboats or break GM off routines. 

The other problem we have is our back room is smaller than most and we have less vehicles and a smaller line than most stores. We've tested it on days that we've been 100% clean. The line fills up at about 900-1000 pieces and the additional uboats we keep to swap out custom blocks fill up at 1500 pieces. So any truck that's larger than 1500 we have to have someone pushing uboats during the unload in order to keep it going. 

We also (in my opinion) use too many flats on our line. We have flats for paper, 2 for plastics, infant furniture, pillows, sporting goods, furniture, bedding, bath, 2 for housewares, litter, ssz 3 and ssz 17. It's too many flats for inbound to keep up with, they're constantly having to push flats during the unload. And the flats never get pushed by the GM team because in their mind inbound owns the flats. Our inbound TL just redid the custom blocks to use more uboats instead of flats so I think that will help.

I keep telling my ETL that I'd rather have more team members on inbound with shorter shifts so I can keep more on the line to make that process more efficient since it wastes a lot of time having one person walk back and forth on one side of the line. Our line is also at a 90 degree angle to the dock we unload from so boxes are constantly falling off/getting caught on the corner of the powered line which means the thrower sometimes has to come out to guide the boxes down the line or the p1 side person has to guide them down. I will sometimes stand at the corner myself just to keep them from having to do that. But she won't do it because they all want 40 hours. My old ETL used to give them split shifts to fix this - after unload they would go to fulfillment or GM. This worked pretty well I think but my new ETL refuses because it's not modernized.


----------



## swordfishtrombon (Oct 11, 2021)

swordfishtrombon said:


> Yeah honestly this is the problem we've been running into mostly. We've been rolling so much freight that inbound comes in, pushes whatever p1 rolled as well as the full flats while GM do visuals and pulls so we can even get an unload started. Then unload starts, and we typically don't finish the unload until it's time for inbound to leave since they have to push for the first half of their shift. So flats never come clean. Then since p1 leaves at the same time that inbound does, p1 side always ends up rolling. P2 comes clean-ish other than the repacks that I mentioned. Sometimes I'll utilize my OTC repack person to push some HBA/chem after she gets finished since she's a fast pusher and she's there after unload is done. The only way I can see to actually fix the problem is to come 100% clean on uboats one day so inbound process can actually work how it's supposed to and I don't have to utilize them to push uboats or break GM off routines.
> 
> The other problem we have is our back room is smaller than most and we have less vehicles and a smaller line than most stores. We've tested it on days that we've been 100% clean. The line fills up at about 900-1000 pieces and the additional uboats we keep to swap out custom blocks fill up at 1500 pieces. So any truck that's larger than 1500 we have to have someone pushing uboats during the unload in order to keep it going.
> 
> ...


Also forgot to mention that our unload times - like the amount of time it takes to actually unload the truck is usually 1.5-2.5 hours depending on the amount of pieces. As a general rule our inbound team can do 1k in 1 hour. But then they have to stop and push uboats because we run out of vehicles.


----------



## swordfishtrombon (Oct 11, 2021)

MrT said:


> 4am- 10 inbound tms so extras push.
> Push first truck
> 6am- DBOs come in help push first truck
> 7am- unload second truck dbos do morning routines
> ...


That's a lot of inbound TMs. How many DBOs do you have on the floor on a given day? How many days a week do you get doubles?


----------



## Hardlinesmaster (Oct 11, 2021)

We have few vets who do the unload of the trucks. New folks are slow to unload or push. It’s rough.


----------



## MrT (Oct 11, 2021)

swordfishtrombon said:


> That's a lot of inbound TMs. How many DBOs do you have on the floor on a given day? How many days a week do you get doubles?


I guess there not all really inbound tms some are its the same usual 6 plus 4 pushers on doubles.  3 doubles a week.  12 dbos i think?  Trying to remember off the top of my head.
Edit to add: call outs have killed us lately and most new hires haven't lasted more then a month.  Thats the problem with any store especially with doubles one problem and its rough 3-4 and you get put in a hole you might not climb out.


----------



## swordfishtrombon (Oct 11, 2021)

MrT said:


> I guess there not all really inbound tms some are its the same usual 6 plus 4 pushers on doubles.  3 doubles a week.  12 dbos i think?  Trying to remember off the top of my head.


I weep. We get doubles twice a week and during BTS we were getting 4 a week. We just don't get the payroll to support that. As is we're overscheduling GM/inbound by 200-400 hours every week.


----------



## MrT (Oct 11, 2021)

swordfishtrombon said:


> I weep. We get doubles twice a week and during BTS we were getting 4 a week. We just don't get the payroll to support that. As is we're overscheduling GM/inbound by 200-400 hours every week.


Oh we over post like 300 hours or more.  They just try and guilt trip us into feeling bad even though we over post because we are beating sales goals by 30%.  Also being a power store for ship doing 3k ship goals beating out other stores with 6 pack stations in our district with only 3.


----------



## swordfishtrombon (Oct 11, 2021)

MrT said:


> Oh we over post like 300 hours or more.  They just try and guilt trip us into feeling bad even though we over post because we are beating sales goals by 30%.  Also being a power store for ship doing 3k ship goals beating out other stores with 6 pack stations in our district with only 3.


yeah all my departments are comping 20-30% this year, but we're getting less hours this year than we were this time last year.  Even though we overpost we usually end up green by the end of the month because of the amount of call outs we get. We also can't retain talent because they're frustrated at the situation. And the new hires aren't trained well because we're so understaffed so they're slow. A lot of them quit after a couple of weeks because our store is so disorganized rn. Doesn't help that they just sent my ETL out for official training, 2 other ETLs are on vaction this week, I'm on vacation and our other GM TL is out because her daughter has covid.


----------



## Ashfromoldsite (Oct 11, 2021)

The only thing my store did was move the first unload to 4am and extend everyone’s shifts to 8 hours. Also, if sfs wasn’t horrible each sfs person would get pulled to push 1 uboat from the first truck so they’d have empty vehicles for the second. The second unload wouldn’t start until 8 or 9am and everyone pushed (including unload team) until then.


----------



## allnew2 (Oct 11, 2021)

You should have only 5 sorters 1 unloader . Every dbo is responsible for setting their own line before they leave.


----------



## swordfishtrombon (Oct 11, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> You should have only 5 sorters 1 unloader . Every dbo is responsible for setting their own line before they leave.


We have 1 unloader and 3 sorters most days. After about 30 minutes the flats start to get full and have to break one off to push so ends up being 1 throwing and 2 on the line for most of the unload. Get an extra sorter on double days. Reasoning is even with this schedule inbound is overscheduled by 100+ hours every week according to our ETL. Even though all the company trainings and info I can find on workbench says 1 thrower and 5 sorters. I ran a single the other day with just a thrower and a sorter. I was on the line for most of the unload for obvious reasons. My ETL hopped on too.


----------



## allnew2 (Oct 11, 2021)

swordfishtrombon said:


> We have 1 unloader and 3 sorters most days. After about 30 minutes the flats start to get full and have to break one off to push so ends up being 1 throwing and 2 on the line for most of the unload. Get an extra sorter on double days. Reasoning is even with this schedule inbound is overscheduled by 100+ hours every week according to our ETL. Even though all the company trainings and info I can find on workbench says 1 thrower and 5 sorters. I ran a single the other day with just a thrower and a sorter. I was on the line for most of the unload for obvious reasons. My ETL hopped on too.


Wtf???? I’m sorry but wtf????? Your etl is gaslighting you and lying to you.  Your chart for inbound should be 1 unloaded and 5 sorter single or double . 
Your esto can go and auck some ……. Sorry I’m angry just by reading your post. In that case I would kindly tell you etl i want you to show me, not tell but actually show me how I can do everything you are asking  with 1 thrower and 3 sorters . I’m sure your Etl was part of the q4 conference call as I was . On the call we were actually told to do overtime for triples and quadruples , and what to prioritize .


----------



## swordfishtrombon (Oct 11, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> Wtf???? I’m sorry but wtf????? Your etl is gaslighting you and lying to you.  Your chart for inbound should be 1 unloaded and 5 sorter single or double .
> Your esto can go and auck some ……. Sorry I’m angry just by reading your post. In that case I would kindly tell you etl i want you to show me, not tell but actually show me how I can do everything you are asking  with 1 thrower and 3 sorters . I’m sure your Etl was part of the q4 conference call as I was . On the call we were actually told to do overtime for triples and quadruples , and what to prioritize .


The funny thing is there was one day when we were really backed up and needed all of inbound to push. One of my ETLs threw, the other was on the line with me. It took two hours to get through half of a 2000 piece truck while the inbound team pushed. My inbound team could have gotten all of that unloaded and sorted in an hour with 2 on the line and 1 thrower. They're really solid team members for the most part and they can tell they're getting screwed by the schedule because my old ETL used to schedule inbound the way they were supposed to be scheduled even though it meant we overspent on hours for inbound.


----------



## can't touch this (Oct 12, 2021)

My old store usually had 2 unloaders, 4 callouts and 4-5 bullshitters


----------



## Dream Baby (Oct 12, 2021)

Our stores deals with double trucks by not bothering to tell us.


----------



## MrT (Oct 12, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> You should have only 5 sorters 1 unloader . Every dbo is responsible for setting their own line before they leave.


I wished my backroom had that much space.  Our pp1 side is ok but still hard to fit the stacker through.  There is barely 3 feet  with our vehicles pushed in on pp2.


----------



## swordfishtrombon (Oct 12, 2021)

MrT said:


> I wished my backroom had that much space.  Our pp1 side is ok but still hard to fit the stacker through.  There is barely 3 feet  with our vehicles pushed in on pp2.


Our backroom is 1400 square feet, believe it's one of the smallest in the company. I can fit the stacker through p2 side but if i want to come down p1 I have to move literally every uboat out of the way. Same in our bulk aisle, I can only fit the stacker by moving a bunch of vehicles.


----------



## allnew2 (Oct 12, 2021)

swordfishtrombon said:


> Our backroom is 1400 square feet, believe it's one of the smallest in the company. I can fit the stacker through p2 side but if i want to come down p1 I have to move literally every uboat out of the way. Same in our bulk aisle, I can only fit the stacker by moving a bunch of vehicles.


Yikes . I can even fit my stacker in the fixture room


----------



## MrT (Oct 12, 2021)

allnew2 said:


> Yikes . I can even fit my stacker in the fixture room


Oh i can do that our fixture is really nice 🤣


----------



## UboatOfDeath (Oct 12, 2021)

12am start unloading first truck
1:30~2:30AM finished first truck and immediately unload the second
3:30-4:00AM both trucks done and we take our breaks shortly after.
Anyone scheduled at 1:00AM pushes whatever that's been sorted out on the line, taken upstairs via freight elevator... Or they help out on the line if a lot of people called out/not scheduled


----------



## swordfishtrombon (Oct 12, 2021)

UboatOfDeath said:


> 12am start unloading first truck
> 1:30~2:30AM finished first truck and immediately unload the second
> 3:30-4:00AM both trucks done and we take our breaks shortly after.
> Anyone scheduled at 1:00AM pushes whatever that's been sorted out on the line, taken upstairs via freight elevator... Or they help out on the line if a lot of people called out/not scheduled


How many inbound team members do you typically have scheduled? and how many GM are scheduled early with them to help push the truck?


----------



## CrosstrainInsane (Oct 13, 2021)

4am unload.
5 sorters, I thrower
1 TM 330am-12pm
5 TMs 4am-12pm

DBOs:
Pet- 430am-1230
Paper-430am-1230
HBA- 5am-1pm
Chem- 5am-1pm
A- 7am-3pm (repacks OFOs) depending on how A block is going. Sometimes 11am-3pm

Seasonal- 4am- 1130am
Domestics- 5am-1pm
Dec home- 6am-2pm
Kitchen- 5am-1pm
Stationery- 5am-1pm

Bullseye- 4am-12pm (supports baby or Toys as needed)
Baby- 5am-130
Toy-5am-130pm
Sporting- 7am-3pm

Food and Bev
DR4- 4am-1230pm
DR2-430am-1pm
DR1- 5am-130pm
DR3- 6am- 230pm
(Did not include shifts for PFresh)

Goal here is to have the first truck pushed by 8am. Inbound supports heavy areas that DBOs will need help with, and bulky push for the sake of space. Inbound goes to lunch no later than 745am. They return by 830am to begin second unload.
DBOs pull OFOs only after 1st truck is done. Hope this helps.


----------



## UboatOfDeath (Oct 14, 2021)

swordfishtrombon said:


> How many inbound team members do you typically have scheduled? and how many GM are scheduled early with them to help push the truck?


Im honestly not to sure.
There's a few gm team members are scheduled like at 10pm to do the pulls. 
One person is scheduled at 11:30pm to set up the tracks/open the trailer
5 or 7 people scheduled at midnight to unload/help out out on the line
I don't know for sure how many people are scheduled at 1am...


----------

